History Main / InformedSpecies

Some examples are understandable and forgivable, especially if they are also an example of SeldomSeenSpecies, but for the most part Administrivia/TropesAreTools and so is making a character look less like their real world species counterpart due to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail, being able to tell a story easier (as MostWritersAreHuman) and sometimes simply because it looks [[RuleOfCool cool]] and/or [[RuleOfFun fun]]. See also ViewerSpeciesConfusion for a subtrope based on the audience's reaction to a creature, and IAmNotWeasel for in-universe reactions.

Many older examples of SeldomSeenSpecies look and act very little (if anything) like their RealLife equivalents.

** Tarantulas's first toy is meant to be... well, a tarantula, but appears to be more of a generic spider. This is most obvious in the legs, which are very spindly, when tarantulas are known for their thick, bulky legs, the complete lack of any kind of fur, the weird clawed mouthparts that more invoke a solifugid, and the fact that he has nine eyes. Once again, the cartoon redesigned him to look more like a real tarantula, if you forgive the fact that he's bright purple and still has nine eyes. Blackarachnia, his repaint, is at least identifiable as a black widow spider, even though her legs are inexplicably orange. His ''Legacy'' toy bucked the trend by redesigning him to look more like an actual spider, and though he's still purple, thanks to his big forward-facing eyes, small downward-pointing fangs, and arching cephalothorax, he is indeed easy to identify... as a ''wolf spider''.

*** The ''Mamenchisaurus'' look more like ''Diplodocus'' or ''Barosaurus'' in that they don't have a hump or a tail club. Most glaringly, they don't have the extra-long neck this dinosaur is famous for, meaning that they mostly just look like generic sauropods. This may be because the animal was going to be changed to ''Seismosaurus'' (nowadays a species of ''Diplodocus'') during mid-production, but the initial identification as '' Mamechisaurus'' has stuck.

* In [[https://i.imgur.com/3EKyqzJ.png its initial incarnation]], the owlbear of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', despite supposedly being a hybrid of bear and owl, was pretty hard to identify as such: it has bearlike arms and a thickset furry body, but the only owl-like trait it has is a beak, which certainly doesn't look like an owl beak (being almost as large as its head), and feathers on its head, which are so sparsely drawn that they look like scales or armor instead. Add in the gizzard neck, the hunchback, the oddly reduced fur on its limbs (to the point that its paws and feet seem to be hairless), and the T-rex stance with a long thick tail dragging behind it, and one could be forgiven for thinking it's some kind of fantasy dinosaur or possibly an obscure kaiju, rather than the MixAndMatchCritter that it is. This owed to its original design being based less on owls or bears and more on [[https://i.imgur.com/hZhuDbN.png a knockoff dinosaur toy]] Gary Gygax had used as a miniature in his home games. Later redesigns have tried to make it more like its inspirational critters, usually by shortening the tail considerably to give it a bearlike silhouette and giving it a rather obvious owl head.

*** The ''Dilophosaurus'' not only possess non-existent neck-frills (which wasn't even present in the novel) and venomous spit but also a more broad skull, and are also too small (the ''Velociraptor'' and ''Dilophosaurus'' in the first film basically swapped sizes).

*** The ''Atrociraptor'' are basically slightly larger recolors of the JP ''Velociraptor'', ignoring that the real ''Atrociraptor'' was even smaller than ''Velociraptor'' and had a distinctive square-shaped snout.
*** The ''Dreadnoughtus'' look more like ''Apatosaurus'' or ''Diplodocus'', lacking the thick upright necks and more brachiosaur-like proportions of titanosaurs.

*** May be the reason why in the 2014 reboot he is portrayed as a type of Permian reptile instead of a dinosaur. However, suplementary material in the special features of the home release of this movie states that yes, the ''Monsterverse'' Godzilla is a dinosaur as well, but given he originates from the Permian era, it means his species were either the very first dinosaurs or extremely derived dinosauriforms.

