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20 Historical Facts About Dinosaurs Everyone Gets Wrong


20 Historical Facts About Dinosaurs Everyone Gets Wrong


Do You Know Your Dinosaurs?

People love dinosaurs, whether that’s thanks to the Jurassic Park craze or an adoration for history. But despite the many dinosaur fans, it’s easy to get the details confused. After all, dinosaurs were around 65 million years ago, and all scientists can do is speculate on their behavior. That being said, here are 20 misconceptions people have about dinosaurs, with even the most dedicated researchers slipping up on a few.

brown animal skeleton on glass roofNarciso Arellano on Unsplash

1. Dinosaurs and Humans Co-Existed

Let’s start with a super common one! A lot of animated films might have you thinking that cavemen had to deal with dinosaurs on a daily. However, this wasn’t the case. The last dinosaur went extinct around 65 million years ago, which was far before humans came around. That doesn’t mean humans didn’t have their own share of dangerous beasts and had to deal with sabretooth tigers and woolly rhinos.

two T-Rex dinosaurs illustrationLeo_Visions on Unsplash

2. Passive Prey

In a lot of dinosaur movies, Hadrosaurs are depicted as easy and defenseless prey. For context, Hadrosaurs are the types of dinosaurs that have crests on their heads, like parasaurs, for instance. The reality is that most hadrosaurs were actually bigger than the apex predators of their environment and had a nasty bite themselves.

A close up of an elephant statue with trees in the backgroundBlond Fox on Unsplash

3. Ruthless Carnivores

In the dinosaur world, it’s easy to generalize carnivores as ruthless villains and herbivores as the quintessential good guys. But carnivores weren’t just mindless attackers. In fact, even when carnivores fought one another, they would try to avoid the battle as much as possible, as it often resulted in the demise of one of them. Carnivores weren’t eager to put themselves in danger if it could be avoided.

A dinosaur skeleton in a museum with people looking at itTofan Teodor on Unsplash

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4. Friendly Herbivores

On the flip side of the generalization is the idea that the herbivores are your go-to good guys. The reality is, they weren’t all that peaceful either. In Jurassic World Dominion, we actually get to see just how dangerous Therizinosaurus is. In fact, lots of herbivores were territorial and violent. For instance, the Triceratops and Stegosaurus were known for their aggression.

A close up of a dinosaur with its mouth openBlond Fox on Unsplash

5. Dinosaurs Are Reptiles

If you’re a big fan of dinosaurs, you probably already know about their relationship to birds! While most of the world would think dinosaurs are related to reptiles, that’s not the case. Instead, birds are modern-day dinosaurs! That being said, reptiles aren’t out of the picture either. The best way to think about it is that while all birds are dinosaurs, not all dinosaurs are birds. While theropods have a direct bird connection, ankylosaurs and hadrosaurs didn’t.

three green bearded dragonsKotagauni Srinivas on Unsplash

6. Dinosaurs Were Dumb

You’ve probably heard about how, despite its size, T. rex had a relatively small brain. While dinosaurs aren’t as smart as humans, or as smart as some modern-day animals, they weren’t dumb either. In fact, some people assume the T. rex might have been as smart as a cat, which makes it pretty cunning.

gray and brown dinosaur surrounded by trees during daytimeAmy Baugess on Unsplash

7. The Biggest Carnivore

A lot of people grow up thinking the T. rex is the biggest carnivore around, but that really depends on your definition. For example, the Giganotosaurus is considered the biggest land carnivore, but at the same time, the Spinosaurus was in fact longer. However, the T. rex was much heavier. All that being said, some people wonder if the Carcharodontosaurus is actually bigger than the Giganotosaurus. So, as you can see, it’s really hard to determine who the biggest truly was.

brown dinosaur beside treeSerafima Lazarenko on Unsplash

8. The Other Dinosaurs

Remember the whole bird, dinosaur, reptile debacle? Well, it’s time to make that even more complicated! In addition to dinosaurs, there were also marine reptiles, like the famous Mosasaur. Then there were flying reptiles, like Pteranodon. And these reptile species were not dinosaurs, but their own thing instead.

File:Pteranodon longiceps skeleton.jpgMira Mechtley on Wikimedia

9. The Giant Meteor

It’s easy to see that a giant meteor crashed into the Earth and wiped out all the dinosaurs, but the reality is a bit more complex. While a meteor could be the triggering event, its impact obviously wouldn’t affect the dinosaurs living on other continents or on the other side of the planet. Well, it would, but not in the way you think. The impact likely disrupted the ecosystems the dinosaurs depended on, leading to a far-reaching extinction event through decreases in food supply and climate change.

silhouette of mountain under starry nightLeo Shang on Unsplash

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10. All Dinosaurs Went Extinct

That being said, some dinosaurs were very good at adapting. In fact, the reason all birds are dinosaurs is that avian dinosaurs, which are mainly theropods that stand on two legs, managed to survive for a while longer. This would create a basis for the evolution of birds!

