Dinosaurs are
cool. Ask any
six-year-old.
From Hollywood's point of view, they make for great, epic beasts and terrifying monsters, particularly given the fact that they
actually existed at one point. Hence, it's only natural that writers would want to
include dinosaurs in their stories.
Unfortunately, most writers only
know a few types of dinosaur (see
Small Taxonomy Pools). Even dinosaur enthusiasts may be
forced to avoid lesser-known dinosaurs, in case the
viewers don't get it. As a result of this, series featuring dinosaurs, whether as a result of
Time Travel or being set in
Prehistoria, are almost
guaranteed to feature at least one of the following:
Theropods
The suborder Theropoda contains all the carnivorous dinosaurs, including the ancestors of birds.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Lived 66 to 65 million years ago in western North America. Other Tyrannosaurs lived in Asia, and still other relatives lived earlier in the Cretaceous Period.
Every visit to a dinosaur-populated time or place will have at least one T. rex, because (ahem) "Dude, he
could totally eat you." And every
T. rex will be at least implicitly male, probably due to the implications of its name, which means "Tyrant lizard king".
In print media, the name of this dinosaur is often incorrectly rendered as "T-rex" rather than "
T. rex." This is most likely due to the writer being
ignorant of Linnaean classifications and the conventions associated therewith.
See
Tyrannosaurus Rex for examples.
Some species of dromaeosaurid
.
They will most likely be identified as
Velociraptor, and will look like
Jurassic Park Raptors, despite the fact that these bear more resemblance to
Deinonychus or
Utahraptor. Actual
Velociraptors were about the size of a turkey. As such, expect to see scary cat-eyes and giant hands. Do not expect to see feathers. (As a group, Dromeosaurids lived between 145 and 65 million years ago in what is today North America, Asia, and some parts of South America and Africa.)
Dromaeosaurids, as well as a
a variety of other theropods, have been suspected to have feathers since around 1986, though this was only confirmed in 1996 (and evidence of feathers on
Velociraptor itself in 2007). Thus, dromeosaurids from before 1996 will
never have feathers, and even those from later years are unlikely due to the fact that feathered dinosaurs have yet to filter into public consciousness. (It's also much more difficult for the CGI team to animate feathers than scaly skin.)
Jurassic Park 3 at least showed one raptor with feathers on its head – presumably, any more and it would have looked too cute, even though some feathered birds, such as the turkey vulture, look downright ugly and nasty.
Archaeopteryx
Lived 155 to 150 million years ago in Europe. The
only animal in this family which will always have feathers in fiction. Expect it to be identified as the "first bird". Naturally, the truth is much more complicated; see the feathered theropods link above for a few reasons why. Basically, we've had to rewrite the definition of "bird".
Archaeopteryx itself lacks some of the diagnostic features of modern birds, and is basically a transitional species (evolution being a process of gradual change), somewhere between a dinosaur and a bird (and that's
if it's a direct ancestor to modern birds at all).
Because
Science Marches On but Pop Culture Stumbles Along Much More Slowly, fictional Archies are nearly always -and incorrectly- shown to be able of powered flapping flight and of perching like modern birds do. They also never have those really cool sickle claws real
Archaeopteryx did possess.
A few other especially birdlike dinosaurs (or, depending on your point of view, dinosaur-like birds) are
just starting to filter into pop culture's consciousness.
Microraptor◊ and
Oviraptor◊ seem to be especially popular, probably because they are just so darned odd looking.
Spinosaurus
Lived in Cretaceous Africa and Europe. Has turned up in a few works of fiction in the wake of
Jurassic Park 3 (which fans
don't really like to talk about but was nonetheless popular). In the film, she is introduced to the audience as "
bigger!" than a
Tyrannosaurus rex. The fact that it mostly ate fish is quite unlikely to be discussed; as a semi-aquatic carnivore, Spinosaurus was more like a giant heron or stork than the
penultimate superpredator. That said, Storks will also eat smaller land animals when given the opportunity—just not really big/dangerous prey.
And to be fair though, with its size, the average fish it would feed upon would range from 4 to 15ft in length. In other words—it'd have no problem feeding on most
sharks. And since large, freshwater sharks already existed in Cretaceous Africa...
Giganotosaurus
Lived in South America in the Cretaceous period. It is the
largest known second largest known(see Spinosaurus, above) predatory dinosaur, and is
just starting to gain popularity. The fact that it could hunt some of the largest sauropods means that it may become
very popular in the future.
Walking With Dinosaurs did a special on just how
Bad Ass such a hunt would be.
One should note the similarity between the
Giganotosaurus and
Calvinosaurus, supposedly able to eat an
Ultrasaurus in a single bite.
It may end up being upstaged by its close relative,
Mapusaurus roseae, which evidence indicates may have travelled in packs, which, combined with their lighter frame, might allow them to become giant
"Velociraptors".
