History Main / TerrorDactyl

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': Various incarnations have featured Zords based on various species of pterosaurs. While they do have their share of inaccuracies (calling a ''Pteranodon'' a "Pterodactyl" just to name one), they do at least try a little by having some lesser-known pterosaurs be featured. The "Dragozord", for example, is a robotic ''Tupuxuara''. Plus, the series runs on RuleOfCool, and these are HumongousMecha, not living creatures, so accuracy isn't exactly a priority.
* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'':
** The ''Pteranodon'' is fairly standard -- nothing especially wrong with it, but not exactly a transcendent portrayal -- but the ''Anurognathus'' in the same episode are bipedal scrawny things that may as well be airborne pirañas and ravenously strip human victims to the bone.
** ''Series/PrimevalNewWorld'': The ''Pteranodon'' from the first episode is a hyper-aggressive man-eater that spears things with its beak, sometimes walks on two legs, and abducts a child. It's particularly odd since the original ''Primeval'' series featured a much less aggressive ''Pteranodon''.
* ''Series/TerraNova'': The rhamphorynchid antagonists in episode 3 lack pycnofibres and are improbably aggressive, and "rhamphorhynchoids" are [[AnachronismStew believed to have been extinct by the show's 85 million-year-old date.]][[note]]Though [[http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=2417 a Candeleros Formation specimen]] may indeed reflect a late-living "rhamphorhynchoid."[[/note]] There is a larger and (slightly) better-looking pterodactyloid species that has a few cameos in one or two episodes, although it also commits the crime of being naked with pointed wings.

** The ''Tapejara'' has the wrong crest (making it look more like ''Tupandactylus'' or ''Tupuxuara'', which were once considered synonymous with ''Tapejara''), is a carnivore (it probably ate fruit in real life), and has the strength to carry three people and pick up another with its claws.
* ''VIdeoGame/BanjoTooie'':
** Terry definitely has teeth, and no end of mucus. For a male, he's awfully possessive about his eggs.
** Smaller ''Pteranodon''-like pterosaurs, said Soarasaurus, serve as the AirborneMooks of Terrydactyland. They are a counterpart of Isle 'O Hags' Gruntydactyls, which are actually dragons or wyverns rather than pterosaurs.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: pink ones resembling giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with short ''Pteranodon''-like crests and dangerous blue ones with orange stripes, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth which mostly resemble oversized ''Pterodactylus''. When Buck, Crash, and Eddie ride one of the pink ones to [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], a pack of the ''Pterodactylus''-like pterosaurs follow after seeing the possums for prey, which leads to a daring aerial canyon chase.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in an unedergorund LostWorld features a unique flavor of this trope being a pack of hostile blue pterosaurs, with orange trident-like striping on their faces and backs, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth. They Mostly resembling oversized ''Pterodactylus''. The ten of them try to follow, eat Crash and Eddie but are led in an [[AerialCanyonChase brief canyon chase]]. Momst of the pack are taken out there, where one pack member get himself fed unintentionally by the possums.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs features two flavors of this trope: pink ones resembling giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with short ''Pteranodon''-like crests and the other species being dangerous blue ones with orange stripes, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth which mostly resemble oversized ''Pterodactylus''. When Buck, Crash, and Eddie ride one of the pink ones to [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], a pack of the ''Pterodactylus''-like pterosaurs follow after seeing the possums for prey which leads to a daring aerial canyon chase.
** In said chase, the blue pterosaurs also seem to be [[SuperPersistentPredator ludicrously insistent]] on hunting the possums regardless of personal risk, resulting in their defeats in the canyon:
*** five pterosaurs are taken down from a distance by explosive berries launched by the possums.
*** A highlight of the canyon scene after those five are down, one bold pterosaur in of the pack flies straight into becoming his own ''spectacle''.
** After the canyon scene, the last four are [[spoiler: killed off by flying blindly into lava falls.]]
** The pink one is a subversion, though, as it doesn't actively menace anyone and simply flies away once all is said and done (and another one of its kind even showed up as a steed of Buck's in [[WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild a later spinoff]]).
** Several of the blue pterosaurs also make an appearance in the extended version of the short "No Time For Nuts", with one of them snatching up Scrat and his acorn with its feet shortly after he winds up in the dinosaur age.

* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheGaleforces'': Two pterosaur genera are among the resurrected Mesozoic creatures to appear: the ''Pteranodon'' from ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' appear regularly, and are joined by ''[[Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs Ornithocheirus]]'' later in the story. The [=JP3=] ''Pteranodon'' are unchanged (talons, teeth, and all), and the protagonists even end up having to go through almost the exact same aviary scene as in the film at one point. The ''Ornithocheirus'' meanwhile behave a lot like the ''Cearadactylus'' in the first ''Literature/JurassicPark'' novel, being unusually aggressive and strong, though at least they pick things up with their beaks instead of their feet like the ''Pteranodon'' do. Most notable of all, however, is the AuthorAvatar whose super alias literally ''is'' "Terrordactyl" - his main schtick being that he's actually a [=JP3=]-style ''Pteranodon'' who was even further enhanced by the DNA of other creatures [[spoiler:[[HalfHumanHybrid including that of one of the human protagonists]]]], giving him a long, dragon-like tail, an absurdly fast HealingFactor, and [[spoiler:the ability to [[HumanityEnsues assume a human form himself]]]].

