MYTHS ABOUT DINOSAURS YOU MIGHT NEED TO STOP BELIEVING IN
Added on: 17th Jul 2016
DINOSAURS WERE WARM- OR COLD-BLOODED
Though the animals we’re familiar with today are either
warm- or cold-blooded, the same doesn’t apply to dinos!
Palaeontologists have found dinosaurs from the Mesozoic
Period were neither warm- nor cold-blooded; rather, their
being “dinosaur-blooded” was a unique form of body heating
and cooling that appears to have changed with the
dinosaur’s metabolism over its lifetime.
DINOSAURS LIVED IN WARM CLIMATES
A recently dug-up Cryolophosaurus fossil in the South Pole is
proving that dinosaurs lived and thrived even in
freezing polar regions. Near to this fossil, palaeontologists
found numerous other partial dinosaur skeletons.
DINOSAURS HAD HIND-BRAINS
Palaeontologist Charles Marsh found a wide cavity in the hip-area
of various dinosaurs’ spinal canals which he speculated as
the location of a rear, second brain. This dinosaur assumption
has since been disproven; many vertebrates, including us
humans, have an enlarged nerve cluster at the base
of our spines.
ALL PREHISTORIC REPTILES WERE DINOSAURS
Though many people think “dinosaur” is the name for any reptile
which walked the Earth before the appearance of humans, only
about 10% of reptiles in the Mesozoic Era were actually dinosaurs.
DINOSAURS WERE TERRORS FOR MAMMALS
While dinosaurs did pose a significant threat to mammals,
mammals also posed a major threat to dinosaurs. Just as
in today’s food chain, larger mammalian carnivores
feasted on smaller (dino) meat.
THE FLINTSTONES IS DINO-TRUTH
The first dinosaur to appear in “The Flintstones” opening sequence
was long identified as a Brontosaurus. But this is a dinosaur
myth! There was never a dinosaur like the Brontosaurus.
Palaeontologists incorrectly put the head of a
Camarasaurus on the body of an Apatosaurus.
SOME DINOSAURS COULDN'T CARRY THEIR OWN WEIGHT
Massive sauropods which did exist (in contrast to the fake
Brontosaurus from #11) included the Apatosaurus and
Brachiosaurus. Some juvenile assumptions purported that
such heavy creatures, weighing 36,156 pounds (16,400 kg)
and up to 124,120 pounds (56,300 kg), respectively, could not
carry their own body weight and had to manoeuvre in
shallow water. These early assumptions have been disproven
by findings of the sauropods’ well-developed and muscular
bodies. (For context, the highest assumption for a Brachiosaurus’
weight is equal to over eight full-grown African elephants.)
MAMMALS AND DINOSAURS LIVED IN
DIFFERENT TIMES
Both mammals and dinosaurs came onto the scene during
the Late Triassic Period, starting about 237 million years ago.
And, contrary to some thoughts, mammals did not eat
dinosaur eggs en masse to threaten their extinction.
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