Dinosaur (dinosaur)

The name or term "Dinosaur" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Dinosaur (disambiguation).

There's a party in my mouth, and only really depressing people are invited.

Dinosaurs are a form of archosaurs that dominated the Earth during their existence. Scientific consensus holds that most of them, minus birds, became extinct 66 million years ago; however, in the various Transformers continuities, this belief is often reassessed.

Dinosaurs' most prominent influence in Transformers culture is serving as the altmodes for some of the most dangerous (and occasionally ludicrous) Transformers of all time.

Fiction

Earl Norem dinosaurs: AWESOME! Chronology: not so great.

Big Looker storybooks continuity

When the Autobots' spacecraft crashed into the Earth four million years ago, the mighty dinosaurs fled in terror. Battle for Cybertron

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The Land Before Time XXIII: The Great Robot Adventure

Dinosaurs were understood to have been sluggish and stupid. They dragged their tails on the ground, and theropods walked fully upright. A number of dinosaur bones were found in a cave near the Ark, prompting the Autobots to investigate further. Hound and Spike Witwicky visited a museum to take holographic scans of the reconstructed dinosaur skeletons on display there. This led them to develop the Dinobots, five rebellious (yet extremely powerful) Autobots, who proved time and again a match for an army of Decepticons. S.O.S. Dinobots

A selection of dinosaurs survived the mass extinction of 65 million years ago and lived on into the present on the time-displaced, and energy-rich, Dinobot Island. After discovering the location of the island, the Autobots found themselves tangling with some of the wildlife there. Dinobot Island, Part 1 The Decepticons also discovered the island and set about harnessing its energies, until Grimlock harnessed the power of the island's dinosaur population to kick them out. Dinobot Island, Part 2

Trypticon was built by the Constructicons with a dinosaur primary mode. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 Other dinosaur Transformers included Sky Lynx, Thief in the Night and the cassette warriors, Slugfest and Overkill. Call of the Primitives

Transformers who have dinosaur altmodes have something known as "dinosaur electrons" within their systems. Transformation causes these electrons to release dinosaur transform static. Thief in the Night

Japanese cartoon continuity

Victory cartoon

The Dinoforce consisted of six Decepticons with sentient dinosaurian Pretender shells and the ability to combine into Dinoking.

Beast Wars II cartoon

Brother, I think my horn has a rash.

Gigastorm, Galvatron's younger brother, took the form of a theropod dinosaur by thinking of the might of dinosaurs while submerged in Angolmois Energy. He then remade two Combatrons into Cyborg Beasts, one of which was Thrust, who was rechristened Thrustor when he became a cyborg Velociraptor.

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

The Predacon lineup consisted primarily of a number of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

Marvel The Transformers comics

Shortly after the Ark crashed on Earth, the Ark's defense systems detected Cybertronic life on the continent of Antarctica. The Ark sent a drone to investigate, and it discovered Shockwave roaming around in the Savage Land blasting dinosaurs with high-powered X-rays. The Ark determined that Shockwave was a threat and rebuilt five Autobots into forms it assumed were the dominant form of life on the planet, the dinosaurs the drone discovered. The Last Stand

Four million years later, Ratchet visited the Savage Land and passed a dinosaur in his shuttle. Repeat Performance!

Earthforce

These stories do not fit into the normal Marvel continuity. See Earthforce for details.

By 1992 the dinosaurs of the Savage Land were suffering from an unidentified disease that drove them insane and ultimately killed them. When the Dinobots returned, searching for the control crystal from their shuttle to help save Snarl from Corrodia Gravis, they discovered that a human paleontologist named Professor Embrey was using it to keep the disease at bay from healthy dinosaurs. Ultimately, they let Embrey keep the crystal and transferred Snarl's mind into the body of a Stegosaurus. Destiny of the Dinobots!

Transformers '84

Counterpunch noted that one description of the clash between Shockwave and the Dinobots involved living dinosaurs but given that the beasts had been extinct for sixty million years at the time, he doubted that this was the case, instead theorizing that AUNTIE had extrapolated the Dinobots' new beast modes from fossilized remains. Secrets & Lies #2

Milton Bradley mini-comic

When the Ark crashed on prehistoric Earth, the ship's computer detected that Soundwave had jumped overboard at the last minute. It scanned the local life forms and repaired four Autobots with dinosaur alternate modes. The Dinobots found Soundwave shooting dinosaurs in the face and attacked him, eventually burying him and themselves under tons of rock. The Transformers

2005 IDW continuity

Six hundred thousand meta-cycles ago, Shockwave foresaw Cybertron's eventual exhaustion of natural resources. To ensure their survival, he seeded many worlds with Energon ore and waited. He arrived on the world later to be known as Earth to regulate the growth of the valuable Ore-13. Unfortunately, the Autobot Dynobots, lusting for revenge after Shockwave had defeated them in a skirmish, followed him to this world. To endure the intense energon radiation on this world, the Dynobots assumed the forms of long-extinct dinosaur species. Spotlight: Shockwave

Hearts of Steel

Both the Autobots and Decepticons assumed the forms of these doomed reptiles upon arriving on Earth, which was in the grip of one of its ice ages. Hearts of Steel #1

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Beast Wars cartoon

It's not the size, it's how you use it.

