History Main / PrehistoricMonster

* 1948's SpecialEffectsFailure laden ''Film/UnknownIsland'' sports a '''Flesh-Eating Giant Ground Sloth'''[[note]] which may actually be TruthInTelevision according to recent theories [[note/]], and its Ceratosaurs are relentless predators.

* 1948's SpecialEffectsFailure laden ''Film/UnknownIsland'' sports a '''Flesh-Eating Giant Ground Sloth'''[[note which may actually be TruthInTelevision according to recent theories [[note/]], and its Ceratosaurs are relentless predators.

* 1948's SpecialEffectsFailure laden ''Film/UnknownIsland'' sports a '''Flesh-Eating Giant Ground Sloth''', and its Ceratosaurs are relentless predators.

** There still do remain in 3.5 and later editions a few creatures of the Magical Beast and Aberration types that [[PrehistoricAnimalAnalogue bear strong resemblances to prehistoric animals]] -- the digester, destrachan, yrthak, and prismasaurus in particular -- you could argue that these things further normalize dinosaurs within the setting, given the many, many Magical Beasts based on real animals -- manticores, sphinxes, griffins, chimeras, and lamassim, for instance, are all distinctly leonine. Most of these were treated as being barely more intelligent than animals, at best, with destrachans alone being written as "incredibly evil and crafty sadists".

* ''WesternAnimation/WhenDinosaursRoamedAmerica'' and ''Series/DinosaurPlanet'' tend to represent dinosaurs in a more realistic way than the aforementioned shows, and thus seem more related to the original documentary purpose which guided WWD producers initially (even though certain scenes from WDRA look more violent than those from the BBC documentary, while DP dinos seem a bit too humanized in their actions and feelings).

* The Italian documentary ''Series/PlanetOfDinosaurs'' (1993) averts this trope completely: dinosaurs here are ''never'' called monsters, and are instead genuine animals with social attitudes and colorful design (anticipating ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' six years before). At the end of the last episode (which depicts their extinction), they are described as "extraordinary animals that deserve to be remembered in their best moments, when they filled the Earth with their strength and their vitality". Interestingly, this series also has an accompanying book with a slightly DarkerAndEdgier style, just like the aforementioned ''A Natural History''.
* ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'' averts this entirely. The carnivores are not portrayed as monsters, but simply as animals living their natural lives. The ''Tyrannosaurus'' cares for its young and affectionately courts a mate, the ''Tarbosaurus'' peacefully sleep on a warm cliff after a meal and later go to drink at the oasis without bothering anyone else, the ''Mosasaurus'' is shown lounging by an exposed coral reef to allow cleaner fish and shrimp to groom him of dead skin, and most amusingly, the ''Carnotaurus'' is shown performing an elaborate mating dance involving its brightly-colored miniscule arms. Even when they do go hunting, the scenes feel more like the behaviour of predatory animals than [[BehemothBattle monsters fighting]] - the ''Qianzhousaurus'' is a nimble ambush predator who fails the first hunt but succeeds the second time, a trio of ''Velociraptor''s have to negotiate their way down a cliff face to raid a pterosaur nest, and the ''Nanuqsaurus'' are dogged pack hunters who isolate a single ''Pachyrhinosaurus'' from its herd before going in for the kill.

* ''Film/SixtyFive'': Nearly all the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals are shown as [[PredatorsAreMean vicious]], [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute ugly]], [[MorePredatorsThanPrey predatory]] animals that are trying to kill the two protagonists, [[SuperPersistentPredator routinely giving up easier prey to try and hunt them]], even small ones that attack them like packs of rabid dogs and don't care how many of their number are killed by their quarry. The only benign dinosaur they encounter is itself almost immediately killed by a pack of raptor-like dinosaurs, as if just to drive home how nothing cute or friendly could possibly survive here. The film seems to give off the impression that it's a ''good'' thing they're all about to be wiped out by the asteroid, so the Earth can be rid of such nasty, slobbering vermin.

A specific variation of WhatMeasureIsANonCute, in which a prehistoric/extinct animal which is portrayed as more powerful, dangerous and/or deadly (if not also [[DumbDinos dumber]]) than any still-living equivalent to the point where it ceases to be an animal and becomes a marauding monster -- larger and faster than any extant apex predator, with no equal in the modern world, filled to the brim with claws and jaws, able to smash apart man-made vehicles to get at the tasty, tasty humans inside, a feat no lion or tiger or bear can do.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools In all fairness]], this trope does have a ''grain'' of TruthInTelevision -- to fulfill their status as apex predator, a predator would have to be big or at least strong enough to take down things bigger than itself, often armored or just as aggressive. Most modern-day (land) creatures are nowhere as large as a ''[[GentleGiantSauropod Brachiosaurus]]'', or as armored as a ''[[TemperCeratops Triceratops]]'' -- and without such niches, there's no reason for modern-day animals to be just as enormous or well-armed as a ''[[TerrifyingTyrannosaur Tyrannosaurus rex]]''. Of course, it bears keeping in mind that most prehistoric critters didn't get any bigger or more formidable than contemporary animals, and even the ones that did were still ''animals'' rather than monsters.

