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Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable types among cultural depictions of dinosaurs. [1] It has been depicted on film, in cartoons, comics, as children's toys, as sculpture, and even was declared the state dinosaur of Colorado in 1982. [2] Stegosaurus is a subject for inclusion in dinosaur toy and scale model lines, such as the Carnegie Collection.
As late as the 1970s, Stegosaurus, along with other dinosaurs, was depicted in fiction as a slow-moving, dim-witted creature. The "dinosaur renaissance" changed the prevailing image of dinosaurs as sluggish and cold-blooded and this reevaluation has been reflected in popular media. [3]
A sketch of a Stegosaurus (based on a drawing by Ray Lydekker) forms an important plot point in the opening chapters of The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle.
In Tarzan at the Earth's Core , by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jason Gridley encounters a Stegosaurus in Pellucidar, the world within the Earth. The animal jumps from a height and uses its plates as a gliding mechanism to chase and attack him; the real animal likely could not perform such an act.
Evelyn Sibley Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek [4] is a children's book about twins who find a talking Stegosaurus on their ranch in Oregon. She also wrote a sequel, The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs . [5]
The main hero and protagonist of Steve Cole's Astrosaurs series is an anthropomorphic Stegosaurus named Captain Teggs.
In Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park , the main characters come across a sick Stegosaurus at the south of Isla Nublar. It would later be replaced by a Triceratops in the movie adaptation.
In the 1933 monster film King Kong , the first creature that the band of rescuers meet, as they chase the abducted Fay Wray deep into Skull Island, is a female Stegosaurus, which charges. In the 2005 Peter Jackson remake Stegosaurus is nowhere to be seen, although in the extended edition, the Triceratops -like fictional Ferrucutus takes its place. A hypothetical descendant of Stegosaurus, called Atercurisaurus, appears in the tie-in book The World of Kong.
Walt Disney's 1940 animated film Fantasia features a harrowing battle between a Stegosaurus and a Torvosaurus during a segment based on The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky as performed by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, which depicts the history of life on Earth. (However, this conflicts with the scientific fact that the two genera did not co-exist at the same time in history.) The infamous scene is echoed by a display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which shows a Stegosaurus facing off with an Allosaurus .
Over the years, Stegosaurus has often been pitted in battle against large carnivorous dinosaurs, on both the big and small screen. It came up against a male Ceratosaurus in Journey to the Beginning of Time (1954), in The Animal World (1956), in the PBS mini-series The Dinosaurs! (1992), in the documentary When Dinosaurs Roamed America (2001), and in the documentary series Jurassic Fight Club (2008) where it also faces an Allosaurus . It faced a female Allosaurus in the first episode of the French animated series Once Upon a Time... Man (1978), in the anime series Kyouryuu Wakusei (Dinosaur Planet) (1993–94), in Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996), in episode two of Walking with Dinosaurs (1999), as well as in the special The Ballad of Big Al (2000), in episode three of the German cartoon series Albert Asks What is Life? (2002), in Mammals vs. Dinos (2007), and in Planet Dinosaur (2011). It has even been pitted against Tyrannosaurus in Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940) (which was the first time the defense of the spike tail was seen), in Planet of Dinosaurs (1978), in the cartoon series Dino Riders (1988), in the remake of the series Land of the Lost (1991–92), in the anime television series Dinosaur King (2007–08), and in the opening scene of The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave (2016). On one occasion, it confronted Spinosaurus in the television series Dino Dan (2010).
An ailing Stegosaurus is encountered by the characters in the novel Jurassic Park , [6] but was replaced by a Triceratops in the film version. Although it makes no actual appearance in the film, the name is used; it is on one of the embryo vials stolen (misspelled as Stegasaurus). A group of Stegosaurus also appeared The Lost World: Jurassic Park , as one of the first dinosaurs to be seen, although they were depicted as far larger than the actual animal. They also were seen briefly in Jurassic Park III . They then made a lot of appearances in Jurassic World , Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion .
