In the 1942 Superman cartoon The Arctic Giant there is a monster which picture I am including in this question. In the cartoon, it is described as a tyrannosaurus. Where does the design of this monster come from? I initially thought it could be a Godzilla ripoff, however, Godzilla premiered 12 years later. So is this how people believed dinosaurs looked like in 1942 or is this design based on something else - like only the artistic vision of the artists?
The monster doesn't look like the depiction of a tyrannosaurus in 1940s science nor like the modern depiction of a tyrannosaurus.
About the only thing this monster has in common with a real tyrannosaurus is being reptilian, bipedal, and very large, much larger than real tyrannosaurus. More like an imaginary Tyrannosaurus imperator than a realTyrannosaurus rex.
So I would say that the monster is more or less based on a highly exaggerated popular image of a generic meat eating dinosaur made many times larger than in real life.
