50 Dinosaur Writing Prompts
These 50 Dinosaur Writing Prompts will get you writing, have you ever wondered what it would be like if dinosaurs suddenly appeared in modern times? Or rampaged through famous historical events? I’m fascinated by the idea of these prehistoric beasts interacting with humans throughout history. It fires up the imagination with exciting, hilarious, and sometimes horrific possibilities!
I’ve put together a list of 50 writing prompts that explore ideas of dinosaurs being transported to various points in human history and going on rampages. Just picture velociraptors terrorizing Wild West cowboys, a T-Rex crashing through ancient Rome, stegosauruses and triceratopses battling it out on D-Day, or a spinosaurus running amok in 1920s Chicago. The scenarios are endless!
These prompts could spark all kinds of creativity – from short skits to fanciful alternate history tales. They could even inspire some wonderfully weird dinosaur art, cosplay or movie ideas! Kids and classroom writers should have a blast with them too.
So unleash your inner paleontologist meets sci-fi adventure writer! Scroll down and let these 50 dinosaur time travel writing prompts get those creative juices flowing. I guarantee these story ideas will take you back…and forward through some very unexpected parts of history with these amazing prehistoric beasts!
50 Dinosaur Writing Prompts:
- A T-Rex suddenly appears in ancient Rome and goes on a rampage through the Colosseum.
- A pack of velociraptors terrorize the Wild West as cowboys try to lasso and wrangle them.
- Stegosaurus and triceratops battle on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in World War II.
- A spinosaurus emerges in 1920s Chicago, interrupting a mob deal gone wrong.
- Brachiosaurus wander through the streets of Paris during the French Revolution, causing chaos and panic.
- Jurassic Park opens an exhibit in 1980s New York City, only for the electric fences to malfunction.
- Cavemen encounter a belligerent ankylosaurus while hunting mammoths during the last Ice Age.
- A utahraptor pack sneaks into the Roman colosseum, interrupting the gladiator battles.
- Pteranodons fly over the trenches in World War I, posing a new aerial threat.
- A pack of deinonychus ambush the crew of Apollo 11 as they explore the lunar landscape.
- Vikings sailing to North America discover the new land is inhabited by a tyrannosaurus rex.
- Diplodocus wander across the set of Ben Hur’s chariot race, interrupting the iconic scene.
- A herd of triceratops help Hannibal and his army cross the Alps to attack Rome.
- Spanish conquistadors clash with an aggressive ceratosaurus defending Mayan temples in South America.
- A quetzalcoatlus snatches sailors off the ships sailing for the New World with Christopher Columbus.
- A group of velociraptors is transported to the Salem Witch Trials in 1690s Massachusetts.
- An apatosaurus stands tall across the harbor as the colonists host the Boston Tea Party.
- A carnotaurus battles Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders on San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War.
- Allosaurus prowl the islands of Hawaii as tribes build their thatched huts along the beaches.
- The British redcoats in the American Revolution find themselves under attack from a pack of deinonychus.
- A mutated spinosaurus goes on a rampage through modern-day New York City.
- Cavemen hunting wooly mammoths in the ice age get some surprise competition from an Albertosaurus pack.
- Michaelangelo finds a camarasaurus skull while quarrying marble, inspiring the great artist’s later works.
- Lewis and Clark expedition members run into a territorial giganotosaurus on their quest out West.
- Gladiators in ancient Rome suddenly find themselves battling for their lives against three hungry baryonyx.
- A genetic experiment goes awry, sending a megalosaurus rampaging through a modern metropolis.
- An out-of-control mosasaur breaches at Sea World, flooding the theme park with seawater and predators.
- A pack of hungry dilophosaurus makes its home in the London sewers, preying on the city’s underbelly.
- A portally accident sends a young triceratops to a dinosaur museum, where it befriends a skeletal replica of itself.
- Fighter pilots over WW2 London scan the skies for German bombers, only to have a pteranodon emerge from the clouds.
- A tyrannosaurus rex appears on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, attacking both Allied and Nazi forces in confusion.
- A utahraptor pack follows a soldier home through a time portal and prey on a small town, unaware they’re no longer in prehistory.
- Ankylosaurus do battle with armored Persian war elephants as Alexander’s army tries expanding his empire into India.
- A passenger pigeon flock escapes a Victorian-era zoo exhibit, only to become prey for a hungry group of archaeopteryx.
- Knights jousting in a medieval tournament are interrupted by a lost, confused iguanodon wandering onto the battlefield.
- Samurai warriors defending a Japanese castle from invasion find themselves blinded by the venom sprayed from an angry dilophosaurus.
- 1980s punk rockers have their concert ruined by the emergence of a pack of deinonychus from an unexplained vortex.
- Union soldiers in the Civil War react in terror to the sight of a pack of velociraptors charging across the battlefield.
- A mutinous sinornithosaurus leads an uprising of dinosaurs at a theme park run by a mad scientist.
- Amidst the pyramids, an ancient Egyptian architect discovers a fossilized dinosaur skeleton half-buried in the sand.
- An abused circus triceratops escapes in 1950s New York, refusing to return to captivity without a fight.
- When a controversial new mammoth cloning facility opens, they get an unplanned troodontid infestation.
- A group of plesiosaurs capsize ships crossing the Atlantic in the 1800s, making use of their new habitat.
- A hungry megalania follows Japanese WWII soldiers as they advance through hostile terrain filled with dinosaurs.
- Zulu warriors defending against British invasion watch in awe as a brontosaurus herd passes peacefully through their lands.
- A feathered microraptor hitches a ride on the Mayflower, hiding below deck and jumping out to startle the Pilgrims.
- A grieving triceratops mom goes on a rampage after poachers steal her eggs from a preserve in modern Africa.
- With the help of a pachycephalosaurus herd, Genghis Khan and the Mongols breach the Great Wall, expanding his empire further.
- A deinosuchus far larger than any crocodile settles happily into the moat surrounding a medieval castle.
- Astronauts on the first manned mission to Mars discover the red planet already has an inhabited colony of velociraptors.
I hope these 50 Dinosaur Writing Prompts spark your creativity and imagination! Whether you write a short skit, a whole alternate history saga, or just have fun daydreaming up the scenarios, picturing these majestic beasts interacting with humans throughout history is endlessly fascinating.
Let me know which of the prompts is your favorite, or if you come up with any new ones! There are infinite possibilities when blending dinosaur science with historical settings and humor. These fearsome creatures could liven up any era.
Now get going – unleash those T-Rexes, velociraptors, triceratopses and more into times and places they don’t belong! Just imagine the rampages, the chaos, the screams…and the fun. Our human history just got a lot more interesting with dinosaurs crashing the party across all eras!
If you enjoyed these prompts, leave us a comment, and we have many more writing prompts on our site.
- Science Fiction Quiz #1 - May 21, 2025
- Awakening All Five Senses: How to Write Descriptions That Come Alive - May 15, 2025
- Comment Contest: Win Promotion for Your Writing! - May 14, 2025