Who's the famous purple dinosaur, and were real dinosaurs ever purple? Meet purple dinosaurs from TV, discover dinosaurs that shimmered, and print a dinosaur to color purple.
Quick Answer
The most famous purple dinosaur is Barney, the friendly purple T. rex from Barney & Friends. Real dinosaurs probably weren't purple all over, but some had shiny feathers that could flash purple, like Caihong, the “rainbow dinosaur.” And purple birds, which are living dinosaurs, are still around today!
When kids ask about “the purple dinosaur,” they usually mean one of these:
Barney
Barney & Friends
The most famous purple dinosaur of all. Barney is a big, friendly purple Tyrannosaurus rex with a green tummy who sings songs about sharing and caring. His TV show started in 1992.
Dino
The Flintstones
Fred Flintstone's pet is a purple dinosaur who barks and jumps on Fred like a happy puppy. He has been part of the cartoon since 1960.
Your purple toy dino
Toy boxes everywhere
Purple is a favorite color for dinosaur plush, blocks and bath toys. Real dinosaurs didn't look like this, but toy dinosaurs can be any color you like!
Our favorite dinosaur toys →Barney is a Tyrannosaurus rex, but he's much cuddlier than the real thing. Here's how they compare:
| 📺 Barney on TV | 🦴 Real T. rex | |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Purple with a green tummy | Nobody knows! No T. rex skin color has been found |
| Teeth | A big friendly smile | About 60 sharp teeth, some as long as a banana |
| Skin | Smooth and soft | Small bumpy scales, a bit like a crocodile's |
| Size | About as tall as a grown-up | About 40 feet long, as long as a school bus |
| When | On TV since 1992 | Western North America, about 68 to 66 million years ago |
Purple is one of the rarest colors in nature. Hardly any animals have purple “paint” inside them. When a bird looks purple, it's usually a trick of the light: its feathers have tiny layered shapes that bounce light around, so they shimmer and change color as the bird moves. Scientists call this iridescence.
Fossils can't keep those shapes very well, but they can keep tiny color packets called melanosomes. Shiny feathers have long, flat or hollow melanosomes, so when scientists spot those under a powerful microscope, they know the feathers once glittered.
That's how we know a few feathered dinosaurs had a shimmering, oil-slick shine that could flash purple, blue and green. A dinosaur that was purple all over, like Barney? Nobody has found one yet.
Say it: tsy-HONG
💜 The purple part: Shimmering rainbow feathers
⭐ Its name means “rainbow” in Chinese. It was about the size of a duck and lived about 161 million years ago. Its fossil feathers have flat color packets like a hummingbird's, so its head, chest and tail probably shimmered and changed color, maybe flashing purple in the sunshine.
Meet more feathered dinosaurs →
Say it: MY-kro-RAP-tor
💜 The purple part: Glossy black with a blue-violet shine
⭐ In 2012, scientists found that this four-winged, crow-sized dinosaur was black with a glossy shine, like a crow or a grackle. Look at a grackle in the sun and you'll see purple and blue sparkle on its head!
More flying dinosaurs →Birds are the dinosaurs that survived, so every purple bird is a real purple dinosaur! Why birds are dinosaurs →
Violet-backed starling
The boys are a shining amethyst purple on top with a snowy white tummy. They live in Africa.
Purple gallinule
A swamp bird with a purple-blue body, a red-and-yellow beak and long yellow toes for walking on lily pads.
Common grackle
It looks black from far away, but up close its head shines purple and blue, just like Microraptor may have.
Costa's hummingbird
A tiny desert hummingbird with a bright purple cap and a purple “mustache” that flares out.
Print our color-me-purple dinosaur and make it as purple as you like.
Got a new purple dinosaur toy or drawing? Pick a name:
The most famous purple dinosaur is Barney, the friendly purple Tyrannosaurus rex from the TV show Barney & Friends. Another well-known purple dinosaur is Dino, Fred's pet in The Flintstones.
Barney is a Tyrannosaurus rex. The real T. rex was about 40 feet long, had about 60 sharp teeth and lived about 68 to 66 million years ago. Scientists don't know what color it was.
Probably not all over, but some may have had a purple shine. Caihong had shimmering rainbow feathers like a hummingbird, and Microraptor was glossy black like a crow. In the right light, shiny feathers like these can flash purple and blue.
Animals almost never make purple with paint-like color. Purple birds get their color from tiny shapes in their feathers that bounce light around. Those shapes are very fragile, so they are hard to find in fossils. Scientists look at the shapes of tiny color packets called melanosomes to guess which feathers were shiny.
Yes! Birds are dinosaurs, so purple birds like the violet-backed starling, the purple gallinule and Costa's hummingbird are real purple dinosaurs.
Try Grape, Plum, Violet, Lilac, Jellybean, Amethyst or Plumosaurus. Kids love names that sound like purple foods and flowers!
Image credits (via Wikimedia Commons): Caihong by Lucas-Attwell (CC BY-SA 4.0); Microraptor by Matt Martyniuk (CC BY 3.0). Purple dinosaur cartoon, shimmer diagram and coloring page are original Puffsaurus artwork. Barney & Friends and The Flintstones characters belong to their owners; Puffsaurus is not connected with them.
Does your little one love purple dinosaurs? 🦕
Sing along with our dinosaur nursery rhymes and kids' songs!