Carnotaurus
Lived in Late Cretaceous South America. Though it doesn't come close to rivalling
Tyrannosaurus in size, its distinctive look (bulldog snout, horns and warts) makes it somewhat popular. As of now, it's unknown exactly what kind of ecology this animal had (to look at the front-view illustration in
The Other Wiki is to be confused).
Allosaurus
This dinosaur is typically used when a writer wants to include a carnivore other than
T. rex. They're often confused in the public mind due to their vaguely similar appearance, but
Allosaurus was slightly smaller and had stronger front arms with three claws rather than two, and the two species were separated by millions of years and not closely related at all. Just to add to its misfortune, the name literally means "other lizard".
Ceratosaurus
A medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur that also crops up when a writer doesn't want to use T. rex. Unlike Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus is rarely confused with other meat eaters due to the prominent horn atop its snout and a row of small spikes down its back. Rather primitive for its time (Late Jurassic North America), it retained a remnant fourth finger on its hand. Not so common in films these days, but is featured in either minorly or prominently in many films.
Compsognathus
A chicken to small-turkey sized carnivorous dinosaur native to Late Jurassic Europe. Growing to a length of 3ft/1m at most, 'Compys' have become quite popular since they appeared in the second
Jurassic Park film and the standard public image seems to be of a
deceptively cute critter that attacks in
huge packs (There's no evidence as to the feeding habits of real life
Compsognathus).
Coelophysis
Possibly the least common of the stock dinosaurs, Coelophysis is a small animal, the size of a large turkey or small child—growing a little over 6ft/2m long. They are long, thin animals and a perfect underdog to root for. Usually shows up in a Documentary or
Docu Drama rather than fiction. If the Triassic is mentioned at all, a Coelophysis or one of its relatives will show up. Some
Truth In Television as during the Triassic, Coelophysis acted more like Jackles or foxes, with the big predator spots filled in by dinosaur-relatives Rauisuchia/"
Crimson Crocs". Most Coelophysis relatives kept the small/slender body form...except one. That one likely grew to 21ft (bigger than the Crimson Crocs) and likely weighed 300 to 400 pounds. Called
Gojirasaurus after a partitularly
dinosauruian monster from Japan, since its discovery
some artists have been giving it speculative features such as prominent/raised scutes along its back
to make it look like its namesake.
Sauropods
The infraorder Sauropoda contains the quadrupedal dinosaurs with very long necks and tails. The largest of all dinosaurs are found in this group.
Apatosaurus
Lived 155 to 145 million years ago in what is now the USA. If the writers did their research in the sixties (or just haven't freshened it up since), it and other sauropods will be amphibian; there was a widely-spread but totally wrong theory at the time that they needed to spend most of their time in water to support their massive bulk. Sometimes, if
They Just Didnt Care, it may be portrayed as a meat eater.
These are often identified as
Brontosaurus, a relic of some very old confusion. A partial skeleton discovered in 1877 was given the name
Apatosaurus, of uncertain meaning. Two years later, another huge sauropod skeleton was named
Brontosaurus, meaning ‘thunder lizard’, after the sound it must have made as it walked around. Later still, it was realised that these two skeletons actually belonged to the same genus. The rules of scientific naming (which need to be strict to make sure that everyone knows exactly what the name refers to) require that the earlier name be used, so
Apatosaurus it is. (A pity, since
Brontosaurus is a better name, but there you have it.) But by the time this was cleared up (1903), museums had put the name
Brontosaurus on the labels of their skeletons, and didn't change it for decades afterwards; popular writings also spread the incorrect name. A lot of people now know about the correction, but pop culture is very tenacious, even while
Science Marches On — since writers copy from other writers instead of going to scientific sources, the fading ghost of
Brontosaurus is still seen occasionally.
Peter Jackson’s
King Kong included a dinosaur called
Brontosaurus, but it was presented as a newly discovered species on Kong Island.
Camarasaurus
Lived 155 to 145 million years ago. Easily confused with
Apatosaurus, especially since its skull was mistakenly placed on the most widely-seen skeleton of
Apatosaurus (
Brontosaurus) in the early 20th century, and therefore "Brontosaurus" is often drawn with a
Camarasaurus head, except in those cases where it doesn't resemble anything that ever lived.
Brachiosaurus
Lived 155 to 145 million years ago in North America. As a sauropod, also sometimes associated with water in fiction. If the writers really
didn't care, they'll be snorkeling with their blowholes. As
Brachiosaurus is known from rather incomplete remains, reconstructions are often based on its African relative
Giraffatitan, which was long thought to be a species of
Brachiosaurus itself and was not recognized as distinct until 2009. Brachiosaurs have a distictive body shape, with forelegs longer than their back legs, which gives them their name, from the Latin for arms. Brachiosaurus was the dinosaur that was the big show-opener in
Jurassic Park.
