Line #6 Main/ColdBloodedWhatever


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/HarryPotter https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/plimpy.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:A Plimpy, a fish with frog legs.]]
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4	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; this is especially common for SeaSerpents, which even at their most reptilian often sport rayed fish fins. Alternately, this trope can occur in a single species where some members are LizardFolk, some are FishPeople, others appear to be FrogMen or salamander-like and so on.
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6	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 This is partly because the classic fish-amphibian-reptile classification is quite outdated and all three taxa are paraphyletic (i.e. do not contain all descendants of the same common ancestor), thus some animals, traditionally classified as "fish",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.
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8	Subtrope of MixAndMatchCritters and ArtisticLicenseBiology. See also CallAPegasusAHippogriff, for similar confusion of mythological creatures in general, and SomewhereAHerpetologistIsCrying, for other inaccuracies regarding cold-blooded animals in media. Has nothing to do with ColdBloodedTorture.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
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12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
15	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': The Three-Tailed Beast looks primarily like a turtle, but also has spikey chitinous armor like a crab and its tails resemble that of a shrimp.
16	[[/folder]]
17
18	[[folder:Comic Books]]
19	* ''ComicBook/AvengersBackToBasics'': In the second arc, frog Thor is repeatedly described as a lizard. This is subverted when [[spoiler:the Maestro]] irritatedly points out the difference when the Magus makes this mistake.
20	-->''"And second, he's not a lizard, he's an amphibian. God, I hate stupid people."''
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
24	* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'' features two {{Sea Monster}}s named Cretaceous and Maelstrom, both having a combination of reptilian and piscine 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]].
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
28	* ''Film/Meg2TheTrench'': The Snappers are predatory, semi-aquatic creatures which resemble an amalgamation of fish, amphibian, and reptile traits, with a vaguely monitor lizard-like body shape, shark-like jaws and gills, fish-like scales, a flattened crocodile-like tail, and salamander-like heads and body markings, and being equally at home underwater as on land.
29	* ''Film/{{Monsterverse}}'': Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, instead of being a dinosaur, is re-imagined as an aquatic Permian reptile that somehow possesses both lungs and gills.
30	* ''Film/PacificRim'' : The {{kaiju}} 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 be useful for their roles.
31	* ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'''s male lead is a strange ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon''-esque [[FishPerson fish person]] who possesses both lungs and gills. He's listed as "Amphibian Man" in the end credits.
32	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
33	** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIThePhantomMenace'': 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...
34	** The Hutts resemble a combination of amphibians, reptiles, and mollusks.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Literature]]
38	* ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'': The various eldritch beings sometimes blend the traits of fish, amphibians, and reptiles into weird aquatic {{monstrous humanoid}}s, such as ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'''s Deep Ones (described as "[[FishPeople fish]]-[[FrogMen frog]] things") or the soft-skinned, [[FrogMen amphibious]] folk of Ib and their god Bokrug the Great Water Lizard in ''Literature/TheDoomThatCameToSarnath''. Adaptations and appearances in other media will frequently lean even further into this trope by slapping some tentacles on there, too - in the popular consciousness, nothing is really Lovecraftian unless it has tentacles.
39	* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': Plimpies are small "fish", yet they look a lot like bipedal frogs.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
43	* Myth/AztecMythology: Cipactli is a mixture of a crocodile, a fish and a toad.
44	* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Dragons are reptile-amphibians with mammalian teeth and bat wings, and some have gills. Sea serpents are also fish-snake hybrids.
45	* Myth/ChineseMythology: Longs (or "Chinese dragons") are often seen as fish-scaled snakes with legs. Certain naga depictions also have traits like fish.
46	* Myth/EgyptianMythology is weird because it draws a clear distinction between neutral/good crocodiles and evil water snakes, but ''turtles'' are frequently conflated with the latter.
47	* Myth/HinduMythology: The makara is commonly depicted as a crocodile with a fish's tail.
48	* Myth/PacificMythology: Taniwha is a reptile of sorts, that lives in and breathes the water.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
52	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and its derivative ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' dabble in this with a few of the more [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils demon lords]] and [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]]. [[LordOfTheOcean Dagon]] is usually portrayed as a mix of eel, shark, and mollusc, and ''Pathfinder'' features Bokrug the Great Water Lizard with a beard of tentacles. There's also the troglodyte god Zevgavizeb, who looks like a mix of a [[DraconicAbomination dragon and a tentacled worm]].
53	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
54	** The Lizardmen are a species of LizardFolk divided into a FantasticCasteSystem: three of these breeds are based on lizards first and foremost, but their caste of mages and priests, the Slann, resemble giant toads more than anything else. Further, all castes begin their life in the spawning pools as tadpoles before maturing into their reptilian adult selves.
55	** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'': Lakemen are a variant of {{Beastm\|an}}en that resemble misshapen humanoid frogs, but also possess gills and crustacean pincers. {{Justified\|Trope}}, as they're creatures of Chaos and Chaos habitually causes living things to develop drastic mutations with no regard for taxonomy or sense.
56	* ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'': While other changing breeds have specific animal types under their respective purviews, the Mokole mix-and-match every reptile under the sun -- crocodiles, lizards, turtles, even dinosaurs -- except for snakes[[note]]and the ''surviving'' dinosaurs, the birds[[/note]]. ''Shattered Dreams'' clarifies that they were originally considered three entirely separate races: Were-Pterosaurs, Were-Plesiosaurs, and Were-Dinosaurs (which consisted almost entirely of tyrannosaurids and ceratopsians and might actually been two separate species themselves). Generations of interbreeding followed by a mass extinction bottleneck and millions of years of inbreeding resulted in the weird modern hodgepodge of all modern reptiles except snakes. Their war form, the Archid, is dreamt up on an individual basis by polling memories of extant and extinct reptiles out of Mnesis to form a chimeric mix that tends to be an amalgamation of various dinosaurs in the west or something resembling a dragon amongst the Zhong Lung in Asia.
