# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/41 "2005-01-14T15:05:31Z")
“Dinosaur Crossing” looks an awful lot like a place in Virginia I went to in 1978 called “Dinosaurland.” As to the OP, I doubt there would be much surfing. What with the mososaurs and all. [A day in the life of a mososaur](http://www.oceansofkansas.com/mosa-sty.html) ---
**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/42 "2005-01-14T15:23:06Z")
Mososaur, pffff. Megalodon! A 50 foot frickin shark (unknown if they had frickin laser beams on their heads) Since there actually would be monsters in Loch Ness, would they have to come up with more obscure extinct monsters to draw the tourists? “Fact or Fiction: The trilobite of Loch Ness” Only on the Discovery Channel ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/43 "2005-01-14T15:51:10Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Animal shelters would have a lot more interesting strays for us to choose from. No fewer, due to fewer stray dogs & cats. 'Cause dinos don’t leave leftovers. 😉 > [@](#): > > The Mary Tyler Moore Show epsiode “Chuckles Bites the Dust” would have a lot more gravitas. > > The other white meat Yes, give an Allosaurus or two, Mary would have become the “Other White Meat”. But it isn’t nice to say so. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/44 "2005-01-14T16:25:20Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > 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. Yeah, I’ve got to back this one up. Our ancestors (presuming we evolved at all) would have dealt with them as they dealt with all survival threats…they would have either scared the hell out of the dinosaurs or, if they weren’t smart enough to get scared as a species, we’d have made them extinct ourselves. Never underestimate the monkey-boys, guys. ---
**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, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/45 "2005-01-14T16:48:04Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > they would have either scared the hell out of the dinosaurs Nah, I see two possible adaptations: The big guys pick the little guy up, throw him at the dino and run, or The little guy tells the big guy, “You’re a wimp and that dino can beat your ass!” and he runs. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/46 "2005-01-14T17:06:45Z")
Would any of the (non-predator, non-scavenger) dinosaurs have evolved into ruminants (cud-chewers) with fully cloven hooves? Mmmm, Glatt Kosher neoapatosaurus burgers. ;j ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/47 "2005-01-14T17:25:27Z")
The entire dynamics of prehistoric tribes would have changed. One brontosaurus would provide sufficient meat for thousands for many months, I assume, so people would have gathered in much larger tribes. Michael Crichton would write the bestseller _Triassic Park_, about a rich crackpot who foolishly clones thecodonts from the blood of a fossilized mosquito and turns them loose on an island off of Costa Rica, with predictably disasterous results. ---
**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 14, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/48 "2005-01-14T18:18:33Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > As to the OP, I doubt there would be much surfing. What with the mososaurs and all. Mosasaurs weren’t dinosaurs , either (and neither were ichthyosaurs or megalodons, for that matter…). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/49 "2005-01-14T21:31:50Z")
> [@Darwin's Finch](#): > > Mosasaurs weren’t dinosaurs , either (and neither were ichthyosaurs or megalodons, for that matter…). Well, yeah, but if dinosaurs survived, we’re positing that icthyosaurs, pteradons, etc., would’ve. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/50 "2005-01-14T22:00:50Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Well, yeah, but if dinosaurs survived, we’re positing that icthyosaurs, pteradons, etc., would’ve. Yeah, it’s not like they could have evolved into something else, or anything. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/51 "2005-01-15T08:08:13Z")
What, nobody’s suggested any military uses? Forget the infantry, unleash the T-rex herd! ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262/52 "2005-01-15T16:48:01Z")
Hmmmm Dinosaurs, giant birds, where to begin? Giant birds first. Colonel Sanders would have red and white pickup trucks instead of buckets. A drumstick would feed a family of 20. I would go broke buying chickosaurus food, and I would have to buy the coop from a realtor 😃 Dinosaurs. Who the hell is gonna clean the litter box now? Raptors would dominate track and field. A T Rex would still never win at Pro Bowling. Rodeos would be really scary. Instead of just being kicked gored and stomped, riders would get eaten. :eek: The .458 magnum would be considered a small calibre round. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-today/284262.md?page=2)