See also DinosaursAreDragons, DumbDinos, ReptilesAreAbhorrent, EverythingIsTryingToKillYou, OurMonstersAreDifferent, PrimateVersusReptile, TRexpy, SpinosaurusVersusTRex, BigCreepyCrawlies, and HistoricalVillainUpgrade. MeekMesozoicMammal is a related concept, where they're contrasted against the "monstrous" dinosaurs. If you want to see some RealLife information about extinct critters, see [[UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} here]] and [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife here]]. For a popular way of averting this, see DomesticatedDinosaurs, GoofyFeatheredDinosaur, and NonMaliciousMonster. This trope had a heavy influence on the more fantastical {{Kaiju}} trope as well, since many early examples are based on dinosaurs or otherwise prehistoric in nature, and in PrehistoricAnimalAnalogue, as the fascination and vision of extinct animals as more powerful and aggressive led them to be used as inspiration for several fictional designs.

* The first enemies of ''Manga/GetterRobo'' are shown to be [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Dinosaurs From the Center of the Earth]], presented as [[RoBeast robeasts]].

%%* Set in a vague [[OneMillionBC prehistoric setting]], the ''Manga/WildRock'' world is full of them.

* ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'' averts this entirely. The carnivores are not portrayed as monsters, but simply as animals living their natural lives. The ''Tyrannosaurus'' cares for its young and affectionately courts a mate, the ''Tarbosaurus'' peacefully sleep on a warm cliff after a meal and later go to drink at the oasis without bothering anyone else, the ''Mosasaurus'' is shown lounging by an exposed coral reef to allow cleaner fish and shrimp to groom him of dead skin, and most amusingly, the ''Carnotaurus'' is shown performing an elaborate mating dance involving its brightly-colored miniscule arms.

* In ''Film/KingKong'', Skull Island is full of nothing but Prehistoric Monsters. This holds for the [[Film/KingKong1933 original (1933)]] and [[Film/KingKong2005 Peter Jackson's version (2005)]] and the ''[[Film/KongSkullIsland Monsterverse (2017)]]'' reboot.

* 1960's ''Film/{{Dinosaurus}}'' has a ''T. rex'' which acts like a rampaging monster and later fights a crane. There's also a GentleGiant sauropod of some kind.
* 1966's ''{{Film/One Million Years BC}}'' plays this trope as straight as possible. Here dinosaurs and other animals all seem to do nothing else but fight each other and menace cavemen (which are portrayed as classic, prehistoric brutish savages; this trope may be applied to prehistoric and modern humans as well).

* 1978's Most of the large animals in ''Film/PlanetOfTheDinosaurs'' are extremely dangerous. The ''T. rex'' in this film acts like Jason Voorhees with a busted Calender. [[DontExplainTheJoke To him, every day is Friday the 13th.]]

** ''Dominion'' also has a fairy unique take in that [[spoiler:the most evil animals are type of prehistoric locust ([[AnachronisticAnimal ficticious as they are]], since there were no Cretaceous locusts), which are at once the most mundane looking animals and yet still play into this trope by being bigger and more menancing than modern locusts]].

* The film adaptations of ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' feature this trope just like in the original book. The 1959 movie has a group of ''[[{{Slurpasaur}} Dimetrodons]]'', wherein the protagonists had to buy enough time to get their raft into the water without getting attacked, though in fairness they ''were'' in a position that made them appear to be an easy source of food. The later 2008 adaptation features a massive, vicious theropod that mindlessly chases after two of the leads without justification; it meets its end when it follows them onto a field of sheet rock that breaks under its feet, sending it tumbling into the pit below.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's "Literature/{{Pellucidar}}" series similarly depicts most prehistoric animals as dangerous monsters. On David Innes's advent to the eponymous world ''At the Earth's [[ScienceMarchesOn Core]]'', he is attacked -- by a ''giant sloth''.
* In his ''Literature/TheLandThatTimeForgot'' series, Burroughs does the same thing -- his ''Tyrannosaurus'' is an armor-plated dragon which eats its victims with its [[ScienceMarchesOn three-fingered hands]].

* ''Literature/QuestForFire'' gives us the [[PantheraAwesome giant lion]] which easily defeats two tigers and is said to be more powerful than a rhino and the Kzamms which are a human version of this, being [[EvilIsBigger huge]] and [[FrazettaMan bestial]] [[CannibalTribe cannibals]]. Averted with the cave bears and giant apes which are accurately portrayed as herbivores who will leave humans alone if unprovoked. [[BearsAreBadNews Said bears are still a nightmare if they are provoked though.]]

* ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has its various prehistoric animals almost unanimous in their desire to eat the heroes. There's also a war between a society of human hunter-gatherers and a group of dryopithecoid "ape-men", and the MightyWhitey heroes side with their fellow humans. It's important to mention that, to contemporary Britons like Sir Arthur, prehistoric life wasn't just monstrous; it was ''inferior'', since dinosaurs went extinct and we didn't.

** There still do remain in 3.5 and later editions a few creatures of the Magical Beast and Aberration types that bear strong resemblances to prehistoric animals -- the digester, destrachan, yrthak, and prismasaurus in particular -- you could argue that these things further normalize dinosaurs within the setting, given the many, many Magical Beasts based on real animals -- manticores, sphinxes, griffins, chimeras, and lamassim, for instance, are all distinctly leonine. Most of these were treated as being barely more intelligent than animals, at best, with destrachans alone being written as "incredibly evil and crafty sadist".

* The famous dinosaur ''Maiasaura'' means "good mother lizard" because of the discover of parental care in the 1980s. Probably most dinosaurs underwent some caring to their young, as shown by the fossils of their babies with their huge eyes and short muzzles -- that is, those cuteness-inspiring features also present in young crocodilians, bird-chicks, and typically, the mammals (think about baby seals or fawns).
* ''Guidraco venator'', the name of a pterosaur from China, means "Hunting Ghost Dragon". The name may be a bit misleading, though, aa 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''.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools In all fairness]], this trope does have a ''grain'' of TruthInTelevision -- to fulfill their status as apex predator, a predator would have to be big or at least strong enough to take down things bigger than itself, often armored or just as aggressive. Most modern-day (land) creatures are nowhere as large as a ''[[GentleGiantSauropod Brachiosaurus]]'', or as armored as a ''[[TemperCeratops Triceratops]]'' -- and without such niches, there's no reason for modern-day animals to be just as enormous or well-armed as a ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]''. Of course, it bears keeping in mind that most prehistoric critters didn't get any bigger or more formidable than contemporary animals, and even the ones that did were still ''animals'' rather than monsters.

* 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, ironically, ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs T. rex]]'' and raptors).
* A very early subversion is seen with the ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]'' in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''. While it's certainly terrifying and feared by all dinosaurs, it focuses on one slow target, the ''Stegosaurus'', rather than going on a killing spree. Once it kills the ''Stegosaurus'', it ceases its aggression and settles down to eat. Its death during the great drought (assuming it's the same individual) later on is also portrayed in a tragic light. Straight up [[AvertedTrope averted]] with the rest of the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in the segment, which are never presented as monstrous.

* ''VideoGame/{{Oakwood}}'' is a SurvivalHorror game set in an abandoned, dinosaur-infested campground. And all three of the dinosaur species encountered (specifically, [[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]], [[RaptorAttack velociraptor]], and dilophosaurus) are remorseless bloodthirsty carnivores that are all too eager to hunt player character Madison and her six friends on sight.

* The documentary series ''[[Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs Walking With...]]''' 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'', ''WesternAnimation/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".

See also DinosaursAreDragons, DumbDinos, ReptilesAreAbhorrent, EverythingIsTryingToKillYou, OurMonstersAreDifferent, PrimateVersusReptile, TRexpy, SpinosaurusVersusTRex, BigCreepyCrawlies, and HistoricalVillainUpgrade. If you want to see some RealLife information about extinct critters, see [[UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} here]] and [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife here]]. For a popular way of averting this, see DomesticatedDinosaurs, GoofyFeatheredDinosaur, and NonMaliciousMonster. This trope had a heavy influence on the more fantastical {{Kaiju}} trope as well, since many early examples are based on dinosaurs or otherwise prehistoric in nature, and in PrehistoricAnimalAnalogue, as the fascination and vision of extinct animals as more powerful and aggressive led them to be used as inspiration for several fictional designs.

* ''[[Film/SuperMarioBros Super Mario Bros. The Movie]]'' portrays the population of humanoid-evolved dinosaurs in the parallel world as rough, dumb, murderous and just plain rude. Some of them are good guys, but overall, it's a much darker and less-pleasant world.

* The film adaptations of ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' feature this trope just like in the original book. The 1959 movie has a group of ''[[{{Slurpasaur}} Dimetrodons}}'', wherein the protagonists had to buy enough time to get their raft into the water without getting attacked, though in fairness they ''were'' in a position that made them appear to be an easy source of food. The later 2008 adaptation features a massive, vicious theropod that mindlessly chases after two of the leads without justification; it meets its end when it follows them onto a field of sheet rock that breaks under its feet, sending it tumbling into the pit below.

