History Main / PrehistoricMonster

** Poundersaurolophus (half-''Parasaurolophus'', half-piledriver) is interesting case of this trope, since its first time it's one of the very few times when a ''[[SocialOrnithopod Parasaurolophus]]'' is depicted as prehistoric monster. This Trux are extremely aggressive that they [[ExactlyWhatItSaysonTheTin pound]] everything in sight.

** Poundersaurolophus (half-''Parasaurolophus'', half-piledriver) is interesting case of this trope, since its first time when a ''[[SocialOrnithopod Parasaurolophus]]'' is depicted as prehistoric monster. This Trux are extremely aggressive that they [[ExactlyWhatItSaysonTheTin pound]] everything in sight.

** [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dreadtrux]] (half-''Dreadnoughtus'' half-bucket-wheel excavator) are massive species of Dinotrux, dwarfing even the Craneosaurs and T-Truxes and spend months eating and destroying everything in their path.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' zigzags this trope. Most of the titular monsters are based on prehistoric animals, and the creators wanted them to be part of a realistic ecosystem with herbivores and carnivores. To avert the trope, they put in peaceful herbivorous dinosaurs like the Aptonoth and they show some of the monsters' natural behavior in the ecology videos. But, for RuleOfCool and gameplay reasons, they also play this trope straight, with many more kinds of carnivores than herbivores, and many of the large monsters attack the hunter or other large monsters on sight, for example in the ecology videos of Akantor or Brachydios. The straightest example might be Deviljho, a monster based on ''T. rex'' which needs to eat constantly. It's even stated to have brought species close to extinction, and in-game they will even eat other large monsters or [[{{Autocannibalism}} their own severed tail.]]

** [[CreepyCentipedes Drillipedes]] (half-''Arthropleura'', half-mining drill) who attack anything that they think might take out their ore.

* Creator/MichaelCrichton's 1990 novel ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' takes a similar approach to Spielberg's movies (see above) but with a DarkerAndEdgier tone (as one may see soon after reading the summary).

* Averted by many earlier Toys/{{LEGO}} themes, such as the Duplo line that had cavemen and dinosaurs living together peacefully, or the dinosaur-related subline of [[Toys/LEGOAdventurers ''Adventurers'']], which was about saving the animals from falling into the villains' hands. It is, however, played straight in [[Toys/LEGODinoAttack ''Dino 2010'']] and especially in its American counterpart, [[Toys/LEGODinoAttack ''Dino Attack'']], which centered around destroying the evil beasts using the most over-the-top weaponry.
** Zigzagged interestingly in the DarkerAndEdgier Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG, wherein the mutant dinosaurs were revealed to be the product of a MadScientist [[spoiler:who had actually been manipulated by an EldritchAbomination from the start]], but weren't inherently evil, the character of Rex having been able to tame some of them. Also it puts an odd twist when most regular dinosaurs (including the tyrannosaurus) are treated as benevolent and ''intelligent''.

* In general, almost every non-RPG video game featuring dinosaurs will invoke this trope on all of its carnivores and upon its horned/armored herbivores.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' zig-zags with this. Carnivores like ''T.rex'' and raptors will try to escape and eat guests (though admittedly, so do regular animals) while herbivores are somewhat more peaceful. But due to lazy programming, once they escape the herbivorous dinosaurs will also rampage and in the first game they are inaccurately also said to '''[[AscendedToCarnivorism eat]]''' human guests.

* ''VideoGame/PrehistoricKingdom'' is a thorough [[AvertedTrope aversion]], as similar to ''{{VideoGame/Saurian}}'' above it's an edutainment game that strives for accuracy over RuleOfCool. Fittingly, all of its animals are presented naturalistically as attractions to be displayed in a fairly ordinary zoo (as opposed to [[Franchise/JurassicPark a theme park with outlandish security measures in place]]). It's also something of a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/PrehistoricPark'', and similarly presents prehistoric animals as something missing from the modern world which are worth our time and effort to bring back from extinction.