A very large Stegosaurus is encountered in the film The People that Time Forgot (1977) where it is seen eating plants and is used to tow a plane.
Stegosaurus is one of the three dinosaur types whose physical characteristics were combined by the designers at Toho, to create the Japanese monster Godzilla; the other two dinosaurs were Tyrannosaurus and Iguanodon . In the American version of King Kong vs. Godzilla this is remarked upon by a reporter, claiming Godzilla was half-Stegosaurus, half-Tyrannosaurus.
Stegosaurus has also featured in several television series. In the Bob the Builder episode, Scoop's Stegosaurus, Scoop finds the bones of a Stegosaurus while he, Bob and Lofty are repairing Farmer Pickles’ drain. A skeleton of the stegosaurus was seen in the Thomas and Friends ninth series episode, Rheneas and the Dinosaur. A Stegosaurus has also appeared in one episode of Doctor Who . More recently, in 2010, a Stegosaurus appeared in the first Series 4 Prequel Webisode of the ITV series Primeval . It was incorrectly shown as having a small horn on its head. This is due to the fact that, instead of creating another model for the Stegosaurus entirely, the special effects team decided to use the same Embolotherium model, which they had previously used, earlier on, in the making of Episode 3.9 of Primeval. In the episode "Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?" of Fringe , Stegosaurus' second brain is mentioned as William Bell's design choice for shape-shifters' memory storage unit.
Stegosaurus has been featured in numerous television documentaries, such as:
Stegosaurus has also often been featured in children's cartoons. The Transformers toyline and related television series features four characters which can transform into stegosaurids: Snarl, Slugfest, Saberback and Striker. In The Land Before Time and its sequels, the character Spike is a young Stegosaurus. In the 1980s cartoon Dinosaucers , the character Stego is an anthropomorphic Stegosaurus who, while still only a trainee soldier, accomplishes difficult tasks despite his inexperience. Several Stegosaurus also appear in the 1989 animated TV series Dink the Little Dinosaur . In the Disney Afternoon cartoon series Darkwing Duck , the character Stegmutt is an anthropomorphic duck transformed into a humanoid Stegosaurus. Also, Stegz was an anthropomorphic stegosaur featured in the series Extreme Dinosaurs . Ironically, despite the tiny brain size of Stegosaurus, he was the most intelligent of the characters in the show. One of the Dino Knights and Drago Clones in Dinozaurs were Dino Stego and his evil counterpart Drago Stegus. In the YouTube series "asdfmovie," there is a running gag that a character would get crushed by a foot, and the camera zooms out to show a dinosaur who looks nothing like a Stegosaurus (no back plates, longer neck, taller structure, and longer tail). Then the dinosaur says, "I am a Stegosaurus!"
Gary Larson's The Far Side comic strip often used stegosaurs when he showed dinosaurs. The term "thagomizer" originated as a joke from a Far Side comic strip, in which a group of cavemen in a lecture hall are taught by their caveman professor that the spikes were named in honor of "the late Thag Simmons" (the implication is that the thagomizer was responsible for Thag's death). The term has been popularly adopted by many palaeontological authorities, [7] including the Smithsonian Institution. [8]
In September 2002, a hoax poster was presented at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology entitled "The case for Stegosaurus as an agile, cursorial biped", ostensibly by T. R. Karbek (an anagram of R. T. Bakker) from the non-existent "Steveville Academy of Palaeontological Studies". This was reported in New Scientist magazine, where it was remarked that Stegosaurus was generally believed to be "about as cursorial as a fridge-freezer". [9]
Sculptor Jim Gary created several, almost-life-sized versions of Stegosaurus. Beginning in the 1960s, one always was displayed among his traveling exhibition, Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, and they are frequently used as an illustration of his work in books and articles about the artist because of their distinctive characteristics. One of these was displayed for months before the electrical engineering research facility at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte during a 2005 campus-wide display of the exhibition, which was hosted by Belk College, and became a mascot of sorts to students studying in nearby buildings. [10] [11] Howard the Duck walked under a Jim Gary Stegosaurus when a museum display of Gary's work was used as a set for the 1986 film.
