HOW OUR INTERPRETATION OF DINOSAURS HAS CHANGED THROUGH THE EYE OF POPULAR CULTURE

Since first being described in the early 19^th century and formally named in 1842, dinosaurs have slowly become a steady presence in the public eye through popular culture. But, why does the general public’s view of these creatures differ today compared to their first descriptions? The work of paleontologists over the past 200 years has led to many updates regarding the stances, mobility, and external appearance of dinosaurs and these changes have slowly infiltrated the public persona of dinosaurs. Over the past two centuries, dinosaurs have gone from being seen as slow, dim-witted beasts, as portrayed in early films and books like Brute Force (1914) or The Land that Time Forgot (1918), to quick, lithe creatures like in Jurassic Park (1993) and Footprints of Thunder (1995), an indication of the change from being interpreted as being cold-blooded to more warm-blooded. Their external appearance has changed from being seen as scaly, lizard-like creatures, as in Household Words (1851), to more bird-like with feathers, as portrayed in Jurassic Park: Dominion (2022) and Dinosaur Summer (1998). Dinosaur stances have changed from being seen as strictly quadrupedal, as the Crystal Palace reconstructions of 1853 show, to a wider range of postures (quadrupedal, bipedal, and facultative bipedal) which we see in more recent reconstructions. While not every popular culture portrayal may be correct, the public can stay relatively up-to-date on our recent interpretations of dinosaurs through the works of today’s artists, writers, and film producers.