Tyrannosaurus rex might instill fear in the hearts of many - weaker dinosaurs, creationists, Jeff Goldblum - but apparently when it comes to sex, T. rex was a gentle lover. Scientists now believe that after terrorizing its fellow beasts of the Cretaceous period, the king of dinosaurs would come home and tenderly nuzzle the snout of his lover. Aww. Did this love-making T. rex also treat his lady to a nice foot rub and a bottle of chardonnay? Science has not yet proven this theory.

There are plenty of things we used to think about dinosaurs that turned out to be completely wrong. Could T. rex's vicious reputation be one of them? Probably not. But take solace in the fact that when it came to the ladiez, T. rex was a true gentlemen. Triceratops? Not so much.

Animals using their faces to nuzzle their lover (or family) is an extremely common thing. Cats, for one, will nuzzle you to show affection. Dogs are known to do this too; heck, even humans bump their faces for fun. 

But the animals most similar to the T. rex in this behavior are alligators and crocodiles. In fact, the crocodile jaw is more sensitive than the human finger. So if you ever find yourself getting your leg gnawed off by a mean ol' croc, just remember, all he wants is to feel your gentle touch. 

You're probably asking yourself - how did scientists figure out that T. rex's were tender when making the love? And that's truly a great question. Paleontologists working in Montana found some new fossils, which allowed them to determine that T. rex's snout was as sensitive as human finger tips. Basically they found lots and lots of nerve endings in the snout - similar in construction to human fingertips - implying that the face acted as a sort of third hand. 

And, making a science-based, educated guess, researchers believe T. rex - much like crocodiles, a dinosaur ancestor - used their heads to experience stimulation. Consider nosing around sort of like dinosaur foreplay. Kinky!

In case you were curious, T. rex actually has a really complicated sex life. When two massive creatures with sharp claws and terrifying teeth try to mate, it's easy to see it could come with its own, well, roadblocks.

Dinosaurs actually had sex much like modern dogs do now. The female T. rex would lie down and let the male climb on top, grabbing her shoulders and twisting his tail under hers. After plenty of gentle snouting, of course. How romantic. 

Dinosaurs have fascinated mankind since their existence was first discovered. As with all things scientific, however, simply being fascinated by something didn't mean our love was based in fact. We had no idea what we were talking about at all. There were some wildly incorrect things we used to believe about dinosaurs.

In fact, there are some pretty hilarious facts about dinosaurs we thought were real. Did you know scientists used to believe some dinosaurs had two brains, one of which was in their butt? It's also not true dinosaurs were killed by caterpillars, their own farts, or eating too many eggs. It's also surprising how many animals today evolved from dinosaurs - something else you probably didn't know. The biggest myth, though, is what dinosaurs really look like. So turn off Jurassic Park, throw away your brontosaurus memorabilia, and get ready to have your mind rocked by these totally wrong things we used to believe about dinosaurs. 

Gather round, five-year-olds of the Internet, because this dinosaur extinction theory is for you! You could even say ex-STINK-tion theory. Or not, because that’s a terrible joke. Sorry.

Anyway. There's a real theory that dinosaurs had so much flatulence they created a methane cloud that killed them off. Researchers calculated how much methane gas enormous sauropods could have produced in their lifetimes, and figured it could have been enough to warm the planet. While this might have been enough to influence the climate, the researchers were not intending to imply this actually killed any dinosaurs. However, the media jumped on the study, misinterpreted it, and the idea that dinosaurs farted themselves to death took hold.

When most people think about dinosaurs, they think of gigantic, scaly lizard beasts like those in the Jurassic Park franchise. These images, while iconic, aren’t terribly accurate. Rather than lizards, dinosaurs most closely resemble birds. 

That’s right, birds. According to evidence from fossils, dinosaurs were probably covered in feathers. Not only did dinosaurs have feathers, but they also had respiratory systems that work the way that birds’ respiratory systems work today.  If you’re upset by this news because you think it makes dinosaurs look less bad-ass, take comfort in the words of paleontologist Robert Bakker, who describes the velociraptor as “the 20,000 pound roadrunner from Hell.”

According to an early 20th century paleontologist named George Wieland, the dinosaurs died off from eating too many eggs.

No, this doesn’t mean they were all poisoned to death by bad egg salad. It means carnivorous dinosaurs ate so many fertilized dinosaur eggs from other species that dinosaurs as a whole went extinct. While there is some evidence that some dinosaurs did prey on eggs and even hatched baby dinosaurs, there’s no evidence it happened at such a extreme rate that it brought the whole species to its collective knees.

One of the first interpretation of the elasmosaurus was actually pretty cool looking, if totally inaccurate. Othniel Charles Marsh believed the elasmosaurus’s long neck was “snake-like” meaning not only did it look like a snake, but it had the same incredible range of motion. We now know that because the elasmosaurus had only 71 vertebrae in its very long neck, its range of motion was far more limited. It could only move side-to-side or up-and-down.

We also thought the elasmosaurus crawled out of the ocean to give birth on land, but because of its inability to move efficiently, it most likely just gave birth in the ocean. 

