History Main / AquaticHadrosaurs

* In real life, ''Edmontosaurus'' would have lived in a swamp-like environment due to remains of one species ''E. annectens'' being found in a formation (Hell Creek) that was once a wetland complete with crocodilians, turtles, amphibians and fish. Downplayed in that it still would have spent most of its time on land.

* A herd of ''Edmontosaurus'' are present in the Primeval World Diorama segments of Universe of Energy and its later retool Ellen's Energy of Adventure bathing under a waterfall and likewise positioned in a small pool of water.

* ''Literature/TheNewDinosaursAnAlternativeEvolution'' features the ''Bricket'' a lambeosaurine hadrosaur that lives in dense woodlands. However, as ticks and other sorts of parasites tend to live off from them, ''Brickets'' would often submerge themselves in watery bodies to wash said parasites away from them. It is also when submerged in water where ''Brickets'' mate with one another.

** This trope is invoked in the "Freshwater" episode with the ''Deinocheirus'', whose duck-like bill is specifically pointed out in the narration, and is depicted wading through the wetlands like an immense moose, chomping down water plants - but he's wading, not swimming, and ''Deinocheirus'' was not a hadrosaur[[note]]It was actually part of the ornithomimid family, including the much smaller ''Dromiceiomimus'' and ''Gallimimus''[[/note]]. Still, the scene has a lot of the imagery you might expect in an older depiction of a hadrosaur feeding.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The scrunge is a member of a family of birds that evolved into cold-blooded lizard-like animals that has adapted to live in the expansive marsh known as the soglands by becoming a large, scaly omnivore with as blunt beak and escapes from predators by running on their hindlegs. It is even described as resembling "some fusion of a muskrat, and [[InvokedTrope a rather outdated depiction of a duckbilled dinosaur]]".

For more than a century after their discovery in the 1850s, hadrosaurs were thought to have been semi-aquatic animals that lived in swamps and ate aquatic plants. There are a few factors that led to this (ultimately disproven) hypothesis. For one thing, their generic name "duck-billed dinosaurs" comes from their broad and flat rostral bones which are similar to a duck's bill (most prominently seen in ''Edmontosaurus'', also known as ''Trachodon'', ''Anatosaurus'' or ''Anatotitan'' in older works), which may have led to the assumption that they fed on aquatic plants, although it's now known that the rostrum was not actually "duck-billed" in reality, because there was a squared-off keratinous beak attached in life. The hadrosaurs also lacked the horns and spikes of some of the other big herbivorous dinosaurs, leading to questions about how they defended themselves from predators, and the idea that they could escape by swimming into deeper water (where predators supposedly couldn't follow) seemed like a solution. Another thing is the presence of soft tissue that was believed to be webbing for the fingers but turned out to be a deflated fleshy pad, built for walking on dry land. Last, but not least, some hadrosaurs sported head crests that were hypothesized to have functioned as some kind of snorkel or air-storage space; however, they lacked a hole in the crest and the stored air wouldn't be enough for animals of their size, making both theories unlikely. Instead, their crests functioned like resonating chambers used to amplify their calls but may have also been used as a visual signal and for display.

[[caption-width-right:350:"[[ScienceMarchesOn If it looks like a duck, then it probably swims like a duck...]]"]]

* In real life, ''Edmontosaurus'' would have lived in a swamp-like environment due to remains of one species ''E. annectens'' being found in a formation (Hell Creek) that was once a wetland complete with crocodilians, amphibians and fish. Downplayed in that it still would have spent most of its time on land.

* In real life, ''Edmontosaurus'' would have lived in a swamp-like environment due to remains of one species ''E. annectens'' being found in a formation (Hell Creek) which also includes fossils of crocodilians, amphibians and fish. Downplayed in that it still would have spent most of its time on land.

