# If the Dinosaurs Hadn't Been Wiped Out? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 16, 2010, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349 "2010-12-16T09:33:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/21 "2015-02-16T02:00:25Z")
Taylor Anderson has a really good series,starts with “Into the Storm” Lemurs are intelligent,as are the Dinos ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/22 "2015-02-16T03:27:02Z")
Between climate changes and changes in our atmosphere, I’m seriously doubting they would have made it. Our evolution may have been slower or followed a different path (possibly even reptilian) but I’m not seeing much of a sapient species growing up with dinosaurs. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/23 "2015-02-16T05:03:37Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > It annoys me to end end how badly headline writers do. From **Cardinal** ’s first cite, the headline is “Triceratops ‘Never Existed’”. But read the article and you find Torosaurus and triceratops will now likely be reclassified as a single species—but don’t shed a tear just yet: The name “triceratops” will be the one that stays, the scientists say.The exact opposite of what the headline says. :smack: Right. It’s better to say that Torosaurus never existed. The Triceratops name was coined in 1889, and Torosaurus in 1891. So if both are the same genus, Triceratops (unless you’re a Cope fan and want to call it Agathaumas). ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/24 "2015-02-16T06:28:06Z")
Humans already had some dangerous predators like giant bears, lions (which lived almost everywhere), saber toothed tigers, terror birds, wolves, and others. Humans also learned to hunt large and dangerous mammals like the woolly mammoth. I think humans would have figured out an easy way to kill off dinosaurs would be to simply destroy or eat their eggs. So I think humans over time would have killed off the dinosaurs anyways or turned them into beasts of burden. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/25 "2015-02-16T07:14:55Z")
Really big animals are really specialized, and if their niche environment goes bad, its tits up for them. I’m rather amazed that the really large whales have made it, but they seem to have a cooperative hunting advantage, be it krill or seals, that perhaps their ancient counterparts did not have. Smaller versions of life from that era survived in birds, crocodiles, and those pesky mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/26 "2015-02-16T13:01:13Z")
Personally I think some dinos did survive albeit few in numbers and in remote areas, until a few thousand years ago. That is where we get the legends of dragons and other large “monsters”. But like any other large animal and especially anything remotely dangerous. Humans will band together and take great pride in killing such animals. I imagine the head of a raptor would be a major trophy on the wall of say a Roman general or early Mongol warlord. That is why they hunted lions all over the middle east and europe until they were all gone and why hunting grizzly bears became common until they were nearly extinct. You see the same in modern day hunting safaris to kill elephants and rhinos. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/27 "2015-02-16T18:09:57Z")
Legends of dragons and other large monsters are adequately explained by the bones of megafauna. No need to resort to dinosaurs surviving until a few thousand years ago. Anyway, if some had survived in the manner you describe it wouldn’t be the giant sort that might inspire tales of dragons. Larger creatures and much less adaptable than small ones. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349/28 "2015-02-17T01:44:17Z")
Wow started to write the same response I already gave five years ago before I noticed I already gave it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-been-wiped-out/564349.md?page=1)