for the longest time I thought the three-fingered Tyrannosaurus in Disney's Fantasia was some inexcusable research failure
today was the first time I bothered to look up when the first intact T.rex hands were found
1988
I think the animators of 1940 get a pass on this one
Rewatching the Rite of Spring sequence as an adult, it's actually meticulously researched by the standards of the time. We start with a depiction of the Hadean Eon and the formation of the oceans! Flagellated and ciliated eukaryotes! There's trilobites and ammonites and ancient cnidarians! Armored and lobe-finned fish! Mosasaurs and plesiosaurs and not just generic "flyers" but recognizable Pteranodons with crests and correct finger-wings instead of bat-wings! There is a feathered dinosaur! Of course the behaviors and postures are not in line with current understanding but they clearly worked very hard on presenting the very best 1940 could do.
(The Chicxulub crater wasn't discovered until the 70s and wasn't hypothesized to be the dinosaur-killer until the 90s, so we must again excuse the ending as the best understanding anyone had at the time.)
they did kinda give Rexy a cubehead though