Human–dinosaur coexistence

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Illustration from the first edition of The Lost World (1912), depicting a human and an (outdated) Stegosaurus Page 59 (The Lost World. 1912).jpg
Illustration from the first edition of The Lost World (1912), depicting a human and an (outdated) Stegosaurus

The coexistence of avian dinosaurs (birds) and humans is well established historically and in modern times. The coexistence of non-avian dinosaurs and humans exists only as a recurring motif in speculative fiction, because in the real world non-avian dinosaurs have at no point coexisted with humans. [1]

Contents

The notion that non-avian dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted at some time in the past or still coexist in the present is a pseudoscientific and pseudohistorical belief common among Young Earth creationists, cryptozoologists, and some other groups. This belief often contradicts the scientific understanding of the fossil record and known geological events. Supposed evidence presented for the idea that non-avian dinosaurs persisted to modern times has often been determined to have been hoaxed. [2] Some proponents have tried to identify depictions of dinosaurs among ancient artwork or descriptions of cryptids, though such identifications are often based on outdated or incorrect ideas about dinosaur biology and life appearance [3] [4] and often ignores the cultural/artistic context. [2]

Scientists consider the idea that non-avian dinosaurs survived to the present day to be untenable, with known cases of so-called "living fossils" (such as coelacanths) being far from analogous to large-bodied land vertebrates. It would require unprecedented ghost lineages without fossils for tens of millions of years and sharply contrast with the relatively good fossil record of dinosaurs and other groups in the Mesozoic. [4]

Birds

A falconer with a Harris's hawk (an avian dinosaur) Parabuteo unicinctus01.jpg
A falconer with a Harris's hawk (an avian dinosaur)

Birds evolved from a group of theropod dinosaurs (Paraves) during the Jurassic period. Modern birds are cladistically and phylogenetically dinosaurs, [5] and humanity has thus coexisted with avian dinosaurs since the first humans appeared on Earth. However, in a narrow and more colloquial sense, the term "dinosaur" often refers specifically to non-avian dinosaurs, all of which died out in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction about 66 million years ago, while the genus Homo emerged only about 3 million years ago, leaving a period of tens of millions of years between the last dinosaurs and the first humans. [6]

The most massive birds known to have coexisted with humans are the moa of New Zealand [7] and the elephant birds of Madagascar. [8] [9] The largest moa, the South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus), could reach heights of over 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). [7] Both the moa and the elephant birds went extinct not long after humans arrived to their respective islands, [7] [8] likely as a result of human hunting. [10] It is unclear if humans ever coexisted with the terror birds of South America since most (perhaps all) species appear to already have been extinct before humans arrived. [7] The most massive dinosaur alive today is the ostrich [11] and the smallest is the bee hummingbird.

Fiction and mythology

Speculative fiction commonly portrays non-avian dinosaurs with humans. Examples include The Flintstones , in which Stone Age humans have dinosaurs as pets and transportation, and the comic series The Cavern Clan , in which the protagonist is a caveman who hunts dinosaurs, as well as in the comic strip Alley Oop . The coexistence has been present in works of alternative history in which dinosaurs do not go extinct, such as the 2015 Pixar film The Good Dinosaur and the fantasy book series Dinotopia .

Many Young Earth creationists believe that non-avian dinosaurs coexisted with humans. [12] [13] Since Young Earth creationists believe the Earth to only be a few thousand years old, their worldview is incompatible with the scientific understanding of geological history and the fossil record. Dinosaur fossils are by different groups of Young Earth creationists either interpreted as hoaxes, sometimes said to be orchestrated by Satan, or as the remains of creatures that cannot have lived as long ago as science has determined. The second explanation implies that dinosaurs would have coexisted with humans. [13] Some creationists further believe that dinosaurs survived the Biblical flood since the Bible states that "every kind of land animal" did. [12] Creationists also tend to reject the fossil evidence that many non-avian dinosaurs were feathered, since this is among the evidence that birds descended from them through evolution. [14]

