History Main / AccidentallyCorrectZoology

* ''Nemegtomaia'' (meaning "Nemegt mother") was named in 2005 to comemmorate the recently-discovered fact that oviraptorosaurs took care of their young, [[NonIndicativeName instead of stealing and guarding other dinosaurs' eggs]] as previously believed. At that time, only ''Citipati'' had definitive proof of parental care, but in 2007, it was found that ''Nemegtomaia'' itself did indeed take care of its eggs.

* The ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]'' in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' was going to have two fingers as in reality, but Creator/WaltDisney himself thought three fingers looked better and changed it. The movie has the ''Tyrannosaurus'' fight a ''Stegosaurus'', which actually lived roughly [[AnachronismStew 80 million years]] before ''Tyrannosaurus''... and along the three-fingered carnosaur ''Allosaurus''.

* Any older work that depicts ''Iguanodon'' battling with ''Megalosaurus'', despite the former being from the Early Cretaceous and the latter from the Middle Jurassic. In 1996, it would turn out ''Iguanodon'' did live with a large carnivorous dinosaur, ''Neovenator''. However, ''Neovenator'' was related to ''Allosaurus'' rather than ''Megalosaurus''. On the other hand, the spinosaurs turned out to be related to ''Megalosaurus'', and both ''Iguanodon'' and ''Neovenator'' did live with spinosaurs, particularly ''Baryonyx''.

* Any older work that depicts ''Iguanodon'' battling with ''Megalosaurus'', despite the former being from the Early Cretaceous and the latter from the Middle Jurassic. In 1996, it would turn out ''Iguanodon'' did live with a large carnivorous dinosaur, ''Neovenator''. However, ''Neovenator'' was related to ''Allosaurus'' rather than ''Megalosaurus''. On the other hand, the spinosaurs turned out to be related to ''Megalosaurus'', and both ''Iguanodon'' and ''Neovenator'' did live with a spinosaur, ''Baryonyx''.

* Any older work that depicts ''Iguanodon'' battling with ''Megalosaurus'', despite the former being from the Early Cretaceous and the latter from the Middle Jurassic. In 1996, it would turn out ''Iguanodon'' did live with a large carnivorous dinosaur, ''Neovenator''. However, ''Neovenator'' was related to ''Allosaurus'' rather than ''Megalosaurus''. On the other hand, the also-contemporary spinosaur, ''Baryonyx'', turned out to be related to ''Megalosaurus''.

* Any older work that depicts ''Iguanodon'' battling with ''Megalosaurus'', despite the former being from the Early Cretaceous and the latter from the Middle Jurassic. In 1996, it would turn out ''Iguanodon'' did live with a large carnivorous dinosaur, ''Neovenator''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the last segment of "Treehouse of Horror XI", dolphins are depicted as former land animals that were banished into the sea by humans long, long ago. While this is played for usual surrealism of the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes, it is known that the ancestors of dolphins and other cetaceans were hoofed mammals that returned to living in the ocean (though obviously without the influence of humans, as they haven't yet appeared during the time of the first proto-cetacean}.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the last segment of "Treehouse of Horror XI", dolphins are depicted as former land animals that were banished into the sea by humans long, long ago. While this is played for usual surrealism of the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes, it is known that the ancestors of dolphins and other cetaceans were hoofed mammals that returned to living in the ocean. Though obviously without the influence of humans, as they haven't yet appeared during the time of the first proto-cetacean.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the last segment of "Treehouse of Horror XI", dolphins are depicted as former land animals that were banished into the sea by humans long, long ago. While this is played for usual surrealism of the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes, the ancestors of dolphins and other cetaceans were hoofed mammals that returned to living in the ocean. Though obviously without the influence of humans, which haven't yet appeared during the time of the proto-cetaceans.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the last segment of "Treehouse of Horror XII", dolphins are depicted as former land animals that were banished into the sea by humans long, long ago. While this is played for usual surrealism of the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes, the ancestors of dolphins and other cetaceans were hoofed mammals that returned to living in the ocean. Though obviously without the influence of humans, which haven't yet appeared during the time of the proto-cetaceans.

* The ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]'' in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' was going to have two fingers as in reality, but Creator/WaltDisney himself thought three fingers looked better and changed it. The movie has the ''Tyrannosaurus'' fight a ''Stegosaurus'', which actually lived [[AnachronismStew 100 million years]] before ''Tyrannosaurus''... and along the three-fingered carnosaur ''Allosaurus''.

* ''WesternAnimation/SittingDucks'': In "Aldo the Duck", Aldo grows feathers as a result of being overdosed on duck hormones. In 2017, scientists have discovered crocodilians have the same feather development genes as in birds, even tweaking the genes of alligator embryos to trigger the first steps in growing feathers.