Actually, a lot of people still think this one is true. Creationists believe that all life on Earth was created by the Christian god, and that it all happened within a week. While some creationists don’t believe dinosaurs ever existed, some do attempt to account for fossil evidence by saying humans and dinosaurs lived together. The Institute for Creation Research claims “God had told Noah to bring pairs of each kind of land animal on board the Ark, including, evidently, the dinosaurs.”

According to the University of California Museum of Paleontology, “the last of the dinosaurs - with the exception of the birds, which are dinosaur descendants - died about 65 million years ago. There is no reputable evidence of human life at the time, or at any time until about 2.5 million years ago, the age of the oldest known fossils in the genus Homo.”

Dr. Ronald Breslow, a chemistry professor at Columbia University, claims a study he conducted on the chemistry of amino acids implies that, if life does exist on other planets, said life could be an advanced version of our dinosaurs. Some scientists believe the amino acids dominating earth’s lifeforms arrived to us via meteorite 4 billion years ago. If this happened on earth, Breslow believes it could also have happened on other planets, which could lead to the development similar life forms.

Other scientists, such as Dr. Paul “PZ” Myers, associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris, believe this is is a nonsense theory with no proof whatsoever behind it. 

The first dinosaur fossil to ever receive a name was the megalosaurus. Because it was the first, no one had a solid idea of what it would look like as an actual, living animal. In 1857, Samuel Goodrich came up with this bizarre, crocodile-like interpretation of the megalosaurus. The real megalosaurus stands upright, and looks much more like a common t-rex than a crocodile. While Goodrich can’t be faulted for being so far off from the modern interpretation, you have to admit, this drawing is pretty silly looking.

The brontosaurus, also known as a the “thunder lizard” had a massive body, a long swooping tail, and an unusually small head. It’s also about as real as the Loch Ness Monster.

In the 1870s, paleontology went through a period called the Bone Wars. During the Bone Wars, two paleontologists named Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope were trying to outdo each other by discovering new dinosaurs as fast as they could. The rivals were so desperate to destroy each other they intentionally sabotaged each other’s work by having dinosaur skeletons smashed before the other guy could dig them up.

In 1877, Marsh found a partial apatosaurus skeleton. It didn’t have a skull, so in 1883 he hastily completed the skeleton with the skull of another dinosaur, the camarasaurus. Two years later, his team found what they thought was a different dinosaur, but was actually just an apatosaurus with its proper head. Desperate to beat Cope, he quickly determined the complete apatosaurus was a new dinosaur called the brontosaurus. It wasn’t until almost 100 years later the truth was discovered by a group of Carnegie researchers. The brontosaurus isn’t a thing - it’s just an apatosaurus with the right skull.

Othniel Charles Marsh, also known as the man who brought us the nonexistent brontosaurus, believed the camarasaurus and the stegosaurus had brains in their butts. He thought this because they had a neural opening toward the bottom of their spines, and there had to be something there, right?

While this sounds like complete nonsense, it’s actually not as out there as it seems. These huge dinosaurs, known as sauropods, had extremely tiny brains, especially considering the size of their bodies. An extra brain could control the legs and lower body parts. We still don’t know what the neural opening actually contained, but we do know for certain that it wasn’t a butt brain.

In 1982, an ophthalmologist named L.R. Croft suggested that dinosaurs died of a terrible plague - cataracts. 

While cataracts - a medical condition where the lenses of the eye become opaque - aren’t exactly fun, they’re not typically considered fatal. At worst, cataracts can cause blindness. 

Heat can make cataracts grow faster, and Croft believed many dinosaurs were going blind before they hit sexual maturity. While this might result in fewer dinosaurs reproducing, it wouldn’t make it completely impossible. It also doesn’t even begin to explain why all non-avian dinosaurs went extinct en masse 65 million years ago. 

For 180 million years, dinosaurs reigned over every corner of the Earth’s surface. During this period of natural history, known as the Mesozoic era, these prehistoric titans evolved to fit nearly every habitat and niche under the sun. The results were some of the most amazing creatures to ever walk the Earth, with many unique shapes and body types that would never be seen again. While there are plenty of wrong things people used to think about the dinosaurs - like most of them are vicious monsters - not all of these animals are defined by their teeth and claws. Some are cute, others are impressive, and a few are just downright weird.

The fossil record is full of scary extinct dinosaurs, with some of the crazy dinosaurs sporting some of the most bizarre adaptations thanks to evolution. There are dinosaurs that managed to grow stubbier arms than the T. rex, while at least one looked like a buck-toothed chicken. Their are bird-like dinosaurs who rock primitive feathers and others that are covered in spines, scales, and armor. These bizarre-looking dinosaurs you won't believe are real shining examples of just how strange evolution can be and how dinosaurs truly are some of the most interesting animals to ever exist.

Carnotaurs have a devilish reputation - that's because they sport a set of distinctive horns unique among large, carnivorous theropods. Even the name carnotaurus translates from Latin as “meat-eating bull,” a direct reference to their horns and vicious appearance. What made them even more deadly were their powerful leg and tail muscles, which allowed them to sprint in short, rapid bursts of speed.