Diplodocus
Another very well known sauropod that lived in North America roughly 150 million years ago. A very, very long dinosaur, more slender than
Apatosaurus and more elongated than
Camarasaurus. Like other sauropods, will be portrayed as a swamp creature in older depictions, despite recent evidence to the contrary.
Ornithischians
The order Ornithischia covers a wide variety of dinosaurs, all herbivorous.
Ankylosaurus
Visually distinct for its armored body and mace-like tail, Ankylosaurus is usually used as the ultimate "Armored Tank Dinosaur". Considering that even its eyelids had armor plating to them, it works. Discovered in 1908, its stocky build and weapons often make it a prime target for a "Dinosaur fight" against large meat eaters like T. rex—which is actually
Truth In Television to a degree since both animals are from the Hell Creek formation.
Triceratops
Lived 70 to 65 million years ago in North America. Curiously, this family has gotten off pretty easy as far as fictional depictions go; the Ceratopsians in the original
The Lost World are nearly as believable as those in
Walking With Dinosaurs. (This may be because they're pretty hard to screw up; just put a mask and a tail on a rhino and you're 90% there.)
- Recent discoveries that Psittacosaurus, and now possibly Triceratops, had quills may make many old representations of Triceratops inaccurate. Science Marches On, I guess.
Pachycephalosaurid
Lived 100 to 65 million years ago in North America (as many of the most well known dinosaurs did). Though not as commonly portrayed as many of the other dinosaurs, it usually shows up when the creators feel like showing an "exotic" dinosaur. Often shown ramming their heads together like rams, though
recent research suggests they rammed others' bodies with their domed heads. Different species had spikier, scarier-looking heads that may have been purely for display,
but headbutting is far cooler than just showing off. Which pachycephalosaur is used varies quite a bit, but usually alternates between
Pachycephalosaurus,
Stygimoloch and more recently
Dracorex hogwartsia (which a recent paper theorized are actually all the same species at different ages).
Stegosaurus
Lived in North America, 155 to 145 million years ago. Expect somebody to make a crack about how "his
brain's the size of a walnut!" (While
Stegosaurus’ brain was far from huge, it was substantially larger than a walnut). Stegos are almost always portrayed as big, stupid herd animals, not unlike scaly elephants with substantially less charm.
- As an additional note: The spikes on the tail of Stegosaurus and similar dinosaurs is known as a Thagomizer, taken from a ''Far Side comic regarding them and adopted so readily by the polaeontological community you can fing it used in serious scientifical publications, in an awesome case of non-pop culture Sure Why Not.
Parasaurolophus
Rarely named but often shown. Lived 76 to 73 million years ago in North America. Other
hadrosaurs are popular as well, but
Parasaurolophus may be the most popular because
it's one of the coolest looking. Like the sauropods above, hadrosaurs are often associated with water and seen swimming in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.
Parasaurolophus may sometimes be shown using its distinctive single horn as a snorkel. This just plain doesn't work; there aren't any holes in it, for one thing. The most commonly accepted scientific theory is that the complex series of tubes found within were used for amplifying the mating calls.
Iguanodon
Lived 140 to 120 million years ago in Europe and North America; it was the second dinosaur to be identified, in 1822.
Iguanodon was a large herbivore, basically the Cretaceous equivalent of modern herd animals like bison or elephants. Since there have been so many specimens found, this is one of the dinosaurs we know the most about and was one of the few dinosaurs with an opposable "pinkie" finger, as well as the characteristic "thumb" spike.
Other prehistoric reptiles
As far as animals who, to quote Lore Sjoberg, "are not technically speaking dinosaurs but end up in the dinosaur section of the plush toy aisle nonetheless":
Pteranodon
Aside from bizarre and fictional
Mix And Match Critters with tails, crests, and
bat wings, this is the only pterosaur that ever appears in popular culture. It lived 89 to 70 million years ago in North America. In spite of the generally-held theory that it and other large pterosaurs were probably the Mesozoic equivalents of large sea-birds and fed on fish and carrion, they will often be shown
immediately preying on the humans and magically strong enough to lift them. (This undoubtedly ties into the
Dinosaurs Are Dragons thing.) The next time you see this, ask yourself, when was the last time you were dragged off by pelicans?
However, it will rarely be called
"Pteranodon". The usual name is
Pterodactyl (which can either be
the suborder of the Pterosaur order which includes the
Pteranodon, or
another animal). And as Wikipedia mentions, depictions also have the long tails and teeth of the
Rhamphorhynchus.
There is also
an actual pterosaur which looks like the fictional depictions. Its name derives from a Latin root meaning "play" or "toy" as a sort of
Real Life Lampshade Hanging.
