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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/m766.jpg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:A dinosaur [[note]]''Coelophysis bauri''[[/note]] found in the "death pose" (head and tail turned upwards)]]
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6This page is an introduction about stock [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur dinosaurs]]. Dinosaurs were a varied group of archosaurian reptiles, including bipedal, quadrupedal, carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous species, ranging from the size of small birds to large whales.
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8All non-bird dinosaurs so far known, as well as the first birds, lived in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesozoic Mesozoic Era]], nicknamed "The Age of Dinosaurs", 252-66 million years ago (mya). The era is divided by geologists and paleontologists into three periods; from the most ancient to the most recent, they are the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triassic Triassic]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic Jurassic]], and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous]]. You'll notice that the most well-known stock dinosaurs come from North America during either the Late Jurassic or the Late Cretaceous.
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10'''Note that'''
11* No one dinosaur species lived through the entire era, nor were they evenly distributed over the world.
12* Hence, the dinosaurs didn't all live together in the same time and place.
13* No humans lived contemporaneously with Mesozoic dinosaurs.
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15Many depictions of dinosaurs break one or more of these rules (and other, more specific rules as well). When this happens, we get AnachronismStew and MisplacedWildlife, and it's easy to say that ArtisticLicensePaleontology is in play. It is possible for works to follow the rules and still misrepresent dinosaurs, because ScienceMarchesOn and "hard fact" is nowhere near the same today as it was [[https://youtu.be/rgqQNBuGGWg a century ago (or in some cases a decade ago)]].
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19Dinosaurs are divided here into four categories:
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21# '''Great Stock: ***''' What you think of when you think "Dinosaur"; have appeared everywhere in the media.
22# '''Semi Stock: **''' Have frequently appeared in media but are usually less-familiar to casual people than the latter. Some are closely-related to them and may be used as their substitutes in fictional works.
23# '''Rare or Little Stock: *''' Tend to appear in documentary media, but are quite rare in the more popular ones. Their presence in fiction might actually be seen as an aversion of the trope.
24# '''Non-Stock:''' Have appeared even more seldom in media (if at all). [[note]]The difference between the Little Stock and the Non-Stock is rather hazy: in general, Little Stock species are considered "stock" in documentary and nonfiction works, but are rare in fiction; whereas Non-Stock species rarely even appear in documentaries.[[/note]] See [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife Useful Notes Prehistoric Life]] for these.
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26Stock dinosaurs are usually among the biggest/most impressive members of each dinosaur subgroup, but not necessarily the most common in the fossil record. Just as an example, ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' is known only from a dozen specimens, while other less popular dinosaurs have left hundreds of skeletons or even more. At the other extreme, several dinosaurs have left to us one single bone or tooth.
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28!A brief history of popular depictions of dinosaurs
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30See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_dinosaurs here]] for a more detailed article.
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32'''[[OlderThanRadio 1850s]]''': The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_Dinosaurs Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures]] in London introduced dinosaurs to the public. The image they provided was of scaly, bulky, four-legged dragons (quite un-dinosaurian critters to our modern view). Introducing: ''Iguanodon'', ''Megalosaurus'', and ''Hylaeosaurus''. The park also introduced some non-dinosaur reptiles: the flying ''Pterodactylus'' and the swimming ''Mosasaurus'', ''Ichthyosaurus'', and ''Plesiosaurus''. The 1864 novel ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' portrayed the latter two as the first "antediluvian reptiles" ever in literature. The first mention of a proper dinosaur in fiction, believe it or not, was by Charles Dickens, who in the opening paragraph of ''Literature/BleakHouse'' (1853) described the streets of London as being so muddy he could imagine a ''Megalosaurus'' lumbering up them!
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34'''Late 1800s:''' The excitement of the U.S. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars Bone Wars]] made dinosaurs interesting to the readership of newspapers and magazines that recounted the exploits and discoveries of Marsh and Cope. Stock dinosaurs found: ''Apatosaurus'', ''Brontosaurus'' (no longer synonymous with ''Apatosaurus''), ''Diplodocus'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Ceratosaurus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Triceratops'', ''Trachodon'' (''Edmontosaurus''). Non-dinosaurs found: ''Pteranodon'', ''Elasmosaurus'', ''Tylosaurus'', and ''Dimetrodon''.
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36'''[[OlderThanTelevision Early 1900s]]''': Updated depictions of dinosaurs were brought to the general public by early paleoartists (beginning with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Knight Charles R. Knight]]), by distribution of skeleton casts which made life-sized and fairly life-like museum exhibits possible, and by dinosaurs being introduced to films. From this time on, dinosaurs and movie special effects were tightly coupled. Based on the finds during and since the Bone Wars, dinosaurs were now seen as a more varied bunch, with larger and... less large forms, bipedal or quadrupedal. They were still sluggish brutes destined for complete extinction, though. In 1940 Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' reached a large audience, but didn't change the media image much. Introducing: The aforementioned dinosaurs and non-dinosaurs from the Bone Wars plus ''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Brachiosaurus'' (now split into ''Brachiosaurus altithorax'' and ''Giraffatitan brancai''; the latter of which is infinitely more represented under the ''B.'' moniker), ceratopsians ''Styracosaurus'', ''Protoceratops'' & ''Chasmosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Ornithomimus''/''Struthiomimus'', ''Ornitholestes'', ''Hypsilophodon'', hadrosaurs ''Parasaurolophus'', ''Corythosaurus'' & ''Kritosaurus'', ''Plateosaurus'', ''Pachycephalosaurus''/''Stegoceras'', ''Coelophysis'', and the non-dinosaurs ''Rhamphorhynchus'', ''Dimorphodon'', and ''Archelon''.