While its horns are one of carnotaurus’s defining features, a subtler feature may prove to be even more bizarre. Carnotaurus had remarkably short arms that measure only a foot and half long - tiny compared to the rest of its body. They are much shorter than those of the T. rex, another theropod known for their small arms. Scientists believe their arms were most likely vestigial remnants and probably served no real purpose in their day-to-day lives.

This scary-looking guy was a small, bird-like dinosaur who lived between 152 and 168 million years ago. Although they sported a primitive form of feathers, they are actually not a direct ancestor to birds. However, epidexipteryx helped scientists better understand some of the transitional stages between dinosaurs and birds. 

Epidexipteryx could not fly, so researchers believe its feathers may have evolved purely as a form ornamentation, perhaps making them more attractive to prospective mates. However, they may not have been stranded on the ground either. Their hands feature several long, narrow fingers that could possibly have been used to climb or extract insects from trees, much like the modern aye-aye. As epidexipteryx is rather small, it would make sense that an arboreal lifestyle would help in keeping them safe from terrestrial threats.

This odd theropod is Concavenator corcovatus, a carnivorous dinosaur that roamed Europe about 130 million years ago. The noticeable hump on its back is unique for these types of dinosaurs, and it has left scientists puzzled since its discovery in 2003. Researchers have thrown out all sorts of theories about the hump, speculating it could be used for mating, storing fat, or maybe that it was purely decorative. Another one of concavenator’s bizarre features are the bumpy protrusions on its arms.

These are similar to the anchor points for modern bird feathers, but scientists believed concavenator most likely had non-scale protrusions that dangled from them. The debate is still ongoing as to the true nature of these strange knobs.

Linhenykus monodactylus is a small dinosaur in a group of species known as alvarezsaurs, whose membership consists of bipedal dinosaurs with absurdly tiny arms. This particularly species inhabited the area which would become Mongolia between 84 and 75 million years ago, and it is unique among the alvarezsaurs. Unlike its close relatives, who all have multiple fingers, linhenykus only has the one, heavily-clawed finger. This makes linhenykus the only known dinosaur to possesses a single finger per arm, a trait which is unusual even to this day.

It is unclear exactly why linhenykus and its relatives had such tiny arms, but there is one theory floating around in the paleontological community. It is hypothesized linhenykus used their thick claws to dig at ants hills and termite mounds to break in and feast on the small insects hiding inside. These creatures were very small, able to fit in the palm of your hand, and could have subsisted on an insectivorous diet.

The pachycephalosaurus is famed for it’s remarkably thick skull, the top of which is a bony dome that is some nine inches thick. Amazingly, their skulls are known to transform in shape as they age, fooling many scientists for a while into believing the different life stages of these animals were actually completely different species.

It is hypothesized these dinosaurs used their hardened skulls to butt heads with rivals over mates, although some scientists believe their vertebrae could not have been strong enough to survive these impacts without causing serious injury. The debate has raged in the paleontological community since the discovery of these creatures, and many studies have been conducted to try and figure this out. One study showed that up to 22% of all species of pachycephalosaurus show signs of cranial injury, giving more credence to the theory they were natural head-butters. Others believe the domes were purely ornamental, but it doesn't seem like we will get a definitive answer anytime soon.

Therizinosaurus could be found roaming around in Central Asia between 75 and 70 million years ago. While these monstrous beasts may look like the dinosaur version of Edward Scissorhands, they were probably gentle giants who only used their claws for self defense and to gather food. Their claws are believed to be the longest in animal history, and are able to grow over three feet in length. Unfortunately, a full skeleton has never been discovered for this animal, so there are many unanswered questions as to what the therizinosaurus was really like. Scientists have not even found a skull, so we can’t even be sure of what or how they ate.

These bizarre dinosaurs have long been misunderstood by the scientific community, but the misconceptions are finally being addressed. After an oviraptor skeleton was discovered near a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs, a theory emerged suggesting oviraptors might have been specialized egg thieves. Scientists thought the discovered oviraptor was caught in the act and killed by a protective mother. Its unusual, beak-like mouth was pointed to as further evidence that oviraptors fed by cracking open eggs and slurping out the contents. While that’s all gross and fascinating, it turns out that it’s not actually true.

The eggs discovered with the oviraptor were mistakenly believed to belong to a protoceratops, a small dinosaur related to the much larger and more famous triceratops. However, subsequent discoveries indicate the eggs did not belong to the small ceratopsian, but actually the oviraptor itself. While the evidence once characterized oviraptors as heartless baby stealers, that idea has morphed into quite the opposite. We now know these theropods were devoted mothers who chose to stay and look after their nests.

Kentrosaurus takes the armored spines made famous by its cousin the stegosaurus and pushes the idea one step further. Not only do they sport the iconic vertical plates on their shoulders, but those plates transform into deadly spikes as they travel down the kentrosaurs back. Two of those spines jut directly out of their front legs, and the ones on its tail can be swung around like a prehistoric morning-star. These incredibly badass tail-spikes go by the equally badass name "thagomizers." 

