History Main / EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer}}'' Fantasy's Lizardmen are a dinosaur race, their basic troops being "Saurus" and them using "Stegadons" and "Carnosaurs" as mounts and war engines. There are also "Cold Ones," Velociraptor-like things used by the Lizardmen and Dark Elves for cavalry. The beasts eat everything, so the Dark Elves cover themselves in poison to fool the lizards.

* ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' has the Mokole, which are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot weredinosaurs]]. Technically, they're supposed to be werecrocodiles, but since they serve as Gaia's Memory, their battle form can include body parts from of any reptile from Earth's history.

* ''{{TabletopGame/Exalted}}'', being a setting whose content is decided entirely by RuleOfCool and NinjaPirateZombieRobot, has gigantic "Tyrant Lizards" that look remarkably like ''T. rex'''es. Presumably due to ''Tyrannosaurus'' being Latin for "Tyrant Lizard".
** It also has the [[DinosaursAreDragons Dragon Kings]], which are roughly human-sized sentient dinosaurs who wear armor, can learn to breathe fire, and have enormous crystal clubs with laser blades to hit you with if you piss them off.

* ''[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' has the Mokole, which are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot weredinosaurs]]. Technically, they're supposed to be werecrocodiles, but since they serve as Gaia's Memory, their battle form can include body parts from of any reptile from Earth's history.

* In ''{{TabletopGame/Pathfinder}}'', druids can take dinosaurs as animal companions, as can clerics with the Saurian domain. Cavaliers can also ride dinosaurs if they choose a beastrider archetype, and there's even a special druid archetype called "Saurian Shaman" which is basically a mechanical version of this, They do anything related to dinosaurs better than the same non-dinosaur-related actions (such as summoning, wild empathy, and wild shape).

* ''[[TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' has the Mokole, which are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot weredinosaurs]]. Technically, they're supposed to be werealligators, but since they serve as Gaia's memory, they can take the form of any reptile from Earth's history.

* ''Dinosaur Office'' on College Humor

* ''Series/Torchwood'' had a chocolate-loving pterosaur as the team pet. Why ''not?''

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'', London is under martial law in response to the dinosaurs that have been mysteriously appearing there, [[spoiler: brought by a conspiracy, using time travel technology]].

* ''Saturn {{Bomberman}}'' traded the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter adorable]] [[EverythingsBetterWithKangaroos kangaroos]] for [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter equally adorable]] dinosaurs as the PowerupMount of choice. They're also available as alternate choices to the roois/ruis/Louies in ''Bomberman Fantasy Race''.

* The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Krogan]] from ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' are vaguely dinosaur-like.
** In MassEffect3 you can do a SideQuest that provides an alien dinosaur's skull to some scientists to clone for the Krogans to ride into battle. [[RuleOfCool ''Awesome''.]]

* [[http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1918385_1918401_1918398,00.html This]] Time article on lessons from the 2009 Summer Movies shows that despite the success of the second ''Night at the Museum'' and ''IceAge 3'' (it says ''{{Film/Up}}'' features dinosaurs - and it does have a giant bird), two other films with dinos, ''LandOfTheLost'' and ''YearOne'', bombed.

* ChampionsOnline, being inspired by nearly every generation of comic books ever, has Monster Island - the western section of Monster Island is covered with raptor-sized "Teleiosaurus hatchlings" of various kinds, and the island is also home to the ginormous (30-40' tall) Teleiosaurus, a dinosaur egg several stories tall, and Mega-Terak - a ROBOT dinosaur.

* The first ''Series/TombRaider'' game had dinosaurs and a ''T. rex'' as enemies for no particular reason other than RuleOfCool, though an FMV later in the game implied that they were created by the [[MacGuffin Scion]]. The dinosaurs returned without explanation in ''Tomb Raider 3''.

* ''CommandAndConquer: [[ExpansionPack The Covert Ops]]'' had a secret level which involved fighting dinosaurs.

