MovieChat Forums > One Million Years B.C. (1967) Discussion > Is this the only film to feature both a ...

Is this the only film to feature both a pteranodon and a pterodactyl?


We see a pteranodon abduct the lovely Loana in order to feed yer young and then a rival pterodactyl flies in to kill the mother pteranodon and eat her young. I don't think I've ever seen a film to feature both winged reptiles. Dinosaur films often have a pteranodon and lable it as a pterodactyl, but this is the only one I know of to actually feature both.

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"Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?"

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This is the only one that I know of, and I've seen almost every dinosaur movie ever made, twice, at least.

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have you ever seen "la isla de los dinosarios" 1967 Mexico?

was very fun

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Hi! It's been a long long while since I last watched this classic movie. If my memory serves me well a Pterodactyl abducts the lovely Raquel and a Dimorphodon attacks it. You can tell it's a Dimorphodon because of the tail and also teeth visible on the jaws. Both Pterodactyl & Pteranodon's lack teeth. I hope that clears it up. Regards.

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Sorry, just read your post about the "DVD edit" and the narrator calling the Pteranodon "winged reptile with giant teeth". You are definitly right they have got the wrong species alright. It is definitly a Dimorphodon which were renowned for attacking smaller Pterodactyls for food. Also the Dimorphodon and Pterodactyl are approx same size, approx 8.5ft(2.5 metres). According to records the Pteranodon is really HUGE 40ft(12 meters).

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OK, OK. On further research (clambering into loft and getting video tape out) It might be a Rhamphorhynchus that attacks the Pterodactyl. According to google images, this is what resembles the reptile on screen the most. Oh and Petrodactyl do have teeth! bugger my memory. LOL. But I still believe a Pteranadon is not involved in this scene. Isn't it way too big? What do you think Skye?

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For what it's worth...the second "flying reptile" is based on Rhamphorhynchus, as indicated by 1) the long tail with the diamond-shaped tip and 2) a note in the book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life. He admits to making the animal considerably larger than the real one, which in reality was only about a foot long. But it looks impressive, and in a film featuring both cavepeople and dinosaurs anyway...

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Yeah you're right DinoGuy. Thinking about it more I meant Rhampy instead of Dimor'. Been awile since i got my Dino hat on! But still the dimensions on the dino's confused me. Was the Allosaurus ever that small - just above human size? And whats the name of the Dinosaur that gets killed by the Triceratops? My minds at a loss for a moment.

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Again, according to the book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, the depicted allosaur was intended to be a juvenile specemin. I'm assuming they started out small.
The meat-eater involved in the fight with the Triceratops is a Ceratosaur, as indicated by it's nose horn.It's actually a Jurassic species, while the Triceratops is from later on in the Cretaceous. I know, nitpicking...
I need a life.

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There was a flying reptile known as a pterodactylus from the genus pterodactyl, and that is what appears in the film fighting the pteranodon. The Rhamphorhyncus skull would be very very long, like a gar fish...Rhamphorycus's were very tiny although that didn't stop Jim Danforth from creating a twenty foot wingspan on one in WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH.

No one has animated a Dimorphodon yet, but they would really be cool because their heads are so demonic looking. (Don't let the fact that they are only the size of pigeons bother you...you can make them as big as you want...it's fantasy after all.)

There was this beautiful tall painting in the American Museum of Natural History in New York (the painting's still there) of all the pterosaurs all different types, flying around and nesting on this seaside cliff at sunset. It was a way of putting the critters in one place so that the viewer could see them all and relate each other in size and shape.

Now of course, there are hundreds of different flying reptiles that have been discovered since then in fossil form, one, as big as a jet plane. I always felt they should have called that big boy, Rodanadon....but that's just me. :)

Allosaurs ain't that big anyway...the one in the Valley of Gwangi is the size of a T-rex and they were not. There is an allosaur (adult) skeleton in the Natural Museum in Los Angeles and he isn't much bigger than the one depicted in the MILLION YEARS film...

However ALL of the other creatures are much bigger than they would be in real life....but that's show biz.

(P.S. There was a rhamphoryncus in stop motion form in LOST CONTINENT (1951) and another one in an older movie called MYSTERY OF LIFE. He gets around!)

http://www.woodywelch.com

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DinoGuy, you rock man!!!!

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I didn't even notice the tail or the teeth on the second one. I guess I really wasn't paying attention, huh?

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Both Pterosaurs are overly fictionalized, due to their bat like wings. One of them has the typical crest sticking out of its head, so it could be called a Pteranodon. The other is similar to Rhaphorhynchus, but its tail is much too short and lacks the typical appendage at the end. It seems like a mix of various species of Pterosaurs, so let's label it a generic Pterodactyl.

The Pterosaur in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth was most definitely a Rhamphorhynchus though.

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Looked more like gorgorsaurus to me.

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