* While not a dinosaur by any stretch of imagination, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atopodentatus#/media/File:Atopodentosaurus_small.jpg Atopodentatus]] essentially looks like old hadrosaur reconstructions. It was a real life "duck billed" herbivore scrapping the sea floor for algae.
* [[https://eartharchives.org/articles/extinct-marine-reptile-had-the-face-of-a-platypus/index.html Eretmorhipis]] was another marine reptile that looked like an old hadrosaur reconstruction, being "duck billed" and aquatic. Still, it was actually a crustacean eater probably more similar to platypodes ecologically.

* ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'': In the first episode of ''Once Upon a Time... Man", an ''Edmontosaurus''/''Anatosaurus'' jumps into a lake in order to escape from a ''Tyrannosaurus''.

* ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'': In the first episode of ''Once Upon a Time... Man", an ''Anatosaurus'' jumps into a lake in order to escape from a ''Tyrannosaurus''.

* ''Literature/{{Gigantosaurus}}'': Inverted with Rocky, a ''Parasaurolophus''. His friends can swim just fine, but he's shown to be afraid of water because he can't swim (although he later learns to). Interestingly, [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology he has a hole in his crest]], even though the lack of one is one of the very reasons why the theory about his species being aquatic was disproved.

* Downplayed where not averted altogether in ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''. The various hadrosaurs are generally shown as fully terrestrial, and the "Deserts" episode shows two hadrosaur species, ''Barsboldia'' and ''Secernosaurus'', migrating across arid dunes in herds [[FantasticFaunaCounterpart resembling those of wild camels]]. In the episode "Ice Worlds", a herd of unnamed hadrosaurs do cross a cold, rapidly-moving river during a spring thaw, and while even the juveniles seem like reasonably competent swimmers, it's not something they do lightly, finding the narrowest possible place to ford before entering the water. Even then, not all of them survive the crossing. In a departure from this trope, the dinosaur whose swimming ability is most heavily emphasized in the series is actually ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', with the first episode opening on a father rex taking his kids to an island where they can hunt sea turtle hatchlings.

For more than a century after their discovery in the 1850s, hadrosaurs were thought to have been semi-aquatic animals that lived in swamps and ate aquatic plants. There are a few factors that led to this (ultimately disproven) hypothesis. For one thing, their generic name "duck-billed dinosaurs" comes from their broad and flat rostral bones which are similar to a duck's bill (most prominently seen in ''Edmontosaurus'', also known as ''Trachodon'', ''Anatosaurus'' or ''Anatotitan'' in older works), which may have led to the assumption that they fed on aquatic plants, although it's now known that the rostrum was not actually "duck-billed" in reality, because there was a squared-off keratinous beak attached in life. Another thing is the presence of soft tissue that was believed to be webbing for the fingers but turned out to be a deflated fleshy pad, built for walking on dry land. Last, but not least, some hadrosaurs sported head crests that were hypothesized to have functioned as some kind of snorkel or air-storage space; however, they lacked a hole in the crest and the stored air wouldn't be enough for animals of their size, making both theories unlikely. Instead, their crests functioned like resonating chambers used to amplify their calls but may have also been used as a visual signal and for display.

* Downplayed where not averted altogether in ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'', where the various hadrosaurs are generally shown as fully terrestrial, and one species, ''Secernosaurus'', is even shown migrating across arid deserts in herds [[FantasticFaunaCounterpart resembling those of wild camels]]. In the episode "Ice Worlds", a herd of unnamed hadrosaurs do cross a cold, rapidly-moving river, and while even the juveniles seem like reasonably competent swimmers, it's not something they do lightly, finding the narrowest possible place to ford before entering the water. Even then, not all of them survive the crossing.

* ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'': Discussed briefly in the ''Corythosaurus''-centered episode. When the main characters are learning about the function of its crest, Buddy asks Cory if it's used for breathing underwater, Don, due to being more of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, asks her if it's used for flight, and Tiny asks her if it's related to the music they make. Cory denies the first two questions and affirms the third one.