These massive herbivores get their name from their distinctive spikes, which evolved to pose a formidable challenge for potential predators. Researchers have studied the physics behind the kentrosaurs body to better understand just how powerful they may have been, and the results are fascinating. The kentrosaurus had a flexible skeleton that allowed it to move and turn with ease, ensuring predators couldn’t sneak up on them. They used their long, muscular tails as massive spiked clubs and could swing them at a maximum speed of 89 mph. Paleontologist Heinrich Mallison described the force as powerful enough to shatter ribs and pierce flesh, and even said the speeds achieved by the tail were “greater than those sufficient to fracture a human skull.”

Possibly one of the most absurd creatures to ever walk the Earth, incisivosaurus is a buck-toothed dinosaur that lived 128 million years ago. This bird-like dinosaur is unique for it’s bizarre teeth, a rare quality in animals outside of mammals. Most reptiles have one type of tooth, but incisivosaurus had both smaller, sharper teeth, as well as their distinctive front teeth. Some scientists believe they were either herbivorous or omnivorous, another trait that makes them distinct.

Amazingly, their strange physiology helped reveal some major secrets about another type of dinosaur, the oviraptor. It was believed oviraptors may have been birds who had simply lost their ability to fly, but it was later discovered incisivosaurus had actually been an early ancestor to the oviraptors, disproving the theory they came from birds.

These petite ceratopsians were a contemporary of their cousin, the triceratops, and the two could be found throughout North America. Unlike the triceratops, they had no horns and ran around on two legs. It’s an interesting bit of natural history that all dinosaurs started out as bipedal, and then many independently evolved the quadruped form. As herbivores, the leptoceratops would scurry on the ground, rooting up vegetation with their pronounced beak. They lived at the very end of the dinosaurs time on earth, only existing for about 50 million years before the extinction event that ended the Cretaceous period and wiped out nearly all of the dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs might not really exist anymore, but it doesn't mean their relatives don't. Yes, it's true - cute, chirpy birds bouncing around in parks and backyards across the nation are related to giant, ferocious dinosaurs of the past. 

To be fair, it’s not accurate to say all of the dinosaurs who dominated our planet for millions of years evolved into birds. Many dinosaurs died off through natural means, with the vast majority going completely extinct when a giant asteroid struck the Earth around 66 million years ago. So, how are birds and dinosaurs connected, exactly? Some smaller dinosaurs from the theropod suborder - which Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor are also classified under - survived the dark days of the planet. And some of this theropod subset, with their proto-avian characteristics, eventually led to the evolution of birds.

These modern dinosaur relatives might seem relatively boring and harmless, but once you realize all the things these two have in common, it might destroy some of the myths you've always believed about dinosaurs.

Not everyone buys the dinosaur-bird link and, for many years, naysayers pointed to the difference between dino and bird ankles. While dinosaurs showed an upward projection off of their ankle bone, birds showed this "ascending process" from their heel bone. This might seem like a small difference to non-paleontologists, but it’s been a point of contention for many studying the relationships between birds and dinosaurs.

Fortunately, for those distraught over the incongruity, a study done in 2015 shed light on the controversy. According to researchers, the ascension only appears to come from the ankle bone in dinosaurs and heel bone in birds. In reality, it originates from a third and shared bone in both animals called the intermedium.

One of the reasons bipedalism isn’t always obvious in dinosaurs has to do with their elongated appearance - a more common characteristic of quadrupeds. And while there are notable exceptions like ostriches and flamingos, most modern-day birds also favor a more horizontal posture.

Crouched stances in theropods are thought to have started with the development of larger forearms. This adaptation, which may have allowed certain theropods to grasp with their claws, eventually led to the evolution of wings in avian-dinosaurs.

All birds are bipedal - meaning they walk on two legs - which makes sense, considering their forelimbs are most often used for flight. However, even with popular dinos such as Tyrannosaur and Velociraptor around, most people fail to recognize that many dinosaurs were bipedal too. Whether dinosaurs started as bipedal, only evolving into quadrupeds when they grew too large, or they stood up on their hind legs to meet the demands and competition of their environment is still being debated.

Dinosaur fossils showcasing hollow bones are not new. However, evidence pointing to their exact role and connection to modern-day birds is continually being revealed.

Hollow bones are one of the characteristics that make birds capable of flight. But this lightweight feature also helps birds to breath more efficiently. While humans and other mammals have diaphragms that allow their lungs to change in volume, birds (and their theropod ancestors) use bones along their rib cage called uncinate processes to help pump air in and out of their lungs. This respiratory distinction is thought to have made predatory theropods fast on their feet, and has given birds a conservation measure during the costly energy expenditure of flight.

Besides hollow bones, dinosaurs and birds share a variety of other skeletal features, including air spaces connected to the ear region, large orbital openings, as well as similarities in vertebrae, hindlimb, pelvic structures, and wishbones. Wishbones were once thought to be specific to birds. However, this union of right and left collarbones at the sternum is found in several theropods as well, dating back 150 million years.

Contrary to pervasive imagery, not all dinosaurs were gray and scaly. Some were clad in feathers - many likely showcasing colored plumages. This theory has been confirmed by a variety of dinosaur fossils found inlaid with feather impressions. Most of these fossils are from the theropod suborder - a bipedal dinosaur, which included some of the Jurassic’s largest and most ferocious carnivorous.

