The coexistence of humans and non-avian dinosaurs exists only as a recurring motif in speculative fiction, owing to the fact that humans and non-avian dinosaurs have never coexisted at any point in the history of Earth. The notion that non-avian dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted at some time in the past or still coexist in the present is a belief rooted in pseudoscience and pseudohistory, and is 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 a hoax. 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of dinosaurs among ancient artwork or descriptions of cryptids, though such identifications are often based on outdated or incorrect ideas about dinosaur biology and life appearance and often ignore the cultural/artistic context. Scientists consider the claim that non-avian dinosaurs survived to the present day to be untenable, with known cases of so-called "living fossils" (such as coelacanths) far from analogous to large-bodied land vertebrates. The contemporary existence of non-avian dinosaurs would require unprecedented ghost lineages without fossils for tens of millions of years and would contrast sharply with the relatively good fossil record of dinosaurs and other groups in the Mesozoic.
Birds
Birds evolved from a group of theropod dinosaurs (Paraves) during the Jurassic period. Modern birds are cladistically and phylogenetically dinosaurs, 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. The most massive birds known to have coexisted with humans are the moa of New Zealand and the elephant birds of Madagascar. The largest moa, the South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus), could reach heights of over 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). Both the moa and the elephant birds went extinct not long after humans arrived to their respective islands, likely as a result of human hunting. 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. The most massive dinosaur alive today is the ostrich and the smallest is the bee hummingbird, which is also the smallest known dinosaur.
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. 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. Some creationists further believe that dinosaurs survived the Biblical flood since the Bible states that "every kind of land animal" did. 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. Some proponents have claimed that mythological reptiles such as dragons and the Behemoth are historical descriptions of dinosaurs. 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.
Historical artwork and artifacts
Misinterpretations
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. 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.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
