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Dinosaurs are a group of extinct animals mentioned in the DreamWorks Dragons Franchise.
Description[]
Dinosaurs are classified as the Clade Dinosauria and represent a wide variety of creatures that dominated the Earth's fauna about 200 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. All dinosaurs are now extinct, though birds are thought to have evolved from a particular group of dinosaurs and may be considered 'modern' dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are thought to be reptiles, but there is much scientific debate over this classification.
Dinosaurs encompassed both carnivores and herbivores, and creatures from the size of a chicken to those far surpassing the size of a building. There are both bipedal and quadrupedal species, as well as those that could ambulate in either stance. Many were equipped with razor sharp talons and teeth for hunting, while others were defensively equipped with spikes, horns, plates, domes, or frills.
One specific creature referred to as a 'dinosaur' in the franchise is the Pterodactyl. However, Pterodactyl was not a dinosaur but actually a Pterosaur which lived during the same age as dinosaurs. Pterosaurs were bird-like prehistoric reptiles that were featherless and came in a variety of sizes, from smaller than a human hand to taller than a giraffe. They possessed bat-like wings made of skin stretched between elongated fingers, and many species sported extravagant crests.
Function[]
In real life, while non-avian dinosaurs are extinct, their bones are widely popular to look at and for scientific research.
Within the franchise the purpose dinosaurs serve is to compare them to the various dragon species, given both are powerful reptilian creatures. As well as many of the dragon species and their designs were inspired by various species of dinosaurs mainly therapods, sauropods and ceratopsians.
Appearances[]
Dragons: The Nine Realms[]
Season 1[]
In "First Flight, Part 2", when Jun looks at Tom's drawing of the Night Light in the fissure Tom isn't quite sure exactly he saw and thinks it could've been a giant bat or moth but comes to realistic conclusion of it being some sort of pterodactyl or flying dinosaur until Jun protests that it could be a dragon.
Season 5[]
In "Welcome to the Wonderful World of Dragons", when Olivia sees Feathers she's amazed to see a reptile with actual feathers but then states that most theropod dinosaurs also had feathers, to which Alex angrily corrects her that Feathers isn't a dinosaur.
Other Mentions[]
Speed Stinger[]
Dragonpedia describes the Speed Stinger as "The Velociraptors of the dragon world". The Speed Stinger's appearance itself was heavily based of a Velociraptor or other theropod dinosaurs.
Death Song[]
Dragonpedia describes the Death Song as having a "distant Jurassic ancestor". This most likely refers to the Dilophosaurus from the Jurassic Park franchise, which also possessed frills and shot gooey venom. However, this is a purely fictional concept because, in reality, Dilophosaurus did not have frills, nor shoot venom.
Trivia[]
- Dean BeBlois has a strict rule about no magic or superpowers of any kind being a part of the franchise. This has led some fans to theorize that dragons evolved from the dinosaurs, or that they are a part of the Archosauria clade, which encompasses birds, crocodilians, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs.
- In "Dragons of the Undead" and "Uncharted Territory", dragon bones are shown, but these bones resemble to that of a Tyrannosaurus rex, these are models from the Netflix original Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous series, which is also made by DreamWorks.
- Despite the Deathsong being based off Jurassic Park's Dilophosaurus, the amber it shoots is possible a reference to how in Jurassic Park they procure Dinosaur DNA in which they extract blood from ambered mosquitoes.
- Many of the sounds used for the dragons were used from dinosaurs in media such as the Jurassic Park franchise.
