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The Rhedosaurus is a fictional giant carnivorous man-eating lizard-like monster from the 1953 American film The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

Origins[]

The Rhedosaurus is the last remaining representative of a lizard-like dinosaur species that managed to survive beyond the K-T extinction event. This species existed as early as the Middle Paleolithic era, which coincides with the period when the specific individual in the film became frozen in the Arctic.

History[]

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms[]

The Rhedosaurus in the film was one of the last surviving members of its species, awakened by a nuclear weapons test in the Arctic. It made its way down the North American coast, destroying everything in its path and ending up in New York, its original home. Attempts to kill it were complicated by an ancient disease, it carried; spilling its blood freed the plague, which was almost as deadly as the reptile itself. The Rhedosaurus was eventually killed at Coney Island when a radioactive isotope was shot into a wound on its neck, both fatally wounding it and also neutralizing the disease. As the Rhedosaurus succumbed to the isotope, a fire it started by destroying the machinery of a roller coaster spread across the island. The Rhedosaurus burst free of the burning coaster and roared out defiantly before finally collapsing to the ground, dead.

Abilities[]

Infectious Disease[]

The Rhedosaurus' blood contains a deadly germ that can enter the bodies of other organisms which cause severe sickness and eventually death.

Durability[]

The scaly dermis of the Rhedosaurus provides it with remarkable resistance to firearms and armored vehicles, rendering it impervious to harm.

Fangs and Claws[]

The Rhedosaurus has razor sharp teeth and claws that allows it to do severe damage to it's attackers.

Gallery[]

Roar[]

Trivia[]

  • The Rhedosaurus, along with King Kong, was one of the main inspirations for Godzilla. For example, Godzilla's title during developments was actually Daikaijū from 20,000 Miles Under the Sea (海底二万哩から来た大怪獣) whose storyline was also similar; an ancient dinosaur gets awakened by nuclear testing in Bikini Atoll and comes to destroy Tokyo.
  • Parts of Rhedosaurus's model was later used for the dragon in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.[2]
  • Stephen Czerkas constructed a stop-motion Rhedosaurus model for the 1977 film Planet of Dinosaurs, where it battles and is killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. According to animator Jim Aupperle, "Stephen and I both place the Rhedosaurus among our top favorite of Ray's myriad monsters. We felt that by giving the great Beast a cameo in our film we were acknowledging the immense debt we both feel to Ray. We had to make the Rhedosaurus more of a baby size because one as large as the original would have made a meal of our Tyrannosaurus instead of the other way around."[3]
  • A creature resembling the Rhedosaurus briefly appeared in the 1970 film When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, though whether it is meant to be an homage to the Rhedosaurus is unclear.
  • The Rhedosaurus appeared in the 6th episode of the 2nd season of ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
  • A monster named Babonga appeared in Batman comics is a tribute to Rhedosaurus.
  • Rhedosaurus makes a cameo in the first episode of the Netflix-original anime Godzilla Singular Point as a drawing.
  • The roars of the Rhedosaurus were originally used in various Looney Tunes cartoons. It was also heard in the 1952 film the lion and the horse.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects by Roy P. Webber
  2. Mark F. Berry, 2015, The Dinosaur Filmography, p.36, Performing Arts
  3. [Harryhausen, Ray, and Tony Dalton. A Century of Stop Motion Animation: From Melies to Aardman. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2008. Print.]
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