The first, and most famous feathered fossil, Archaeopteryx, is considered to be a transitional animal between dinosaurs and modern-day birds. At approximately a foot and a half in length, Archaeopteryx lived in the Jurassic period, donned advanced feathers, and likely had the ability to fly. Since its discovery in 1861, many more fossils from other kinds of dinosaurs have been found, showing that feathers were not rare among dinosaurs.

While feathers were one of the characteristics that eventually led to flight, it’s thought they first evolved as a way for dinosaurs to stay warm and/or attract mates. The non-avian introduction makes sense because many large and flightless dinosaurs, like the mighty Tyrannosaurus, also wore feathers.

Feathers are important for flight, but without wings, the dinosaurs would have stayed terrestrial animals. It’s believed theropod adaptations, including flexible scapulas and rotating wrists, helped pave the way for the development of wings. Picturing these early proto-wings, combined with a theropod’s plumage, it’s easy to imagine how these speedy animals could have used simple gliding and coasting to out-compete those in and out of their species before true flight was even possible.

We should probably address the crocodile in the room - the obvious similarities between dinosaurs and reptiles.

Paleontologists’ understanding of dinosaurs has advanced considerably in recent decades, while our mental images of the ancient creatures have largely remained the same. This has everything to do with the lack of peer-reviewed scientific papers crossing the public’s desk, combined with inaccurate depictions of dinosaurs in movies and TV.

There are also general and technical misunderstandings about what a reptile is and is not. For example, a turtle is considered a reptile, while a frog is classified as an amphibian. Not dissimilarly, a lizard (reptile) and a salamander (amphibian) do not share a common recent ancestor, despite having a host of superficial commonalities. Furthermore, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to snakes. If you’re sufficiently confused, you’re not alone. In fact, to avoid further befuddlement among the general public and academics alike, some have called for the complete removal of the word "reptile" from our classification system.

Dinosaur eggs look so similar to bird eggs that when the first examples were unearthed in 1859, the fossils were mistaken for that of a giant bird. Theropod eggs share many features with modern-day bird eggs, including shape - round on one end and more pointed on the other - three major membranes, and shells made of calcium carbonate.

Gastroliths, also known as "gizzard stones" are rocks or pebbles an animal purposely swallows to aid with digestion. The rough and sharp rocks help break down the food in an animal’s stomach, eventually being vomited up and replaced by new stones when they’ve been rendered smooth. Fossils have revealed that several species of dinosaurs utilized gizzard stones. Gastroliths are found in some reptiles and marine animals, but most prominently in birds.

Apparently, we’re not getting the real story when it comes to dinosaurs. While most people on planet Earth have been content since childhood to take the word of paleontologists, botanists, and researchers from a wide variety of fields, there are a few brave creative thinkers across the world who simply aren’t buying in. According to them, dinosaurs are just a giant lie made up to turn the La Brea Tar Pits into a popular tourist attraction. We’re all just cogs in the dino-industrial complex.

A simple glance through the Internet reveals dozens of examples of blogs, message boards, and even reputable news outlets that are willing to believe in dinosaur conspiracy theories with only a tenuous ounce of “proof.” In the absence of a walking, roaring, towering specimen to point to as definitive proof, scientists have been forced to go head to head with individuals of various intelligence levels who have some pretty unusual ideas about what happened millions of years ago.

Were dinosaurs real? That blissfully ignorant question is just the tip of the iceberg, as everyone from NBA stars to your local janitor have contributed their “expertise” to various conspiracy theories. Here, for your consideration, are some of the craziest things people believe about dinosaurs.

Deep within the recesses of the Congo, there lurks an ancient creature who is feared among the natives. Known as Mokele-mbembe, the creature is said to “be of a brownish gray color...its size approximating that of an elephant. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck. Some spoke of a long muscular tail like that of an alligator.” Supposedly, it's a modern diplodocus.

Unfortunately, according to William Gibbons, the locals are mad superstitious about the creature. They believe that to tell a white outsider about it means death. As of 2002, though, Gibbons is probably totally for real on the trail of Mokele-mbembe. So keep an eye out for the video footage, coming soon to MySpace.

Dinosaurs are just one small part of the active thought oppression being used by the Masons to subtly control society. The proof is in Jurassic Park and the Ice Age films. See, apparently the dinosaur myth is just a fantastic cash cow, and evolution is a necessary part of the Masonic machine.

So, the Masons have spent more than a century using fronts like National Geographic, Rupert Murdoch’s expansive media empire, and 20th Century Fox to perpetuate the myth that giant lizards once roamed the Earth. Apparently it makes sense from a financial standpoint.

There’s a sect of Christianity known as the Young Earth Creationists whose main beliefs focus around the idea that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. And since they use Biblical math to prove their point, there’s very little anyone can do to convince them that they’re wrong. Recently, one member actually sued the Grand Canyon for religious discrimination. And won.

