# Does anyone of note still think that dinosaurs are a hoax? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424 "2009-09-09T14:30:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/41 "2009-09-11T00:33:13Z")
Who said anything about legitimate? It’s Yahoo! Science. ---
**Author:** ![inquiringmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@inquiringmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inquiringmind)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/42 "2009-09-11T00:42:15Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Although the Mormon church doesn’t take a position on it (most Mormons believe in dinosaurs), I’ve heard numerous older Mormons assert that fossils older than 6,000 years are remnants of older worlds which were used to construct this one. Again, not a mainstream view, but it’s out there. What you’re referring to is called the gap theory. It’s the idea that there is an undefined period of time between the first two verses of the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, then there are billions of years in which the entire fossil record takes place. Then there is some kind of cataclysm (possibly associated with the fall of Lucifer) in which all life is killed off, and God essentially starts over with a planet that is without form and void, etc… If you know who Scofield was, he felt that there was a fair amount of Biblical support for this view point. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/43 "2009-09-11T03:31:44Z")
I believe Brontosauruses weren’t so much a hoax as a mistake; someone mismatched an Ultrasaurus head to an Apatasaurus body or somesuch. I really haven’t followed this very closely. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/44 "2009-09-11T13:59:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Is it me, or is “Deep in the Amazon” becoming the new “under the Earth’s crust, you know, with the mole people”? Its the last refuge of the flaky cryptozoologist. I dont know why we cant just accept the dinosaurs are long dead. I guess a lot of people still feel the need to believe in magic and impossible things. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/45 "2009-09-11T14:23:58Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > Its the last refuge of the flaky cryptozoologist. I dont know why we cant just accept the dinosaurs are long dead. I guess a lot of people still feel the need to believe in magic and impossible things. Wait - you mean Jurasic Park _WASN’T_ a documentary?!?!?1 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/46 "2009-09-11T14:46:07Z")
Sure it was. It clearly documented the events described in Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, didn’t it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/47 "2009-09-11T14:54:10Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sure it was. It clearly documented the events described in Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, didn’t it? 😉 Not particularly… ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/48 "2009-09-11T16:13:54Z")
If you want a person of note, how about God?! He never mentions dinosaurs, so clearly they are the work of the Devil (as is evolution). :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/49 "2009-09-11T16:22:45Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I believe Brontosauruses weren’t so much a hoax as a mistake; someone mismatched an Ultrasaurus head to an Apatasaurus body or somesuch. > > I really haven’t followed this very closely. The head was actually that of _Camarasaurus_, and the “someone” was the discoverer of both _Apatosaurus_ and “Brontosaurus” (which was later reclassified as _Apatosaurus_, seeing as how it was essentially the same critter and all) – O. C. Marsh. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/50 "2009-09-11T16:46:52Z")
> [@](#): > > The head was actually that of Camarasaurus, and the “someone” was the discoverer of both Apatosaurus and “Brontosaurus” (which was later reclassified as Apatosaurus, seeing as how it was essentially the same critter and all) – O. C. Marsh. The story’s in several places, including a display at the American Museum of Natural History. I was disappointed when I saw the “real” Apatosaurus head – it looks more like a Diplodocus head, with the teeth angled foward and meering at an angle, instead of the snub Camarasaurus head with the teeth meeting straight on. Virtually all the movie brontosaurs have that head – the original **Lost World** , the original **King kong** (and, as far as I can tell, Jackson’s version), **The Animal World** , **One Million Years B.C.** , and all the **Land Before Time** movies. Not to mention Charles Knight’s paintings and the models at Sinclair Dinoland. The “real” head looks kinda dopey and ugly. charles Knight’s Brontosaur: > **[File:Pasta-Brontosaurus.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pasta-Brontosaurus.jpg)** > > Reason: The paleontological reconstruction of extinct species is, like archaeological or naval reconstructions, partly hypothetical and the public must be warned of this. Indeed, even in the rare cases of conservation in amber, tar, peat or ice, the organic matter is degraded, particularly in terms of its colors: with few exceptions, any paleoartistic reconstruction is therefore approximate and this is the almost all of the color drawings should receive “inaccurate image” banners. According to Gu... Land before Time: [http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F\_adv\_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dland%2Bbefore%2Btime%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501&w=168&h=200&imgurl=www.birthdayjubilee.com%2FParty%2520Pak%2520Groups%2FLand\_Before\_Time%2FLandBeforeTimeFavorBags2.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.birthdayjubilee.com%2FParty%2520Pak%2520Groups%2FLand\_Before\_Time%2FLandBeforeTime.html&size=13k&name=LandBeforeTimeFa...&p=land+before+time&oid=1d0be93f620bc0d6&fr2=&no=10&tt=41579&sigr=12oosoa8p&sigi=12qi306ob&sigb=12ta5jn5a](http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dland%2Bbefore%2Btime%26fr%3Dyfp-t-501&w=168&h=200&imgurl=www.birthdayjubilee.com%2FParty%2520Pak%2520Groups%2FLand_Before_Time%2FLandBeforeTimeFavorBags2.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.birthdayjubilee.com%2FParty%2520Pak%2520Groups%2FLand_Before_Time%2FLandBeforeTime.html&size=13k&name=LandBeforeTimeFa...&p=land+before+time&oid=1d0be93f620bc0d6&fr2=&no=10&tt=41579&sigr=12oosoa8p&sigi=12qi306ob&sigb=12ta5jn5a) Silent Lost World brontosaur > **[The DVD Journal: The Lost World (1925)](https://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/l/lostworld25.shtml)** > > Click here to read The DVD Journal's review of The Lost World (1925). Apatosaurus skull. It looks in the picture as if it has a Mortimer Snerd overbite, but the bottom teeth protrude just as far: [http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dapatosaurus%2Bskull%2Bpicture%26y%3DSearch&w=500&h=333&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F2394%2F1994961164\_7b69c8feaa.jpg&size=79.1kB&name=1994961164+7b69c8feaa+jpg&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F1994961164%2F&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F1994961164%2F&p=apatosaurus+skull&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=38&oid=c3db7f3a9de3abbe&fusr=elrina753&hurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F&tit=Apatosaurus&sigr=11idfknrn&sigi=11gpjjfv1&sigb=12c01uq01&sigh=117gede2o](http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dapatosaurus%2Bskull%2Bpicture%26y%3DSearch&w=500&h=333&imgurl=static.flickr.com%2F2394%2F1994961164_7b69c8feaa.jpg&size=79.1kB&name=1994961164+7b69c8feaa+jpg&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F1994961164%2F&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F1994961164%2F&p=apatosaurus+skull&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=38&oid=c3db7f3a9de3abbe&fusr=elrina753&hurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Felrina753%2F&tit=Apatosaurus&sigr=11idfknrn&sigi=11gpjjfv1&sigb=12c01uq01&sigh=117gede2o) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424/51 "2009-09-11T17:01:47Z")
I had this discussion years ago with a fundie who naturally placed dinosaur remains within the 6,000 year span (as determined by Archbishop Ussher back in the 16th century). When I asked the obvious questions about carbon dating and other means of determining age, he told me that God deliberately made all of these things “look old”. When I asked what the purpose of such a thing might be, he responded with the time-honored religious dodge: “It’s one of God’s mysteries”. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-of-note-still-think-that-dinosaurs-are-a-hoax/509424.md?page=2)