History Main / TerrorDactyl

* ''Franchise/DuckTales''
** One episode of the [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 1987 series]], "Dinosaur Ducks", features a giant pterosaur that resembles a ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a ''Pteranodon''-like crest, bat-like wings, and eagle-like talons. It is shown attacking planes that come across its territory, ripping off the wings of smaller ones with its feet, and it apparently lays oversized eggs in a bird-like nest.

* ''Franchise/DuckTales''"

*** "Quack Pack!" briefly shows a photo of Donald getting carried off by a ''Ludodactylus''-looking pterosaur with tooth-like serrations lining the beak and bony rods supporting the wing[[note]]which is jarring given the ''Pteranodon'' from the abovementioned short and the ''Geosternbergia'' skeleton seen in Scrooge's garage both correctly didn't have this trait[[/note]]. At least it's not carrying him with its feet (which still have two toes in front and one in back).

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales''"

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJNdCFptI6k Meet Scrooge!]]" short features a bird-footed ''Pteranodon'' with two toes in front and one in back, apparently naked (though the art style makes it hard to tell), does not have enough fingers (though that could be chalked up as cartoony art simplicity), and has weird-looking wing membranes attached to the hips.
** "Quack Pack!" briefly shows a photo of Donald getting carried off by a ''Ludodactylus''-looking pterosaur with tooth-like serrations lining the beak and bony rods supporting the wing[[note]]which is jarring given the ''Pteranodon'' from the abovementioned short and the ''Geosternbergia'' skeleton seen in Scrooge's garage both correctly didn't have this trait[[/note]]. At least it's not carrying him with its feet (which still have two toes in front and one in back).

** The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJNdCFptI6k Meet Scrooge!]]" short features a bird-footed ''Pteranodon'' with two toes in front and one in back, apparently naked (though the art style makes it hard to tell), does not have enough fingers, and has weird-looking wing membranes attached to the hips.

* [[TheDinosaursHadItComing Being seen as backwards, maladapted, evolutionary failures]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil that exist only to be a predatory menace]]. Pterosaurs were as much a part of the tree of life on Earth as any other animal, and as such were every bit as adapted for survival until their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: a pink one resembling a giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a short ''Pteranodon''-like head crest, and a blue one with orange stripes that looks like an oversized ''Pterodactylus''. Buck, Crash, and Eddie hitch a ride on the first one to rescue Sid from [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]] but are followed by a flock of the second, resulting in a daring aerial canyon chase. The blue pterosaurs also seem to be [[SuperPersistentPredator ludicrously insistent]] on hunting the mammals regardless of personal risk, resulting in many of them being shot down by explosive berries (including a brief gag of one [[InflatingBodyGag accidentally swallowing one]]) and the remaining few blindly flying straight into Lava Falls. The pink one is a subversion, though, as it doesn't actively menace anyone and simply flies away once all is said and done (and another one of its kind even showed up as a steed of Buck's in [[WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild a later spinoff]]).
** Several of the blue pterodactyls also make an appearance in the extended version of the short "No Time For Nuts", with one of them snatching up Scrat and his acorn with its feet shortly after he winds up in the dinosaur age.

Note that an inaccurate pterosaur by itself does NOT qualify as an example -- ArtisticLicensePaleontology covers that already, so examples must be evil/antagonistic ''and'' inaccurate to qualify here. Nonetheless, there do seem to be a number of common traits to most such portrayals aside from [[KillAllHumans the inexplicable urge to attack the protagonists on sight]], including:

Note: An inaccurate pterosaur by itself does NOT qualify as an example. Examples must be evil/antagonistic ''and'' inaccurate.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: a pink one resembling a giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a short ''Pteranodon''-like head crest, and a blue one with orange stripes that looks like an oversized ''Pterodactylus''. Buck, Crash, and Eddie hitch a ride on the first one to rescue Sid from [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]] but are followed by a flock of the second. It results in a daring aerial canyon chase.
** Subverted when one of the blue pterodactyls has himself transformed from being a terrifying threat.