At any rate, one of the primary beliefs of the Young Earth Creationists is that mankind and dinosaurs once lived side by side - like on The Flintstones. One of these YEC guys, Kent Hovind, even opened up a theme park called Dinosaur Adventure Land designed to prove his point. Unfortunately, the IRS shut the park down and put Hovind in jail over some silly tax evasion stuff.

Hovind claimed that the IRS was targeting religious groups, yet the IRS said that Hovind’s group wasn’t actually a real religious group, which is why he still had to pay taxes.

In a response to his own Reddit post, user tigereyeearth explained his own reasoning behind the idea that dinosaurs couldn't have possibly existed. His simple question: “is it not odd that not a single drop of crude oil is discovered with any dinosaur skeleton?[sic].” Quite obviously, according to tigereyeearth, dinosaurs are just a marketing scheme created to make us all believe that fossil fuels are scarce so that big oil can drive up the prices. In fact, oil is a naturally replenishing resource that sits below the Earth’s oceans, “just like oil sits below water (or vinegar) in a salad dressing bottle.”

Either that very plausible theory is totally true, or oil isn’t just dinosaur bones.

According to one man on the street, dinosaurs weren’t killed off by some comet, and they definitely didn't survive the blast and end up evolving into dumb birds. No, dinosaurs actually fled underground when the meteor struck.

Once in their subterranean haven, these gigantic beasts with comparatively pea-sized brains managed to survive and evolve into reptilian humanoids. In the intervening millennia, they’ve created “vast underground cities around the world.”

It’s hard not to hear that one without picturing Earl Sinclair and his family. In that context, an underground race of reptilian creatures isn’t such a crazy notion.

The general contention among scientists is that the dinosaurs survived the infamous asteroid and slowly evolved into the creatures we know today as birds. Of course, there are still several people who think that the asteroid kicked-off dino extinction. On the more distinctly plausible end of the conspiracy theory spectrum, one geologist believes that the asteroid came along to put the final nail in the dinosaurs’ coffin.

According to Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller, a series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions nearly half a million years before the asteroid were the real culprits. It was global warming, not Armageddon that got 'em.

According to the AtlanteanConspiracy.com, dinosaurs are a hoax that was invented in the mid-1800s because evolution couldn't be proven without them (for some reason). The proof is obvious all thanks to a series of unanswerable questions posed by the author, which must be smart because they sound so simple.

For instance, if dinosaurs existed, why weren’t they discovered before the 19th century? How was a scientist able to hypothesize a dinosaur without ever having seen one? How were scientists able to theorize an entire giant species based on a couple teeth? Obviously it was just a scientific conspiracy to launch the hugely profitable dino-hunting industry and lend legitimacy to the burgeoning theory of evolution. Duh.

As if famine, war, murder, rape, general nastiness, and the ongoing question of why bad things happen to good people weren’t enough to test the faith of Christians in the modern world, there is an incredibly small number of people who believe that Satan has nothing better or more diabolical to do with his time than to plant fake animal bones deep within the Earth and wait for humankind to wander off the path of righteous.

Actually, it’s a pretty solid claim.

Somewhere near the border of Laos and China, there is supposedly a large, flying reptile in hiding. For once, video footage was actually posted to the Internet showing the supposed dragon flying above the mountains without a care in the world. The video netted more than 100,000 views.

Then, some smart aleck said the whole thing was faked with CGI - of course, even that claim wasn’t enough to convince everyone that it was fake. Some viewers maintain that the Jurassic holdover is absolutely real.

A paleobiologist at Florida State University (wait, don’t start laughing yet) is firmly convinced that dinosaurs went extinct in the wake of the asteroid strike because they weren’t getting out of their eggs fast enough. Gregory Erickson believes that once the asteroid strike happened, dinosaurs went extinct only because they couldn’t replenish their numbers fast enough.

According to Erickson, dinosaurs may have taken as long as six months to hatch from their eggs. That meant that parents were tied to one spot for several months in order to care for their young, and that dino numbers were far too low to replenish.

Ever had a nightmare where a giant T. rex is chasing you down, running at you like the Hell beast it probably was when it was alive? Well, guess what. T. rex can't even run, so don't worry too much about that.

Yes, T. rex – the mighty dinosaur depicted as a cunning, powerful speed demon – was probably a walker. Scientists made the stunning discovery using a computer simulation program that took into account the dinosaur's proportions and size. While we now know T. rex walked rather than ran, it doesn't mean he was slow. But still, it does make the T. rex a little less scary, no? 

Scientists at the University of Manchester used a computer program to simulate T. rex's movements, taking into consideration the size of the animal, the density of its bones, and the proportions of its limbs. And, to some surprise, they determined T. rex could only travel about 12 miles per hour. Moreover, it could only travel at a brisk walk. If it went any faster, its legs would snap underneath it. For a dinosaur of that size, 12 miles per hour is relatively slow. 

Just because T. rex wasn't fast doesn't mean it wasn't strong. T. rex had the strongest bite of all land dinosaurs, and there is no creature on Earth now that even comes close. Researchers from the University of Liverpool determined T. rex's bite had a 12,800-pound bite force. And T. rex could take down huge dinosaurs with ease – it was incredibly strong. 

