Re: Most popular/common dinosaur misconceptions

[Roberto Takata <rmtakata@gmail.com>]

On 8/17/06, Jamie Stearns <stearns5@cox.net> wrote:
> 1. Considering pterosaurs to be dinosaurs
> 2. Referring to Apatosaurus as "Brontosaurus"
> 3. Velociraptor was as tall as an adult human, hunted in packs, and was as
> intelligent as modern primates.
> 4. Dilophosaurus was venomous and could spit poison.
> 5. Tyrannosaurus rex was an obligate scavenger.

6. Dinosaurs and cavemen lived at the same time.
7. Sauropods spent most of time in water.
8. All dinosaurs were giant creatures.
9. Sauropods had a smooth skin (something like human skin).

Actually in a very popular Brazilian dictionary - untill the 2nd
edition (its in the 3rd edition now) - dinosaur was defined as:
extinct marine reptile! I really don't know where they found the info
that dinosaurs were aquatic animals.

A joke that I used to do was to find 8 errors in that definition:
Dinosaur - from Greek meaning "terrible lizard" - was a species of
extinct giant saurian reptiles that lived in the Mesozoic period.
- not terrible - but fearfully great
- not lizard
- not a species, but a larger group (a superorder ou even a class);
- not at all extinct (there are birds now)
- not always giants (there is a handful of small non-avian dinos -
turkey size or smaller)
- maybe not saurians (though in some definition of saurian its more or less ok)
- maybe not reptiles (though in the more common definition they were)
- not a period, but a geological era.
Even if we fix that definition it will be a very vague one - it would
include many other groups such as pterosaurs, mosasaurs (it's a sauria
- wich include the last common ancestor of crocodile and lizards and
all of its descendants), etc.

http://www.geocities.com/rmtakata/dinosauria/definicao.htm (in Portuguese)

[]s,

Roberto Takata