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%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1327060341023562100

[[quoteright:310:[[WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TURU1_6856.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:310:At least it's not a pterodactyl.[[note]]But the name ''Pteranodon'' misses the first "o".[[/note]]]]

* WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}, naturally for a creation of Website/{{Bogleech}}, has plenty of monster designs inspired by weird and wild real-world biology, so its takes on this trope can get quite odd indeed. Granted, Bogleech normally [[ShownTheirWork does his research]] on the animals his monsters are based on, so it's almost guaranteed that these monsters was intended to be deliberately over-the-top.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': Early installments feature many late surviving extinct species and pterosaurs are among them -- one even makes an appearance in the first episode as a StarterVillain. These pterosaurs have ''Pteranodon'' as the obvious baseline inspiration, but they're scaled up to near kaiju levels and look significantly more monstrous and cartoony, with scaly skin, teeth, dragon tails and talons. They're never referred to by any genus name, but they ''are'' referred to as "dinos", which appears to be treated as a blanket term for prehistoric reptiles in the series.

** ''Film/JurassicWorld'': The ''Pteranodon'' (toothless this time) still portrayed as DeathFromAbove, and also joined by a different pterosaur: ''Dimorphodon''. These are depicted as aerial predators (the real life ''Dimorphodon'' was a harmless insectivore/hunter of small animals), and physically resemble emaciated bat-wyvern creatures with toothy jaws instead of beaks. Notably, this film is one of the first pop-culture work to depict ''Pteranodon'' plunge-diving for food like pelicans or gannets, [[ShownTheirWork something they likely did in real life]], and it also remembers their sexual dimorphism (having short, stumpy crests when female). The ''Pteranodons'' that show up in the prologue of ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' inexplicably use the same models as this movie, but one is shown diving into the water, showing that this behavior was not limited to the modern-day hybrids from ''Jurassic World'' proper.

* ''Series/OddSquad'': One episode, "6:00 to 6:05", features Precinct 13579 being attacked by a small pterosaur after a mass breakout from the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Dinosaur Room]]. The [[{{Pun}} odd]] thing is, the pterosaur is quite clearly a ''Pterodaustro'', a filter-feeder that was the Cretaceous equivalent of a flamingo, and is depicted as being about [[AnimalsNotToScale half the size of a real one]].

** Smaller ''Pteranodon''-like pterosaurs, called Soarasaurus, serve as the AirborneMooks of Terrydactyland. They are a counterpart of Isle 'O Hags' Gruntydactyls, which are actually dragons or wyverns rather than pterosaurs.

** Also from the Ectosaur class, and with even more BodyHorror thrown in, is the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/vaporgeist.htm Vaporgeist]]. It looks like the Crystal Palace depictions of pterosaurs crossed with a disembodied pair of lungs, bearing a branching tubular snout instead of a beak that can [[BreathWeapon spray clouds of]] [[DeadlyGas poisonous gas]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'': Turu the trained (and toothed) ''Pteranodon'' is depicted as gigantic and bipedal, and is shown grabbing Dr. Quest with his feet and carrying him away through the air. He is also unrealistically durable, surviving multiple hits from bazooka rounds (although they eventually send him plummeting to his doom into a tar pit).\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The final segment of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS30E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXIX Treehouse of Horror XXIX]]", parodying ''Jurassic Park'', has Agnes Skinner transforming into a bipedal pterosaur that tries to eat people (namely her own son's arms).

This is a subtrope of ArtisticLicensePaleontology. See SomewhereAnOrnithologistIsCrying for the avian version and SomewhereAHerpetologistIsCrying for a reptilian version. See also GiantFlyer, AllFlyersAreBirds, DinosaursAreDragons (because pop culture pterodactyls are often surprisingly similar to [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent wyverns]]), and TerrifyingTyrannosaur (for when tyrannosaurs are the ones depicted as scary).

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs The third film]], set in a LostWorld with LivingDinosaurs, features two flavors of this trope: a pink one resembling a giant ''Rhamphorhynchus'' with a short ''Pteranodon''-like head crest, and a blue one that looks like an oversized ''Pterodactylus''. Buck, Crash, and Eddie hitch a ride on a the first one to rescue Sid from [[InevitableWaterfall Lava Falls]], but quickly find themselves under attack by a flock of the second, resulting in a daring aerial chase that stalls them until it's very nearly too late. Several of the blue pterodactyls also make an appearance in the extended version of the short "No Time For Nuts", with one of them snatching up Scrat and his acorn with its feet shortly after he winds up in the dinosaur age.