In 1973 Alexander Calder also created a huge sculpture called, Stegosaurus , that was more abstract than Gary's. [12] It stands 50 feet tall in Hartford, Connecticut. [13] [14]
A battle between a Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex similar to The Rite of Spring segment in the 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia was created using new Audio-Animatronics for Disney's Magic Skyway attraction at the 1964 World's Fair. When the Fair ended, the attraction was dismantled. However, in 1966 the dinosaurs were moved next to the Grand Canyon Diorama along the Disneyland Railroad to make the Primeval World. Tokyo Disneyland's Western River Railroad has the same diorama. A similar scene is depicted in Epcot's Universe of Energy pavilion. The Stegosaurus appearing in the various Universal Studios theme parks attraction Jurassic Park: The Ride, also known as Jurassic Park River Adventure in Universal's Islands of Adventure.
Stegosaurus has long been featured in popular informational books about dinosaurs. This is ostensibly due to its status as being one of the most famous dinosaurs in popular culture. Several older nonfiction books incorrectly stated that Stegosaurus had two brains, due to a mistake made by Marsh during the 1800s, in which a bundle of nerves located in the hips was thought to be a "second brain". However, newer informational works have corrected this, and most nonfiction dinosaur books published nowadays correctly state that Stegosaurus had only one — albeit tiny — brain, located in its skull, as all other known vertebrates do. Stegosaurus has also featured in numerous video games such as Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis , Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs , Ark: Survival Evolved , The Isle , Lego Jurassic World , Jurassic World Evolution , Jurassic World Evolution 2 , Combat of Giants , and Carnivores . In the latter game, the animal was depicted as an awkward, lumbering reptile, similar to many outdated illustrations, even though the game was released in 1998, at least a decade after the general public recognized Stegosaurus, and other dinosaurs, as active warm-blooded creatures.
Stegosaurus is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been found in the western United States and in Portugal, where they are found in Kimmeridgian- to Tithonian-aged strata, dating to between 155 and 145 million years ago. Of the species that have been classified in the upper Morrison Formation of the western US, only three are universally recognized: S. stenops, S. ungulatus and S. sulcatus. The remains of over 80 individual animals of this genus have been found. Stegosaurus would have lived alongside dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus and Allosaurus, the latter of which may have preyed on it.
A thagomizer is the distinctive arrangement of four spikes on the tails of stegosaurian dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators.
Dino-Riders is an animated television series that first aired in 1988. The cartoon was primarily a promotional show to launch a new Tyco toy line. Only fourteen episodes were produced, three of which were produced on VHS for the United States. The show aired in the U.S. as part of the Marvel Action Universe programming block.
Extreme Dinosaurs is an American animated series produced by DIC Productions, L.P. and Bohbot Entertainment in 1997 based on a 1996 toy line from Mattel. This show is a spin-off of Street Sharks.
Dinosaucers is a 1987 animated television series co-produced in the United States and Canada; developed and produced by DIC Animation City in association with Lightyear Entertainment and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. The show was created by producer Michael E. Uslan, who considered it a "harebrained idea". Despite only running for one season, it did run for a total of 65 episodes as ordered to be a 13-week-long series, when it aired on first-run syndication.
Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, Africa and possibly South America. Their geographical origins are unclear; the earliest unequivocal stegosaurian, Bashanosaurus primitivus, was found in the Bathonian Shaximiao Formation of China.
Tyrannosaurus rex is unique among dinosaurs in its place in modern culture; paleontologist Robert Bakker has called it "the most popular dinosaur among people of all ages, all cultures, and all nationalities". Paleontologists Mark Norell and Lowell Dingus have likewise called it "the most famous dinosaur of all times." Paleoartist Gregory S. Paul has called it "the theropod. [...] This is the public's favorite dinosaur [...] Even the formations it is found in have fantastic names like Hell Creek and Lance." Other paleontologists agree with that and note that whenever a museum erects a new skeleton or bring in an animatronic model, visitor numbers go up. "Jurassic Park and King Kong would not have been the same without it." In the public mind, T. rex sets the standard of what a dinosaur should be. Science writer Riley Black similarly states, "In all of prehistory, there is no animal that commands our attention quite like Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the tyrant lizards. Since the time this dinosaur was officially named in 1905, the enormous carnivore has stood as the ultimate dinosaur."