By now, dinosaurs were understood to have been quick and agile, with theropods like Tyrannosaurus rex holding their bodies parallel to the ground. After crash-landing on a primitive world that was later revealed to be Earth, the Predacon renegades Megatron and Dinobot used scans of fossils to assume the forms of extinct dinosaurs—a dwarf Tyrannosaurus rex and a giant Velociraptor respectively—as their beast modes to survive on this energon-soaked planet. Beast Wars (Part 1)

One...two...three...RED LIGHT.

After Dinobot's betrayal, Megatron cloned him. This clone was completely biological and unable to transform out of its dinosaur mode. Double Dinobot

When the alien Vok Planet Buster superweapon that threatened Earth was destroyed, the resulting quantum surge altered Megatron's structure. His new, more powerful Transmetal body allowed him to transform into an entirely mechanical Tyrannosaurus with flight capabilities. Aftermath Later, Megatron used the alien Transmetal driver to create a drone army of Velociraptors with Cybertronian enhancements. Cutting Edge Refining his experiments, Megatron subsequently created Dinobot II, a Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot with a skeletal cyborg Velociraptor beast mode. Feral Scream Part 1

3H comics

So how did the Oracle get a Triceratops from Velociraptor DNA?

The Dinobots were created by the Oracle using dinosaur DNA information from Dinobot's spark. Most of the members had true dinosaur alternate modes of a Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and a mechanical Velociraptor. Magmatron also joined the team although only one of his multiple beast modes is actually a dinosaur.

Beast Wars II comic

Magmatron, Guiledart, and Saberback were an actual Giganotosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus before being evolved by Angolmois Energy. The Beast Wars "Neo" Begin!!!

Unicron Trilogy

Energon

Americans will never find me here...

The Terrorcon Cruellock is a theropod dinosaur, but with a distinct Japanese giant monster influence.

Cybertron

He acts tough but keeps disappearing when Grimlock walks in the room.

A Spinosaurus is the beast mode of choice for one of Scourge's underlings, Undermine, and his brother Repugnus.

2003 Dinobots toyline

Walmart released an exclusive mini wave of figures in 2003, which over a decade later would be classified as Robots in Disguise (2001) characters. There is really no story behind these figures other than the fact that they are the Dinobots. The members with true dinosaur alternate modes are Grimlock, Snarl, Triceradon, and Slapper.

Animated continuity family

Animated cartoon

Open the door / Get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur

Grimlock and Snarl are dinosaurs (a Tyrannosaurus rex and a Triceratops) while Swoop is a Pteranodon. They form the Dinobots, based on animatronic robots that had entertained the public. Blast from the Past

A robot sauropod with guns on its sides. Awesome.

Zaur lives on Cybertron and is frightened of organics. He is a brontobot, a species which bears a remarkable resemblance to sauropod dinosaurs. This Is Why I Hate Machines

Time-Quake

While conducting time experiments, Professor Simion Hawkins time-displaced a number of dinosaurs, including a Tyrannosaurus rex which Bulkhead fought. When the Autobots tracked the professor down, he held them off by transporting more dinosaurs forward in time, leading them to fight a Triceratops. Time-Quake

Live-action film series

Doesn't look like an Iguanodon and his adopted family of lemurs can survive that.

Approximately 65 million years ago, a mysterious race known only as the Creators came to Earth with plans to cyberform it using the Seeds. The native dinosaurs were caught in the blast radius, and while a few escaped, the rest were killed when they were coated with the substance dubbed by humans as transformium. This resulted in the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which humans would initially believe to have been the work of an asteroid impact. Age of Extinction

Memo had a collection of dinosaur toys in his room. Bumblebee

After being awoken by an AllSpark fragment, Jetfire, confused and disoriented, had trouble remembering what his mission profile was. In his confusion, he briefly believed that the Seekers were there to destroy the dinosaurs, but Mikaela Banes informed him that they were long since dead. Revenge of the Fallen

Power Core Combiners

More like "Dino-and-one-Synapsid-bots", am I right?

The Autobot Grimstone, who transforms into a mechanical Styracosaurus, can combine with four drones, a Parasaurolophus, a Pachycephalosaurus, an Ankylosaurus, and a Dimetrodon.

The toy box mistakenly identifies Grimstone as a Triceratops and the Dimetrodon drone as a Spinosaurus.

Shattered Glass

Grimlock, who transforms into a Tyrannosaurus, was created by the heroic Decepticons. He was deactivated by Megatron for being too violent. Optimus Prime reactivated him and he joined the Autobots. Grimlock's profile card Wheeljack created the Dinobots based on Grimlock's design. Some of these Dinobots were kept by the Decepticons and renamed Dinocons. Dungeons & Dinobots

In his search for Soundwave, Heatwave went to Wyatt's Roadsideaganza, where he mistook two of the displays for real dinosaurs that tried to attack him. He destroyed both displays and some more. The Desert Heat!

Aligned continuity family

Rescue Bots cartoon

"Shhh, it's just napping."

