Random Myths You Were Taught About Dinosaurs (21 items)

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  (#13) Dinosaurs Terrorized Our Mammalian Ancestors

  The mammals that existed during the reign of the dinosaurs were relatively small. So they must have fled in terror from these giant, prehistoric reptiles, right? Well, those ancient mammals ate dinosaurs, too. A specimen of Repenomamus - a 125-million-year-old mammal about the size of a raccoon - had baby dinosaurs preserved in its gut.
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  (#9) 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 6 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.
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  (#14) Dinosaurs Were The First Reptiles To Rule The Earth

  Since a lot of people just assume that any ancient reptile is a dinosaur, then dinosaurs must have been the first reptiles to rule the Earth. Not true. The first reptiles evolved from their amphibian ancestors during the Carboniferous period some 300 million years ago.

  The first true dinosaurs didn't appear until about 230 million years ago.
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  (#4) 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.
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  (#20) Humans And Dinosaurs Coexisted

  The only time a human has every laid eyes on dinosaur was in a movie like Jurassic Park. Dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago, while the fossils of our earliest human ancestors are only 6 million years old.
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  (#12) Dinosaurs Are Extinct

  There is ample evidence that points to birds evolving from dinosaurs - to the extent that some scientists would argue that birds are dinosaurs. The avian line of dinosaurs survived after the asteroid impact that wiped out the rest of the dinosaurs.

  Ostriches, chickens, pigeons, penguins, eagles and all the other birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than crocodiles, turtles, lizards and snakes.

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