"Once there was a little dinosaur called a Maiasaur, who lived with his mother. One day, he told his mother, "I wish I were special like the other dinosaurs. If I were a T. rex, I could chomp with my ferocious teeth!" "But if you were a T. rex," said his mother, "how would you hug me with your tiny little arms?" "I wish I were an Apatosaurus," said the little dinosaur, "so with my long neck I could see high above the treetops." "But if you were an Apatosaurus," said his mother, "how would you hear me in the treetops when I told you I love you? What makes you so special, little Maiasaur?" said his mother. "Is it your ferocious teeth or long neck or pointy beak? What makes you special is out of all of the different dinosaurs in the big, wide world, you have the mother who is just right for you and who will always love you."

—The Runaway Dinosaur book^[src]

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptilian animals, most of which are believed to have gone extinct by the end of the Cretaceous period and the time of humans. Despite this, some dinosaurs have interacted with humans due to time travel.^[1]

History

Earth-1

In the area that would eventually become South Dakota, 69,997,983 BC (seventy million years ago, during the Cretaceous period on Earth-1's timeline), the time-stranded Ray Palmer was forced to survive in the world dominated by dinosaurs, encountering at least one female Tyrannosaurus rex (which he nicknamed Gertrude) and possibly a male as well. Ray was confronted by Gertrude before he was rescued by Nate Heywood and Mick Rory.^[1]

When the Waverider crash-landed back in the same geological time period, Ray led Nate and Amaya Jiwe to retrieve a component of the ship, which had ironically ended up in Gertrude's nest. When Gertrude came across them later, Amaya used the Anansi Totem to use the spirit of a T. rex to communicate with the female, resulting in Gertrude leaving them in peace. ^[2]

At some point in time, a few fossil skeletons of dinosaurs were dug up and placed in Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta; GA, which also had at least two life-sized skeleton sculptures of the dinosaurs located at the front of it.^[3] Aside from museums, dinosaurs were also immortalized in literature, with Barry Allen's favorite book as a kid being The Runaway Dinosaur.^[4]

Dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period appeared en masse in 2017's Los Angeles after the actions of the Legends created a time storm and "broke time", however they were relatively quickly captured by Rip Hunter's Time Bureau, and sent back to their time through time courier portals.^[5][6] Later on, Ray, Nate, and Jax discussed the idea of having a small dinosaur as a pet on the Waverider, musing over such species as Aquilops, Compsognathus and Oviraptor.^[7]

Earth-38

This book was also popular on Earth-38, it was translated to Russian and distributed in Kaznia, where the Red Daughter read it.^[8]

Earth-74

A dinosaur skeleton's skull entered the possession of the Earth-74 Legends' Waverider at some point, later itself owned by Mick Rory.^[9]

Earth-Prime

according to Gary Green, the dinosaurs lived at least a few thousand years ago.^[10]

Earth-TUD25

^[11]

Known individuals

Known dinosaur genera

• Apatosaurus^[4]
• Aquilops^[7]
• Compsognathus^[7]
• Oviraptor^[7]

Known dinosaur species

• Maiasaur^[4]
• Tyrannosaurus rex^[4]

Known dinosaurs

• "Gertrude"

Appearances

Constantine

• "A Feast of Friends" (life-sized skeleton sculptures)

Arrow

Season 4

• "Legends of Yesterday" (toy)

The Flash

Season 2

• "The Runaway Dinosaur" (toy; depicted in the book)

Season 4

• "When Harry Met Harry..." (animated life-sized skeleton sculpture)
• "Don't Run" (depicted on t-shirt)
• "Lose Yourself" (animated life-sized skeleton sculpture)

Season 6

• "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 1" (pictured)

Season 7

• "The One With The Nineties"

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Supergirl

Batwoman

Season 1

• "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two" (skeleton/skull)

Superman & Lois

Season 3

• "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (mentioned)

Gallery

Dinosaur sculptures near the entrance of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

Dinosaur skeleton in the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

Dinosaur toy seen in the collection of William Clayton.

John Constantine performs a magic spell, with a dinosaur skull's skeleton stored on board the Waverider.

Trivia

• On most Earths, the dinosaurs were wiped out when a giant asteroid impacting the Earth about 66 million years ago, which triggered the K-T extinction event. However, on the Earth (Earth-38) (and later the Earth (Earth-Prime), which absorbed the history of the former), the K-T extinction event wasn't triggered by an actual asteroid, but by the Jarhanpurians' asteroid-sized spaceship, which crash-landed on Earth-38.
• The way the Legends broke time in 1917^[5] across Earth (Earth-1) forced dinosaurs to appear as anachronisms in 2017's Los Angeles, is similar to how a T. Rex was forced by Deon Owens/Still Force to appear in 2021's Central City on Earth-Prime.^[12]

Behind the scenes

• In real life, Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade Dinosauria (sub-group of clade Dinosauromorpha, class Reptilia), that first appeared during the Triassic period. Today, only theropoda, the saurischian dinosaur group, remains, represented by Aves - birds.
• Although a number of deistic religions in the real world deny the existence of dinosaurs, ironically enough dinosaurs on Earth-1 were first seen depicted in Constantine​​​, a show which also established the existence of God in the Arrowverse, implying that both deistic and evolutionary assumptions regarding the world's prehistory are correct on some level in the original multiverse.^[3]
  • On Earth-Prime, this notion is further supported by Gary Green in "Deus Ex Latrina" when he relates prehistory to at least "a few thousand years" ago, at least for DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

References