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Video Games Need Better Dinosaurs. Paleontologists Can Help

WIRED

In 1982, one of the first 3D games ever released doubled as one of the earliest examples of survival horror. In the pixelated 3D Monster Maze, you not only had to find your way out of a maze but survive being hunted by a T. rex. In the decades since, the dino-horror genre has only grown, from 1999's DinoCrisis to 2016's Far Cry Primal, but dinosaurs have also become more than in-game monsters. We've seen dinosaurs as allies (Yoshi, Pokemon), dinosaurs as attractions (park sims like Zoo Tycoon or Jurassic World), or dinosaurs and their fossils as collectibles (see the in-game markets of Sims or Animal Crossing). The way games have depicted both ancient animals and the paleontologists who study them has gotten richer and deeper as time has passed--though there's still plenty of pixelated T. rexes chomping off people's heads.