We love dinosaurs. As kids, we learned facts about them in science class, marveled at their skeletons in museums, and played out epic dino battles with our plastic toys. But how much of what we were taught about them is actually true? You might be shocked to know that a majority of what we learned about dinosaurs in our youth was actually not true at all.
The truth is that the more we learn about these ancient animals that roamed the Earth for 150 million years, the more their story is being rewritten. A lot of the things we were taught about dinosaurs or saw in movies are just flat-out wrong. Did you know that dinosaurs were around for a couple hundred thousand years after that meteor impact you read about that supposedly killed them? How about that dinosaurs were not the first reptiles to rule the Earth? Or that dinosaurs had feathers? There are even some scientists that believe that dinosaurs are still among us right now. You might have even eaten one for dinner last night with a side of mashed potatoes.
Intrigued? We were too. Read on and find out which dinosaur myths you believed all your life are not true at all.
http://www.ranker.com/list/dinosaur-myths-that-arent-true/ranker-science,
The Brontosaurus Is a Real Dinosaur
You may have learned that the long-necked, long-tailed "thunder lizard" is called a brontosaurus, but it never really existed. More precisely, the name came about after some confusion about the assemblage of a skeleton that was actually an apatosaurus. The paleontologist had the wrong skull on the specimen and named it brontosaurus, but it wasn't a new dinosaur at all--it was just an apatosaurus with the head of a camarasaurus. The name brontosaurus continued to live on in pop culture, but no scientist would use it to name a specific dinosaur.
Velociraptors Were Terrifying and Larger Than Humans
Most of us never heard of a velociraptor before Jurassic Park, so those movies gave us the idea that they were scaly, human-sized predators that were incredibly smart... smart enough to open doors! The truth is that although they were vicious little things, they weren't much bigger than a large dog and were likely covered in feathers. They looked more like a big, angry chicken than a giant, smooth lizard.
Dinosaurs Were Cold Blooded
For decades scientists believed that dinosaurs were cold blooded like modern reptiles. But Australian scientists stated that if the dinosaurs did have cold blood they would not have had the muscular power to prey on other animals. As more evidence is found that shows that dinosaurs were fast-moving carnivores, it is more likely that they were warm blooded like their avian descendants.
Anything Prehistoric and Reptilian Was a Dinosaur
A lot of people assume that any animal that is extinct and reptilian is a dinosaur, but that's just not true. Dinosaurs were just one lineage within a group called archosaurs, which also includes pterosaurs and crocodiles. They all split from each other some 245 million years ago. Although they lived alongside dinosaurs, the long-necked, swimming plesiosaurs (pictured), flying pterosaurs and other giant reptiles were not dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs Dragged Their Tails
A lot of older museum exhibits of dinosaurs assembled the bones so that the tails were dragging on the ground, like Godzilla. This is one myth the Jurassic Park movies helped dispel, because the tails were lifted off the ground and aided in balance. There is no evidence of "tail tracks" in fossils of dinosaur footprints.
Tyrannosaurus Rex's Small Forearms Were Weak and Useless
You might have heard someone tell you that Tyrannosaurus rex's relatively small forearms were useless appendages, but that probably wasn't the case. The dinosaur was heavily muscled and could probably move in excess of 430 pounds with each of those arms.
Dinosaurs Were Green and Scaly
People imagine dinosaurs as green and scaly because we assume they must have looked like big modern reptiles like crocodiles or alligators. In actuality, they were probably brightly colored and, at least for part of their lives, covered in feathers.
Dinosaurs Were All Giant Animals
Dinosaurs came in all sizes, but the big ones captured our imagination most. Among the smallest dinosaurs were bird-sized forms such as the feathery Anchiornis and the tiny theropod Scansoriopteryx. Dinosaurs really existed like the ones the little girl fed in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Dinosaurs Died Out Because They Failed to Evolve
Let's put this into perspective: Dinosaurs survived for 150 million years. Hominids have only been kicking around for six million years, while Homo sapiens has only been around for about 200,000 years. We have a long way to go before we last as long as the dinosaurs did, and we don't know how we would adapt to an asteroid impact like the dinosaurs endured.
Dinosaurs Lived in a Tropical, Endless Summer
Every painting and museum display you see of dinosaurs shows them in a lush, tropical setting. And although many dinosaurs lived in such a setting, Late Cretaceous sites in the High Arctic lived in cool habitats that were dark for long stretches of the year. So, yes, you might have actually seen at T. rex tromping through the snow.