* In ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'', the main character doodles "ligers", "a lion-tiger mix, bred for its skills in magic". Since the creature looks nothing like a real one, either the character or the filmmakers were unaware that lions and tigers can breed in captivity and that the hybrids they produce are indeed known as "ligers". People who watched the movie first may believe that [[AluminiumChristmasTrees reports of ligers are hoaxes]] because of it. This is addressed in [[WesternAnimation/NapoleonDynamite the animated spin-off series]], where Napoleon encounters much more realistic ligers that are lazy zoo animals with no magical powers. [[spoiler:Except one cub, who is every bit as awesome and magical as Napoleon believes.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In the episode "Jurassic Jumble", Darkwing gets turned into a dinosaur that not only retains his feathery duck's head, but also appears to be covered in green fuzz. And this was only a few years before the first feathered non-avian dinosaur would be discovered. Ironically, Darkwing's dinosaur form is a NotZilla, much larger than any feathered (or featherless) dinosaur. Doubly ironically, one of the largest dinosaurs with feathers, ''Deinocheirus'', would be revealed to have a duck-like head in 2014.

* ''Literature/MobyDick'': In the infamous chapter "Cetology," among various fishy takes on its title subject, Ishmael declares that he does not consider dugongs or "lamatins" (manatees) to be whales... which they're not, but it's clear that he holds this view less because of any sound scientific reasoning and more because he doesn't ''like'' them. At the time, mammal classification was in its infancy, and manatees were sometimes considered to be related to whales.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', a franchise starting in 2002, has a "sabre-toothed squirrel" named Scrat. ''Cronopio dentiacutus'' is a small (8-9 inches long) squirrel-like mammal with a long snout and sharp canines, discovered in 2011. However, it lived during the Cretaceous Period, not the ice age, wasn't a rodent, and probably didn't eat acorns.

* Instances of PolarBearsAndPenguins that keep their penguin species and time setting vague (or not explicitly set in any time after the 1850s) are this, by virtue of (Antarctic) penguins being actually named after a flightless, black-and-white bird from the Arctic that was hunted to extinction in the 1840s: the also called great auk.

* In a 2013 episode of ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'', the miniaturized brothers hide inside a living sea sponge and observe how it filter-feeds. They aren't certain if it could feed on ''them'' or not, but don't seem too alarmed at the prospect, given that no sponge was thought to be carnivorous at the time. Three years later, the first prey-trapping sponge was discovered in the deep ocean.

* In ''Series/PlanetDinosaur'' the chaoyangopterid model is re-utilised to represent some pterosaurs in the mid-Cretaceous of Africa. As it happens, an actual chaoyangopterid would be found there a decade after the show debuted, ''Apatorhamphus''.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': One Sunday strip from 1990 features the "''Calvinosaurus''", a monstrous carnosaur which is bigger than ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' and eats sauropods. 1995 saw the discovery of a sauropod-hunting carnosaur that gained fame for usurping ''T. rex'' in size, and its name is ''Giganotosaurus''. Although it should be noted ''Giganotosaurus'' is roughly the same height and mass as ''T. rex'', whereas Calvinosaurus is ridiculously enormous to the point of devouring the largest sauropods in a single bite.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': One Sunday strip features the "''Calvinosaurus''", a monstrous carnosaur which is bigger than ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' and eats sauropods. 1995 saw the discovery of a sauropod-hunting carnosaur that gained fame for usurping ''T. rex'' in size, and its name is ''Giganotosaurus''. Although it should be noted ''Giganotosaurus'' is roughly the same height and mass as ''T. rex'', whereas Calvinosaurus is ridiculously enormous to the point of devouring the largest sauropods in a single bite.

** In the first movie, a group of aggressive ''Pachycephalosaurus'' attack Cera. Though they might be territorial, their slobbering expressions indicate they are trying to eat her, even though at the time the species was believed to be strictly herbivorous. However, [[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-vegetarian-dinosaur-ate-meat-pachycephalosaurus-paleontology a 2018 finding]] showed that ''Pachycephalosaurus'' had sharp front teeth, indicating an omnivorous diet that may have included baby dinosaurs.

* The 1940 film ''Film/OneMillionBC'' (the original version of the more famous 1966 ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'') features a "dinosaur" that is [[{{Slurpasaur}} a crocodile with a sail taped on its back]]. Discoveries in 2014 and then in 2020 demonstrated that ''Spinosaurus'' had very crocodile-like proportions (elongated skull, short hind legs, broad paddle-like tail), looking very much like a crocodile with a sail on its back.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'': In the first movie, a group of aggressive ''Pachycephalosaurus'' attack Cera. Though they might be territorial, their slobbering expressions indicate they are trying to eat her, even though at the time the species was believed to be strictly herbivorous. However, [[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-vegetarian-dinosaur-ate-meat-pachycephalosaurus-paleontology a 2018 finding]] showed that ''Pachycephalosaurus'' had sharp front teeth, indicating an omnivorous diet that may have included baby dinosaurs.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In the episode "Jurassic Jumble", Darkwing gets turned into a dinosaur that not only retains his feathery duck's head, but also appears to be covered in green fuzz. And this was only a few years before the first feathered non-avian dinosaur would be discovered. Ironically, Darkwing's dinosaur form is a NotZilla, much larger than any feathered dinosaur. Doubly ironically, one of the largest dinosaurs with feathers, ''Deinocheirus'', would be revealed to have a duck-like head in 2014.