Brontosaurus

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Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus in King Kong (2005)
Brontosaurus in King Kong (1933)
Brontosaurus in The Lost World)
Alternate names Apatosaurus ajax or Apatosaurus louisae[citation needed]
Species Brontosaurus excelsus, Brontosaurus parvus or Brontosaurus yahnahpinreal life, Brontosaurus baxteriKK05
Length 75 feetKK33[1],
80-120 feetKK05[2]
Weight 20 tonsKK33[1][3]
Neck length ≥20 feetKK05[4]
Allies Other Brontosauruses
Enemies Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rexTLW, humans, Venatosaurus
First appearance Latest appearance
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain King Kong (2005)
Roar(s)
The Lost World:
N/A
King Kong (1933):Son of Kong:King Kong (2005):
Bruce Baxter: “Are you sure about this, Denham? Don't we have a stand-in for this type of thing?
Carl Denham: “I need you in the shot, or people will say they're fake.
Bruce Baxter: “Nobody's gonna think these are fake.
Bruce Baxter and Carl Denham prepare to shoot footage of the Brontosaurus herd (King Kong)

Brontosaurus is a famous genus of extinct large sauropod dinosaurs that lived during the Late Jurassic Period. A Brontosaurus appeared in the 1933 film King Kong, while multiple Brontosauruses appeared in the 2005 remake of the same name.

Ecology

The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island

Specifically pertaining to the Brontosaurus baxteri species native to the 2005 King Kong film, after living on Skull Island for millions of years, their ancestral Brontosaurus population on Skull Island had evolved to give live birth, usually in litters of two to three. This was done to give calves, who could walk within hours of birth, the advantage of maneuverability to escape Skull Island's vicious predators. Herds were led by a single bull Brontosaurus, who let off pheromones that prevented non-alpha Brontosauruses from reaching sexual maturity, so as to keep it as the father of all young. When females matured, they left to form new herds, leaving beta males, who seldom reached the size of a female, behind, where they were effectively distractions for predators to keep the breeding stock safe. If predators did attack while grazing, Brontosauruses could send warnings to other members of the herd by stomping their feet on the ground, allowing the vibrations to sound the alarm.

History

The Lost World

A Brontosaurus, whilst looking for food, is first seen knocking over the tree the researchers cut down to get across to the plateau with the tree falling over the cliff edge of the plateau, leaving them stranded. The Brontosaurus is later seen being watched by the researchers and battling an Allosaurus, biting the neck of it before falling over the edge of the plateau and landing in a bog. Multiple Brontosauruses are seen amongst the other creatures stampeding when the volcano erupts but at least some are shown to have survived. The Brontosaurus is discovered to be alive in the bog by the researchers when they get to the bottom of the plateau, and they prepare to transport it back to London to prove their story; however, the ropes around the cage break as it is being unloaded and it begins to rampage around London until it walks onto Tower Bridge and collapses it, swimming along the River Thames and out to sea. It is last seen in a still picture swimming in the ocean.

King Kong (1933)

A Brontosaurus chasing after the Venture crew in King Kong (1933)

While the Venture crew pursued King Kong across Skull Island to rescue Ann Darrow, they came upon a large swamp. The men created a raft and attempted to cross the swamp, but the head of a Brontosaurus suddenly emerged from the water and destroyed the raft, grabbing several of the men in its mouth and tossing them away like ragdolls. Those who escaped swam to the shore and proceeded to run away into the woods, but the Brontosaurus climbed out of the water and followed them, charging through the forest and mounting a second attack. Jack Driscoll, Carl Denham and several other members of the crew scaled trees to escape, but those who were unable to follow them were quickly killed by the dinosaur. After roaring at the survivors, the Brontosaurus returned to the water and disappeared.

Son of Kong

A Brontosaurus briefly appeared as Skull Island sank into the Indian Ocean.

The King Kong Show

A Brontosaurus walking through the forest

A Brontosaurus briefly stomped through Mondo Island.

Kong: The Animated Series

Brontosauruses in Kong: The Animated Series

A group of Brontosauruses lived on Kong Island and were frequent background characters.

King Kong (2005)

A herd of Brontosauruses in King Kong (2005)

While searching for Ann Darrow, who had been kidnapped by King Kong, Carl Denham and his crew came upon a herd of Brontosauruses grazing. Denham attempted to film the dinosaurs, but the Brontosauruses suddenly became agitated and began to stampede. The crew ran from the herd, with many of the men being trampled beneath the sauropods' massive feet. Denham and the others soon learned what the Brontosauruses were running from; a pack of Venatosauruses, small predatory dinosaurs descended from dromaeosaurs. The Venatosauruses pounced on their prey, causing the Brontosauruses to fall over, crushing the humans beneath them and causing rock slides, while some of the men were mauled by the Venatosauruses. Eventually, Denham and some of his crew managed to escape the stampeding herd and continued their trek through the island.

