Living dinosaurs

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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. Sightings are often first reported not by Western scientists but by indigenous peoples, so their existence is often considered by the scientific community to be doubtful, merely the stuff of legend.

1 Arguments for dinosaur survival
2 Arguments against dinosaur survival
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] 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 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 also reports of sightings outside of Africa; 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 tales of sea and lake monsters, such as the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland's Loch Ness.

[edit] Arguments against dinosaur survival

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. At the end of the Cretaceous, Africa was significantly further south than its current location 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 not strictly supportable, 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, so any claim that depends purely upon the notion that Africa has been stable over the relevant time simply cannot be supported.

[edit] 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 0-89051-340-6
Charles Hapgood (2000) Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently?. Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 0-932813-76-3