The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => Topic started by: Jasper on February 03, 2008, 08:22:17 PM
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Alright this sounds extremly crazy, but I don't what to make of this and this here has been in my head for two years now and I think I'm ready to talk about it. Everyone here do you all think that there are really living dinsaurs out there somewhere? P.s. I don't know if this is the place to post this.
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well... dinosaurs... no, not really, at least not the ones we have classified... but prehistoric animals, yes, the coelacanth seems to fit the bill
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If you believe in the theory, then there are dinosaurs still around today in the form of birds.
And there are remote places in the world that humans have barely explored, if at all, unless I am mistaken. If any dinosaurs like a duckbill were to still be around they would probably be in these remote regions. If any dinosaurs are still around, I would have to say that a duckbill would be the most likely candidate, seeing how they were probably the most successful dinosaurs, the most diverse.
I don't completely dismiss the idea of dinosaurs (not the flying feathered kind) still being around. After all, there have been cases of a species thought to be extinct, and then someone finds a living specimen. One example is the coelacanth.
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with genetic modifications, one could use those scales from Dakota, and try to bring one back, I think it'd be worthwhile
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To note the Coelacanth has been around for 360 million years. I don't know how it servived four mass extinctions and several ice ages. I think god was on the coelacanth's side.
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By the way any of you guys heard about dinosaur sightings in Africa?
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^Well, I highly doubt that.
^^The coelacanth lives in the ocean. Ice ages and mass-exctinctions have a hard time penetrating the ocean.
^^^^Birds are supposedly the descendants of dinosaurs. Their bone structure is not that far off from the feathered dinosaurs.
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I know that, but still, imagine an almost-Ducky coming into sight...
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^Well, I highly doubt that.
^^The coelacanth lives in the ocean. Ice ages and mass-exctinctions have a hard time penetrating the ocean.
^^^^Birds are supposedly the descendants of dinosaurs. Their bone structure is not that far off from the feathered dinosaurs.
Well no one can rule out anything yet.
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^Well, I highly doubt that.
^^The coelacanth lives in the ocean. Ice ages and mass-exctinctions have a hard time penetrating the ocean.
^^^^Birds are supposedly the descendants of dinosaurs. Their bone structure is not that far off from the feathered dinosaurs.
Well no one can rule out anything yet.
Oh have you ever heard of the Great dying?
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Here is the thing. If a giant meteorite (I am assuming that theory to be true) were to hit the earth, almost all land-based organisms would be annihilated. The exceptions would be the small animals that live underground. I highly doubt that any reptilian dinosaurs were small, with a few exceptions.
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but even the smaller animals could be taken out by the earthquakes, volcanoes, and other NATURAL VIOLENCEô that would follow from a meteor destabilizing everything...
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Here is the thing. If a giant meteorite (I am assuming that theory to be true) were to hit the earth, almost all land-based organisms would be annihilated. The exceptions would be the small animals that live underground. I highly doubt that any reptilian dinosaurs were small, with a few exceptions.
Actually there were a lot of dinosaurs that were really small, such as compsognathus (being only the size of a chicken). Not all dinosaurs were huge. In fact most dinosaurs were roughly the size of a modern day cow, from what I understand.
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Plus the "Great Dying" did kill 96% of marine life,which was about 254 million years ago. This was also the largest msaa extinction to occur, which everyone here knows about.
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I thought it was 95% of all life, not just in the water.
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I thought it was 95% of all life, not just in the water.
It's confirmed that 96% of marine life and 70% of land animals died. Confirmed on wikipedia.org and other websites.
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Oh okay.
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Some living today could very likely be descendants, as well as some others being sort of cousins. Also some that are considered dinosaurs like the dimentrodon, if I recall correctly and I"m no expert, were synapsids who evolved later into mammals. Most of what folks think of as dinosaurs were archosaurs which was a different type. Forgot the difference, it may be something to do with the hip structure, or skull.
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The only way a "dinosaur" as we think of them today actually survived is if aliens exist and they took one to another planet that's inhabitable before they all went extinct.
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Possible, perhaps even terraformed a world for them. Or dinos got tech and some left the world to establish colonies elsewhere before the extinction event happened.
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The only way a "dinosaur" as we think of them today actually survived is if aliens exist and they took one to another planet that's inhabitable before they all went extinct.
What makes you think so?
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The only way a dino can still exist is if it's adapted over millions of years and is some other creature we know today. I don't think this sort of evolution is possible in such a short amount of time (geologically speaking of course), which leads me to believe that inter-species breeding occurred. Some organisms interbreed with other organisms when their race is dying. It is rare, but sometimes it works. I don't think that huge amount of adaption could have occurred in such a short amount of time, so I think the species that could interbreed did, and created significantly different (but recognizable) offspring and the species that were unable to interbreed died off.
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While at times "living fossils" are being discovered (e.g. Coelacanth) I am quite certain we can take it for granted that there are no dinosaurs left on the earth. In an age where espionage satellites can spot things of the size of a golf ball we can be rather certain that no dinosaur of any significant size (and there would have to be a couple of them to ensure the survival of the species) could still roam the earth. I don't like to make too absolute statements; but there are no dinosaurs left on the earth...
