The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were always a strange anomaly even in their own fictional world, though upon taking a deeper look into TMNT lore, it seems as though the Ninja Turtles weren’t, in fact, the first mutants–not by a long shot–as the original ‘mutanimals’ weren’t necessarily even animals at all, they were dinosaurs.
Originally, the birth of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a complete accident. They were just normal turtles who were exposed to a strange ooze that had never been used or tested before, and then they accidentally infected a rat when he came across them in the sewers of New York City. Basically, the TMNT and Splinter were the first mutants in existence because the ooze they were exposed to hadn’t been used in practice by scientists yet. However, just because the TMNT were seemingly the first, doesn’t mean they were the last. In fact, the mere existence of the Mutant Turtles was proof that other ‘mutanimals’ could be created as well–resulting in the villainous Bebop and Rocksteady along with a number of other mutants created in the wake of the Turtles’ exposed existence. It seemed as though the Turtles laid the groundwork for something of a mutant revolution, which isn’t entirely inaccurate as they were the first modern-day mutants to be created–but one TMNT issue reveals that they were far from the first in history.
TMNT’s Triceratons are Literally Dinosaur ‘Mutanimals’, Not Aliens
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #76 (written by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, and Tom Waltz with art by Damian Courceiro), the TMNT have returned to Earth following their trip to Dimension X to ensure that General Krang faces justice for his war crimes. When they get back, they find that the Triceratons–a supposed alien race that existed in Dimension X who resemble anthropomorphic triceratops–had invaded the planet, and for good reason. Apparently, the Triceratons were descendants of actual triceratops that were abducted from Planet Earth and brought to Dimension X by the Utroms, and they wanted to reclaim the planet for their species. Utrom is the race of interdimensional aliens that Krang belongs to, but more importantly, the Utroms are the ones who created the mutagen ooze responsible for turning the Ninja Turtles into mutants–which was also responsible for doing the same thing to the Triceratons millions of years earlier.
This revelation is immensely shocking, especially for long-time fans of every incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. As many fans know, the TMNT comic has moved publishers quite a few times, and each time it did, the TMNT got an all-new established canon that was just a little different from the one that came before. The original publisher, Mirage Studios (which was originally solely run by creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird), introduced the Triceratons as a race of conquering aliens who only looked like the triceratops of Earth with no apparent literal connection to the dinos. Now, it is revealed that they literally are mutated triceratops that were created through the exact same process as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The change (or, rather, expansion) to Tricerton lore within TMNT canon changes everything fans thought they knew about the timeline of mutants within this fictional world. Originally, the TMNT were the first, and their existence made room for the creation of more ‘mutanimals’ to come into being. Now, it seems the mutagen ooze has been used to mutate earthling creatures since before humans ever even walked on the planet’s surface–proving that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ first mutants weren’t the Ninja Turtles themselves as everyone originally thought, they were dinosaurs.
