First animated dinosaur (1914)

As a detective, I approached the crossword clue ‘First animated dinosaur (1914)‘ methodically. First, I recalled my knowledge of early animation and searched my memory banks for any movies featuring dinosaurs. I remembered that the first animated feature film was not produced until 1937, so I shifted my focus to animated shorts. Then, it dawned on me that some of the earliest animation involved creating a character and then animating it. That led me to think about the work of Winsor McCay, one of the pioneers of animation. I remembered that McCay created a character named Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914, which was one of the first animated characters with personality and a storyline. Gertie was a huge hit and paved the way for many future animated characters. Thus, I confidently concluded that GERTIE was the answer to the crossword clue.