* The film adaptations of ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' feature this trope just like in the original book. The 1959 movie has a group of ''[[{{Slurpasaur Dimetrodons}}'', wherein the protagonists had to buy enough time to get their raft into the water without getting attacked, though in fairness they ''were'' in a position that made them appear to be an easy source of food. The later 2008 adaptation features a massive, vicious theropod that mindlessly chases after two of the leads without justification; it meets its end when it follows them onto a field of sheet rock that breaks under its feet, sending it tumbling into the pit below.

* Nissin Cup Noodle advertisements feature many oversized ancient animals that either want to eat humans, or feel the urge to be utter jerks to them.

See also DinosaursAreDragons, DumbDinos, ReptilesAreAbhorrent, EverythingIsTryingToKillYou, OurMonstersAreDifferent, PrimateVersusReptile, TRexpy, SpinosaurusVersusTRex, BigCreepyCrawlies, and HistoricalVillainUpgrade. If you want to see some RealLife information about extinct critters, [[UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} see]] [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife here]] and [[Main/StockDinosaurs here]]. For a popular way of averting this, see DomesticatedDinosaurs, GoofyFeatheredDinosaur, and NonMaliciousMonster. This trope had a heavy influence on the more fantastical {{Kaiju}} trope as well, since many early examples are based on dinosaurs or otherwise prehistoric in nature, and in PrehistoricAnimalAnalogue, as the fascination and vision of extinct animals as more powerful and aggressive led them to be used as inspiration for several fictional designs.

%%* The Savage Land in Creator/MarvelComics is loaded with StockDinosaurs that are these half the time.

* The 1997 Leigh Clark novel ''Literature/{{Carnivore}}'' features a ''T. rex'' that hatches from a preserved egg recovered in ([[ArtisticLicensePaleontology of all places]]) MysteriousAntarctica, reaches full size in a matter of days due to [[ILoveNuclearPower exposure to radioactive waste]], and turns a research outpost into its personal buffet table.

* There are also several aversions and inversions of the trope however. Among dinosaurs, ''Compsognathus'' is translated in "pretty jaw", ''Kritosaurus'' means "noble lizard", ''Thescelosaurus'' "handsome lizard", ''Avimimus portentosus'' is the "magnificent bird-imitator", ''Saichania'' (an ankylosaur) means "beautiful", and so on. Among non-dinosaurs: ''Thaumatosaurus'' (a plesiosaur) means "marvelous lizard", while ''Quetzalcoatlus'' (a pterosaur) was named for the benevolent FeatheredSerpent god of the Aztecs, [[DragonsAreDivine Quetzalcoatl]]. And "''Agathaumas''" (a dubious ceratopsid): "great marvel".

See also DinosaursAreDragons, DumbDinos, ReptilesAreAbhorrent, EverythingIsTryingToKillYou, OurMonstersAreDifferent, PrimateVersusReptile, TRexpy, SpinosaurusVersusTRex, BigCreepyCrawlies, and HistoricalVillainUpgrade. If you want to see some RealLife information about extinct critters, [[UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} see]] [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife here]] and [[Main/StockDinosaurs here]]. For a popular way of averting this, see DomesticatedDinosaurs, GoofyFeatheredDinosaur, and NonMaliciousMonster. This trope had a heavy influence on the more fantastical {{Kaiju}} trope as well, since many early examples are based on dinosaurs or otherwise prehistoric in nature.

** The prologue to ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' vindicates what Dr. Grant said about [=InGen=]'s dinosaurs by offering a glimpse of ''actual'' dinosaurs living out their lives in the Cretaceous period. They're all presented as completely normal animals, presumably to provide contrast with [=InGen=]'s artificial creations. It is played straight in the actual film with the ''Quetzalcoatlus'' with a grossly-oversized wingspan of 70 feet attacking airplanes, the ''Therizinosaurus'' which despite being a herbivore is extremely aggressive and actively stalks and kills humans and animals alike for no discernable reason... but ironically subverted with ''Giganotosaurus'' who, despite looking like a prehistoric dragon, is the least monstrous carnivorous antagonist since ''T. rex'', as it never kills any human and only went on a rampage after being burned by fire.

** The prologue to ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' vindicates what Dr. Grant said about [=InGen=]'s dinosaurs by offering a glimpse of ''actual'' dinosaurs living out their lives in the Cretaceous period. They're all presented as completely normal animals, presumably to provide contrast with [=InGen=]'s artificial creations.
*** Played straight with the ''Quetzalcoatlus'' with a grossly-oversized wingspan of 70 feet attacking airplanes, the ''Therizinosaurus'' which despite being a herbivore is extremely aggressive and actively stalks and kills humans and animals alike for no discernable reason, or the ''Giganotosaurus'', which, according to the director, is ''"basically the Joker and just wants to see the world burn"''.