Some proponents have claimed that mythological reptiles such as dragons and the Behemoth are historical descriptions of dinosaurs. [15] [16] [17] Although many modern depictions of dragons share certain similarities with dinosaurs, this is a recent artistic development spurred by the discovery of dinosaur fossils in the nineteenth century onwards. Earlier depictions of dragons tended to have far fewer such similarities, for instance being less bulky and more serpentine. [18]

Historical artwork and artifacts

Misinterpretations

The "dinosaur of Ta Prohm", erroneously identified by some as a depiction of a stegosaur Dinosaur carving at Ta Prohm temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia (5534467622).jpg
The "dinosaur of Ta Prohm", erroneously identified by some as a depiction of a stegosaur

In some cases, historical artwork has been interpreted as depicting non-avian dinosaurs. Although there is artwork that in cases share superficial resemblances with some dinosaur species, identifying them as such often involves ignoring both the context of the artwork itself and dinosaur biology. [2] Some examples of historical art, particularly from Ancient Rome and Egypt, that has been interpreted as dinosaurian by pseudoscientists are conventionally seen as depictions of crocodiles. [2]

An often cited example of a supposed non-avian dinosaur depicted in historical art is a hand-sized carving at Ta Prohm, allegedly of a stegosaur. The series of "plates" along the animal's back are however more likely to be stylized lotus leaves or petals, which are shown around numerous other animal and human figures in medieval Cambodian art, including in other carvings at the same temple. The creature is furthermore depicted with large ear flaps or horns, structures that are not known in stegosaurs. [2]

Humans hunting the "krokodilopardalis" in the Nile mosaic of Palestrina (1st century BCE) NileMosaicOfPalestrina2.JPG
Humans hunting the "krokodilopardalis" in the Nile mosaic of Palestrina (1st century BCE)

Another example is a creature referred to as a krokodilopardalis ("crocodile leopard") in the 1st century BCE Nile mosaic of Palestrina. Some creationists have identified this creature as a theropod dinosaur, though the krokodilopardalis looks virtually nothing like one; it has a quadrupedal stance and clearly mammalian paws. [2]

Some proponents of human and non-avian dinosaur coexistence have equated the Mesopotamian mušḫuššu , a legendary chimeric creature, with dinosaurs. Robert Koldewey, the discoverer of the Ishtar Gate in Babylon (which contains depictions of this creature), apparently had such ideas and found it to be similar to how Iguanodon was conceptualized at the time. Even some cryptozoologists reject this idea however, given that the mušḫuššu clearly combines various features of different animals in an arrangement not actually reminiscent of a dinosaur. [13]

Hoaxes

Footprints

One claim made by some proponents of human-dinosaur coexistence is that non-avian dinosaur footprints have been found together with human footprints, with one particular site of note being Paluxy River in Texas. The supposed human tracks in the rock have all been identified to consist of dinosaur tracks eroded to an elongated shape and deliberate hoaxes. There have been documented cases of Young Earth creationists covering up portions of the dinosaur tracks with sand, photographing them, and reproducing the (often low-quality) photographs in print and film. [19]

During the Great Depression, some footprints carved to resemble human feet were sold to tourists in the vicinity of the Paluxy River tracksite; these were recognized as fakes by the paleontologist Roland T. Bird, though helped him to discover the original tracksite in 1940. [19]

Artifacts

One of the Ica stones, featuring outdated depictions of a theropod (right; notably upright and dragging its tail on the ground) and sauropod (bottom) Ica stones5.JPG
One of the Ica stones, featuring outdated depictions of a theropod (right; notably upright and dragging its tail on the ground) and sauropod (bottom)