Because of this new information, scientists are confirming a theory they've had for a while: T. rex did not chase its prey. Scientists sort of knew this because of fossil footprints that indicate the dino wasn't particularly agile. Being large and slow is not conducive to being a predator, scientists said. 

"We can basically say that running was unlikely in any of the big predatory dinosaurs, but that doesn't mean that the smaller ones were not fast," said University of Manchester Professor William Sellers. "That means that as it grows up, T. rex would get larger and slower and we would expect to see the hunting behavior change."

Dinosaurs was a family comedy that ran from 1991 to 1994. In many ways, it was a pretty formulaic sitcom about a family with a fat dad and tall, skinny mom. One notable difference was that the characters were all animatronic dinosaurs. It was a Jim Henson creation (though he died right before it went to air), and thus had many Henson hallmarks, such as the voice of Elmo behind the toddler character named Baby. The family patriarch was Earl Sinclair, a Homer Simpson-esque father figure best known for his part in the show’s most (only?) memorable joke, where Baby hits him on the head with a frying pan and says, “Not the mama!” Given the ludicrousness of the show, it’s reasonable that one wouldn’t expect an astoundingly heartbreaking ending. But one would be wrong.

With one of the worst TV series finales ever, the ending of Dinosaurs was depressing as hell. Earl worked for a shady, run-of-the-mill corporation called Wesayso that, through its greed and irresponsibility, brought about global ruin. It was a commentary on human consumption and environmental destruction, and it portended the end of life on earth and portrayed the imminent death of this family huddled together for warmth before the credits rolled. Yikes. Let’s take a deeper dive into the dark ending of the Dinosaurs sitcom finale to see just what the hell was going on. 

The Wesayso Corporation have effectively wiped out the bunch beetles by building a wax fruit factory on their mating grounds. Without the bunch beetles, there is no species to keep the invasive creeping poppies from growing out of control. Wesayso is rightfully blamed, so their solution is to spray the land with a defoliant to kill the poppies. Which, of course, kills all plant life on the planet. Great.

Now that things have gone from bad to worse, how can they compound the issue? How about bombing volcanoes? That's right, Wesayso drops bombs into volcanoes with the express plan of producing rain clouds, concluding that rain will bring back the plant life. OR! The resultant volcanic ash thrown into the atmosphere will block out the sun and bring about an ice age that will ultimately end the dinosaurs. Wesayso, you rascals!

In this final scene, as the Sinclairs await their doom (along with the rest of the world), there's a curious attempt at humor. The one remaining bunch beetle is with the family of dinos, and he's a bit of a creeper. The Scaramucci beetle wonders aloud if the teenage daughter of the family would be willing to hold him in her "comforting bosom." It's not just the mounting snow that induces shivers. The levity is a bit out of place, to say the least.

Howard Handupme is the Walter Kronkite of Dinosaurs, but in the finale, he did his best Ed Murrow impression - or at least, paraphrased the broadcast journalist in the most heartbreaking fashion. "And taking a look at the long-range forecast... Continued snow, darkness, and extreme cold. This is Howard Handupme. Good night." He pauses and looks down in absolute dejection. Then he looks back up at the camera and chokes, "Goodbye." Fade to black.

WHAT THE F*CK?! How does a goddamn prehistoric turtle puppet in a parka named Handupme deliver a line with such devastating poignancy? Seriously though, what a depressingly messed up ending to an animatronic puppet show, man. 

The final scene of Dinosaurs sees the Sinclair family huddled in their living room as snow piles up outside the window. The whole family knows the end is coming, but the baby doesn't understand, so he begins to question his father. Earl starts explaining what his corporation did to bring about the Ice Age, taking responsibility for his own complicity (imagine that).

The baby still doesn't understand what is to come of them, and the family doesn't have the heart to tell him, so they essentially just tell him they'll stay together and everything will be all right. The camera pulls away, revealing the exterior of the home covered in snow, then cuts to the sign of the wax fruit factory also piled with snow, and then to one final news cast. 

Dinosaurs are probably the most popular dead things on planet Earth, but there are a lot of misconceptions about these immortal legendary lizards. Pop culture still hasn't come to terms with the reality that many dinosaurs were, in fact, covered in feathers and that many of the animals they consider "dinosaurs" actually weren't. The average person doesn't seem to truly know what a dinosaur is. 

For the general public, the word "dinosaur" is often used as a catch-all term to describe any sort of reptilian creature no longer living and hailing from the vaguely distant past. This is unfortunate, because dinosaurs are actually a very specific group of animals that share the same evolved traits. They laid eggs, were warm-blooded, and lived on land. That last part is important, and is one of the quickest ways to know if you're dealing with a dinosaur or something else.

Flying dinosaurs? Nope, not a thing. Aquatic dinosaurs? Again, not actual dinosaurs. There are lots of ancient animals mistaken for dinosaurs, some of which aren't even reptiles. Here is a selection of some of the most popular prehistoric animals that aren't dinosaurs that are commonly confused for their terrifying cousins.