* [[{{Prehistoria}} Dinosaur Jungle]] from ''[[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Secret Rings]]'' are filled with dinosaurs. At one point, Sonic must evade the jaws of a rampaging Carnotaur. The game is based around ArabianNights.

* In ''{{TabletopGame/Pathfinder}}'', druids can take dinosaurs as animal companions, as can clerics with the Saurian domain.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' uses several dinosaur and related species-themed Mons over the years. Lapras (Plesiosaur), Tyranitar (vaguely T.Rex-ish), Meganium (Diplodocus), Cranidos/Rampardos ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachycephalosauria Pachycephalosaurs]], not ''T. rex''), Shieldon/Bastiodon.

* The ''SuperSentai'' and ''PowerRangers'' franchises have had no fewer than two dinosaur-themed series (''[[KyoryuSentaiZyuranger Zyuranger]]'' and ''[[BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger Abaranger]]'', localized as ''[[MightyMorphinPowerRangers the original MMPR]]'' and ''[[PowerRangersDinoThunder Dino Thunder]]''); and three others with their own dinosaur mecha: ''[[{{Engine Sentai Go-Onger}} Go-Onger]]'' / ''[[Series/PowerRangersRPM RPM]]'', based on animal/vehicle hybrids, has dinosaur trains; ''[[MiraiSentaiTimeranger Timeranger]]''/''[[PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]]'' has one of the TimePolice's mecha be saurian for [[RuleOfCool no adequately explained reason]]; and ''[[KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Gokaiger]]'' has a dino mecha in homage to three Rangers who died, who just so happened to share a dino motif (a Zyuranger, an Abaranger, and the Timeranger who owned the gratuitous dinosaur robot).

** Megatron himself got a dinosaur alt-mode in ''BeastWars''.

* The upcoming game (currently available as a proof-of-concept [[{{Half-Life}} Source]] mod) ''[[http://www.dinodday.com/ Dino D-Day]]'' is all about this trope, showcasing an AlternateHistory version of WorldWarII where the Third Reich unleashes their new secret weapon: '''''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Nazi dinosaurs!]]'''''

* ''GarfieldAndFriends'' used dinosaurs mostly to parody this trope, specially in "UsAcres" (the quote above comes from an episode where Orson started telling {{Rumpelstiltskin}} to the children, adding ninjas and such for them to keep interested, but Wade and Roy started changing the story to work in their [[AuthorAvatar respective characters']] favors).

* The random and gratuitous dinosaurs are practically everywhere in the ''DragonBall'' and ''DragonBallZ'' setting. "Fly home safely, and look out for rampaging dinosaurs!"

* ''ThePrinceOfTennis'': Tezuka's [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome amazing tennis move]] is what ''really'' killed the dinosaurs.
* The ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'' card game has a dinosaur type, the number of dinos expanded by Tyranno Kenzan in ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}''. Dinosaur Ryuuzaki (Rex Raptor) uses a dinosaur-themed deck in the anime.
* So does ''{{Digimon}}''.
* Chibi-Usa of ''SailorMoon'' befriended a Nessie-like dinosaur in one episode.

* ''TheFiveStarStories'' has dinosaurs on a few of the planets, which are inexplicably identical to various species that once roamed the Earth. The level of dinosaurs a planet has is actually a pretty good way to measure its age. The young planet Juno has quite a few, although they're now threatened by humans and other introduced mammal species; the older Delta Belune also has dinosaurs, but they're small and birdlike; Kallamity, supposedly the oldest inhabitable planet, doesn't seem to have any dinos at all.
* In ''[[JoJosBizarreAdventure Steel Ball Run]]'', Diego Brando becomes a Wereraptor after he gains a stand ability.

* ''GetterRobo''. Just... Getter Robo. If there's room for a dinosaur at any given time, then they '''will''' be there. And it will be [[HolyShitQuotient awesome]].