* ''Literature/JurassicPark'': The original novel features an aviary full of ''Cearadactylus''. While they're depicted as [[ShownTheirWork furry, quadrupedal fish-eaters]], they also fill the "airborne terror" role. Granted, the reason they're so aggressive is much more plausible than most portrayals -- they're naturally territorial and aren't too keen on people wandering into their nesting ground. They're also erroneously referred to as "birds" and "flying dinosaurs", which is made all the more jarring by the fact that the chapter they appear in is told from the perspective of a ''legitimate paleontologist''.

** ''Series/PrimevalNewWorld'': The ''Pteranodon'' from the first episode is a hyper-aggressive man-eater that spears things with its beak, sometimes walks on two legs, and abducts a child. It's particularly odd since the original ''Primeval'' series featured a much more nonaggressive ''Pteranodon''.

** A secret hidden level above the clouds also has actual ''Rhamphornynchus'' (dubbed ''Rhamcys'') guard secret power-ups, despite the game's cartoonish aesthetic they are also a pain to deal with because they can instantly fly towards you and quickly [[CycleOfHurting peck you]] [[DeathOfAThousandCuts to death]].

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': Early installments feature many late surviving extinct species and pterosaurs are among them -- one even makes an appearance in the first episode as a StarterVillain. These pterosaurs ''Pteranodon'' as the obvious baseline inspiration, but they're scaled up to near kaiju levels and look significantly more monstrous and cartoony, with scaly skin, teeth, dragon tails and talons. They're never referred to by any genus name, but they ''are'' referred to as "dinos", which appears to be treated as a blanket term for prehistoric reptiles in the series.

* ''VideoGame/EVOSearchForEden'' has ''Pteranodon'' (''Ptenodon'' in the English localization) in the [[BonusDungeon optional level]] Mt. Brave, which are depicted as having a tail of ''Rhamphornynchus'' and happen to be among [[GoddamnBats the game's most annoying enemies]] because they [[MookBouncer fly above you then grab you with their feet and drop you from high on the hard ground below]] which causes massive damage (even if you are upgraded with strong body armor). If you somehow manage to bypass them and jump off the mountain's top, you will evolve into a pterosaur yourself; and can upgrade your body by mix-and-matching parts of various pterosaurs, birds and non-avian dinosaurs.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In the arc introducing the Transmogrifier Gun, Calvin asks Hobbes to transmogrify him into a pterodactyl so he can terrorize the neighborhood. Instead, he is transmogrified into a bipedal cartoony ''Cearadactylus''-like pterodactyl which is no bigger than a duck, much to his dismay as he believes pterodactyls are big (which is ironic as his pterosaur form is the right size for a ''Pterodactylus'') and his puny form won't be terrorizing anyone.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs features two flavors of this trope: pink ones resembling giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with short ''Pteranodon''-like crests and the other species being dangerous blue ones with orange stripes, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth which mostly resemble oversized ''Pterodactylus''. When Buck, Crash, Eddie ride one of the former species to [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], a pack of the ''Pterodactylus''-like pterosaurs follow after seeing the possums for prey which leads to a daring aerial canyon chase.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs features two flavors of this trope: pink ones resembling giant Rhamphorhynchuses with short Pteranodon-like crests and the other species being dangerous blue ones with orange stripes, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth which mostly resemble oversized Pterodactyluses . When Buck, Crash, Eddie ride a Rhamporhynchus to [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], a pack of ten Pterodactylus follow after seeing the possums for prey which leads to a daring aerial canyon chase.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: pink ones resembling giant ''Rhamphorhynchuses'' with short ''Pteranodon''-like crests and the other species being dangerous blue ones with orange stripes, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth which mostly resemble oversized ''Pterodactyluses'' . When Buck, Crash, Eddie ride a ''Rhamporhynchus'' to [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], a pack of ten ''Pterodactylus'' follows which leads to a daring aerial canyon chase. During said canyon chase
** the blue pterosaurs also seem to be [[SuperPersistentPredator ludicrously insistent]] on hunting the mammals regardless of personal risk
*** The pink one is a subversion, though, as it doesn't actively menace anyone and simply flies away once all is said and done (and another one of its kind even showed up as a steed of Buck's in [[WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild a later spinoff]]).
*** Several of the blue pterosaurs also make an appearance in the extended version of the short "No Time For Nuts", with one of them snatching up Scrat and his acorn with its feet shortly after he winds up in the dinosaur age.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: a pink one resembling a giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a short ''Pteranodon''-like head crest, and a blue one with orange stripes that looks like an oversized ''Pterodactylus'' with [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and pointed teeth. Buck, Crash, and Eddie ride on the first to rescue Sid from [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]] until a flock of the second follows, resulting in a daring aerial canyon chase. The blue pterosaurs also are [[SuperPersistentPredator ludicrously insistent]] on hunting the mammals regardless of personal risk. Not only does it result in many of them being shot down by explosive berries, but later causes one of the blue pterosaurs to fly closer which consequently ends in a brief gag. The remaining few blindly flying straight into Lava Falls. The pink one is a subversion, though, as it doesn't actively menace anyone and simply flies away once all is said and done (and another one of its kind even showed up as a steed of Buck's in [[WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild a later spinoff]]).
** Several of the blue pterosaurs also make an appearance in the extended version of the short "No Time For Nuts", with one of them snatching up Scrat and his acorn with its feet shortly after he winds up in the dinosaur age.

** One episode of the [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 1987 series]], "Dinosaur Ducks", features a giant "Pterodactyl" that resembles a ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a ''Pteranodon''-like crest, bat-like wings, and eagle-like talons. It is shown attacking planes that come across its territory, ripping off the wings of smaller ones with its feet, and it apparently lays oversized eggs in a bird-like nest.