The Griffin Rock natural history museum had a number of robotic dinosaur exhibits Family of Heroes which incorporated actual dinosaur DNA. Land Before Prime After a fire, Chief Burns and Graham were almost crushed when the head fell off one damaged model. The Tyrannosaurus rex, sporting damage that went unnoticed, later went for a stroll and had to be subdued by the Rescue Bots before being returned to the exhibit. Family of Heroes

Doc Greene later reprogrammed the damaged dino into a butler and dubbed it Trex. It was used by a mysterious figure to access the island's mainframe and, infected by a virus, it began rampaging through town again. Return of the Dino Bot

Some dinosaurs were living in a cavern far below Griffin Rock. Some of them emerged through a sinkhole onto Wayward Island and were in danger of becoming a tourist attraction before the rescue team was able to send them home, though not before Optimus Prime had acquired a Tyrannosaurus rex alternate mode. Land Before Prime When the dino mode resulted in Optimus becoming feral, Boulder took on a Triceratops mode in order to test the cure he'd developed. Big Game The other Rescue Bots took on dinosaur modes after Quint Quarry demanded Doc Greene build him dinobots. Quarry's Quarry

Fall of Cybertron

Shockwave was fascinated by the lifeforms he spotted on Earth called dinosaurs, and used them as inspiration for strange experiments where he changed the bodies of Grimlock and the fellow members of his strike team. Once Shockwave was done, the team possessed the ability to transform into dinosaurs! Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

IDW Prime comics

Shockwave created organic clones of the same dinosaurs he used as models for the Dinobots, and tried using Energon to give them life. However these dino-clones could not survive long in the oxygen-less atmosphere of Cybertron, so Shockwave kept them inside stasis tanks to keep them alive.

Grimlock and Swoop found the laboratory Shockwave had stored them in, and the bones of a dino-clone that had already escaped its tank and expired. The two Dinobots subsequently came up against a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Stegosaurus, a Triceratops and a Pteranodon as they broke out of the tanks. The attack soon spilled into Last Spark where the other Dinobots were, but the dino-clones began to combust and soon exploded, leaving nothing behind but a huge puddle of Energon. Beast Hunters issue 3 Beast Hunters issue 4

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

The Dinobots were a subspecies of Transformer with alternate modes based on dinosaurs, and included Grimlock and Scowl. Similarly Different

IDW Robots in Disguise comic

Animatronic dinosaurs were among the many attractions at Fun-A-Rama. After damaging one of the robotic dinosaurs during a nighttime excursion, Grimlock was forced to masquerade as a replacement for several hours. Fire, When Ready!

Rescue Bots Academy cartoon

The dinosaurs living below Wayward Island eventually migrated to the surface, repopulating the island which was renamed Dino Island. A triceratops temporarily escaped the island via GroundBridge when Grimlock and the recruits visited. Dino Hard

Ask Sideways

Sideways claimed he killed the dinosaurs. What a bastard! Ask Sideways, 30/6/2015

Of Masters and Mayhem

Dinosaurs and pterosaurs were among the many anomalous species on Chicxulania. When a group of Decepticon deserters led by Thrashclaw decided to live on the planet, they adopted new beast modes based on the local dromaeosaurs, which would protect them from Energon radiation. Life Finds a Way

Cyberverse cartoon

Shortly before the Ark launched, Maccadam told Bumblebee and Windblade to find "the king of the dinosaurs." Maccadam's When the Ark, operated entirely by Teletraan-1 at this point, arrived over Earth, a hull breach sent Grimlock hurtling out the craft and onto the primitive planet. To survive, Grimlock reformatted himself into a Tyrannosaurus rex beast mode and became the leader of the dinosaurs before an asteroid impact wiped them all out. Some 65 million years later, Bumblebee and Windblade understood Maccadam's advice and found Grimlock who mourned his now-extinct organic friends. King of the Dinosaurs Sometime after 2007 on Cybertron, Grimlock met the Dinobots, a group of Cybertronian colonists who had seen a message that Grimlock had sent from prehistoric Earth showing his dinosaur friends and took dinosaur modes to homage them. The Immobilizers

Notes

• A number of Transformers, such as Terrorsaur, Brimstone, Sling, Swoop, and two thirds of Magmatron, are treated as if they have dinosaur alternate modes and/or are called Dinobots. However, in all cases, these are animals which are either only closely related, very distantly related, or so distantly related it's like saying that you're a crocodile. But that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to the casual portrayal of dinosaurs in popular culture, so we're not judging.
  • However, other Transformers such as Airazor, Laserbeak and Squawktalk do technically have dinosaur beast modes, as birds are classified as theropod dinosaurs by scientists, but they are not identified as such.
• The consistency of science in the franchise's depiction of dinosaurs has been getting slightly better over the years, but still has many issues. At the very least, the franchise has managed to (mostly) avoid serious failures in research as science progresses; very few dinosaurs have been portrayed as walking upright since G1, for example. Age of Extinction even gives its Psittacosaurus quills!

See also

• Jurassanoid

External links

• Dinosaur at Wikipedia