* The SchoolFestival arc in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' has the engineering club construct a robotic ''T. rex'' because it would make the festival parades that much more awesome. This fooled TheHero at first since it was so life-like. They occasionally go berserk (though no one is ever hurt), giving [[KenAkamatsu the author]] the opportunity to have the lead heroine slice off its head with her {{BFS}} [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman since it was a robot]].

* {{Gon}} has a miniature ''T. rex'' for a protagonist, fighting large modern mammals most of the time. No, [[SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying palaeontologist did not hang himself]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_%28seat%29 so that you could use his corpse as a swing]].
* OnePiece has "Red Flag" Diez Drake, a pirate captain and former Rear Admiral of the Marines that has eaten a Devil Fruit that turns him into a tyrannosaurus. [[CrazyAwesome This is pretty]] [[RuleOfCool much par for]] [[WorldOfHam the course in]] OnePiece, though.

* Gert in ''{{Runaways}}'' has a pet ''Deinonychus'' named [[FluffyTheTerrible Old Lace]].

* ''{{Marvel 1602}}'' had little dinosaurs running around Europe, including at least one seeming to be [[strike:[[XMen Professor Xavier's]]]] Carlos Javier's pet. Not to mention that the standard big dinos can be found in North America.

** The Episode ''Starcrossed'' in JLU, has Flash agreeing with this trope through and through. Alfred being [[DeadpanSnarker Alfred]] [[HilarityEnsues well...]]

* ''[=~2000 AD~=]'' had ''Flesh'', a story about future cowboys going back in time and killing dinosaurs for their meat, which was then exported back to their own time. This was used to provide STOMPY DINOSAUR ACTION crossovers into both ''JudgeDredd'' and ''ABCWarriors''. In the case of the latter, dinosaurs ended up on a terraformed dystopian Mars.
* Major Bummer gave us [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus_Reich Tyrannosaurus Reich]]. Can't believe that got a mention in the other wiki before getting here.
* Bob, Dawn, and Rex, from ''{{Dilbert}}''.

* The ''StarWars'' 20th anniversary re-release inserts cgi [[strike:dinosaurs]] beasts which vaguely resemble dinosaurs into various scenes in the movie, mostly in Mos Eisley.

* [[http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1918385_1918401_1918398,00.html This]] Time article on lessons from the 2009 Summer Movies shows that despite the success of the second ''Night at the Museum'' and ''IceAge 3'' (it says ''{{Up}}'' features dinosaurs - and it does have a giant bird), two other films with dinos, ''LandOfTheLost'' and ''YearOne'', bombed.
* Probably not a great example, but the '[[FutureImperfect Time Masheen]]' scene of ''{{Idiocracy}}'', where World War II was depicted by two T-rexes fighting, one wearing an American flag, one wearing a Swastika.

* [[TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] ''lives'' this trope at TheClimax of ''Dead Beat''. To say more would be a {{spoiler}}. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome An AWESOME spoiler.]]

** He also does it in CodexAlara: turns out that aside from picking up [[LostRomanLegion hapless romans]], [[Starcraft Zerg]] [[Expy expies]], and [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]], Alara also grabbed a few giant ground sloths and terror birds in it's day. They're bond creatures with the elves.
* Arguably, {{Jules Verne}}'s classic novel ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' is an example of this trope. Most of the book is about really ambitious spelunking, the adventurers just happen to run into a few surviving prehistoric beasts in one section of caves. It makes that part of the book more exciting, but wasn't completely necessary to the plot. Of course none of the creature they meet are technically members of the superorder ''Dinosauria'', they were mostly icthysaurs, plesiosaurs, and crocodilians. That makes this trope OlderThanRadio.

* ''{{Primeval}}'' was advertised as being about dinosaurs despite none appearing in the first series. Presumably they thought saying it was about giant centipedes, dodos and flying lizards wouldn't draw in as many viewers.

* From ''Pee-Wee's Playhouse'', Pterri, Pee-Wee's talking pet pterosaur, and the (unrelated) Dinosaur Family.
* [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]]. The less said the better.