Kong: King of the Apes

"The Primordial World Below"

Far beneath the surface of the Earth, a Brontosaurus population survived the millennia undiscovered until several humans and King Kong fell into their subterranean world through a volcano. Two were spotted when they landed, and they later mistook a herd of their legs for a forest, and were nearly trampled by them before managing to escape unharmed.

Books

King Kong (1932)

While resting in a Skull Mountain Island lagoon, an aquatic Brontosaurus was disturbed by the crew of the Wanderer floating over the top of its submerged body in a makeshift raft. The Brontosaurus then lifted its head out of the water directly under the craft, breaking it to pieces in the process. The raging dinosaur chased after the fleeing sailors onto land, and bit into a sailor who had climbed a tree in an attempt to escape it.

Kong Reborn

In the year 2009, a species of muddy yellow sauropods inhabited the swamps and waterways of Skull Island. While capable of coexisting with other species, as a young individual was seen wading while other animals drank, adults were gigantic and incredibly territorial. Two of them, possibly a male and a female, attacked a group of human scientists traversing the swamp. They charged and killed all but five of the team before one of the sauropods fell to their gunfire. The other yellow beast backed off for awhile, but came back when a helicopter came to rescue the survivors. The beast trampled three of them while running toward the machine, and reared up on its hind legs to attack, badly damaging one of its legs in the process. Despite this, it continued its attack, and all but beheaded itself in the process. However, the dinosaur did not stop its attack, despite its severed head. It damaged the helicopter beyond capacity to take off. Its body then crushed the vehicle, leaving no survivors. The two corpses were quickly leaped on by the scavengers of the island, from insects to birds and reptiles.

Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World

A herd of Brontosauruses lived in a valley in the Skull Island jungle, and they were discovered one day by a small group of humans. However, shortly after this encounter, the herd became frightened by an approaching pack of giant venatosaurs and began to stampede.

Kong's Kingdom

One day in a jungle clearing, a lone Brontosaurus ran away from a pursuing Carnotaur.

King Kong (2005)

While grazing in a narrow valley, a herd of Brontosauruses were happened upon by a group of human filmmakers just as a pack of Venatosauruses made their move. Sensing the danger, the sauropods began to flee. Shaking the ground with their steps, they ran toward the humans as the predators snaked in between and around them. Their thundering footsteps caused small rockslides off the valley walls, but when one man turned to shoot at a Venatosaurus, he missed and struck the lead Brontosaurus, who toppled over and tripped all of the stampeding dinosaurs behind it. The wall of sauropods were crawled over and preyed upon by the Venatosauruses before they moved on to the running humans.

Comics

King Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World

While a herd of Brontosauruses were traversing one of the ancient streets in the jungles of Skull Island, a group of humans drew close in order to film them. However, shortly after they began to shoot, a pack of Venatosauruses leaped off of ledges on the streets and attacked. This prompted the Brontosauruses to began to stampede, and trample on the filmmakers. Out of fear, one of the humans shot at the front-most Brontosaurus, causing it to trip and fall. This lead to the rest of the herd tripping over its wounded body, resulting in a massive pile-up of the dinosaurs. The Venatosauruses snapped at some of the Brontosauruses as they walked over the dense pile to get to the smaller prey.

Video games

Gallery

Main article: Brontosaurus/Gallery.

Roar

Brontosaurus roars and sound effects in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie


Trivia

  • At the time the original King Kong was made, it was believed that sauropods like Brontosaurus were too large to be able to live on land and support their own body weight. For this reason, the Brontosaurus in the film is portrayed as an aquatic dinosaur, and is also portrayed as being violent and carnivorous. Scientists now know that Brontosauruses were fully terrestrial herbivorous dinosaurs.
  • The depiction of Brontosaurus in the original King Kong represents the animal at a time when it was sometimes considered to be a distinct genus from Apatosaurus, a related sauropod dinosaur. It was later decided that, as a whole, Brontosaurus was just another species of Apatosaurus, and thus the genus fell out of usage in the first half of the 20th century. However, in the early 21st century, the genus was revived again and determined by another team of paleontologists to be truly separate from Apatosaurus.

External links

References

This is a list of references for Brontosaurus. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Bill of Fare for 'King Kong' Monsters". King Kong pressbook. RKO Radio Pictures. 1933. p. 4.
  2. Falconer, Daniel, Weta Workshop (22 November 2005). The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island. Pocket Star. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4165-0519-8.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Monsters of Creation's Dawn Break Loose in Our World Today!". King Kong pressbook. RKO Radio Pictures. 1933. p. 6.
  4. Burns, Laura J.; Metz, Melinda (13 December 2005). King Kong: The Junior Novel. HarperKidsEntertainment. p. 63. ISBN 0-06-077304-9.

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