The Dinosaurs, formed in 1982, was a Bay Area supergroup to emerge from the psychedelic music era of San Francisco. The group consisted of Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company, John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Papa John Creach of Hot Tuna, Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane, Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead, Barry Melton of Country Joe and The Fish and keyboardist Merl Saunders from the Saunders-Garcia Band. In the 1990s David LaFlamme of It's A Beautiful Day and Jerry Miller of Moby Grape also toured with this group.
In 1988, the band released its only studio album, Dinosaurs. In 2005 the band released a retrospective album on the Evangeline label, entitled Friends of Extinction.
They were the band that forced Dinosaur Jr to add on the "Jr." in 1987, shortly after that band released You're Living All Over Me.