* {{iCarly}}. Yeah. The episode where Carly almost moves to Yakima, where Spencer says to the granddad: "These are all the vitamins she needs to take. I ''only'' give her the ones shaped like dinosaurs." "...Why?" "...Dinosaurs are cool."
** There's also the episode where iCarly gets turned into a TV show, and [[ExecutiveMeddling they put a guy in a dinosuar costume in the show]] because "kids love dinosaurs".
* DinoDan

* WeirdAlYankovic's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4zvQfDhi0 Jurassic Park]]", turning the {{melodrama}}tic ([[{{Narm}} to the point of hilarity]]) "[=MacArthur=] Park" into a [[FilkSong retelling of]] [[JurassicPark Spielberg's movie]].

* ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has dinosaurs in the main books, [[RuleOfCool seemingly for no reason other than coolness]].

*** Duplicated in {{Eberron}}, where [[strike:Hobbits]] Halflings use some of the smaller dinosaurs as mounts.

* ''{{Exalted}}'', being a setting whose content is decided entirely by RuleOfCool and NinjaPirateZombieRobot, has gigantic "Tyrant Lizards" that look remarkably like ''T. rex'''es. Presumably due to ''Tyrannosaurus'' being Latin for "Tyrant Lizard".

* ''{{Warhammer}}'' Fantasy's Lizardmen are a dinosaur race, their basic troops being "Saurus" and them using "Stegadons" and "Carnosaurs" as mounts and war engines. There are also "Cold Ones," Velociraptor-like things used by the Lizardmen and Dark Elves for cavalry. The beasts eat everything, so the Dark Elves cover themselves in poison to fool the lizards.

* A lot of {{Death World}}s in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are covered in dinosaur-esque creatures, and the Tyranids themselves are also somewhat dinosaur-y, at least in terms of teeth - the Termagaunts, especially, look like an odd cross between Armadillos, Zerg Hydralisks and ''Velociraptors''.

* ''[[WorldOfDarkness Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' has the Mokole, which are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot weredinosaurs]]. Technically, they're supposed to be werealligators, but since they serve as Gaia's memory, they can take the form of any reptile from Earth's history.

* In {{Pathfinder}}, druids can take dinosaurs as animal companions, as can clerics with the Saurian domain.

** In the video game "TransformersWarForCybertron", Trypticon still has his Tyrannosaurus body design despite the game being set at the beginning of The Great War, millions of years before the Transformers knew about Earth and dinosaurs. Truly the awesomeness of dinosaurs transcends space and time.

* The first ''TombRaider'' game had dinosaurs and a ''T. rex'' as enemies for no particular reason other than RuleOfCool, though an FMV later in the game implied that they were created by the [[MacGuffin Scion]]. The dinosaurs returned without explanation in ''Tomb Raider 3''.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has Raptors as fairly common animals (and mount for trolls), and gigantic ''T. rex''es, called Devilsaurs, as a rarer sort. To be precise, they only appear in a few areas (Un'Goro Crater, where there are only about five of them at any given time; The Netherstorm, where a single Devilsaur rules over an eco-dome filled with raptors; Drak'Tharon Keep, with the optional boss King Dred; and Sholazar Basin, home of the rare-spawn King Krush). For being such enourmous beasts they move like ninjas, and many players have had their adventure cut short by a sneak attack.

* The ''SuperMario'' series of games already had Bowser as some sort of dragon-dinosaur-turtle... thing, and then in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' along came Yoshi and his friends....

* ''BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden'': [[spoiler:The OneWingedAngel form of the last boss is ''T-Rex Barkley.'' I laughed for a good three minutes after the reveal.]]
* ''Adventure Island'', from the second game onward, gave Master Higgins dinosaur buddies that granted him extra powers.