Among paleo-buffs, there's an expectation that once Witton and Naish's interpretation and correct reconstruction of the Azhdarchids (the family of pterosaurs to which the largest known belonged) becomes more widely known, they should be gaining in popularity because of their general coolness.
Here◊ is a reconstruction. Yes, that thing is the size of a giraffe. That could
fly.
Plesiosaurs, Icthyosaurs, Mosasaurs and Liopleurodon
These are often collectively referred to as "swimming dinosaurs", despite being in at least three completely different taxonomic orders. If you'd like to see a seagoing dinosaur, watch
March of the Penguins. Every time a plesiosaur shows up,
someone will bring up the
Loch Ness Monster.
Others
At least Pterosaurs and the above-mentioned seagoing animals are from the same Mesozoic time-period. Don't even get us started on how
Synapsids (mammal-like reptiles) and even prehistoric
mammals are sometimes labelled dinosaurs.
By far the most commonly seen example of this is
Dimetrodon , an early mammal-like reptile with a mohawk-esque fin. It's a closer relative of you and me than any dinosaur, and predated the first dinosaur by at least a country mile of geologic time.
Sabre-tooth cats are sometimes called dinosaurs, in spite of the fact that the last dinosaur was fossilized before they showed up. In reality, "sabre-toothed cats" refer to a bewildering variety of vaguely panther-shaped species that have big teeth. Some of them aren't actually cats;
you are more closely related to a cat than
Thylacosmilus, because you are a placental mammal, and it's a marsupial. However, luckily for Hollywood, the only sabre-toothed cats you'll ever likely see are
Smilodon fatalis and
Smilodon populator, which was larger but had a less awesome name. A
Smilodon is a cat, and it will be erroneously referred to as a "Sabre-toothed tiger". It will probably also use its teeth for every conceivable task, despite the fact that most real sabretooths (as well as their relatives, the scimitartooths and dirktooths) had extremely delicate teeth. Oh, and it'll be stripy, like a tiger, which - in
populator's case - isn't completely impossible, given that it lived on grasslands.
This happens to
Mammoths and
Mastodons (completely different animals, just so you know) as well.
It should be noted that, for some people, Fossil Skeleton at the Museum = Dinosaur, no matter what. This Troper was in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology recently, and overheard a visitor say to his children, "Wow, look at the dinosaur!" Which would have been fine... if they hadn't been looking at a
horse skeleton. Which was displayed
right next to a taxidermy model horse. (
Facepalm.)
In many cases, a bunch of these dinosaurs will appear together,
regardless of habitat or when they lived.
Examples:
Advertising
- A series of advertisements for Volvic bottled water feature a Tyrannosaurus named Alan as one of the stars (along with a talking volcano) inhabiting some sort of tropical prehistoric world. In addition to Alan, a small dinosaur resembling a Parasaurolophus appears in the first ad, Pteranodons are featured in the second, and sabre-toothed "tigers" are mentioned in the third. Each ad is largely an exercise in They Just Didnt Care, with a touch of Refuge In Audacity and some Nightmare Fuel. (Alan comes off as cute and innocent at first, yet later uses the advertised water to give him the strength to perpetrate a wholesale slaughter of sabre-toothed "tigers". Seriously.)
- Rraaaaah! George is oddly small for a volcano, too.
Anime and Manga
- And then, there was the totally abysmal DinoZAURS, a cheap and obvious Power Rangers cash-in, with fossil versions of each of the Rangers' power animals changing into robot warriors who defended Earth. It's remembered (if at all) for its memorably terrible CGI. And also for the fact that, when the Mammoth skeleton transformed into a robot, the skull of the mammoth (complete with tusks and trunk) became the pelvic area of the robot. Try to visualize it...
Comic Books
- In Runaways, Gert has a pet Deinonychus named Old Lace. Actually, it's first reffered to as a Velociraptor, than a Deinonychus. The animal it's actually based on are the "Velociraptors" from Jurassic Park, which actually means given its size that Old Lace is actually a Utahraptor. Old Lace is completely featherless - however, she's genetically engineered and actually from the future, so that could explain many of the inconsistencies.
Film
- Ghost of Slumber Mountain is the oldest filmed example of this trope put in live-action film. Using Stop Motion, Wilis O'Brian brought a Tyrannosauurs, Brontosaurus, Triceratops to life. The film also had the prehistoric terror-bird Daitrama.
- 1925's The Lost World also started the trend, but subverted it as well. The main big predator named is Allosaurus (though A Tyrannosaur appears for one scene). Other Dinosaurs include Trachodon(now Edmontosaurus), Brontosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Pterranodon. Then it includes the now discredited genus Agathaumas, which has an iconic battle with Allosaurs and Tyrannosaurus.
