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Man, look at that old school looking fossil!
And I’m not just saying that cause it’s a dinosaur.
………….
Do you get that…does that make sense?
Oh, I get it. You’re calling it fossil because it looks old, as in the illustration is out of date. But it’s funny because it’s also a dinosaur.
Thanks Ghost in a Jar, you always were good at pointing out potentially obscure comedy.
I’m a Rick and Morty reference.
Shunosaurus is one of those dinosaurs that seems to be a staple in children’s educational dinosaur books, but doesn’t really appear all that much outside of that. It’s pretty easy to see why Shunosaurus would be featured in a lot of kids books; for one it’s a sauropod, which everyone knows are the coolest kinds of dinosaurs. But after a while to a kid all those hundreds of sauropod genus’ tend to look alike, especially in poorly illustrated kids book art. So, what makes Shunosaurus so special?
It has a club tail!
Yep, I remember as a kid seeing this dinosaur in a book for the first time, my mind was blown. To me it was like someone mixed a sauropod and an ankylosaur and made the resulting creature a real thing. I thought the idea of a sauropod with a club tail to be insanely awesome, which may be one of the reasons this particular genus is seen a lot in children’s dinosaur books.
But, why hasn’t this creature really appeared all that much in pop culture? It seems like just the kind of dinosaur cartoons and movies would love to sensationalize. I can hear it now…
MEET SHUNOSAURUS!! IT’S LIKE A BRONTOSAURUS AND AN ANKYLOSAURUS HAD A BABY!!! WATCH IT BASH THE BRAINS OUT OF PREDATORS WITH IT’S LETHAL CLUB TAIL!!!!
ONLY AT JURASSIC WORLD!!!
So, why hasn’t the media latched onto this awesome animal? Well, I could come up with a few reasons.
I think this dinosaurs biggest problem is that the creature comes from a somewhat obscure time and place when it comes to dinosaur time periods….Middle Jurassic China.
You see, to dinosaur popular culture; all dinosaurs either lived at the same time or place, or came from one of two eras:
Late Jurassic America…
….or Late Cretaceous America.
If the dinosaur can’t fight Allosaurus or T. rex, than what’s the point? The creatures of Middle Jurassic Asia are mostly unknown to the general public, and the ones who do vaguely know about them from the dinosaur books they read as a kid just see them as less cool versions of their favorite dinosaurs from more famous time periods and regions.
Sinraptor? That’s just Allosaurus lite!
Yep, Shunosaurus just doesn’t appear a lot in media because most people just wouldn’t know how to use him. The most hope we have of seeing this guy is in educational/edutainment shows, like Dinosaur Revolution.
Shunosaurus does make a pretty substantial appearance in said show. The creature is featured in it’s own segment displaying how dinosaurs may have had the ability to distinguish plants that are edible and plants that are poisonous apart from each other. However, this thinly veiled attempt at an educational angle was merely an excuse to show a Shunosaurus tripping balls after eating a hallucinogenic mushroom.
Yes, this really happens.
One of these days I really need to talk about this show.
Shunosaurus also appears in the anime/card game Dinosaur King as well as the IOS game Jurassic Park Builder, but really, these particular properties show off so many species of dinosaurs that really it would be surprising of this particular genus didn’t make and appearance.
Yep sadly Shunosaurus doesn’t really have a lot of onscreen credits, which I think is a shame since I think this is a dinosaur that the general populace would eat up if given the chance. But strangely enough, Shunosaurus wasn’t the only sauropod with a tail club. A close relative of this dinosaur also sported this feature, is seen much more in popular culture, yet rarely depicted with the club.
It was Mamenchisaurus.
You’d be surprised how hard it is to find an image of this dinosaur with it’s coolest feature.
So is say this: Shunosaurus should be in more movies and TV shows, and Mamenchisaurus should be depicted with the tail club a lot more than it is! Dinosaur Revolution has my back!
Ugh, I can’t believe I said that.
My next post on When Dinosaurs Ruled The Mind will be the return of another long lost series, Trope-osaurus. In it, we will answer the long pondered question: did dinosaurs roar?
whendinosaursruledthemind 
i’m probably the only person who think sauropods look sorta lame for dinosaur standards i mean does camarasaurus even compare with ceratosaurus, styracosaurus or ankylosaurus. the only exception to this being shunosaurus because of the ankylosaurus-tail thing it has.
( my opinions can chance by the second so take this with a grain of salt. )
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Well, the reason I love sauropods so much is the fact that just looking at them you just automatically think ‘dinosaur’. Something about them just perfectly captures the spirit of the entire Mesozoic.
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huh i’ve looked at them in such a way…..
i did say to take it with a grain of salt as my opinions can chance by the second.
the worst example of which would how i feel towards monster hunter khezu.
the one moment i wish they never came to existence, the other i’m loving the thing.
plus i think with monster hunter cross’s new sauropod ‘small’ monster ( not a boss ) i might take more of a liking towards them.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/monsterhunter/images/9/99/MHX-Rimosetosu_Screenshot_003.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150626002408
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Shunosaurus also appeared in the Japanese Xbox game Dinosaur Hunting (which you should try reviewing sometime in the future).
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Ha ha ha ha, I remember that mushroom scene! Actually, I think it’s the only time I’ve ever laughed myself to tears during a dinosaur doc. I dunno, just something about how its vision went all LSD and it looked around like, “Duuuuuude, have you ever really, like, LOOKED at your tail? Duuuuude…” I’m pretty sure that segment was actually in ‘Dinotasia’, however, but it could be in both that and DR because they were made by the same people.
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Yeah, with so much of that show you can tell that it was supposed to be a silent movie before it was made into a narrated documentary.
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You’re right, and a show that would’ve fared better if it were allowed to stand on its own without voiceovers? That sounds familiar somehow… *coughWalkingWithDinosaurs2013cough*
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I may have said this before, but I think you should really do Australovenator wintonensis. This dinosaur deserves a lot more recognition than it currently gets. Give Aussie dinosaurs a place in the spotlight!
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