#trachodon

THE LOST WORLD (1925)

"A natural "mummy" of Trachodon, a Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaur. This unusual specimen shows that the duck-billed dinosaurs had skins of leathery texture and that there were webs between the toes of the front feet."

From Fossils: An Introduction to Prehistoric Life (1962) by William Henry Matthews.

It's been a century since the first adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original novel. This movie holds a special place for me as the first silent film and vintage monster movie I ever saw.

I first learned about the movie from a museum exhibit on Charles R. Knight, and it's easy to see why it was highlighted. More than any other dinosaur film this feels like one of his paintings in motion. Willis O' Brian set the standard for active dinosaurs in film: Sauropods stampede across dry land, while theropods leap onto and grapple their prey. He and his protege Ray Harryhausen would expand on and refine this dynamic portrayal throughout their careers, going against the contemporary scientists' and even Charles R. Knight's characterization of dinosaurs as sluggish, ungainly animals.

Sadly O' Brien's later work did not carry on the Lost World's depiction of dinosaurs as living animals rather than perpetually bloodthirsty monsters. Much of the movie's extensive stop motion is dedicated to dinosaurs going about their business, living in families, hunting or browsing, only occasionally interacting with our human leads. Very few films have the ambition to depict a full on prehistoric ecosystem. It's by no means devoid of sensationalism: the carnivores have a habit of attacking other animals with food already available or losing their meals like klutzes. Still, it took a long time for other films to even differentiate herbivorous dinosaurs from meat eaters.

Even modern dinosaur movies could learn a thing or two about how The Lost World treats its herbivores: while they rarely start fights, they are more than capable of finishing them. Instead of passive meals, the prey animals are often able to repel and even kill their predators, fighting back with a vicious desperation rarely see in movies but all too common in the natural world. This more balanced approach is a breath of fresh air compared to the theropod fixation common in modern palaeomedia.

Modern big budget dinosaur movies could also learn from The Lost World's restraint. The problem with using Tyrannosaurus rex as the baseline Big Theropod is there is nowhere to escalate without pulling things out of your ass (see the Jurassic World movies). T. rex was essentially the final boss of non-avian theropods; while a few other theropods may have matched or slightly exceeded it in length, none were as heavily built, none had such a strong bite, and none combined it with the Tyrannosaurids' impressive suite of senses and intelligence. Tyrannosaurus was described only 20 years prior to the Lost World film, which opts to use the more established Allosaurus as the main saurian antagonist, but highlights the more impressive newcomer during a few key scenes. I often wish T. rex could have remained this seldom seen novelty rather than becoming a tired old measuring stick.

Most relevant to my usual focus, The Lost World is—to my knowledge—the first film to depict a giant monster rampaging through a city. The Brontosaur's frenzied escape from London prefigures much of King Kong's final act (though with a less tragic end), and O' Brien's miniature work holds up pretty well. Even now the large sauropod stands out compared to the giant apes, theropods, and other more fanciful usual suspects.

Edmontosaurus' taxonomic history is quite complicated, with specimens belonging to E. annectens being classified as many other species, such as Hadrosaurus, Diclonius, and Claosaurus, as well as the dubious genera Trachodon and Thespesius, and, now synonymous with Edmontosaurus, the genera Anatosaurus and Anatotitan.