History Main / ColdBloodedWhatever

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'' features two SeaMonsters named Cretaceous and Maelstrom, both having a combination of reptilian and fish-like features. Cretaceous in particular looks like a crocodile with fish-like fins on his back and tail. They are identified by WordOfGod as an ichthyosaur and a pliosaur, although [[InformedSpecies they don't really look like their respective species]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The Colo Claw Fish, a SeaMonster living in the oceans of Naboo, has crocodile-like jaws combined with an eel-like body and bioluminescence. Then again, it ''is'' an alien. . .
* The {{kaiju}} in ''Film/PacificRim'' mostly look vaguely reptilian with their scaly skin and clawed limbs. However, two individual ones have very shark-like heads, specifically Knifehead, which has the jaws and elongated snout of a goblin shark, and Slattern, which has the distinct head shape of a hammerhead shark. Justified because they were ''constructed'' rather than bred, and incorporate whatever features their makers thought would make them formidable regardless of classification.
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* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The Colo Claw Fish, a SeaMonster living in the oceans of Naboo, has crocodile-like jaws combined with an eel-like body and bioluminescence. Then again, it ''is'' an alien. . .
* The {{kaiju}} in ''Film/PacificRim'' mostly look vaguely reptilian with their scaly skin and clawed limbs. However, two individual ones have very shark-like heads, specifically Knifehead, which has the jaws and elongated snout of a goblin shark, and Slattern, which has the distinct head shape of a hammerhead shark. Justified because they were ''constructed'' rather than bred, and incorporate whatever features their makers thought would make them formidable regardless of classification.

* Caecilians are limbless amphibians which are sometimes confused with snakes.

* The Three-Tailed Beast in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' looks primarily like a turtle, but spikey chitinous armor like a crab and its tails resemble that of a shrimp.

* The {{kaiju}} in ''Film/PacificRim'' all look vaguely reptilian with their scaly skin and clawed limbs. However, two individual ones have very shark-like heads, specifically the Knifehead, which has the jaws and elongated snout of a goblin shark, and the slattern, which has the distinct head shape of a hammerhead shark.

Note that there ''are'' some animals out there that are classified as fish, but have amphibian and reptilian features (see the Real Life section). This is partly because the classic fish-amphibian-reptile classification is quite outdated, all three taxa are paraphyletic (i.e. do not contain all descendants of the same common ancestor), thus some animals, traditionally classified as "fish", are closer to amphibians and reptiles on the evolutionary tree. Similar features in different vertebrate taxa can also appear due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]]. In fiction, this often plays out as if someone took an existing animal and stuck traits belonging to another class onto it.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Dragons are reptile-amphibians with cat teeth and bat wings, and some have gills. Sea serpents are also fish-snake hybrids.

* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The Colo Claw Fish, a SeaMonster living in the oceans of Naboo, has crocodile-like jaws combined with an eel-like body and bioluminescence.

* Coelacanths and lungfishes are two groups of fish that have some amphibian features, such as two pairs of lobe-like fins that resemble limbs, and in the latter group, lungs. Molecular studies showed that they are more closely related to Tetrapods (i.e. land animals, including amphibians and reptiles) than to ray-finned fish.
* [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Ichthyosaurs]] were prehistoric reptiles that evolved many fish-like (particularly shark-like) features due to convergent evolution, including a vertical tail fin as well as a dorsal fin. Tellingly, their scientific name means "fish-lizard" in Greek. They still had lungs and had to breathe air, and gave birth to live young, similarly to modern dolphins.

* The common names of animals often confuse the issue, as with "horned toads" that are lizards or the "sandfish", also a lizard.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': The Argonians are a species of swamp-dwelling LizardFolk. Their physiology is chiefly and visibly reptilian, and they are described as reptiles throughout the games except for the fact that they also have fishlike gills on their necks.

* In medieval Christianity and science, warm-blooded animals were usually split between domestic mammals, wild mammals and birds (as seen in the Biblical imagery of four-headed angels with the faces of a lion, ox, eagle and human each, representing these three groups plus mankind). Cold-blooded animals like reptiles, fish and amphibians were instead lumped as a single, mostly homogenous category of "crawling things", at the bottom of the universal chain of being and not worth differentiating. While exceptions were made for larger and more active fish like swordfish, sharks and [[ScienceMarchesOn whales]], which were treated as a separate, "nobler" class of animals, other fish like carp or catfish were still lumped in with lizards and frogs.

Subtrope of MixAndMatchCritters and ArtisticLicenseBiology. See also CallAPegasusAHippogriff, for similar confusion of mythological creatures in general. Has nothing to do with ColdBloodedTorture.

Subtrope of MixAndMatchCritters and ArtisticLicenseBiology. See also CallAPegasusAHippogriff, for similar confusion of mythological creatures in general.

* Ichthyosaurs were prehistoric reptiles that evolved many fish-like (particularly shark-like) features due to convergent evolution, including a vertical tail fin as well as a dorsal fin. Tellingly, their scientific name means "fish-lizard" in Greek. They still had lungs and had to breathe air, and gave birth to live young, similarly to modern dolphins.

Note that there ''are'' some fish out there with amphibian and reptilian features (see the Real Life section). However, these real life creatures are still fish; any similarities to other classes are examples of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]]. In fiction, this often plays out as if someone took an existing animal and stuck traits belonging to another class onto it.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Cipactli as a crocodile-faced toad. Hydras are also shown to not need air, despite the reptilianess.

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There is a tendency in fiction to treat all groups of "cold-blooded" creatures as interchangeable and more or less the same thing. This often ends up with the distinct lineages of reptiles, amphibians and fish mixed into one strange package; generally a finned, reptilian or amphibian creature with both lungs and gills. A SeaMonster can have this kind of appearance, as many blend characteristics of fish and reptiles. Alternately, this trope can occur in a single species where some members are LizardFolk, some are FishPeople, and others appear to be frog or salamander-like.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic '': Cipactli as a crocodile-faced toad. Hydras are also shown to not need air, despite the reptilianess.

[[caption-width-right:350:Plimpy, a fish with frog legs]]

There is a tendency in fiction to treat all groups of "cold-blooded" creatures as interchangeable and more or less the same thing. This often ends up with the distinct lineages of reptiles, amphibians and fish mixed into one strange package; generally a finned, reptilian or amphibian creature with both lungs and gills. A SeaMonster can have this kind of appearance. Alternately, this trope can occur in a single species where some members are LizardFolk, some are FishPeople, and others appear to be frog or salamander-like.

Note that there ''are'' some fish out there with amphibian-like and reptile-like features (see the Real Life section). However, these real life creatures are still fish; any similarities to other classes are examples of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]]. In fiction, this often plays out as if someone took an existing animal and stuck traits belonging to another class onto it.

'''Remade from [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=3rq81637ft5v6s82g29npfjc this draft]], because that one has 11 bombs due to some issues in its first draft. I am making a new copy as a blank slate for hats/bombs'''

''' feel free to edit this draft'''

Alt Names:
* ColdBloodedConfusion
* ColdBloodedChimera

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