Many hoaxes have been presented as historical depictions of dinosaurs and have been used as evidence for the idea that non-avian dinosaurs coexisted with humans. Notable such "artifacts" include the Granby Stone Idol (a known hoax depicting a sauropod together with incorrectly rendered Chinese symbols), the Acámbaro figures (a large set of dinosaur-like figurines now known to have been made shortly before their supposed discovery), the Ica stones (stones with dinosaurs carved on them, admitted to have been hoaxed by their creator), and the Tucson artifacts (which include a sword inscribed with a dinosaur, exposed as a hoax for decades). [2]

Even though virtually all such objects have been exposed as hoaxes, many continue to erroneously be used as "evidence". [2] Several hoaxes depicting dinosaurs reflect outdated understandings of the animals. Among the dinosaurs on the Ica stones is for instance a Tyrannosaurus rex , though shown nearly upright with its tail dragging behind it on the ground. This depiction is in-line with how T. rex was depicted in the 1960s (when the stones were "found") but does not reflect current scientific understanding. [3]

Cryptozoology

Many cryptids have been suggested by cryptozoologists to be living representatives or descendants of various extinct animals, including non-avian dinosaurs. The suggested scenarios for how such organisms are supposed to have survived are often highly flawed, contradicting the abundant data on known geological events and the fossil record. The supposed identifications are also often only based on reconstructions of extinct organisms, consequently limiting them to species often appearing in popular literature as well as views on them now considered to be outdated. [4] As a general example, cryptozoological identifications of various supposed lake monsters often default to identifying them as living plesiosaurs, despite numerous other groups both extinct and extant being more similar in appearance and biology. [4]

One of the more well-known "dinosaur cryptids" is Mokele-mbembe, said to dwell in the Congo River and identified by some cryptozoologists as a possible sauropod. Mokele-mbembe is said to be an amphibious swamp-dweller. This reflects outdated popular views of sauropods common in the twentieth century and presumably stems from artistic depictions in that time, though shares little resemblance with the lifestyle modern research suggests sauropods had. [4] Some researchers have raised concerns that the idea of a "living dinosaur in darkest Africa" is intertwined with the racist ideologies that were once used to justify the colonization of the continent in that it paints Africa as a land still stuck in premodern times, ripe for exploration by more "scientifically advanced" foreigners. [13]

Similarly, some cryptozoologists have also suggested that several Native American legends concerning horned water monsters are identifiable with crested hadrosaurs, with the horns equated with their crests. This identification derives from the outdated idea that hadrosaurs were amphibious, common in the twentieth century but now discredited. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptozoology</span> Pseudoscience that studies disputed or unsubstantiated creatures

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies. It was originally founded in the 1950s by zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinosaur</span> Archosaurian reptiles that dominated the Mesozoic Era

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mokele-mbembe</span> Water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin

In several Bantu mythologies, mokele-mbembe is a mythical water-dwelling entity that is believed to exist in the Congo River Basin. Variously described as a living creature or a spirit, mokele-mbembe's descriptions vary widely based on conflicting purported eyewitness reports, but it is often described as a large quadrupedal herbivore with smooth skin, a long neck, and a single tooth or horn, much like the extinct species sauropods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moa</span> Extinct order of birds

Moa are an extinct group of flightless birds formerly endemic to New Zealand. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene, there were nine species. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 metres (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kilograms (510 lb) while the smallest, the bush moa, was around the size of a turkey. Estimates of the moa population when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1300 vary between 58,000 and approximately 2.5 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Earth creationism</span> Form of creationism

Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespread version, YEC is based on the religious belief in the inerrancy of certain literal interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Its primary adherents are Christians and Jews who believe that God created the Earth in six literal days. This is in contrast with old Earth creationism (OEC), which holds literal interpretations of Genesis that are compatible with the scientifically determined ages of the Earth and universe. It is also in contrast to theistic evolution, which posits that the scientific principles of evolution, the Big Bang, abiogenesis, solar nebular theory, age of the universe, and age of Earth are compatible with a metaphorical interpretation of the Genesis creation account.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sauropoda</span> Extinct clade of saurischian dinosaurs