Jurassic Park: The Ride, also known as the Jurassic Park River Adventure is a water-based amusement ride based on the Steven Spielberg 1993 film Jurassic Park and Michael Crichton's 1990 novel of the same name which the film is based on located at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. It was formerly located at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, where it was turned into Jurassic World: The Ride on July 12, 2019.
Dinosaurs for Hire is an American comic book series created by Tom Mason in 1988. It was first published by Eternity Comics and ran nine issues until 1990 when it was cancelled. The title returned to publication in 1993 by Malibu Comics, which had purchased Eternity as an imprint.
When Dinosaurs Roamed America is a two-hour American television program that first aired on the Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001. The show features the reign of the non-avian dinosaurs in America over the course of more than 160 million years, through five different segments, each with their own variety of flora and fauna.
Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been numerous since the word dinosaur was coined in 1842. The non-avian dinosaurs featured in books, films, television programs, artwork, and other media have been used for both education and entertainment. The depictions range from the realistic, as in the television documentaries from the 1990s into the first decades of the 21st century, to the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs is the sixth book in Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen's The Magic School Bus series.
Xtractaurs is a line of toys by Mattel. Introduced in 2009, the brand is a fusion of regular action figures with an online game. It involves taking a dinosaur and extracting "DNA" samples from the dinosaur and analyzing it on your computer, similar in a way to the book and film Jurassic Park. If you own multiple dinosaurs and have extracted samples from all of them, you can create a genetically engineered hybrid on the computer to battle the "Megavores", ancient reawakened dinosaurs that share qualities with your dinosaur. Each dinosaur you purchase has a special ability, and combining them makes a fierce fighting animal. This encourages the fusion of certain samples even more.
The Dinosaurs! is an American television miniseries produced by WHYY-TV for PBS in 1992, featuring some of the then-modern theories about dinosaurs and how they lived. It aired four episodes from November 22 to November 25, 1992.
Kung Fu Dino Posse is an animated television series created by Peter M. Lenkov and produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., Sunwoo Entertainment Co. Ltd., Sunwoo Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd., and Optix Entertainment GmbH. In South Korea, it premiered on November 12, 2009 on KBS1. In the United Kingdom, it premiered on CITV on October 2, 2010. In the past, it also aired on Starz Kids & Family in the United States and YTV and Vrak in Canada.
Dinosaur suits are a type of costumed character or creature suit resembling a dinosaur. Dinosaur suits are also called dinosaur costumes. Such costumes were used in film and television and as mascots for decades, reflecting dinosaurs' prominence in the arts and entertainment. Usually operators use two cable-pulled handle to control the motions. Realistic dinosaur suits also gained popularity for live shows following the success of Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular. An experienced performer can make lifelike movements with a dinosaur suit. They are also used in theme parks and in an educational context at various museums. Inflatable dinosaur suits have been used for pranks, gags, and protests.
Jurassic World: The Ride is a dark water ride attraction that is themed to the Jurassic World series at Universal Studios Hollywood. The original Jurassic Park: The Ride, which operated from June 21, 1996, to September 3, 2018, underwent a major refurbishment and reopened as Jurassic World: The Ride.
Jurassic Park, later also referred to as Jurassic World, is an American science fiction adventure media franchise. It focuses on the cloning of dinosaurs through ancient DNA, extracted from mosquitoes that have been fossilized in amber. The franchise explores the ethics of cloning and genetic engineering, and the morals behind de-extinction.
The Jurassic League, often simply referred to as Jurassic League, is an American comic book published by DC Comics. The six-issue limited series, co-written by Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedeon and illustrated by Gedeon, began publication on May 10, 2022.