DINOMANIA! Long-Gone Lizards Still Stir Our Imagination

They have parlayed their fame far longer into the afterlife than even Elvis, and are now roaring back in a new wave of popularity.

Disney's mega-budgeted $127.5 million Dinosaur,a hybrid movie that seamlessly blends computer-generated images with real backgrounds is just the latest offering to what our insatable curiousity for the gigantic reptiles that have thrilled and facinated us since 1841, when British scientist Sir Richard Owen first coined the name Dinosauria, Greek for "terrible lizard".

Pinning down exactly when dinosaurs first made their indelible impression on our popular culture is sketchy at best. "Gertie the Dinosaur", which followed the adventures of a friendly sauropod, was created by New York newspaper cartoonist Winsor McKay, better known for the landmark comic strip Little Nemo, and is today regarded as the worlds first animated motion picture. The 1930s strip Alley Oop, who's refined cave man made his way around on the back of his trusty dino-steed named Dinny and One Million B.C., the historically clumsy flick that, like its 1966 remake, inacuratly depicted life-and-death conflicts between prehistoric man and a variety of maurading dinos also aided in keeping the fearsome beasts a hot commodity.

In all, dinosaurs have starred in some 150 movies, exhibiting a surprising range of emotions and talent from cute and cuddly in such lighthearted fare as The Land Before Time and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story to playing the heavy in edge of your seat thrillers as Steven Spielberg's box-office bonanzas Jurassic Park and its follow-up, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both of which account for a combined take of $1.5 billion worldwide and are among the top 10 money makers of all time. The third installment of the successful series is set for a Summer 2001 release.

Even Barney, the portly purple dinosaur, who's TV show holds millions of children spellbound has managed to land a spot on Forbes annual list of top grossing entertainers.

And it doesn't end there - dinosaur images splashed across everything from T-shirts to tote bags, calendars, jewelry, sleeping bags, and books have become a merchandising juggernaut. Rick Anguilla, editor of Toy and Hobby World magazine, estimates that dinosaurs are worth nearly $50 million a year to just the toy industry alone.

"They're out of place today, even though they were real," says Jay Stevenson, co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dinosaurs". "They clearly don't belong in our world. So they have this very fantistic appeal."

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