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Brontosaurus ("thunder lizard", also called a Brontosaur or simply Bronto) is a species of sauropod (A group of giant long-necked dinosaurs) which existed during the Stone Age featured in the franchise of The Flintstones and was the franchise's most iconic dinosaurs after Dino. They were quite possibly the most important creatures in caveman society, as they were essential for cities around the world, most especially Bedrock, both for their use in construction and as the primary staple food source for caveman society.

Background[]

The Flintstones Comedy Hour - Fred's Big Brag

A wild young brontosaurus in "Fred's Big Brag" from The Flintstone Comedy Hour.

Brontosaurus was a gigantic long-necked dinosaur with a thick scaly hide and an equally long and thick tail. There were many variety of bronto that varied in color, neck length, and with sizes that ranged from large to gigantic. A few also had a bunch of ridges along their back which allowed them to be used as stairs, although these were a bit rarer, and others had horns on their head or on their nose. Despite being hairless, a few brontosauruses did sport small tufts of hair on their head, much like certain breeds of Dogasaurus (specifically the snorkasaurus).

Brontosauruses were of utmost importance to caveman society, serving a wide variety of essential uses to them, with one of the most essential uses of all being construction and food, and as such many brontos were domesticated and very few wild ones were ever seen, but those that were young and wild were very aggressive.

Uses[]

Bronto-Cranes[]

Bronto-Crane

A Bronto-Crane.

Bronto-Cranes were specially trained brontosauruses bred for the sole purpose of construction labor, as their large size made them the perfect animal for doing heavy work. Bronto-Cranes were used for excavation, piling, mining, building, demolition and anything else that was require for the collection of materials and the construction of buildings. Fred Flintstone made a living as a bronto-crane operator and he was one of the few to understand the rig of a bronto-crane perfectly, with his only shortcoming in the field being his desire to goof off. Bronto-Cranes functioned by being controlled through reins tied to their mouths, necks and tails. These reins were fitted to a small cab on the back of the dinosaur which was large enough to hold a single caveman. The reins were operated by a primitive control system of levers and pulleys inside of the cab. Bronto-Cranes however were not without their short comings, as they required constant dental care to keep their teeth in tiptop shape. Even then, they were capable of independent movement on breaks, as one bronto-crane once sat on Fred's lunch.

Other Uses[]

Aside from construction, brontos could be used for any other large scale (and a few small scale) jobs, functioning as bridges, elevators, stairs, transportation, playground equipment, maintenance and most importantly food.

Bronto-Bridges[]

Bronto Bridge - Wacky Inventions

A Bronto-Bridge.

Bronto-Bridges connected all the roads and pathways that led over deep canyons and deep rivers, and for the really long and deep crevices, Bronto-Drawbridges were used, having two brontos instead of one that would link themselves by the tail, and only ever raising their tails for crossing boats, ships and rafts.

Bronto-Car[]

Bronto Police Transport

A Bronto Police Car.

Brontos would occasionally be used as vehicles due to making excellent beasts of burden due to their strength, being used as Bronto-Cars for pulling or carrying heavy cargo in the streets or airports (similar to a truck or carrier), or being used by police to carry a large number of prisoners (although the police would use other animals for the job too), or simply as an alternative to a personal car, which was rare due to their slowness when compared to regular Stone Age cars, but it made them an excellent vehicle for Drive-Ins that gave their owners an excellent view high above all the other cars.

Brontobus[]

Brontobus

A Brontobus.

Their most notable use as a vehicle though was as a bus, specifically a Brontobus. Originally buses were foot-powered like most vehicles and brontobuses were only used to carry cabs on their backs, but by the time period of I Yabba-Dabba Do!, Brontobuses now pulled regular buses (much like a horse-drawn carriage), although regular buses were still in use in places like Hollyrock.

Bronto Elevator Lifts[]

Bronto Elevator Lift

A Bronto Elevator Lift.

Due to their long necks, Brontos also made excellent elevator lifts and were referred to as Bronto Elevator Lifts. Bronto Elevator Lifts would usually function by raising or lowering the stone elevator by pulling it via a rope pulley that was tied to reigns in its mouth or simply tied to the bronto's tail, while other times the bronto could serve as the elevator itself (usually done in quarries) where it would raise or lower passengers by letting them ride on its head. Although hotels would often instead employee broncos, crane birds or monkeys, but rarely monkeys would be used in conjunction with brontos, with monkeys serving as the control panel relaying floor numbers to the bronto lift. The most notable bronto elevator lift was a disgruntled bronto named Otis from the episode "Moonlight and Maintenance".