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38'''[[TheSeventies 1970s:]]''' The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_renaissance Dinosaur Renaissance]] changed the image of dinosaurs to more active, more intelligent, more caring to their offspring, and well-adapted to their environment (and surviving extinction through bird descendants). Introducing: ''Deinonychus'' (the animal who started the scientific view-change), ''Archaeopteryx'' (as a proper dinosaur; it's been well-known since the 19th century, but was considered a non-dinosaur before the Renaissance), and ''Compsognathus'' (also well-known since the 19th century but constantly confronted with ''Archaeopteryx'' since the seventies because it used to be believed its closest relative, and the proof of the relationship between dinosaurs and birds).
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40'''[[TheEighties 1980s]]/[[TheNineties 1990s]]/[[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]]''': The original movie ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' and other works made in the second half of the 1980s started popularizing the image of dinosaurs as set up by the Dinosaur Renaissance. Since the 1990s, scientifically up-to-date books and computer animation in films/shows (especially in the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' and ''Franchise/WalkingWith'' franchises) have completed the job. Introducing:
41* By the ''Jurassic Park'' franchise: ''Velociraptor'', ''Spinosaurus'', ''Dilophosaurus'', ''Gallimimus'', ''Mamenchisaurus'', ''Euoplocephalus''/''Scolosaurus'', ''Carnotaurus'', ''Maiasaura'', ''Camptosaurus'', and ''Albertosaurus''.
42* By the ''Walking With'' docu series and its spinoffs: ''Giganotosaurus'', ''Argentinosaurus'', ''Utahraptor'', ''Gorgosaurus'', ''Coelurus'', ''Torosaurus'', ''Dromaeosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Therizinosaurus'', ''Microraptor'', "Dracorex", ''Hesperornis'', and the non-dinosaurs ''Didelphodon'', ''Liopleurodon'', ''Sarcosuchus'', and ''Deinosuchus''.
43* By the ''The Land Before Time'' films: ''Saurolophus''.
44* By the Disney's ''Dinosaur'' film: ''Oviraptor''/''Citipati'' , "Stygimoloch", ''Pachyrhinosaurus'', and ''Ichthyornis''.
45* By the ''Ice Age'' film series: ''Baryonyx''.
46* By others: ''Troodon''/''Stenonychosaurus'' (included the "dinosauroid"), some alleged "biggest sauropods" ("Ultrasaurus", "Seismosaurus", ''Supersaurus'' etc.), ''Camarasaurus'', ''Saltasaurus'', ''Shunosaurus'', ''Amargasaurus'', ''Tenontosaurus'', ''Ouranosaurus'', ''Lambeosaurus'', ''Tuojiangosaurus'', ''Pinacosaurus'', ''Polacanthus'', ''Tarbosaurus'', ''Saurornithoides'', ''Eoraptor'', ''Acrocanthosaurus'', ''Majungasaurus'', ''Torvosaurus'', ''Deinocheirus'', "Monoclonius", ''Pentaceratops'', ''Psittacosaurus'', ''Kentrosaurus'', ''Centrosaurus'' (two totally distinct dinosaurs), ''Gigantoraptor'' (not a gigantic "raptor" at all), and the non-dinosaurs ''Quetzalcoatlus'', ''Hatzegopteryx'', ''Kronosaurus'', ''Shonisaurus''/''Shastasaurus'', ''Megalania'', and ''Titanoboa''.
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50The number of stars for each animal and the Entry Time & TropeMaker-s are (or can be) kinda subjective, and the latest two ''do not'' refer to the scientific discovery of the animals but to one of the first noticeable works in which they have been portrayed (or alternatively an iconic museum-skeleton, life-size model, paleo-artistic painting, distinctive anatomical trait etc.). For example, both ''Velociraptor'' & ''Spinosaurus'' were first discovered and described in the early XX century, but they have ascended to true Stock status only in the last few decades thanks to [[Franchise/JurassicPark one single series]]. Similarly, the belonging of an animal to the Stock or the Non-Stock ensemble is equally sorta subjective and can easily change across the years. For example, ''Microraptor'' has become known to science only since year 2000, and is obviously absent in works made before that year, such as ''The Rite Of Spring'' of Disney’s ''Fantasia'' (made in 1940) or ''The Land Before Time'' original film, made in 1988. For a description of all these animals, see these subpages:
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52* UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs
53* UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs
54* UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs
55* UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex

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