- The original King Kong and its sequel Son Of Kong have Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Pterranodon, a serpentine Plesiosaur, Styracosaurus. Then there's the weird things like the Dragon-like creature, thick-headed Elasmosaur, Giant Bear, Teratornis, and two-legged, carnivorous lizard among other oddities.
- The "Rite of Spring" sequence in Fantasia may be one of the Trope Makers here. It shows off a random cross-section of prehistoric life in the space of a few minutes. It includes many ancient forms of life not normally comitted to film (Trilobites, ancient fish, etc), but lots of stock animals too. Identifiable rehistoric animals include: Trilobites, Amonites, Mososaurs, Elasmosaurs, Pteranodon, Dimetrodon, a Pareiasaurid, Stegosaurus, Ornitholestes, Archeopteryx, Brontosuarus, Struthiomimus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Anatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Rhamphorhynchus, Lambeosaurus, Diplodicus, Ceratosaurus and a lot of creatures that appear to be imaginative.
- 25 years later, the Disney Imagineers created a Primeval World diorama for the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, with many of the individual scenes apparently inspired by Fantasia. This diorama, which is currently installed at Disneyland in California, is a slight improvement on the film — the first scene shows dimetrodons in a Coal Age forest of giant horsetails (and Meganeura giant dragonflies, thereby combing the Carboniferous and the Permian), and then moves to a Jurassic swamp with some generic sauropods, followed by scenes featuring Pteranodon, Triceratops, and Struthiomimus (all Cretaceous). So far, so good; the sauropods look ridiculous and should not be munching water weeds in a swamp, but that can be put down to a combination of 1960's paleontological ignorance and artistic license. But then the final scene depicts a Stegosaurus battling some large theropod beside a violent lava flow. If the theropod is supposed to be a T. rex, as the narrator usually states, why does it have three fingers per hand, and what the heck is the stego doing in the Cretaceous? You could ignore the narrator and assume that the setting has reverted back to the Jurassic for some reason, and the stego is fighting an Allosaurus... but that doesn't explain why stego has five tail spikes. Sigh. (Also, lava is really more of a Cretaceous thing.)
- Word of God has it that it's Tyrannosaurus, and it has three fingers because it looks better that way.
- The creature is a Tyrannosaurus, but it doesn't have three fingers because it ''looks better''. It's because people actually did used to think T. rex had three fingers. We now know this was sorta true, it's recently been discovered that Tyrannosaurus did have three fingers, but the third was vestigial and would not have been visible on the animal's hand.
- How can you not mention their creatively titled movie Dinosaur? The other wiki lists the entire anachronism stew pretty well, the worst being that lemurs didn't evolve until the early Cenozoic, about 30 million years ago. Also, despite being made in the year 2000, none of the dinosaurs had feathers (although most of the species depicted probably didn't have them anyway).
- Interestingly, Disney deliberately avoided most of the common stock dinosaurs for the movie in favor of less common but closely related equivalents. The most obvious is the notable avoidance of T. rexes for Carnotaurs and the otherwise uncommon use of hadrosaurs as lead characters.
- Special Effects Failure laden Unknown Island has Brontosaurs, Dimetrodon, Ceratosaurus and a Flesh-Eating Giant Ground Sloth.
- Admittedly, people have suggested that giant sloths were carnivores (or at least omnivores) in the past (and Walking With Beasts shows one driving sabertooths off a kill and eating it)...
- Stock Dinosaurs abound in The Lost Continent — Featuring Pterranodon, Brontosaurus and Triceratops (the later two of which are apparently Immune To Bullets), as well as a Slurpasaur that all sound nothing like dinosaurs.
- Justified in Jurassic Park, which had a cloned Tyrannosaurus rex as well as a short scene with a Triceratops; they were both resurrected because of their popularity. It's largely responsible for the overuse of Velociraptors in other media.
- In a small twist of irony, in one of the early scenes of the film, Sam Neill's character has a bit of a laugh when a boy suggests that a Velociraptor fossil looks a bit like a "six foot turkey", given that Velociraptors in the Jurassic Park universe are big scary violent monsters. Have a look at this◊ and tell me the kid's wrong. Deadly they may be, but real Velociraptors do look a bit like a turkey. Some would argue they're kinda cute too.
- Outside Arizona or New England (where bones and footprints of the animal were found), it's unlikely that many people who weren't specifically interested in dinosaurs had ever heard of the Triassic and early Jurassic theropod Dilophosaurus before their scene-stealing scene in Jurassic Park. Most people don't have a problem with the spitting (you'd never know that llamas could spit if all you had was a fossil); it's the pop-up cowl they have an issue with. "If Dilophosaurus did have a frill, we would know about it. There would be fossil evidence of bones or some other rigid structure required to hold the frill up, and there would be markings on the bones of the neck indicating where muscles could attach that would be required to move the frill up and down. We don't see either of these." (From here.) More to the point, it's the fact that almost every fictional depiction of Dilophosaurus since (whether it's a "Jurassic Park" cash-in◊ or not) has a cowl. (Also note that fossils of Dilophosaurus were found to be about 20 feet long, indicating that those in Jurassic Park are juveniles.)
