Top 10 Most Annoying Things People in the Paleontology Community Say

These statements are either poorly supported, outdated, taken out of context, or just wrong. Yet, they appear in too many documentaries and are used by too many people.

1. "Flightless birds are downgraded dinosaurs"

   Flightless birds like phorusrhacids are too often viewed as a short-lived evolutionary experiment destined to be outcompeted by mammals.

   Multiple groups of flightless birds (e.g., phorusrhacids, bathornithids, and dromornithids) successfully competed with mammals for millions of years. Extant ratites clearly show that flightless birds and mammals can coexist.

   Interestingly, some birds (Patagopteryx, Hesperornis, Gargantuavis, etc.) had already evolved to become flightless even before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

2. "Carnivorans outcompeted other Cenozoic carnivores"

   Carnivorans are too often portrayed as super predators that outcompeted all other types of carnivores. Hyaenodonts, entelodonts, etc. coexisted with carnivorans for quite a while. Even today, monitor lizards live alongside carnivorans.

3. "Reptiles and birds that laid their eggs on the ground went extinct because mammals ate their eggs"

   A quick reminder: several species of reptiles and birds that lay their eggs on the ground are still present. Neither oviparous nor viviparous animals are superior. They merely use different strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

   I'm surprised that most of these are things people in the paleontology community say. I'm not even close to being a paleontologist, but I knew 8 or 9 of them were false.

4. "During the Great American Interchange, South American animals were outcompeted"

   The narrative that superior North American species replaced their South American counterparts during the GABI is highly questionable. South American clades like Sparassodonta and Sebecidae became extinct before the interchange occurred, while clades like Xenarthra expanded northward.

5. "Feathered dinosaurs are not scary"

   First of all, this isn't true. Just look at a cassowary. Also, dinosaurs were/are real animals, not movie monsters.

   Yeah, I mean, tons of theropods we know, like Velociraptor, Nanuqsaurus, and Utahraptor, were killer dinos.

6. "Every extinct large reptile is a dinosaur"

   Not every dinosaur is extinct, and not all dinosaurs were/are large. Additionally, other prehistoric reptiles such as pterosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs are not dinosaurs.

7. "Crocodiles are living fossils"

   In the past, pseudosuchians were much more diverse, and crocodilians differ significantly from their ancestors and distant relatives. Crocodilians are descended from terrestrial, warm-blooded ancestors. I would also like to mention Mekosuchus, a crocodilian that became fully terrestrial again and lived until 3,000 years ago.

8. "Prehistoric animals were bigger because of higher oxygen levels"

   The only geological period with an exceptionally high concentration of oxygen was the Carboniferous.

   Only land-based arthropods with a fairly inefficient respiratory system were much bigger during this period. Other giant animals evolved for different reasons.

   It should also be mentioned that the extant blue whale is the largest animal known to have ever existed.

9. "Giant animals went extinct because they were too big"

10. "Tyrannosaurus had an infectious bite"

    The infamous myth spread by Jurassic Fight Club is far too popular. It is based on the disproven idea that Komodo dragons have special bacteria in their mouths. There is no evidence that Tyrannosaurus had deadly bacteria in its mouth.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    "Cloning dinosaurs would be completely unethical"

12. ?

    "Jurassic World is accurate"

The Contenders

13. "There were giant insects bigger than people in the age of dinosaurs"

14. "Placentals are the most advanced mammals"

    The notion that placentals are superior to monotremes and marsupials is controversial. Rodents appeared in Australia in the late Miocene and did not displace marsupials or monotremes. Marsupials (and other metatherians) have coexisted with placentals in the Americas for millions of years.

15. "Velociraptor was a scaly monster with cutting claws"

    Yeah, I hate this common trope. It's completely untrue. Velociraptor was an animal like all dinosaurs, not a monster. It was also feathered, had no pronated wrists, and could not disembowel prey as depicted in popular culture.

16. "Dinosaurs were dumb creatures"

17. "Mammals ate dinosaur eggs"

18. "Hadrosaurs were helpless predator fodder"

19. "Dinosaurs had scales, not feathers"

20. "Other giant carnivores could kill Tyrannosaurus"

21. "Pterosaurs are dinosaurs"

22. "Plesiosaurs are dinosaurs"

23. "Troodon could evolve into humanoids"

24. "Herbivorous dinosaurs were gentle giants"

25. "Carnivorous dinosaurs were bloodthirsty monsters"

26. "Mammoths and saber-toothed tigers lived with dinosaurs"

27. "Chickens evolved from Tyrannosaurus"