* ''TabletopGame/DinosaursAttack'': An incredibly ExaggeratedTrope here, as every prehistoric creature is portrayed as a hyper-aggressive, bloodthirsty predator ([[AscendedToCarnivorism even species that should be herbivores]]), with no thoughts beyond causing as much random wanton death and destruction as possible (with the exception of the ''Trachodon'', for some reason, although it accidentally kills a person anyway). It's eventually revealed and dinosaurs and their kin are literal soulless monsters created by a satanic, reptilian, GodOfEvil.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}: Unlike other shows about prehistoric animals, this trope gets [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] due to the said animals in question also being half-vehicles, often the ones with [[JustifiedTrope dangerous features which make them more dangerous than their real life counterparts]].

* ''Guidraco venator'', the name of a pterosaur from China, means "Hunting Ghost Dragon". The name may be a bit misleading, though, as it was most likely a harmless fish-eater. ''Azhdarcho'', which granted the family Azhdarchidae its name, is derived from Azi Dahaka, better known as Zahhak, an evil snake magician in ''Literature/TheShahnameh'' and broader UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}. At the time azdharchids were thought to be piscivores similar to ''Pteranodon''.

* The documentary series ''Franchise/WalkingWith'' plays the trope straight in two cases (''[[Series/WalkingWithMonsters Walking With]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Monsters]]'' and ''Sea [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Monsters]]''), but averts it in most part of the series, such as in the original ''Walking With Dinosaurs'', ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'', ''Series/TheBalladOfBigAl'', and ''Series/PrehistoricPark''. In this spinoff prehistoric animals are described as "something which is missing in our world, amazing animals that time has left behind" and worth bringing back to life; moreover, they show up later in the park ''alongside their living relatives'' (Martha the mammoth with African elephants, dinosaurs with birds and crocodiles, sabre-toothed cats with cheetahs and so on). Here the discrimination between extinct and non-extinct animals is absent (a ''very'' rare example in media). The trope is even ''inverted'' in one case -- keeper Bob is affectionate with the giant millipede relative ''Arthropleura'' and says, "This is not like spiders and other small modern creepy-crawlies. This is a proper animal".

* The first aversion was the lovable ''WesternAnimation/GertieTheDinosaur'' (ironically, the very first prehistoric critter to show up in cinema, in 1914).

* The ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' movies (the first of them dating from 2002) avert this as far as mammals and birds from the Cenozoic era are concerned. Dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles, however, get this treatment whenever they appear, be it [[HumanPopsicle frozen over and thawed]], as in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'', or located in a LostWorld, like in ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'' (with the exception of sauropods and, ironically, ''[[TerrifyingTyrannosaur T. rex]]'' and raptors).

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' zig-zags with this. Carnivores like ''T.rex'' and raptors will try to escape and eat guests (though admittedly, so do regular animals) while herbivores are somewhat more peaceful. But due to lazy programming, once they escape the herbivorous dinosaurs will also rampage and in the first game they are inaccurately also said to '''eat''' human guests.

*** The above, however, arguably only applies to the program's treatment of Paleozoic vertebrates ([[MostWritersAreHuman in other words, our direct ancestors and their close relatives]]). Many of the [[BigCreepyCrawlies predatory arthropods]] and related invertebrates, on the other hand, are indeed given a comparatively more monstrous (occasionally bordering on AlwaysChaoticEvil) treatment. The narration at times plays their predatory behaviours as though they're intentionally trying to wipe our fish and tetrapod progenitors off the face of the Earth (with descriptors like "arthropod enemies" being used frequently), despite the fact that they're also just animals struggling to survive in the way that happens to work best for them.

*** The above, however, arguably only applies to the program's treatment of Paleozoic vertebrates ([[MostWritersAreHuman in other words, our direct ancestors and their close relatives]]). Many of the [[BigCreepyCrawlies predatory arthropods]] and related invertebrates, on the other hand, are indeed given a comparatively more monstrous (occasionally bordering on AlwaysChaoticEvil) treatment. The narration at times plays their predatory behaviours as though they're intentionally trying to wipe our fish and tetrapod progenitors off the face of the Earth (with descriptors like "arthropod enemies" being used frequently), despite the fact that they're also just animals struggling to survive in whatever way works best for them.