* The upcoming game (currently available as a proof-of-concept [[HalfLife Source]] mod) ''[[http://www.dinodday.com/ Dino D-Day]]'' is all about this trope, showcasing an AlternateHistory version of WorldWarII where the Third Reich unleashes their new secret weapon: '''''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Nazi dinosaurs!]]'''''

* ''DwarfFortress'' sends goblins after you. Survive long enough, and they come mounted on velociraptors (known in-game as Beak Dogs).
* ''ChronoTrigger'''s dinos actually appear in 65 million BC ([[{{Prehistoria}} along with people]], oddly inverting that trope) as well as in a 600 AD bonus dungeon (where millions of years of underground living have made them tough as nails).

* It might be AllInTheManual, but by looking at the physique of [[MassEffect turians]], it becomes clear that they are pretty much [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Roman Space Velociraptors]]. Which is f* cking [[RuleOfCool awesome]].
* [[MOTHER3 Dragos]], which are a more or less friendly species of T-Rexes. The [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Mecha-Drago]] on [[UnwillingRoboticisation the]] [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul other]] [[ThatOneBoss hand...]]

* The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Krogan]] from ''MassEffect'' are vaguely dinosaur-like.

* The ''{{Everquest}}'' games feature velociraptors, normally found in deserts and jungles.

* ''[=~8-Bit Theater~=]'' provides a [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2003/05/20/episode-284-what-could-it-be/ ninja riding a dinosaur armed with Febreeze]].

* ''{{xkcd}}'' has a [[http://xkcd.com/135/ serious]] [[http://xkcd.com/292/ problem]] [[http://xkcd.com/87/ with]] [[http://xkcd.com/155/ raptors]], though the problem may have been [[http://xkcd.com/758/ minimized]] by now. The fascination with dinosaurs extends to [[http://xkcd.com/650/ other dinosaur species]].

* In ''IrregularWebcomic'', the President of the United States is an ''Allosaurus'', for no readily explained reason. (Apart from the fact that he's insanely popular.)

* ''DES comics'', vaguely related to ''ElGoonishShive'' has a [[http://danshive.deviantart.com/art/Some-Comic-of-Mine-009-81483916 Velocitoaster]] [[ParodyCommercial advertisement]].

* ''DragonCave'' includes spotted dinosaur eggs- dinosaurs apparently being, in the absence of the former Yoshis, the second best choice, since no lawyer can complain about real-life creatures. The end results are very chubby, cheerful-looking cartoonish [[GentleGiant Gentle Giants]] that ''wear shoes''. Of course, this site presumably being set in medieval times with quite lax witchcraft-prosecuting policies, this is the least of their problems.

->'''Woman:''' Aww, you got me flowers. That's so sweet.
->'''Man:''' THAT'S NOT SWEET. DINOSAURS ARE SWEET.

* There's also ''CadillacsAndDinosaurs''.

* In ''{{Futurama}}: Bender's Game'', Leela and Hermes are watching ''[[TheTwilightZone The Scary Door]]'', this episode about a typical alien invasion being defeated by 'God's humblest of creatures'...The Tyrannosaurus Rex!

* In an early episode of ''TheVentureBrothers'', Brock Samson, while in a LotusEaterMachine, and dreams that he is fighting flamethrower-wielding cowboys. Only, they're riding T. Rexes. Yet Brock, in his sheer awesomeness (and mainly because it's ''his'' dream) easily dispatches them.
* An episode of ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'' has [[MadScientist Heloise]] building a large T-Rex skeleton as an instrument of misery [[MyLittlePanzer aimed at kids]].
* Both ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' feature the titular heroes fighting an animatronic Tyrannosaurus at one point, with ''Superman'' very early on in the first season.
* Because sometimes just a guy in a mask isn't enough for Mystery Inc., the gang has faced dinosaurs (besides dragons, sea serpents, and the Loch Ness Monster) in ''What's New Scooby Doo'' and more recently ''Scooby Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur.''

* The Tar Pits in Sin City feature dinosaur statues. Frank Miller said he put them there as an excuse to draw dinosaurs.