Glyptodon is an extinct type of mammal that lived relatively recently, only dying out about 12,000 years ago. These giant relatives of the armadillo were completely covered in armor, with some even sporting morning-star style clubs at the tips of their tail. Even though they are mammals, they are often confused with armored dinosaurs like ankylosaurus.

Humans were known to hunt glytpodon for their meat and armor, which some experts believe was used to create small homes. They could be found all across the Americas until their extinction, which is believed to have occurred due to a combination of human hunting and climate change.

The inspiration for the Loch Ness monster, the long-necked plesiosaurs were a group of marine reptiles whose unique appearance made quite an impact on the collective unconscious. Plesiosaurs were a diverse group of animals, some of which had much shorter necks than the most commonly depicted species. The plesiosaurus was one of the first fossils ever to be discovered, so this animal has a long history in the paleontological world.

It is believed that they developed their long necks in order to easily scavenge food from the sea floor. Despite many inaccurate representations, plesiosaur necks were actually pretty inflexible. Researchers have also determined that these odd animals most likely swam in a way that would look pretty similar to modern penguins.

Everything about sarcosuchus screams "I am a dinosaur" but it just isn't. Though, it is true that modern crocodiles are related to dinosaurs, as both groups are under the umbrellas family of archosaurs. Archosaurs include crocodilians, modern birds, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs.

Sarcosuchus is a crocodilian archosaur and the largest known freshwater crocodile to ever exist. It prowled the lakes and rivers of sub-Saharan Africa, eating anything stupid enough to get too close. These monstrous reptiles lived 110 million years ago and grew to nearly 40-feet in length. It is believed that a full grown sarcosuchus weighed as much as ten tons. 

Although these aquatic reptiles are featured in the movie Jurassic World, they didn't live during the Jurassic period and aren't true dinosaurs. Mosasaurs are thought to have evolved in the early Cretaceous period, the last epoch before the extinction event that wiped out most large life forms.

These giant sea-lizards were ferocious predators known for their powerful bite, but they were also highly evolved and sophisticated organisms. Mosasaurs are believed to have been warm-blooded, much like their dinosaur cousins, and there is evidence that they gave birth to live young.

Ichthyosaurs were the reptilian answer to dolphins. They were marine lizards that had evolved to be at home in the sea, mirroring the body shapes of other aquatic animals like fish and dolphins in a remarkable display of convergent evolution.

Ichthyosaurs were most likely slow swimmers, but could reach high speeds using quick bursts of energy. They may have hunted by slowly stalking their prey until the moment was right for them to pounce at full speed. For a while they were the oceans top predators, only to be bested upon the arrival of the plesiosaurs. 

Dimorphodon is one of the most bizarre looking pterosaurs to have ever lived. It looks like a cross between a bat and a pterodactyl, with the head of a tyrannosaurus. Terrorizing the skies almost 200 million years ago, it is believed that dimorphodon was one of the first large vertebrates to take to the sky. They were relatively small, growing to be a little over three feet in length. Hidden inside their unusually large skulls was a very small brain.

Extensive research has been done to try and understand how they were capable of flight even studying the tree-dwelling gliders they may have descended from. It is believed they flapped their heavy wings to aid in flight, much like modern birds.

Contrary to popular belief, the sail-backed dimetrodon is not a dinosaur. It's actually a synapsid, a group of animals that is much older than the dinosaurs and a precursor to modern mammals. If you look far back enough in your family tree, eventually your relatives will start looking a lot like dimetrodon.

Dimetrodon thrived during the Permian era, 35 million years before the first dinosaurs had even evolved. There were many different species, but the largest and most famous was a 10-foot long monster. They had serrated teeth perfect for carving flesh, making them one of the Permian's most successful predators.

Another member of the pterosaur family, the pteranodon was the much larger cousin of the pterodactyl. They had a massive wingspan that could stretch to twenty feet. Pteranodon was sexually dimorphic, meaning that both sexes had their own distinct appearance. The males were much larger than the females and sported a large, bony crest at the back of their skulls. It is believed that they lived by the coast, possibly dipping close to the water to scoop fish into their massive bills like pelicans.

Quetzalcoatlus was an absolute behemoth. It dominated the skies and is the largest animal ever to take flight. This impressive pterosaur was named after the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, a Mayan deity believed to rule over the earth and sea.

This giant reptile lived right at the tail end of the Cretaceous era, about 68 million years ago. They had a massive 36-foot wingspan, and estimates put their weight at nearly 600 pounds. To put that in perspective, the heaviest bird alive today (the Andean condor) only weighs about 33 pounds. They were too big to flap their wings much, choosing instead to soar high and let nature and physics do the heavy lifting. Like modern birds, pterosaurs were believed to have hollow bones which helped keep them light.

Even though pterodactyls filled the skies above the dinosaurs, they were not part of the same family. Pterodactyls are actually pterosaurs, an extinct group of reptiles that evolved to take flight.

They had very different body structures than modern birds - birds being actual descendants of dinosaurs and therefore more dinosaur than a pterodactyl could ever hope to be. Unlike birds, pterosaurs had weak hind-legs that played a minimal role during take-off. Instead of building up speed by running, pterosaurs used their powerful wings to launch themselves into the sky.