Prehistoric Monster: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''This series tells the extraordinary story of life before the dinosaurs, a time when strange and savage creatures forth a ruthless battle to rule the Earth. [...] This is Life's forgotten story, an epic war for our world. A war between MONSTERS.''|Extracted from [[Walking With Dinosaurs|Walking With Monsters]] trailer}}

 

 

Basically, if you are an extinct animal you'll be automatically qualified as a [[Prehistoric Monster]]. Even though you're small and would appear cute and harmless to modern humans. Even though you are closely related to modern animals that are commonly regarded as beautiful and majestic. Even though all extinct species ''were'' well adapted to their environment in the period they were around, otherwise they would have never appeared in our planet. Even though the only real difference between prehistoric and modern animals is that the former didn't have the fortune (or misfortune) to know [[Humans Are Bastards|modern humans]], and if they were still alive today they will probably be considered "charismatic megafauna" and hailed by conservationists as modern animals are.

Even popular-science works such as documentaries or non-narrative books often do play straight this trope, probably for sensationalistic purpose. Many modern paleo-artists tend to do this in a subtle way, depicting their dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mammals, fish, invertebrates and whatnot as nasty as allowed by scientific accuracy: the fact that the skin texture/color and, above all, the [[Eyes Never Lie|appearance of the eyes]] are almost always unknown, all this allows imagination to travel freely, of course. Just for example, compare [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Compsognathus_BW.jpg this Compsognathus] with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Compsognathus_longipes_head.jpg this one], and guess which plays it straight and which averts it. When a watcher see such depictions, he usually has nothing to say against the [[Darker and Edgier]] varieties since they still remain ''anatomically accurate'' (useless to say that [[Rule of Cool]] plays a strong role in this psychological mechanism).

 

 

Of course there are also popular works which tend to avert this trope, especially in the last decades, in part thanks to the influence from popular documentaries like Walking With: no doubt however the traditional "prehistoric = monstrous" thing is all but a [[Dead Horse Trope]] even today (think about the recent ''Primeval''). It's worth noting at this point that [[Prehistoric Monster]] may be considered a subtrope of [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]] only when anatomical inaccuracies are present as well. If extinct critters are portrayed in an unpleasant but still scientifically acceptable way ([[Science Marches On|at least in respect to the knowledge of the time the work was created]]), it may be qualified more as a subtrope of [[Rule of Cool]].

See also [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons]], [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]], [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You]] and [[Our Monsters Are Different]]. If you want to see some [[Real Life]] infos about extinct critters, [[Useful Notes/Dinosaurs|see]] [[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life|here]].

 

 

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