Bronto-Bowl-a-Rama[]

Bronto-Bowl-a-Rama

The Bronto-Bowl-a-Rama.

Early on during the time period of the original show, the Bedrock Bowl-a-Rama used monkeys-setters and rocktopuses to set their pins, but 20 years later at the time of Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby according to The Flintstones' Wacky Inventions, monkey-setters had been replaced with brontos dubbed Bronto-Bowl-a-Ramas, which were far faster at setting up pins than monkey-setters, able to scoop up all the fallen pins at once with their mouths and spit them out fully organized just as quickly. Unlike most brontos, they had both spiky ridges and a horn on their nose.

Culinary Uses[]

Bronto Burgers and Ribs Drive In

A drive-in that exclusively serves bronto meat.

Quite possibly the most essential and regular use of the brontosaurus was as a major food source, with bronto meat being as essential and common as cow meat is in real life, and although the modern Stone Age already had cowasauruses, cavemen still preferred the large, tasty and filling scrumptiousness of bronto meat. Even other animals like pigasauruses and sea serpents adored the rich juicy taste of bronto meat.

Brontosaurus Fillet Steak New York Cut

A mouth-watering bronto-steak.

Bronto meat was often considered the best of all foods and could be made into a wide assortment of different forms and culinary meals. Bronto Steaks, Bronto Ham, Bronto Beef, Bronto Hash, Bronto Sausages, Bronto Soup, Bronto Dogs, Bronto Sandwiches, Bronto Roasts, Bronto Ribs, and most importantly Bronto Burgers, which were served all across places like Bedrock and beyond in almost every eating establishment, but even all restaurants had at least one example of bronto meat somewhere in the menu and it tasted great with anything it was served alongside of.

Breeds & Relatives[]

Although some were simply called brontosaurus with no unique names, there were a few different varieties of brontosauruses, such as ones with a single horn on top of their head or on their nose (similar to a rhino), ones with ridges on their backs, and ones with ridges and a horn. Those with ridges were often used for stairs alongside other dinosaurs with ridges along their backs.

Dog-like Brontosaurus[]

Joe Rockhead owned a rather unique-looking brontosaurus in "The Babysitters" which unlike others of its kind had a short neck, dog-like behavior and was incredibly small, making it seem like a snorkasaurus. However it was simply called a brontosaurus. In The Flintstone Kids, Dino was depicted as a brontosaurus and all small brontos in this show behaved exactly like dogs as well. In the comic strips, dog-like brontosauruses were regularly shown and could grow to be almost as large as regular brontos.

Broncosaurus[]

For more information about the relative, see Broncosaurus.

Back-Biting Brontosaurus[]

Back-Biting Brontosaurus - The Flintstones Comic Strip - 2-24-1980

A Back-Biting Bronto and her egg from a February 24, 1980 comic strip.

A vicious sabertoothed species of brontosaurus with a fowl temper that becomes even more mean when protecting its egg. Back-biting brontos have a nasty penchant for biting anything that moves, with their favorite biting spot being the back ends of their victims. They only appeared in the 1980s Flintstones comic strips.

Thunder-Brontosaurus[]

Dino in the Great Eggscape - Mama and Baby Thunder-Brontosauruses

A mama and baby Thunder-Brontosaurus.

A thunder-brontosaurus was a gigantic species of brontosaurus, quite possibly the largest dinosaur in the world. Unlike regular brontos, these titans were bipedal and could eat anything, although they were naturally friendly. They were believed to be extinct but at least two are shown to exist in Dino: The Great Egg-scape.

Diplodocus[]

Diplodocus - The Flintstones Daily Comic Strip - Dec

A Diplodocus from the December 1961 comic strips.

A relative of the brontosaurus with an incredibly long and thin neck. Fred hunted one of these beasts and mounted its head as a trophy, however Wilma wasn't eager to have to such a long-necked animal take up so much space in her house.

Ultrasaurus[]

A very large and mighty relative of the Brontosaurus and Diplodocus. Although none have ever been pointed out, the Ultrasaurus Coup cavemobile model was named after this mighty sauropod.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

The Flintstones - F Letter Logo
The Flintstones has a collection of images and media related to Brontosaurus.


Notes/Trivia[]

  • Bronto-Cranes have also alternately been referred to as Dino-Cranes.
  • The dogasaurus breed of snorkasauruses (Dino's species) greatly resemble a relatively small brontosaurus, except they have smaller front feet and are capable of bipedal movement. Although in the ambiguously canon The Flintstone Kids, Dino is claimed to be a dogasaurus by Fred but one episode has him finding his original family in the wild who are all giant brontosauruses, suggesting that Dino is one, at least in this continuity.
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