For more than a century after their discovery in the 1850s, hadrosaurs were thought to have been semi-aquatic animals that lived in swamps and ate aquatic plants. There are a few factors that led to this (ultimately disproven) hypothesis. For one thing, their generic name "duck-billed dinosaurs" comes from their broad and flat rostral bones which are similar to a duck's bill (most prominently seen in ''Edmontosaurus'', also known as ''Trachodon'', ''Anatosaurus'' or ''Anatotitan'' in older works), which may have led to the assumption that they fed on aquatic plants. Another thing is the presence of soft tissue that was believed to be webbing for the fingers but turned out to be a deflated fleshy pad, built for walking on dry land. Last, but not least, some hadrosaurs sported head crests that were hypothesized to have functioned as some kind of snorkel or air-storage space; however, they lacked a hole in the crest and the stored air wouldn't be enough for animals of their size, making both theories unlikely. Instead, their crests functioned like resonating chambers used to amplify their calls but may have also been used as a visual signal and for display.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinocheirus Deinocheirus]] was a large ornithomimosaur that possessed a hadrosaur-like skull. ''Deinocheirus'' remains were discovered in a formation that was once a wetland and fossil evidence suggests that it possessed an omnivorous diet consisting of aquatic plants and animals.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In ''[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS3E13ExtinctPossibility Extinct Possibility]]'', the trio travel back to the Cretaceous and the first dinosaur they see is a cartoon Hadrosaur in a pond. [[Subverted when it turns out the hadrosaur is intelligent, wears clothes, lives on land and was just bathing at the time.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series is a major offender of this trope, as while Ducky and the other hadrosaurs featured in it do spend a lot of their time on land and browsing trees, they are also depicted as skilled swimmers and frequently shown eating water plants like a reptilian moose (which goes hand in hand with the series often merging antiquated Creator/CharlesRKnight-esque depictions of dinosaurs with more modern ones associated with the Dinosaur Renaissance). Ducky frequently utilizes her swimming skills to help her friends and her mother saves [[HappilyAdopted Spike]] from drowning in the eighth movie. This is also emphasized as their kin’s special talent (like pterosaurs being able to fly, ceratopsians being tough and ramming things, sauropods being gigantic and having whip-like tails, etc.), with “swimmer” even being the usual term used for duckbills in the series (the first film uses the term "bigmouth" but it didn't stick).

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series is a major offender of this trope, as while Ducky and the other hadrosaurs featured in it do spend a lot of their time on land and browsing trees, they are also depicted as skilled swimmers and frequently shown eating water plants like a reptilian moose (which goes hand in hand with the series often merging antiquated Charles R. Knight-esque depictions of dinosaurs with more modern ones associated with the Dinosaur Renaissance). Ducky frequently utilizes her swimming skills to help her friends and her mother saves [[HappilyAdopted Spike]] from drowning in the eighth movie. This is also emphasized as their kin’s special talent (like pterosaurs being able to fly, ceratopsians being tough and ramming things, sauropods being gigantic and having whip-like tails, etc.), with “swimmer” even being the usual term used for duckbills in the series (the first film uses the term "bigmouth" but it didn't stick).

* Ducky from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series is supposed to be some kind of hadrosaur, and she's the swimmer one among the five main heroes. "Swimmer" appears to be [[CallARabbitASmeerp the term dinosaurs use for a hadrosaur]], reinforcing this stereotype. That said, Ducky herself doesn't spend much time in the water. The sequels, however, call hadrosaurs "bigmouths", while "swimmer" is instead used as the word for aquatic reptiles such as plesiosaurs (though it is still occasionally used for hadrosaurs, or at least Ducky). Adults are shown 9 out of ten times wadding and feeding on aquatic plants like reptilian moose, though they are never shown swimming.

%%* [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/swimming_hadrosaurs.jpg This piece of art]] (by who?) depicts ''Corythosaurus'' and ''Parasaurolophus'' swimming. Their crests are likely supposed to act like snorkels.

* ''WesternAnimation/JurassicWorldCampCretaceous'': Played straight by the ''Parasaurolophuses'' that live in the underground river area. Given that they also have [[BioluminescenceIsCool bioluminescent patches that are wildly implausible]], it's likely they were genetically modified to be semi-aquatic. The ''Ouranosaurus'' also qualify when they attack the campers' yacht.