Paleosaurus

Paleosaurus Name information null Alternate names Overgrown AlligatorTGB, BehemothTGB Physical information null Species Dinosaur Height ~100 feetTGB Length ~200 feetTGB Affiliation information null Place(s) of emergence North Atlantic Ocean, Thames RiverTGB Enemies Humans Real world information null Written by Eugène Lourié and Daniel Hyatt Designed by Willis O'Brien Modeled by Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson Other information null

The Paleosaurus is a giant fictional dinosaur who serves as the antagonist of the 1959 American and British giant monster film The Giant Behemoth.

Name

The name "Behemoth" is an Anglicization of the Hebrew name, "Bəhēmōṯ". The name refers to a gigantic land animal referenced in the story of Job from the Torah and Old Testament, as well was extra Jewish apocrypha stories. The word has since become part of the English lexicon to refer to anything of great size . The name "Paleosaurus" is likely derived from the real world fossil genus, Palaeosaurus. The fossil is likely a primitive Sauropodomorph dinosaur, a group with a passing physical similarity to the movie monster. However, the name has fallen by the wayside of modern paleontology due to the remains being very incomplete and indeterminate .

Design

The Paleosaurus has a quadrupedal build resembling a sauropod dinosaur with traits of a European dragon. The limbs are thick and column-like, with reptilian paws at the ends terminating in four clawed toes. Its tail and neck are both long, as lengthy as the torso each, and robust. The face is wide and rectangular in shape, with mobile lips often curling back to reveal a row of sharp teeth in front of a long tongue. Its hide of the creature of covered chiefly in small, pebble-like scales. The dorsum of the animal from the back to the tail is lined by short, triangular spines similar to those seen in medieval depictions of dragons and sea monsters.

While filmed in black and white, production images and the poster give the creature a dark green coloration.

Origins

In The Giant Behemoth, the Paleosaurus is a genus of dinosaur known from fossils. A living specimen was irradiated by nuclear waste dumping, possibly spurring it to grow magnitudes larger than the known fossils while also being lethally radioactive.

History

The Giant Behemoth

Likely awakened and mutated by nuclear waste dumping in the upper Atlantic ocean, the Paleosaurus became lethally irradiated and was slowly being poisoned by the radiation. It sought the Thames river in the United Kingdom, as its species sought out bodies of freshwater they instinctively remember when they sense their death approaching. Maddened by the radioactive elements in its body, the creature periodically released pulses of electricity as a defensive ability which carried lethal doses of the radiation to anything close by. American radiation specialists Dr. Steve Karnes, having previously given lectures on the dangers of radioactivity on marine life, became aware of these events and investigated alongside his British mentor, Professor James Bickford.

Karnes and Bickford discovered the death of a fisherman who'd suffered from radioactive poisoning after he witnessed the dinosaur coming ashore, with the dying man's last words being "Behemoth". This along with the discovery of a giant footprint matching fossilized tracks led to the two to speculate a living dinosaur was the culprit of the odd happenings. Their belief is further vindicated when a passenger ship is attacked at sea, left radioactively contaminated and all passengers lost.

After killing scores of marine life and several fishermen in in-route to the River Thames, tracking the creature proved difficult as its unique energy output made it all but impossible to accurately track on radar. The creature made landfall in London, catching authorities by surprise, and went on a lengthy rampage. Flattening cars and irradiating crowds of fleeing civilians, it shrugged off efforts by the British army to stop it. Enraged after getting shocked by a series of power lines, the Paleosaurus tore the towers and cables down and caused a large fire. Making its way towards the Tower of London, it was startled by the powerful spotlights shined on its face and stomped down on the London Bridge. Collapsing the structure, the Paleosaurus swam off into the sea.

Efforts to kill the creature were complicated by its highly radioactive body, with the worry that a sufficiently powerful enough explosive to kill it could spread contaminating tissue and fallout across London. The alternative idea was to induce a more rapid onset of the radioactive poisoning already affecting the creature by means of a radium filled torpedo. Steve Karnes disembarked in a submarine armed with the torpedo to confront the creature in the River Thames. After an initial setback, a successful launch and injection of radium managed to kill the dinosaur. However soon after, scores of irradiated dead fish began to appear across the Atlantic on the American coast; implying another Paleosaurus would soon appear.

Trivia

• The Paleosaurus also appears together with the Rhedosaurus in card #10 of the Topps trading card series Dinosaurs Attack!, "Italy Under Siege!". The two dinosaurs are shown fighting each other at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.