MYTHOLOGIES ABOUT DINOSAURS YOU MIGHT NEED TO STOP BELIEVING IN
Added on: 11th Oct 2016
DINOSAURS WERE SLOW CREATURES
A common dinosaur myth is that the creatures were
Slow moving and dragged their tails on the ground. In fact,
most dinosaurs were athletic animals and even quite nimble!
OIL COMES FROM DINOSAURS
Here’s another dinosaur misconception! Some people think
when a dinosaur died naturally or in a landslide (or other
natural disaster), it was covered in sediment and turned to
oil over many millions of years. The fact is that dino flesh
would have rapidly decayed or been scavenged way before
it could have been converted.
DINOSAURS ARE ALL EXTINCT
Well, not exactly. Whereas all the T-Rexs’ and sauropods
have long been buried, one of eight major dinosaur groups,
theropods, survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction
event and one of the over 40 subgroups of theropods
evolved into many birds we know today.
DINOSAURS WERE ALL HUGE CREATURES
Though the dinosaurs which make it onto the silver screen
and capture our attention are generally the larger,
terrifying beasts, plenty of dinosaurs were quite small.
Some of the smallest dinosaurs palaeontologists have
identified weighed only a half a pound (200g). One such
example, Epidexipteryx, weighed about 5.8 ounces (164g)
and was about the size of an adult human foot.
DINOSAURS WERE POOR SWIMMERS
Many people think dinosaurs which roamed the lands
were too big and cumbersome to be good swimmers, but an
international team of researchers have found evidence in
China of nimble two legged dinosaurs swimming in rivers.
T-REX ARMS WERE USELESS
Looking at the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it seems like a
creature which only focused on squats at the gym and
always forgot arm day, right? This is another dinosaur myth!
Though their arms weren’t as terrifying as their massive jaws,
each T-Rex arm could have handled objects and animals up
to a few hundreds of pounds with ease.
JURASSIC PARK DINOSAURS ARE FROM THE
JURASSIC PERIOD
“Jurassic Park” is without question one of the most popular
dinosaur films ever made. But even its name is wrong.
The popular dinos from the film, including the T-Rex,
Triceratops, and Velociraptor, didn’t even live in the
Jurassic Period (201.3-145 million years ago). They were
all terrors of the Cretaceous period immediately
following the Jurassic period.
DINOSAUR MEANS "TERRIBLE LIZARD"
First off, dinosaurs aren’t lizards, they’re reptiles. Secondly,
the Greek word “deinos”, which palaeontologist Richard Owen
used in naming dinosaurs in 1842, means “fearfully great.”
Simplifications over time have reduced it to “terrible”.
Comment on this