Two small birds perched on a twigRusty Watson on Unsplash

11. Mammals Came After Dinosaurs

While humans didn’t get to live with dinosaurs, mammals certainly did. In fact, there were many successful mammals inhabiting the world with dinosaurs. Most of these were the small kind though, like shrews and weasels of sorts.

white and brown long-fur animalZdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

12. Dinosaurs and Feathers

The initial blockbusters have painted a picture of spiky and scaly dinosaurs in the heads of many. Then, scientists claimed that most dinosaurs actually had feathers, which might explain the bird correlation better. However, scientists are still trying to figure out the quantity of feathers dinosaurs would have, as well as whether that applies to all types of dinosaurs. Scientists suspect theropods might have a fair bit, and Triceratops might also have some, but others remain unclear.

File:Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, 20231005 155824.jpgJakub Hałun on Wikimedia

13. T. Rex Had Weak Arms

Plenty of dinosaur movies make fun of T. rex for its tiny arms. After all, its body is so huge, and it has some of the biggest teeth around. So what’s with the tiny arms? Scientists have wondered if the arms were used for mating, or perhaps served to balance it out. Either way, what’s pretty neat to know is that the arms were not weak, but actually very muscular and strong.

a toy t - shirt that looks like a dinosaur with its mouth openEdwin Chen on Unsplash

14. Colorful Dinosaurs

In the early Jurassic Park movies, the dinosaurs are depicted in shades of brown and green. This almost makes them look more realistic, as the colors are grounded and believable. But there’s no reason to think that’s the case. Dinosaurs could easily have very colorful bodies, and might be as vibrant as modern-day birds.

yellow and blue dragon plastic toyLucas George Wendt on Unsplash

15. Dinosaurs Were Slow

With all that weight they carry, it may seem reasonable to think that dinosaurs must be slow. After all, they had huge tails to drag, and lumbering limbs that took time to move. But plenty of dinosaurs were quite nimble and adept at movement. Impressively, the Gallimimus was known to be quite a capable runner.

a large dinosaur statueBernhard Dinger on Unsplash

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16. T. Rex Versus Spinosaurus

Jurassic Park started the trend of T. rex having to fight Spinosaurus, and ever since, many other shows and movies have picked up the cliché. While it’s fun to watch these titans clash, it’s also impossible and unrealistic. That’s because the two didn’t live in the same time period, nor in the same part of the world. For context, the dinosaur period encompasses over 100 million years, and most of them lived at various times.

A dinosaur skeleton is on display at the museum.The frolicsome Fairy on Unsplash

17. Dinosaur-Blooded

In science class, we learn about warm- and cold-blooded creatures, and how that can impact their temperature control abilities as well as other factors that dictate their life. You might think dinosaurs are cold-blooded like other reptiles, or maybe warm-blooded like birds. Well, most paleontologists declare that dinosaurs were actually dinosaur-blooded and used a unique form of temperature regulation that is entirely their own.

green and brown dinosaur figurineLucas George Wendt on Unsplash

18. The Brontosaurus

Well, it’s kind of real, but mostly isn’t. So, it turns out that the Brontosaurus scientists thought they had discovered was actually an Apatosaurus. The Apatosaurus already existed, so the Brontosaurus name was removed. But wait, there’s more! Years later, scientists realized that there were differences in Apatosaurus fossils, so a new species was created to account for this. And this new species, well, it was named Brontosaurus, of course.

File:Illustration of the Brontosaurus by Charles R. Knight.jpgCharles Robert Knight on Wikimedia

19. Dinosaurs Liked the Warmth

Most lizards and reptiles prefer the heat and might not even be able to survive in colder temperatures. With that in mind, it would make sense that dinosaurs must have only lived in warm climates. Well, it turns out there were dinosaurs making a home as far as the South Pole, and that they successfully lived in freezing polar regions.

mountains covered with snowErol Ahmed on Unsplash

20. Dinosaurs Are Fossil Fuels

With a name like fossil fuels, it might be easy to confuse dinosaurs with the oil source. After all, oil is found buried deep in the Earth, just like dinosaur fossils. The reality is that while fossil fuels are the remains of ancient plants and animals, they have no relation to dinosaurs, as their bodies would have decayed long before they could be converted to oil.

a smokestack emits from a pipe at duskBernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash


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