Tyrannosaurus in popular culture
[5] Science writer Riley Black similarly states, "In all of prehistory, there is no animal that commands our attention quite like Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the tyrant lizards.
"[6] Tyrannosaurus was first discovered by paleontologist Barnum Brown in the badlands of Hell Creek, Montana, in 1902 and has since been frequently represented in film and on television, in literature, on the Internet and in many kinds of games.
Brown himself, despite having discovered many other prehistoric animals for the American Museum of Natural History before and after, always referred to Tyrannosaurus rex as "my favorite child".
"[8] On finding Tyrannosaurus, Barnum Brown wrote to Henry Fairfield Osborn, his employer and the President of the American Museum of Natural History, "Quarry No.
"[9] On realizing that the find was unlike anything ever found before, Osborn, according to Robert Bakker, "sat down to construct a name that expressed the position of Mr. Rex in the ecosystem, this apex of carnivory.
According to paleontologist and museum curator Mark Norell, Tyrannosaurus rex "continues to be a subject of fascination, a popular icon, and probably the first dinosaur name imprinted in the minds of children globally.
"[16] Tyrannosaurus rex has played a major role in many films, starting in 1918 with The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, written and directed by stop motion special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.
For his part, Bakker commented that "Willis O'Brien was a scholarly man, anatomically literate he went to the American museum, he saw the skeletons, he thought about them, he saw Knight's paintings and the sculptures.
"[18] O'Brien was again responsible for special effects in the 1933 monster film King Kong, which featured a climactic battle between the giant ape and a Tyrannosaurus.
[20] O'Brien had not originally meant to create Kong, instead seeking to make a film about a lost island of dinosaurs wherein the T. rex would have featured in the climax.
Most of these films inaccurately portrayed the dinosaur with three prominent fingers on each hand like Allosaurus (though Tyrannosaurus had a third, vestigial finger, it would not have been noticeable at first glance);[21] Walt Disney is reported to have informed dinosaur hunter Barnum Brown that "it looked better that way", and the creature was depicted as such as in the Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring segment in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film Fantasia.
[11] One of the first appearances which portrayed a proper posture and anatomy of Tyrannosaurus is the 1984 short Prehistoric Beast,[22] fully conceived and made by Phil Tippett by means of his so-called go motion technique.
In 1985, the 1984 Prehistoric Beast short was served to Robert Guenette to direct a full-length TV documentary film titled Dinosaur!, for which Phil Tippett made new Tyrannosaurus go motion sequences (chasing Hadrosaurus) in addition to those he made for Prehistoric Beast (where Tyrannosaurus was chasing Monoclonius).
One of the most iconic depictions of Tyrannosaurus in film was in 1993's Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs, including T. rex, are brought back to life using blood from fossilized mosquitoes.
In the film's finale, the Tyrannosaurus (also known as Rexy by fans) indirectly saves the main characters by killing the Velociraptors, who had been hunting them through the visitor center.
The popularity of T. rex has long had a reciprocal effect on dinosaur science; the popularity of Jurassic Park factored into the discovery of the dinosaur genus Scipionyx; fossils of this genus had lain in storage in a basement in Italy until the film's release attracted attention from the fossil owner.
In a twist, the same Tyrannosaurus from the original 1993 film reappears as the climactic protagonist in Jurassic World (2015), making an entrance by smashing through a Spinosaurus skeleton.
The IMAX 3D film T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (1998) featured a Tyrannosaurus in various time travel sequences, as well as its discoverer, Barnum Brown.
The T-rex plays recurring supporting roles in Dinosaurs (Roy Hess, Earl Sinclair's closest friend and the Sinclairs' neighbor), Dinosaucers (Genghis Rex, who is the leader of the Evil Tyrannos), Extreme Dinosaurs (T-Bone, the leader of the heroic group of the same namesake) as well as the anime television series Dinozaurs (as "Dino Tyranno" and his short-lived evil counterpart "Drago Tyran").
In Land of the Lost a Tyrannosaurus rex played the villain in both the 1974 series (as "Grumpy") and the 1991 version (as "Scarface", who had a scar covering his right eye).
In the TV anime Wonderful Pretty Cure!, a Tyrannosaurus rex was used by one of the antagonists as the monster of the week for the show's 44th episode.
In literature, a dominant representation of Tyrannosaurus since 1990 has been that of Michael Crichton's, as seen in the novel Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World (homage title to the 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, about scientists discovering a South American plateau where dinosaurs still exist).
Sinclair Oil ads from the 1950s frequently featured T. rex,[24] and products from radio-controlled helicopter models to a rifle cartridge (the .577 T-Rex) have been named after the dinosaur.
In Banjo-Tooie, Humba Wumba turns Banjo and Kazooie into a T. rex for 2 different growth stages in the world Terrydactyland.
As the polymorph spell allows the user to transform someone into a beast temporarily, including themselves or an ally, the creature appears frequently in high-level play.
[31][32][33][34] The manga Dinosaur Sanctuary features an elderly Tyrannosaurus named Hanako residing at Enoshima Dinoland as the only one of her species in the park, with her introductory chapter having the cast celebrating her 36th birthday.
