After Steven Spielberg adapted Michael Crichton's novel into a film in 1993 «Jurassic Park» , Dinosaurs have become a popular topic among the public, whose enthusiasm for these animals continues unabated. While the film franchise continues to attract viewers of all ages, it has also generated numerous misconceptions due to its depiction of dinosaurs as gigantic, dark, scaly monsters eager to eat almost anything. Here are some of these dinosaur myths that many people believe.
Myth 1: Anything whose name ends in "-zaur" or "-saurus" is a dinosaur.
Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles belonging to the crown group archosaurs , which, in turn, belong to the class reptiles . Along with dinosaurs, to archosaurs The group includes pterosaurs and marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs, which are often mistakenly called flying dinosaurs or marine dinosaurs. The term "dinosaur" refers only to land vertebrates of the Mesozoic era with common ancestral groups— sauromorphs и ornithischians . (source)
Myth 2: Dinosaurs and humans lived side by side.
The earliest dinosaurs, in the form of four-legged mammals, began to appear around 256 million years ago. Between 85 and 66 million years ago, a group of mammals known as Euarchonta , began the speciation that led to the evolution of primates. By this time, the Mesozoic Era had ended after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out most of the dinosaurs. It was only 300,000 years ago that evidence of anatomically modern humans was discovered. (source)
Myth 3: Velociraptors were large, gray, and scaly creatures.
Adult velociraptors reached approximately two meters in length from head to tail, but only half a meter in height at the hip. Their estimated weight was only 15 kilograms, with a maximum of 19.7 kilograms. Instead of the scaly dark skin depicted in the films, they were covered in feathers and even had wishbones. (source)
Myth 4: Dinosaurs were slow and clumsy animals.
In the first half of the 20th century, dinosaurs were thought to be sluggish, but research since the 1970s has shown that they were actually very active. They had a high metabolism and developed numerous forms of social interaction. Bite wounds on the head also indicate that they frequently engaged in aggressive encounters with each other. These medium- and large-sized herbivores and omnivores are believed to have led a catamerous lifestyle, exhibiting sporadic activity throughout the day. (source)
Myth 5: Dinosaurs dragged their tails behind them when they walked.
In the 1970s, paleontologists discovered that the ossified tendons of some herbivores, such as Iguanodon , gave strength to their tail and made it stiff. They also found that predators such as Deinonychus, They reinforced their tails with a long, interlocking vertebral process and used it to steer their course. Furthermore, and this is more obvious evidence, paleontologists have found no evidence of tail dragging between almost all the footprints they have observed so far. (1, 2)
Myth 6: Dinosaurs no longer exist. They became extinct 66 million years ago.
Following the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201 million years ago, dinosaurs became the dominant land vertebrates until the end of the Cretaceous Period, and theropods were among them. Reverse engineering and fossil evidence indicate that birds are modern descendants of dinosaurs and descended from theropods that survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. Birds are sometimes referred to as "avian dinosaurs," while other extinct dinosaurs are referred to as "non-avian dinosaurs.". (source)