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History of Dinosaur Movies
Gertie The Dinosaur
1914, Winsor McCay
Page 5 of 7
- Some of Gertie The Dinosaur
is very accurate scientifically, but some of it was either made up because
McCay didn't know any better, or because he wanted to be entertaining.
For example, the first thing that Gertie does is to eat a tree!
- We all know that is is nearly
impossible, but it is still very funny!
Gertie also tosses a little wooly mammoth named "Jumbo" into the lake, and later she drinks the entire lake! Mammoths and dinosaurs did not really live together, but McCay used the elephant because P.T. Barnum's "Jumbo" (a huge elephant whose skeleton is sometimes displayed at the AMNH) was very popular in those days. There is also a strange, three-wing flying animal in the cartoon that never existed.
But McCay did get some things right. Gertie walks on the land without water supporting her. Paleontologists at that time thought that Brontosaurus was too heavy to stand up without the support of water.
In addition, it is an interesting coincidence that in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, all of the dinosaurs are cloned as females! Once again, McCay was ahead of his time.
And... Gertie can dance!