MYTHS ABOUT DINOSAURS YOU MIGHT NEED TO STOP BELIEVING IN

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.