# You are transported back to 70 million BCE **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335 "2025-07-25T21:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/141 "2026-08-20T19:07:46Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > the dinosaurs would be in their prime and, according to everything I’ve read, only very small mammals were able to survive in that environment. So, the answer is, “MUCH more dangerous”. Yes and no. If dinosaurs originally evolved from something like a para-crocodilian, and the K-T extinction set things back to zero as far as land megafauna went, the question might be why archosaurs didn’t take over again. One possible hypothesis is that this time around marsupial and placental mammals had evolved, and not laying eggs might have presented advantages. During the Mesozoic mammals might not have been able to evolve into megafauna in the face of competition from already established archosaurs, but in the Cenozoic mammals got ahead of the competition. I think humans could survive in the Mesozoic provided they had the training and knowledge to cope with the predators they might face. The very largest theropods might not have bothered with anything as small as a human unless the human walked past their nose while they were hungry. Humans were historically able to adequately defend themselves against lions, tigers, leopards, bears and hyenas. Humans learned to be dangerous with ranged weapons– atlatls and bows & arrows, which meant not always having to go face to face with a dangerous carnivore. As well as sneaky cheating like poison, pit traps, nets and ropes. Possibly humans would have learned to make body armor out of dinosaur hide if that was any help. It might not have been easy, but walled villages and killing the worst predators in the immediate vicinity might have been doable. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/142 "2026-08-20T19:09:40Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You can imagine thorny bushes that tangle animals fur, they die, and the plant benefits from the goo leaking from the corpse, and those have been imagined, but there is no indication that anything like that has ever actually evolved. Pitcher plants: > **[Pitcher plant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcher_plant)** > > Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—prey-trapping mechanisms featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown the prey with nectar. The term "pitcher plant" generally refers to members of the Nepenthaceae and Sarraceniaceae families, but similar pitfall traps are employed by the monotypic Cephalotaceae and some members... Sundew “sticky trap” plants: > **[Drosera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosera)** > > Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, are native to every continent except Antarctica. Charles Darwin performed muc... The question is a matter of scaling up to entrap a large prey and the toughness ro avoid being damaged by it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/143 "2026-08-20T19:43:18Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > The question is a matter of scaling up to entrap a large prey and the toughness ro avoid being damaged by it. Yes, it _is_ a matter of scaling up to entrap large prey and the toughness to avoid being damaged by it. And I’m saying that is probably profoundly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/144 "2026-08-20T19:46:56Z")
There is definitely an upper limit to how large passive predation can be scaled up. But below that limit it’s pretty effective and widespread. Makes me wonder what that lkmit actually is. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/145 "2026-08-20T19:54:39Z")
The largest pitchers in the world right now have a capacity of under a gallon. > **[Nepenthes rajah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthes_rajah)** > > Nepenthes rajah /nɪˈpɛnθiːz ˈrɑːdʒə/ is a carnivorous pitcher plant species of the family Nepenthaceae. It is endemic to Mount Kinabalu and neighbouring Mount Tambuyukon in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.: 123  Nepenthes rajah grows exclusively on serpentine substrates, particularly in areas of seeping ground water where the soil is loose and permanently moist. The species has an altitudinal range of 1,500–2,650 m (4,920–8,690 ft) above sea level and is thus considered a highland or sub-alpine plant. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/146 "2026-08-20T20:00:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > More likely to taste like ostrich, IMO. Which tastes _nothing_ like chicken, and quite a bit like aged beef or venison. I will confirm that ostrich tastes like beef. I conjecture that the difference is between flying muscles and those used for terrestrial locomotion. I would expect that all non-flying dinos will taste like beef. Or lamb. Finding edible (and digestible) veggies is likely harder. I know that there were nuts and seeds. Or 56 MY ago there were since that seems to have been what got the mammals past the K-T event. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/147 "2026-08-20T20:08:33Z")
Annnd after finding the above non-fictional video this morning, I then discover this new cinematic release this weekend: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3oB9AxspVow/maxresdefault.jpg "The End of Oak Street | Official Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oB9AxspVow) Where a whole suburban neighborhood is transported back to 150 million years ago, and the residents have to find a way to survive against the rampaging _Allosauruses_ et al. > [@Lumpy](#): > > Yes and no. If dinosaurs originally evolved from something like a para-crocodilian, and the K-T extinction set things back to zero as far as land megafauna went, the question might be why archosaurs didn’t take over again. One possible hypothesis is that this time around marsupial and placental mammals had evolved, and not laying eggs might have presented advantages. During the Mesozoic mammals might not have been able to evolve into megafauna in the face of competition from already established archosaurs, but in the Cenozoic mammals got ahead of the competition. It may be that the crocodilians, being the one of only 2 clades of archosaurs to survive the C-T boundary, were too “conservative” and constrained to have at least one descent line evolve back into something resembling non-avian dinos, and birds & mammals were able to outcompete them for the vast majority of niches in any event. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/148 "2026-08-20T23:58:36Z")
Yeah, I’d forgotten birds would be direct competitors for the econiche of mostly ground dwelling, bipedal, warm blooded sauropsids. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2026, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/149 "2026-08-21T00:43:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Yes, it _is_ a matter of scaling up to entrap large prey and the toughness to avoid being damaged by it. And I’m saying that is probably profoundly unlikely. I concur. Plants big enough to eat humans are pretty well impossible. The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), has poison sap, and supposedly if you are stupid enough to fall asleep under one, you can die. But it is not “carnivorous”. > **[Manchineel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel)** > > The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), also known as the tree of death, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). Its native range stretches from tropical southern North America to northern South America. The name manchineel (sometimes spelled manchioneel or manchineal), as well as the specific epithet mancinella, are from Spanish manzanilla ('little apple'), from the superficial resemblance of its fruit and leaves to those of an apple tree. It is also called bea... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335.md?page=7)