Sauropoda, whose members are known as sauropods, is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads, and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land. Well-known genera include Apatosaurus, Argentinosaurus, Alamosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Mamenchisaurus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ica stones</span> Decorated andesite stones found in Ica Province, Peru

The Ica stones are a collection of andesite stones from the Ica Province in Peru, known for their engraved motifs. Largely regarded to be modern hoaxes, the stones in some cases utilize art styles from various pre-Columbian Peruvian civilizations and often depict anachronistic scenes or objects, including dinosaurs and advanced technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinosaur Valley State Park</span> State park in Texas, United States

Dinosaur Valley State Park is a state park near Glen Rose, Texas, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paluxy River</span> River in Texas, United States

The Paluxy River, also known as Paluxy Creek, is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of 29 miles (47 km) before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen Rose, Texas in south central Somervell County.

<i>The New Dinosaurs</i> Book by Dougal Dixon

The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution is a 1988 speculative evolution book written by Scottish geologist and palaeontologist Dougal Dixon and illustrated by several illustrators including Amanda Barlow, Peter Barrett, John Butler, Jeane Colville, Anthony Duke, Andy Farmer, Lee Gibbons, Steve Holden, Philip Hood, Martin Knowelden, Sean Milne, Denys Ovenden and Joyce Tuhill. The book also features a foreword by Desmond Morris. The New Dinosaurs explores a hypothetical alternate Earth, complete with animals and ecosystems, where the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event never occurred, leaving non-avian dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals an additional 65 million years to evolve and adapt over the course of the Cenozoic to the present day.

<i>Rebbachisaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Rebbachisaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the superfamily Diplodocoidea, that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in Africa and possibly also South America about 99-97 million years ago. Remains attributed to Rebbachisaurus have been found in Morocco, Niger, Algeria, Tunisia and possibly also Argentina, although only the Moroccan remains can be referred to the genus without doubt. The discovery of Rayososaurus, a South American sauropod nearly identical to Rebbachisaurus which may have actually have been the same animal as Rebbachisaurus, supports the theory that there was still a land connection between Africa and South America during the Early Cretaceous, long after it was commonly thought the two continents had separated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolution of birds</span> Derivation of birds from a dinosaur precursor

The evolution of birds began in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropod dinosaurs named Paraves. Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. For more than a century, the small theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx lithographica from the Late Jurassic period was considered to have been the earliest bird. Modern phylogenies place birds in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. According to the current consensus, Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, together are the sole living members of an unranked reptile clade, the Archosauria. Four distinct lineages of bird survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, giving rise to ostriches and relatives (Palaeognathae), waterfowl (Anseriformes), ground-living fowl (Galliformes), and "modern birds" (Neoaves).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Mackal</span> American biologist (1925–2013)

Roy P. Mackal was a University of Chicago biologist best known to the general public for his interest in cryptozoology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of dinosaurs</span> Dinosaurs in world culture and history

Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been numerous since the word dinosaur was coined in 1842. The non-avian dinosaurs featured in books, films, television programs, artwork, and other media have been used for both education and entertainment. The depictions range from the realistic, as in the television documentaries from the 1990s into the first decades of the 21st century, to the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s.

The giant penguin is a creature allegedly seen in Florida during the 1940s and is at least partly documented as a hoax. This legend has no scientific merit, despite there having been giant penguins that became extinct millions of years ago.

