Pteranodons appeared in the films The Valley of Gwangi and One Million Years B.C. Commonly described as a flying dinosaur, Pteranodon actually belonged to a group of prehistoric reptiles known as pterosaurs or "Winged Lizards" that inherited the skies from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous, where they met their extinction along with the dinosaurs.
Origin[]
In exception to the small Rhamphorhynchus, Pteranodon's were over 18 feet in length, certainly capable of lifting a human. Pteranodon lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous, but in The Valley of Gwangi, the creature survived in a remote forbidden valley in North America, along with other North American Late Cretaceous dinosaurs that survived the extinction. Pteranodons are also the most well-known pterosaur, due to a large number of fossils, more is known about Pteranodon than any other dinosaur. Pteranodons and other Pterosaurs shared a common ancestor with dinosaurs, within the archosaurae family, but evolved membranes along its fingers and waist enabling them flight. Pterosaurs ruled the Earth along with their relatives the dinosaurs for millions of years, until they reached their extinction possibly by competition with birds. Its survival may perhaps be then attributed perhaps to the valley's apparent lack of (predatory) birds.
One Million Years B.C.[]
As the Shell tribe began swimming, a Pteranodon swooped down, attacking the Shell Tribe, during its attack, it kidnapped Loana, flying off to feed her to its chicks, but while trying to feed Loana to its chicks, however, it was attacked by a Rhamphorhynchus, and while fighting the Rhamphorhynchus, it dropped Loana into the ocean on accident, even though Loana survives falling into the ocean and rescued by Tumak, the Rhamphorhynchus then finishes off the Pteranodon, causing it to crash-land and die, and the Pteranodon chicks were killed and devoured by the Rhamphorhynchus, Tumak mistakenly believed the Rhamphorhynchus was eating Loana at first, though in reality, Loana survived, but injured from the Pteranodon, in spite of this, Tumak and Loana managed to reunite.
The Valley of Gwangi[]
A Pteranodon is first seen flying from what appears to be a cave for a few second.
As Tuck, T.J., and the rest of their cowboy group made their way to the remote forbidden valley, the Pteranodon swooped down and attacked the cowboy group, it managed to grab Lora, but while flying away with Lora in its clutches, the latter proved to be too heavy for the Pteranodon to carry, resulting it landing to the ground, right before it battled Tuck, T.J. and the rest of their cowboy group, Carlos managed to grab a hold on the Pteranodon's head, though the former's first attempt to break the latter's neck failed when the Pteranodon freed itself from Carlos' grasp, but Carlos' grasped the Pteranodon's head again, only this time, he successfully snaps its neck, killing it, not long afterwards, when an Allosaurus, named Gwangi made his presence, and as he walked right on the dead Pteranodon, he briefly came face-to-face with a Styracosaurus, whom drove him away, as Gwangi leaves, he took the dead Pteranodon with him to feed on.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Pteranodon (One Million Years B.C.).jpg (59 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Harryhausen's pterosaurs have bat like wings whereas Willis O'Brien's pterosaurs depicted them more accurately with a huge vast mebrane with spread from the waist to all the way to a single elongated finger bone. However, Harryhausen has since stated that he did not make One Million Years B.C. for "professors...who probably don't go to see these kinds of movies anyway." [1]
- The scene with the Pteranodon and Rhamphorhynchus fighting would appear to be referenced in the 2015 dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic World. In the movie, one of the park's administrative assistants is carried off by a Pteranodon before others swoop in to fight over her. She is subsequently dropped into an oceanarium and devoured by its inhabitant [2].
References[]
- ↑ One Million Years B.C. at Wikipedia
- ↑ Jurassic World at Wikipedia