Living dinosaurs

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In cryptozoology, living dinosaurs are hypothetical non-bird dinosaurs that survived the K-T extinction and continue to exist today.

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 and merely the stuff of legend. Thus, reports of living dinosaurs can be studied as either being mythology, combined with a sociological phenomenon, or as possible evidence for further investigation in the field of cryptozoology. However, there is no known fossil evidence of non-avian dinosaurs surviving the Cretaceous Period.

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[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.

There have also been some reports of unknown, large reptiles, possibly dinosaurs, surviving in the vast rain forests of South America. The Swedish naturalist Rolf Blomberg described in his book "Rio Amazonas"(1966) his meeting with a very old Brazilian Indian. The man, Alvaro Mesquita, told Blomberg of his earlier meeting with a "prehistoric beast". Mesquita encountered the creature during a nightly hunt at the shore of a swampy lake around the Rio Purús/Rio Juruá-area in the Amazon basin, Brazil. Mesquita said he suddenly saw two glowing red eyes high above the ground, and tried to get closer. When he got close, he saw it was a bipedal reptile. Mesquita described the animal as resembling the herbivore dinosaur Camptosaurus. He tried to shoot at the monster, but missed, and the creature fled into the lake. Blomberg himself was very skeptical about this fantastic dinosaur story.

[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 farther 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] Creationism debates

Main article: Religious perspectives on dinosaurs

The idea of dinosaurs living today or in the recent past has become an argument for creationists, especially by those who support young earth creationism. Supporters often feel that by proving the existence of living dinosaurs, they could also disprove evolution. However, this logic is erroneous since the survival of even older types of animals, such as fish and turtles, does not disprove evolution.

[edit] References

  • Blomberg, Rolf. 1966. "Rio Amazonas", Almqvist & Wiksell.
  • Eberhart, George M. (2002). Mysterious Creatures: A Guide To Cryptozoology. ABC-CLIO, Inc. ISBN 1-57607-283-5.
  • Ham, Ken (2000) Dinosaurs of Eden: A Biblical Journey Through Time. Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-340-6
  • Hapgood, Charles (2000) Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently?. Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 0-932813-76-3
  • Shuker, Karl P. N. (1995) In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, Blandford, ISBN 0-7137-2469-2

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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