Gallornis is a genus of prehistoric birds from the Cretaceous. The single known species Gallornis straeleni lived near today's Auxerre in Yonne département (France); it has been dated very tentatively to the Berriasian-Hauterivian stages, that is about 140–130 million years ago. The known fossil material consists of a worn partial femur and a fragment of the humerus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creation Evidence Museum</span> Creationist museum in Texas

The Creation Evidence Museum of Texas, originally Creation Evidences Museum, is a creationist museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, United States. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying exhibits that support creationism, it portrays the Earth as six thousand years old and humans coexisting with non-avian dinosaurs, disputing that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 65.5 million years before human beings arose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creationist museum</span> Facility that hosts exhibits to present a young Earth creationist view

A creationist museum is a facility that hosts exhibits which use the established natural history museum format to present a young Earth creationist view that the Earth and life on Earth were created some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago in six days. These facilities generally promote pseudoscientific biblical literalist creationism and contest evolutionary science. Their claims are dismissed by the scientific community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinosaur of Ta Prohm</span> Medieval Cambodian bas-relief

The "dinosaur of Ta Prohm" is a bas-relief in the medieval Cambodian temple-monastery of Ta Prohm. Numerous reliefs of various different animals are present in the temple; the "dinosaur" is one of its more ambiguous artworks. The relief first gained modern notoriety in the late 1990s when the lobe-like features running down the animal's back were compared to the back plates of stegosaurian dinosaurs. The relief has since become a popular piece of "evidence" for the fringe belief that non-avian dinosaurs once coexisted with humans.

References

  1. ↑ "Did Humans and Dinosaurs Ever Live Together?". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Senter, Philip J. (2019). Fire-Breathing Dinosaurs? The Hilarious History of Creationist Pseudoscience at Its Silliest. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 72–73, 77–78. ISBN   978-1-5275-3138-3.
  3. 1 2 Randle, Kevin D. (2013). Alien Mysteries, Conspiracies and Cover-Ups. Visible Ink Press. p. 32. ISBN   978-1-57859-466-5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Naish, Darren (2001). "Sea serpents, seals and coelacanths: an attempt at a holistic approach to the identity of large aquatic cryptids". Fortean Studies. 7: 75–94.
  5. ↑ Prum, Richard O. Prum (19 December 2008). "Who's Your Daddy?". Science. 322 (5909): 1799–1800. doi: 10.1126/science.1168808 . PMID   19095929.
  6. ↑ "American Adults Flunk Basic Science". Science Daily . March 13, 2009. Archived from the original on April 2, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Zalasiewicz, Jan; Williams, Mark (2018). Skeletons: The Frame of Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-252245-0.
  8. 1 2 Roots, Clive (2006). Flightless Birds. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 14. ISBN   978-0-313-08394-5.
  9. ↑ Lovette, Irby J.; Fitzpatrick, John W. (2016). Handbook of Bird Biology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 584. ISBN   978-1-118-29105-4.
  10. ↑ Yirka, Bob; Phys.org (18 March 2014). "DNA evidence suggests humans hunted moa to extinction". phys.org. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  11. ↑ Kricher, John (2020). Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 19. ISBN   978-1-328-78736-1.
  12. 1 2 Laats, Adam (2020). Creationism USA: Bridging the Impasse on Teaching Evolution. Oxford University Press. p. 108. ISBN   978-0-19-751661-4.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Miller, Eva (2021). "The dinosaur from 600 BCE! Interpreting the dragon of Babylon, from archaeological excavation into fringe science". Endeavour. 45 (4): 100798. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100798. ISSN   0160-9327. PMID   34739977. S2CID   242074437.
  14. ↑ Black, Riley (2012-09-19). "Feathered Dinosaurs Drive Creationists Crazy". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  15. ↑ Keil, C.F. and Delitzsch, F., Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. IV, Job, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, p. 357, 1988.
  16. ↑ Hanson, A. and Hanson, M., The Book of Job, SCM Press, London, p. 112, 1953.
  17. ↑ Driver, S.R. and Gray, G.B., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Job, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, Part II, p. 326, 1921.
  18. ↑ Berman, Ruth (1984). "Dragons for Tolkien and Lewis". Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature. 11 (1): 54. ISSN   0146-9339.
  19. 1 2 Berra, Tim M. (1990). Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate. Stanford University Press. p. 129. ISBN   978-0-8047-1770-0.
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