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Toys]]
60	* ''Toys/{{Gormiti}}'': The savage, piranha-like [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mondo-world/images/7/73/Mondo_TV_-_Gormiti_-_Vomica_-_Character_Profile_Picture.png/revision/latest?cb=20160130042920 Vomica]] belong to the Sea Tribe, yet they also have dinosaur-like limbs.
61	[[/folder]]
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63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' has a perk called "Cold-Blooded", which keeps you hidden from thermal optics and carries other game-dependent benefits (includes but is not limited to being undetectable by certain AI-controlled killstreaks and concealing your nameplate from enemy players who are targeting you).
65	* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'': Rikuo game combines traits of fishes, amphibians, and even mollusks into his moveset, though his mollusk traits are only apparent during certain attack animations.
66	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': The Argonians are a "[[BeastMan Beast Race]]" of swamp-dwelling LizardFolk. Their physiology is chiefly and visibly reptilian, however they also have elements of amphibians (said to be "sequential hermaphrodites", meaning they can switch genders, though this hasn't been brought up in-game other than from a [[UnreliableExpositor dubious source]]) and fish (gills on their necks which allow them to breath underwater, and shows up in-game as a Water Breathing racial ability).
67	* ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'': The Stalker are a species of fish folk that dwell in swamps and have some reptilian features alongside their fishy ones.
68	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The Zora are mostly portrayed as FishPeople, but ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' reveals that they are born as limbless tadpoles, which is a trait more in line with amphibians, while ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' depicts them with sharp claws on their hands and feet, which is more in line with reptiles.
69	* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'': The Lagufaeth are said to be reptiles, and have reptilian bodies and limbs, but also have entirely fishlike heads.
70	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': The Magikarp/Gyarados family can be considered this since Magikarp is a fish that evolves into a sea serpent. As of [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]], Gyarados gets a Mega evolution that looks more like a fish, having a huge dorsal fin and a bigger body.
71	* ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' continues ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'''s use of this in regards to the Lizardmen, a nominally reptilian race whose castes include the vaguely dinosaurian Saurus, the toad-like Slann, the highly crocodilian Kroxigor and the, well, skink-like Skinks.
72	* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': The Murlocs are semi-intelligent creatures halfway between FishPeople and FrogMen, with piranha-like heads and fins on their back, but frog-like limbs and an amphibious lifestyle.
73	[[/folder]]
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75	[[folder:Webcomics]]
76	* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': [[MakingASplash Water]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] most often resemble LizardFolk but will typically have fins, webbed digits and dehydrate quickly and according to WordOfGod they can all [[SuperNotDrowningSkills breathe underwater.]]
77	[[/folder]]
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79	[[folder:Western Animation]]
80	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': Some of the reptiles possess fish-like features. Notable examples include the water snake in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS1E02BestFronds Best Fronds]]" and the garbage lizard in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS1E17LilyPadThai Lily Pad Thai]]".
81	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Some of the MixAndMatchCritters that inhabit the world qualify for this trope. These include the catgator (an alligator-like beast with catfish whiskers, living in the Foggy Swamp) and the eponymous serpent of Serpent's Pass (snake-like body with a seahorse-head).
82	* ''WesternAnimation/DinkTheLittleDinosaur'': One episode features a "watertooth", a metriorhynchid crocodile with a fish-like sail on its back and equally piscine tailfin.
83	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'': The Dankmirians are a race of humanoids with various traits of reptiles, amphibians and fish, such as blue skin, three-fingered hands, the ability to crawl on walls, long sticky tongues that can catch flies, and both gills and lungs.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Real Life]]
87	* 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 vertebrates, including amphibians and reptiles) than to ray-finned fish.
88	* Many fossil tetrapod ancestors, such as ''Eusthenopteron'', ''Panderichthys'', and ''Tiktaalik'', could probably be best described as this, since they were not exactly "fish" in the traditional sense but were not members of the modern amphibian group.
89	* [[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. They probably didn't fit the "cold-blooded" part, though, since they were most likely endothermic.
90	* The common names of animals often confuse the issue, as with "horned toads" or "sandfish" that are types of lizard.
91	* Several species of salamander (most notably the axolotl) retain functional gills into adulthood, and thus live more like fishes than typical tetrapods.
92	* Caecilians are limbless amphibians which are sometimes confused with snakes or, taking the trope even further afield, for very large earthworms.
93	* In medieval monasteries, turtles were considered to be fish for the purposes of not eating meat on Fridays and Lent. Weirdly enough, this rule was sometimes applied to aquatic or semi-aquatic mammals such as beavers, porpoises and even capybaras (possibly inspired by the precedent of the story of Jonah in ''Literature/TheBible'', as the text refers to the creature that swallowed him as a "fish" despite clearly being a whale from the way it's described, therefore any vertebrate that lives in water can be considered a fish under canon law.)
94	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogfish Frogfishes]] are a type of anglerfish so named because, independently of tetrapods, they have developed four fins modified for walking along the sea bottom, giving them a vague resemblance to toads or frogs.
95	* In earlier editions of Carl Linnaeus's taxonomy, he wrote about amphibians, but he used that term to mean both amphibians and reptiles, and even some fish like sharks that have cartilaginous skeletons.
96	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ColdBloodedWhatever