- There were also some Procompsognathus (just regular Compsognathus in the films) with paralyzing bites. That's possible.
- The second book has a brief appearance by a couple of Carnotaurus. They're given chameleon powers, which is plausible, if unlikely. More importanly, it's bitchin'.
- Jurassic Park 3 had a "Pteranodons are going to carry people away and eat 'em!" scene. And these are Pteranodons (whose name means "wings with no tooth") with teeth. Also, there is no way that Pteranodon could lift up a person, even a 13-year old. A Pteranodon did briefly appear in the second film, where it was shown correctly without teeth, but it was perching on a branch, which a real Pteranodon wouldn't be able to do. Oh well.
- The Land Before Time features a Five Man Band of an Apatosaurus, a Triceratops, a Stegosaurus, a Pteranodon and a Parasaurolophus (probably because they hit it with a dart). The villain is, of course, a Tyrannosaurus.
- Irwin Allen epic documentary The Animal World had this in spades, and was the Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the film since the FX were handled by Ray Harryhausen AND Willis O'Brian. Included Ceratosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus and Triceratops.
- 1960's Dinosaurus! has both a Tyrannosaurus and Brontosaurus, who of course Fight until the Brontosaurus sinks in quicksand. The T. rex then fights a Crane. Really!
- Weird Checosloviakian film Journey to the Begining of Time starts averting it, using lesser known prehistoric mammals such as Uintatherium, Daitrama and proto-giraffes. But when they get to the Dinosaurs, it's all stock: Brontosaurus, Anatosaurus, Styracosaurus, Stegosaurus, Pterranodon and Ceratosaurus.
- One Million Years B.C. has several stock dinosaurs: Ceratosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Brotnosaurus, Pterranodon AND Rhamphorynhcus (oversized). Harryhausen also threw in a Giant Iquana and Giant Spider Homage to the original One Million BC whichw as nothing but Slurpasaurs. The only non-stock animal to show up was the Giant Turtle, Archelon, blown up to massive proportions.
- Cowboys vs. Dinosaurs film The Valley Of Gwangi has Pterranodon, Struthiumimus, Styracosaurus and Allosaurus. The film also throws in prehistoric mammal Eohippus, the "Dawn Horse", which confuse sthe hell out of the cowboys and brings them all to the Lost World.
- Planet Of Dinosaurs averts it pretty well. Sure, it has Brontosaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus that acts like a Horror Film Slasher to the stranded astronauts. It also has lesser known dinosaurs such as Polacanthus, Ceolophysis, Dromeciomimus and a Centrosaurus that's Immune to Lasers! It's a pretty bad film, but the FX are awesome.
- The film of Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land That Time Forgot has lots of Stock Dinosaurs, but more often averts it...through Special Effects Failure. Allosaurus, Diplodicus, Ceratosaurus, Triceratops, Rhamphorynchus that eat people, Styracosaurus and generic prehistoric animals that all think humans are VERY tasty.
- Japanese-American co-production The Last Dinosaur has 4 prehistoric animals: Tyrannosaurus rex, a Uintatherium (identified as a Ceratopsian), Triceratops and Pteranodon. Also, there were Cavemen.
- B-Movie Aversion occurs in the...what can only be labeled as "Fantasy"/Fur Bikini epic When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth features Giant Elasmosaurs, Rhamphorhynchus, a Chasmosaurus and a creature that can only be seen as an homage to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. It also had People-eating Plants and Giant Crabsfor no particular reason other than to have more things to kill helpless cavemen with.
Literature
- Never one to leave any Animal Tropes uncovered, Dinotopia does what it can to subvert this as much as possible. The mix of animals is justified by the fantastic setting. On top of that, the popular dinosaurs tend to be relegated to smaller roles; the main characters are instead made up of species who are the most fun to paint. Anatomically correctly, for the most part. Those were some damn good-looking books.
- To expand because it's so much fun, the first dinosaur the main characters see is a Protoceratops, a small, non-horned and rather cute Triceratops relative that, unlike most other dinosaurs in the setting is able to speak (indeed, the species is well known for its translators due to their strong vocal range).
- In Megamorphs #2, our heroes go back in time, morphing dinosaurs. Thanks to Tobias' (previously unmentioned)detailed knowledge of dinosaurs rivaling with that of a six year old's, they establish that they're in the Cretaceous Era, and fight (among others) Spinosaurs. At the end of the book, Tobias says paleontologists believe Spinosaurs had died out before the Cretaceous. "Who are you going to believe? Me, or a bunch of guys with old fossils?"
