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In cryptozoology, living dinosaurs are non-bird dinosaurs that supposedly survived the K-T extinction, and continue to exist up to the present day. They are often spied first not by Western scientists, but by natives, and so their existence is often considered doubtful, merely the stuff of legend.
Arguments for dinosaur survival
According to some cryptozoologists, living dinosaurs are not a zoological impossibility, particularly in areas that have been geologically stable for the past sixty million years. Larger dinosaurs that are cold-blooded (ectothermic) might have a more successful chance thriving in stable, warm, equatorial regions than warm-blooded (endothermic) animals with higher metabolic rates. Ectothermic creatures also require only ten percent of the amount of the food taken in by fully endothermic animals. Determining dinosaur energetics and thermal biology without living models, though, is a pure speculation.
The evidence advanced so far in support of dinosaur survival consists of eyewitness sightings, legends and ancient works of traditional art that supposedly depict dinosaurs. Most reports of currently surviving alleged dinosaurs come from African rain forests in the Congo, but the Ica stones of Peru (the authenticity of which is contested), bearing carvings of both humans and dinosaurs, are also occasionally advanced as evidence. The most common sighting reports are of sauropods in Africa, notably the Mokele-mbembe. However, there are sightings outside of Africa as well; in 1999 an Iguanodon-like creature was allegedly sighted in Papua New Guinea and it has also been suggested that plesiosaurs may have also survived the K-T extinctions, accounting for sea and lake monsters such as the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland's Loch Ness.
Arguments against dinosaur survival
The arguments against dinosaur survival are legion. Apart from the fact that no dinosaur fossil has ever been found that is younger than the Cretaceous period, which ended 65 million years ago, there are problems with the internal logic of claims about dinosaur survival. Those who argue that dinosaurs could have survived in Africa often claim that Africa has been "geologically stable" since the Cretaceous, when this is in fact not true. Africa was significantly further south than its current location at the end of the Cretaceous, and even small degrees of difference in location make for vastly different environments. The idea that dinosaurs (such as Mokèlé-mbèmbé) could have survived in the thick rainforests of the Congo, for instance, is an impossibility, since the Congo rainforests did not exist in anything like their present form during the Cretaceous period. Similarly, many of Africa's major geological formations--the Great Rift Valley, for example--are much younger than the dinosaurs, having formed within the last 35 million years. Africa was, in other words, a vastly different place during the time of the dinosaurs, and any claim that depends upon the notion that Africa has been stable over time simply cannot be supported.
References
- George M. Eberhart (2002). Mysterious Creatures: A Guide To Cryptozoology. ABC-CLIO, Inc. ISBN 1-57607-283-5.
- Ken Ham. (2000) Dinosaurs of Eden: A Biblical Journey Through Time. Master Books. ISBN 0890513406
- Charles Hapgood (2000) Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently?. Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 0932813763
See also
- cryptids
- Kasai Rex
- Dinosaurs in South America
- Sirrush
- Dinosaurs
- kongamoto
- Plesiosaurs
- sea serpent
- Lake monster
- Jurassic park
- loch ness monster
- pterodactyl
- rhamphorhynchus
- cryptozoology
- Emela-ntouka
- Mokele-mbembe
External links
"Living dinosaurs"