*** The ''Velociraptor'' are an infamous case of this, resembling the larger ''Deinonychus''. This is because the [[Literature/JurassicPark novel the film was based on]] described ''Deinonychus'' as being synonymous with ''Velociraptor'', a now-discredited hypothesis proposed by Gregory S. Paul, and also because Creator/MichaelCrichton though ''Velociraptor'' sounded [[RuleOfCool much cooler]] than ''Deinonychus''. And let's not get to the fact raptors should have feathers.
*** The ''Dilophosaurus'' not only possess non-existent neck-frills (which wasn't even present in the novel) and venomous spit but also a more broad skull.

*** The ''Baryonyx'' is a major offender. It has a considerably shorter and smaller skull than the real animal as well as atrophied forelimbs, both of which make it look more like a generic theropod than a spinosaurid. Especially jarring seeing as promotional art for the website of the [[Film/JurassicWorld previous film]] featured a ''Baryonyx'' design much closer to its RealLife counterpart (as this one was drawn by a renowned paleo artist).

** Launchpad [=McQuack=], with his [[LanternJawOfJustice big chin]], looks more like a pelican than a duck.
* Brazilian comic ''Comicbook/MonicasGang'' has three dogs, [[http://p2.trrsf.com/image/fget/cf/460/0/images.terra.com/2014/02/26/floquinho-619.jpg Fluff, a hairy and nearly featureless one that does resemble a lhasa apso]], [[https://super.abril.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/bidu_schnauzer.png Blu, who is not immediately recognizable as a Schnauzer]], and [[https://www.sensacionalista.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sem-T%C3%ADtulo-11.jpg Glu]], who is... an egg-shaped dog. And that's not mentioning how [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife their fur is green, blue and yellow]].

** Kermit himself isn't particularly froglike in appearance. His snout is pointed and while his hands and feet could be called flippers, there's no webbing, so overall he looks more like a tailless lizard than anything else. Jim Henson had, in fact, been using the character design for years before identifying it as a frog.

** Tarantulas's first toy is meant to be... well, a tarantula, but appears to be more of a generic spider. This is most obvious the legs, which are very spindly, when tarantulas are known for their thick, bulky legs, the complete lack of any kind of fur, the weird clawed mouthparts that more invoke a solifugid, and the fact that he has nine eyes. Once again, the cartoon redesigned him to look more like a real tarantula, if you forgive the fact that he's bright purple and still has nine eyes. Blackarachnia, his repaint, is at least identifiable as a black widow spider, even though her legs are inexplicably orange. His ''Legacy'' toy bucked the trend by redesigning him to look more like an actual spider, but the result (if one forgives that he's still purple) looks far more like a wolf spider than a tarantula, mainly in the large forward-facing eyes.

** Tarantulas's first toy is meant to be... well, a tarantula, but appears to be more of a generic spider. The most obvious part is the legs, which are very spindly, when tarantulas are known for their thick, bulky legs, the complete lack of any kind of fur, the weird clawed mouthparts that more invoke a solifugid, and the fact that he has nine eyes. Once again, the cartoon redesigned him to look more like a real tarantula, if you forgive the fact that he's bright purple and still has nine eyes. Blackarachnia, his repaint, is at least identifiable as a black widow spider, even though her legs are inexplicably orange.

*** The ''Dilophosaurus'' not only possess non-existent neck-frills (which wasn't even present in the novel) and venomous spit but also a skull shaped more like a carnosaur lacking the spinosaur-like notch in the upper jaw.

* Some of the characters in ''WebAnimation/{{Hazbin Hotel}}'' don't look that much like the animals they're supposed to be. The most egregious example is Vaggie, who is stated to be a moth but looks like a gray human.

* ''Toys/{{Squishmallows}}'': Elda is an ostrich, but doesn't look the part due to her shaggy rainbow feathers and beak that looks like the snout used for horse and cow Squishmallows.

* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'':
** G2 bombed in most places, bar [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff a few European countries]], because of this. The toys no longer resembled ''ponies'', they looked like ordinary ''horses''. While there is a lot of overlap between the two due to being the same species, ponies are overall shorter and stockier than other horses.
** G1 had "Dream Beauties" which were essentially a predecessor to G2. They didn't look like ponies, with the official consensus seeming to be that they were "teenage ponies". That didn't make much sense though, since most previous ponies were adults and ponies don't suddenly become long-legged during adolescence.
** G3.5 ponies just look off. They don't really resemble anything, besides maybe some sort of dog-horse mix. Their proportions are completely wrong even for SuperDeformed ponies.
** Just like [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the cartoon]], G4 ponies less resemble horses and more resemble deer with manes or weird looking dogs or cats without paws, due to their short muzzles. Celestia and Luna resemble horses, though they're supposed to be tall ponies.
* "Chinasaurs", generic toy dinosaurs named for the only identifiable mark on them being the "Made in China" stamp, can form an entire spectrum of this ranging from "not entirely accurate but recognizable as the intended species" to "it's labeled as a Dilophosaurus but it looks more like a Carnotaurus" to "this looks like it belongs in a collection of alien toys not dinosaur toys". Some of the more baffling cases found a new life as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' monsters (due to Gygax using them as miniatures), including the owlbear, bulette, and rust monster.

* Generic toy dinosaurs named for the only identifiable mark on them being the "Made in China" stamp, can form an entire spectrum of this ranging from "not entirely accurate but recognizable as the intended species" to "it's labeled as a Dilophosaurus but it looks more like a Carnotaurus" to "this looks like it belongs in a collection of alien toys not dinosaur toys". Some of the more baffling cases found a new life as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' monsters (due to Gygax using them as miniatures), including the owlbear, bulette, and rust monster.

* Tippy from ''Manga/IsTheOrderARabbit'' is supposed to be an Angora rabbit, but her ears look more like a cat's ears than a rabbit's, being very short and pointy. It's especially noticeable since the other two rabbit mascots, Anko and Wild Geese, look much more like actual rabbits than Tippy does.

** Rosita was meant to be a fruit bat but she looks more like a blue Elmo or a mutated flying squirrel than a bat. After 13 years they removed her wing flaps and {{retcon}}ned her into being a Monster. The in-series reason for this is that she 'lost' her wings while flying through a cave.

* [[FanNickname Chinasaurs]], generic toy dinosaurs named for the only identifiable mark on them being the "Made in China" stamp, can form an entire spectrum of this ranging from "not entirely accurate but recognizable as the intended species" to "it's labeled as a Dilophosaurus but it looks more like a Carnotaurus" to "this looks like it belongs in a collection of alien toys not dinosaur toys". Some of the more baffling cases found a new life as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' monsters (due to Gygax using them as miniatures), including the owlbear, bulette, and rust monster.

* The titular werewolf of ''[[Film/TheWolfMan1941 The Wolf Man]]'' doesn't really look like a wolf and instead looks more like a cross between a bear and a gorilla. This is because of TechnologyMarchesOn, since at that time special effects and make-up were not sophisticated enough to go beyond adding just hair and fangs or having a dog (or [[Film/{{Nosferatu}} hyena]]) play the role of a werewolf. The [[Film/TheWolfMan2010 2010 remake]], while sticking to the classic design, adds in more wolf-like features such as pointy ears and a muzzle, although the redesign still resembles more of a bear than a wolf.

** Ironically Godzilla himself , who was in fact supposed to be a mutated theropod of some variety, doesn't really look like any real dinosaur so much. Part of this is ScienceMarchesOn, since back in the 50s when Godzilla was created, the classic 'tripod' pose for theropods was still in vogue, but even taking that into account, his head is way too small to be a theropod. Granted, this may be justified on account of his mutation, as his original form, the ''Godzillasaurus'', has a more big head in proportion to its body. Some fans also interpret other incarnations of him as a synapsid.

** Woodstock doesn’t even seem to resemble a bird, with his beak looking more like a big human nose due to the simplistic art style.

** More of an informed breed, but Snoopy and his brothers (and sister) look nothing like real beagles. Notably Snoopy wasn't originally intended to be a beagle, and even denied being one in an early strip. In fact, the character was [[TributetoFido roughly based off of Charles Schulz's childhood dog,]] a Pointer named Spike who was "a mixed breed of some kind." Snoopy's black and white coloring seems to be more of that of a Pointer's or a Dalmatian's, although there are black and white beagles as well. Regardless of whether or not he resembles a real beagle, Snoopy is a perfect portrayal of the standard breed: smart, playful, affectionate, hard-headed at times with a stubborn and independent streak that real beagles are famously known for having.