* ''VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries'': ''Sonic and the Secret Rings'' has King Shahryar (played by Dr. Eggman) getting snatched away by a ''Pteranodon'', which picks up Shahryar with its beak instead of its feet.

Note: An inaccurate pterosaur by itself does NOT qualify as an example. Examples must be evil/antagonistic ''and'' innacurate.

Note: An inaccurate pterosaur by itself does NOT qualify as an example. An example must be evil/antagonistic ''and'' innacurate.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': The beginning of "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E40PlayDate Play Date]]" has a ''Pteranodon'' that carries Finn and Jake with its small wing fingers. At least it isn't its feet this time.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In the arc introducing the Transmogrifier Gun, Calvin asks Hobbes to transmogrify him into a pterodactyl so he can terrorize the neighborhood. Instead, he is transmogrified into a cartoony ''Cearadactylus''-like pterodactyl which is no bigger than a duck, much to his dismay as he believes pterodactyls are big (which is ironic as his pterosaur form is the right size for a ''Pterodactylus'') and his puny form won't be terrorizing anyone.

* ''WebOriginal/DinoHunter2sAges'': The [[https://www.deviantart.com/dinohunter2/art/The-Pterodactyl-868474830 Pterodactyl]] Legend plays this trope as straight as can be. An almost wyvern-like aerial menace with vulture-like traits, its passive ability enables it to seize objects and other Legends with its talons, and its grapple attack has it pick up its enemy and drop it to the ground. It can also Scatter enemy forces with its non-combat "Roar" ability (a terrible screech), and its main attacking ability is to rush forward [[BeakAttack beak-first]], allowing it to Spear through multiple opponents.

** One of the oldest monsters in the archive is the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/pteracide.htm Pteracide]], an acid-spraying flyer that's next to naked with a skull that looks nothing like any real pterosaur, but is quadrupedal and supports each wing with one finger. Of all the monsters to play with this trope, it's the only one that actually flies, since it was created before Bogleech's design rules for this world came around (one of which is that monsters inspired by winged creatures should generally be flightless, and if there's an exception, it had better be for a very good reason).

* WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}:
** [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/pteracide.htm Pteracide]], an acid-spraying flyer that's next to naked with a skull that looks nothing like any real pterosaur, but is quadrupedal and supports each wing with one finger, and much later, the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/gunkergeist.htm Gunkergeist]], a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot flightless ghostly azdharchid]] that [[SuperSpit spits gobs of]] GreyGoo at its prey. The artist in question normally [[ShownTheirWork does his research]] on the animals his monsters are based on, so it's almost guaranteed that these monsters was intended to be deliberately over-the-top.
** Played slightly straighter, and with even more BodyHorror thrown in, is the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/vaporgeist.htm Vaporgeist]], which looks like the Crystal Palace depictions of pterosaurs crossed with a disembodied pair of lungs, bearing a branching tubular snout instead of a beak that can [[BreathWeapon spray clouds of]] [[DeadlyGas poisonous gas]].

* ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/dinohunter2/gallery/584047/terra-monstrum Terra Monstrum]]'': Rodan is one of the main {{Kaiju}} characters in this Franchise/{{Godzilla}} fanfiction, taking on a more prominent role than in the films' canon after Godzilla himself is permanently killed by Mechagodzilla. Despite being stated to be a "pterodactylid", Rodan doesn't look too different from the versions in the franchise proper which mostly play the trope straight themselves; specifically, he resembles a mix of the Showa and Millenium versions with the added addition of bird-like talons and serrated, blade-like wings. Despite his monstrous appearance and fierce temperament, though, [[NonMaliciousMonster he's still one of the good guys]].

* ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/dinohunter2/gallery/584047/terra-monstrum Terra Monstrum]]'': Rodan is one of the main {{Kaiju}} characters. Despite being stated to be a "pterodactylid", he doesn't look too different from the versions in the franchise proper which mostly play the trope straight themselves; specifically, he resembles a mix of the Showa and Millenium versions with the added addition of bird-like talons and serrated, blade-like wings. Despite his monstrous appearance and fierce temperament, though, [[NonMaliciousMonster he's still one of the good guys]].