- The Lost World by Sir Author Conan Doyle averts this in part because some of the classic stock Dinosaurs hadn't been discovered yet. Dinosaurs featured include Iguanodon, Stegosaurus and a predator identified variously as Megalosaurus or Allosaurus (as the scientists argue about it). Other Prehistoric Animals featured include Plesiosaurus, Icthyosaurus, a Pterrosaur, Toxodon, the "Irish Elk" Megalocerous, Glyptodont and the Terror Bird Phorusrahcus. Some of them are not named due to Unreliable Narrator, but are pretty obvious to someone who knows.
Live Action TV
- This has happened several times in the history of Super Sentai and Power Rangers.
- The first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, adapted from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, had five "Dinozords", of which only two were actual dinosaurs — Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. The others were a mastodon, a "saber-toothed tiger", and a Pteranodon (named so in Zyuranger, but called "Pterodactyl" in the American version).
- Things were better in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, which was adapted into Power Rangers Dino Thunder. The main characters did have powers stemming from the Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Pteranodon and Brachiosaurus; but eventually got assistance from Stegosaurus, Dimetrodon, (Pachy-)Cephalosaurus, Parasaur(-olophus), and Ankylosaurus zords (though, as noted in the intro, the Pteranodon and Dimetrodon shouldn't quite count). The Red Ranger also got a Styracosaurus-themed Shonen Upgrade and corresponding zord. AbareKiller/the White Ranger was cool, since his animal was the obscure pterosaur Tupuxuara. Neither show really identified the Tupuxuara, though, and Dino Thunder also failed to correctly name the Styracosaurus. In addition, Abaranger had an appearance by Evil Twins of the Tyranno and Tricera zords in the form of Carnotaurus and Chasmosaurus zords, but these hardly showed up in Dino Thunder.
- Then in Engine Sentai Go-onger, the three final train-themed Engines (a mastodon, a Tyrannosaurus, and a Triceratops) originally arrived in the dimension known as the Human World (Earth) when it was originally the Dino World (despite the mastodon not being a dinosaur). In Power Rangers RPM they are merely known as the "Paleozord(s)" and have no historical setting.
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger features the Kyoryu Origami (Kyoryu = Dinosaur) which is an undefined Sauropod with pointy teeth (which is believed to be the Vulcanodon).
- People in Heroes-related literature and discussion often insist on calling the animal Hiro is fighting in Isaac's painting a "T. Rex", when it is actually a Carnotaurus. . A Carnotaurus has a bulldog snout, horns, warts, and three prominent fingers. The T .rex had two (not counting the vestigial one).
- Primeval actually manages to play this trope totally straight while averting it at the same time; While almost all of the prehistoric creatures to appear are more obscure than those seen in most media, the only actual dinosaurs to appear are the ever-popular raptors.
- Also the dodos, Hesperornis, and terror birds, if you're a cladist...
- The third season broke the trend, featuring three dinosaurs: a Giganotosaurus, a Velociraptor (which is accurately sized for once), and a Dracorex (though a great deal of liberty was taken with its design, giving it an Amargasaurus spine and a crapload of spikes.)
- Actually the Velociraptor wasn't quite "accurately sized". It was a baby. Meaning we still didn't get a "proper-sized" Velociraptor. We never see an adult in the third season. Same thing happens with the Deinonychus, the only ones seen in the third season aren't fully grown. However we do see adult Deinonychus in the second season.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World featured most, if not all, of the stock dinosaurs, with raptors being the most common.
- The Original Land Of The Lost featured all sorts of stock dinosaurs, and gave them nicknames on top of it. Tryannosaurus, Allosaurus, Coelophysis, Triceratops, Apatosaurus (called Brontosaurus) and Pteranodon among them. They also had other monsters such as a Two-Headed Elasmosaur and a fire-breathing Dimetrodon. The 90s remake featured Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Apatosaurus, a Mosasaur and Pteranodon. It also mentioned or showed remains of prehistoric mammals such as Dire Wolves and Smilodon. The Movie features Dromeosaurids, Compsognathids, Pteraondon, Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.
Other
- Artist Charles R. Knight is responsible for setting up a lot of the iconic images of Dinosaurs. For a while, he had more artwork in more museums than any other artist because of his dinosaur restorations. He painted virtually every stock dinosaur mentioned and then some. The Artwork he created was used as reference material for several films (including The Lost World (1925), King Kong and Fantasia) and were reprinted in Children's books until the 1970s, and other books on Paleontology include them for Nostaligia purposes. Ironicaslly, even though some of his paintings are over 100 years old, a select few remain surprisingly accurate to our current understanding of Dinosaurs—he was the first to portray Dinosaurs in the posture we now accept (IE: not dragging its tail), and did so with his iconic image of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Video Games
- Star Fox Adventures had six dinosaur tribes: Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Apatosaurus, Pteranodon with a really long tail, Woolly Mammoth (sigh...), and humanoid mutant.
