History Main / GentleGiantSauropod

Contributing to their popularity, the largest sauropods, such as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentinosaurus Argentinosaurus]]'', comprise all the current contenders for largest land animal to have ever lived. As a result, they tend to be featured a lot in numerous forms of media, usually as very docile and [[GentleGiant friendly]] animals that spend their time migrating from one land to another in search of trees. This perception often comes from the assumption that they were so big as to have no predators and had such abundant food that they wouldn't need to be territorial, leaving them with little reason for aggression. In reality, some sauropods (especially as babies) ''were'' small enough to be preyed on by large theropods, and it's also believed that even the largest sauropods had predators [[note]] Particularly, carcharodontosaurid carnosaurs like ''Giganotosaurus'' ''Mapusaurus'' [[/note]] that had specialised traits ''specifically'' to hunt them! Meanwhile, elephants (their modern-day counterpart as the largest land animal) are in a similar situation yet can be ''very'' territorial and aggressive.

Contributing to their popularity, the largest sauropods, such as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentinosaurus Argentinosaurus]]'', comprise all the current contenders for largest land animal to have ever lived. As a result, they tend to be featured a lot in numerous forms of media, usually as very docile and [[GentleGiant friendly]] animals that spend their time migrating from one land to another in search of trees. This perception often comes from the assumption that they were so big as to have no predators and had such abundant food that they wouldn't need to be territorial, leaving them with little reason for aggression. In reality, some sauropods (especially as babies) ''were'' small enough to be preyed on by large theropods, and it's also believed that even the largest sauropods had predators that had specialised traits ''specifically'' to hunt them! Meanwhile, elephants (their modern-day counterpart as the largest land animal) are in a similar situation yet can be ''very'' territorial and aggressive.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in a big way in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' with Slag, Sludge, and Snarl, three Dinobots based on the ''Triceratops'', ''Brontosaurus'', and ''Stegosaurus'' respectively, if only because they tend to spend most of their time in their alt-modes. Slag is a hothead who will GLEEFULLY turn his metal melting flame breath on anything that irritates him, or that he even thinks is irritating him for that matter. Snarl could give Grouchy Smurf lessons and doesn't much care who his tail smacks when he's walking around. Sludge MIGHT be considered gentle if he wasn't such a dim-bulbed klutz he that caused localized disasters when he moved around. An early two part episode of the original series even had the Autobots have to banish all five Dinobots because they were simply too destructive.