# If Dinosaurs roamed the earth today... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262 "2005-01-11T19:49:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/21 "2005-01-12T14:12:05Z")
[This](http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/) would be a national, not local, restaurant chain. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/22 "2005-01-12T15:09:10Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Man… for such a fab concept and execution [it’s got a pathetic website](http://www.dinosaurcrossing.com/#). Hardly a dinosaur pic on it. I know, I was thinking that as well. But I’ll tell you one thing, the park itself is amazing. The owner is just this independently wealthy rock collector, that had several full scale model dinos made and placed around the park. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/23 "2005-01-12T15:50:35Z")
I think we’d simply have dealt with most of them the way we dealt with roughly equivalent animals with whom we did coexist. Our ancestors coexisted with elephants, buffalo, hippos, rhinos and other large, often ill-tempered herbivores. One assumes the same basic survival strategies could be applied to surviving amongst large, often ill-tempered dinos. Similarly, our ancestors survived in a world with lions, tigers and bears (don’t say it!),not to mention wolves, crocodiles and other carnivores large enough to consume humans. The smaller carnosaurs, I’ll conjecture, would have been handled in ways similar to how they handled the above. When you get to something as big as a full-grown T-Rex, I guess you’d have to develop some new strategies. On the plus side, something that big probably favored a relatively open environment and didn’t move with any great degree of stealth. One supposes our ancestors would have adopted a policy of killing them as juveniles whenever possible, nest raiding (omelets tonight!), and avoiding the adults. End result: our primitive ancestors would have rendered T-Rex extinct and people would whine about it today. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/24 "2005-01-12T16:25:46Z")
If dinosaurs roamed the Earth today… I wouldn’t be making the following nitpicks: 1. _Plesiosaurus_ wasn’t a dinosaur. 2. “Carnosaur” is not synonymous with “theropod”. Carnosaur, as a taxon, specifically refers to allosaurid theropods (e.g., _Allosaurus_), and excludes most of the more well-known fellows - like _T. rex_ and the so-called “raptors” (dromaeosaurid dinos, like _Velociraptor_). 3. None of the species we are most familiar with as fossils would be around. Some genera might continue, but none of the included species would have lasted for the intervening 65 million years (the typical “lifespan” of a species tends to be more on the order of about 10 million years). And many lineages would likely still have gone extinct. So we’d have all new dinos to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/25 "2005-01-12T16:34:35Z")
Eiji Tsuburaya and Tomoyuki Tanaka wouldn’t have as much yen in the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/26 "2005-01-12T16:41:22Z")
[Bea Arthur would fight with them](http://www.brandonbird.com/bea.html). ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/27 "2005-01-12T19:12:22Z")
As it is, we have plenty of big mammals but they tend to stay away from those pesky humans and the weird noises and contraptions they make. I think we could still have the cities all to ourselves, save such minor nuisances as having to chase little compsognathids away from our dumpsters. A pet thyreophoran or ceratopsian would be a big no-no. Surely there would be residential laws that expressly forbid it. > [@Darwin's Finch](#): > > Carnosaur, as a taxon, specifically refers to allosaurid theropods (e.g., _Allosaurus_), and excludes most of the more well-known fellows - like _T. rex_ and the so-called “raptors” (dromaeosaurid dinos, like _Velociraptor_). Oh yeah - aren’t the tyrannosaurids now classified as coelurosaurs? Seems counter intuitive when you’re used to dividing the theropods into big and little. 😃 ---
**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:** [January 12, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/28 "2005-01-12T19:59:31Z")
> [@umop ap!sdn](#): > > Oh yeah - aren’t the tyrannosaurids now classified as coelurosaurs? Yup - coelurosaurs and carnosaurs are sister groups (within Avetheropoda), though. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/29 "2005-01-12T20:58:09Z")
[This seems somehow relevant](http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/12/belly.of.the.best.ap/index.html). Our distant ancestors were already wailin’ on 'em, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/30 "2005-01-13T03:36:49Z")
Am I the only one who thinks it would be really cool to see what different types of dinosaur meat would taste like? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/31 "2005-01-13T04:03:31Z")
> [@KJ](#): > > what different types of dinosaur meat would taste like? [sigh]Chicken.[/sigh] ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/32 "2005-01-13T04:27:26Z")
Well, we wouldn’t be worried about running out of oil any time soon. 😉 The cool thing is that _all_ of us would probably be “playing” with rocket launchers, since most rifles would be pop guns to dinos. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/33 "2005-01-13T08:25:35Z")
No one would go to Japanese horror movies because they could just look out in their back yard for the same effect. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FriendRob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@FriendRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendRob)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/34 "2005-01-13T13:01:52Z")
Beautiful, **archmichael** , beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/35 "2005-01-13T18:47:02Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > All I know is that I would want a pet ankylosaurus. Triceratops! Pet triceratops! (My favorite dino as a child). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/36 "2005-01-13T21:36:43Z")
Animal shelters would have a lot more interesting strays for us to choose from. No parent would ever fall for “I promise I’ll take care of it myself” Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks” would eventually involve the Army and gisnt electric grids. Fred Flintstone would be employable once again. Unfortunately, Ray Harryhousen would have wound up doing Gumby. My Little Camelosaurus The Mary Tyler Moore Show epsiode “Chuckles Bites the Dust” would have a lot more gravitas. The other white meat ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/37 "2005-01-14T05:58:58Z")
A Pooper scooper would have a completely different look. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/38 "2005-01-14T07:52:44Z")
The “Pooper Scooper” by Caterpillar Tractor. Also good for digging basements and moving earth tons at a time. Up-Armored HUMVEEs with TOW Missile Launchers on top would be a common sight on the morning commute. The issue over pet Rotts and Pit Bulls would get scant press compared to the pet Raptor issue. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/39 "2005-01-14T14:23:07Z")
You really could get a rack of ribs delivered to your car at Bronto Burger. How _would_ you drop a charging ankylosaur, anyway? An RPG? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/40 "2005-01-14T14:53:42Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > How _would_ you drop a charging ankylosaur, anyway? An RPG? More importantly, who would clean up? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262.md?page=3)