- Primal Rage featured two Palette Swapped T. rexes named Diablo and Sauron and a dromeosaur named Talon, who was actually depicted with feathers. Armadon and Vertigo were both Mix And Match Critters, the former being a bipedal ceratopsian/ankylosaur/stegosaur hybrid while the latter was based of the more obscure Sellosaurus with a bit of cobra thrown in. The other two main characters, Blizzard and Chaos, on the other hand, were giant apes instead of dinosaurs.
- While the Pokémon games do have stock dinosaurs (such as Aerodactyl = Pterosaur, Rhyperior = Ankylosaur, etc.), there's also more obscure species/genera in there; Sceptile = Dilophosaurus, Dialga = Amphicoelias, Palkia = Plateosaurus
Webcomics
- Irregular Webcomic has the Allosaurus...as the President of the United States of America. And he just beat Cthulhu (we hope) for second term.
Western Animation
- The Dinobots in Transformers Generation 1 transformed into a Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and Pteranodon.
- Other characters with dinosaur alt-modes followed, mostly using the dinosaurs popularised by the Dinobots (with the exception of Sludge, the Brontosaurus). However, exceptions occurred, including Dinobot (an inaccurate Velociraptor), Hardhead (Pachycephalosaurus, whose toy was retooled from Dinobot's...so it was a weird Pachycephalosaurus), Bazooka (Ankylosaurus), Archadis (Archaeopteryx) and Magmatron (who had three beast modes: Giganotosaurus, Elasmosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus). It's interesting to note that nearly all of these characters were exclusive to the Japanese fiction, although the toys got released in the US (where Magmatron's three beast modes were misidentified horribly. How does a Giganotosaurus get confused with a raptor, anyway?).
- The DinoRiders franchise had dinosaurs from virtually everywhere, plus the obligatory pterosaurs and Dimetrodon. A spinoff line of prehistoric mammals provided another example of this trope, with an entelodont (giant pig-thing) alongside a giant ground sloth, saber-toothed cat, and wooly mammoth. Then again, this is a series that concerns the exploits of aliens waging war on prehistoric Earth with the help — voluntary in the case of the good guys, not so much in the case of the bad guys — of the animals. Rule of Cool heals many a wound.
- While we're in the darkest depths: Dino Squad. It's the tale of a pair of (nekkid) Velociraptors who hide from the (instantaneous Kill Em All style) extinction in a cave. And they live in that cave for well over sixty million years. Finally, they emerge into the modern world with psychic powers, including the convenient ability to pass as humans. The bad 'raptor becomes a Corrupt Corporate Executive who wishes to use some kind of chemical to "return the animals of the world to the creatures they once were: DINOSAURS!" (We already have a hell of a Wall Banger on our hands.) The good 'raptor poses as a teacher, and in this position, she is able to mentor the ragtag bunch of teenagers who are affected by the bad 'raptor's chemicals, allowing them to transform into the ususal dinosaur suspects. For his first experiment, the bad 'raptor uses the stuff to "revert" a shark into what everyone on the show insists on calling a "Mutated Megalodon" — except that it's a Tylosaur, an ocean-going lizard. If you know that neither of these animals are dinosaurs, that neither lizards nor sharks have anything to do with the dinosaur family tree at all and are both far, far older families of animals, and that — you know — sharks aren't frikkin' lizards, give yourself a round of applause. You're smarter than the people paid to write this.
- Just to twist the knife, there is an E/I ("Educational/Informational") symbol in the upper corner throughout this show. This troper — an Education major — can only assume that some people hate teachers and want to make their jobs even harder.
- The otherwise typical 80's animated series Dinosaucers took a unique approach to this; Each of the heroes was a different type of stock dinosaur, with an Evil Counterpart of a different, roughly comparable species. The Hero was an Allosaurus, the Big Bad was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and so on.
- Steggy from the Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Prehysterical Pet" is a space-traveling Stegosaurus that is usually smaller than a Chihuahua, but quite smart (although even in that state he voluntarily acts like a dog). It is Earth's food that causes both his body to grow and his brain to shrink, and he needs food from his (and the other dinos') homeworld to return to normal.
- The Oldest Animated Dinosaur is Gertie The Dinosaur. She's a Diplodicus. In 1914, it was a very popular dinosaur (partly because Steel Mogul Andrew Carnegie had one named after himself and balyhoo'd the hell out of it).
◊ and Oviraptor
◊ seem to be especially popular, probably because they are just so darned odd looking.
Spinosaurus
◊ is a reconstruction. Yes, that thing is the size of a giraffe. That could fly.
Plesiosaurs