Except perhaps in some governments and parliaments :lol
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I wonder if it's possible to clone one then. ;)
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I wonder if, if possible, they should be.
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The only way a dino can still exist is if it's adapted over millions of years and is some other creature we know today. I don't think this sort of evolution is possible in such a short amount of time (geologically speaking of course), which leads me to believe that inter-species breeding occurred. Some organisms interbreed with other organisms when their race is dying. It is rare, but sometimes it works. I don't think that huge amount of adaption could have occurred in such a short amount of time, so I think the species that could interbreed did, and created significantly different (but recognizable) offspring and the species that were unable to interbreed died off.
It is possible that, if dinosaurs were still around, they would still closely resemble dinosaurs we are familiar with, if they had reached an evolutionary dead-end. Examples would be sharks and crocodilians. They've been around longer than dinosaurs (sharks being the oldest of the two) and they haven't changed that much after their killing techniques were "perfected" sort of speak. Giant crocodiles and modern day crocodiles may differ in size but their physical appearance is almost unchanged.
I wonder if it's possible to clone one then.
It's not possible to clone dinosaurs. There's no DNA strand complete enough to build a dinosaur. The idea used by Jurassic Park is impossible, one of the reasons being that if they put frog DNA in the code, they would get a frog/dinosaur mutant.
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I can't deny having dreamt of the same thing in my youth. Hell, the thought still crops up in the back of my skull from time to time. But I'd have to agree with Malte on one thing: If there were dinosaurs around, they would likely have been discovered by now due to the sphistication and sheer resolution of some of those satelites in orbit.
Granted, there are still areas that are unexplored, covered by thick jungles that would obscure visibility from space, but the bigger dinosaurs would not be able to hide in vegetation this thick. Although I disagree with you on one point, Malte.
There were plenty of dinosaurs who were small enough to hide in such environments. Compsognathus, Coelophysis, Leallynosaura, Micropachycephalosaurus...possibly even one up to the size of a Minmi. The towering hulking lumbering giants of the Age of Dinosaurs were actually a minority...
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All true points. Though they can always live in fiction as well. When the last extinction event happened there were less genus around then well before it, I wonder how long dinosaurs would have lasted if the extinction event had not happened. Would they be down to only a few species today maybe?
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There were plenty of dinosaurs who were small enough to hide in such environments. Compsognathus, Coelophysis, Leallynosaura, Micropachycephalosaurus...possibly even one up to the size of a Minmi. The towering hulking lumbering giants of the Age of Dinosaurs were actually a minority...
You are definitely right about that one. However, if any dinosaurs survived, they would most likely have changed through evolution and looking at how much mankind changed in the short time of their existence or other species as well (whales turned from land to sea animals) we might not even recognize the direct descendants of dinosaurs (e.g. birds, some types of lizards etc.) as such.
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All true points. Though they can always live in fiction as well. When the last extinction event happened there were less genus around then well before it, I wonder how long dinosaurs would have lasted if the extinction event had not happened. Would they be down to only a few species today maybe?
There is a program that touches up on that I believe. "My Pet Dinosaur" presents a world where dinosaurs are still around, and humans are around as well. They explained how dinosaurs could still appear mostly the same even after 65 million years, and how people could exist along side them. It's a very interesting program.
Here's a link about it if anyone is interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes...tx/petdinosaur/ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/petdinosaur/)
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All true points. Though they can always live in fiction as well. When the last extinction event happened there were less genus around then well before it, I wonder how long dinosaurs would have lasted if the extinction event had not happened. Would they be down to only a few species today maybe?
There is a program that touches up on that I believe. "My Pet Dinosaur" presents a world where dinosaurs are still around, and humans are around as well. They explained how dinosaurs could still appear mostly the same even after 65 million years, and how people could exist along side them. It's a very interesting program.
Here's a link about it if anyone is interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes...tx/petdinosaur/ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/petdinosaur/)
That would be crazy and intresting if we were living side by side with dinosaurs. :wow :wow :wow :wow :wow :wow
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It could prove interesting, though I do wonder how changed would they be. Would any of the species have gained sentience?
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Technically yes.
*Birds are considered to be closely related to dinosaurs...how I don't know
* Snakes have been around since the T-Rex showed up, so they could be called living dinos. The same goes for other reptiles
* Certain types of fish have been around since dinos...AND BEFORE! Sharks, horses shoe crabs, etc...
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It's in the hips. :p Ornithischians are bird-hipped dinosaurs. It's a widely believed theory (compared to any other single theory) that there is a lot of evidence to show that Dinosaurs evolved into birds. The discovery of both markings on bone where feathers attatched and actual follil imprints of bone on a few more recent discoveries are widely believed to support this theory. As are the gradual lightening of bone density - something else some use to explain away all those holes in dinosaur bones.
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From the various new evidence I"ve read about it does seem to indicate that a dinosaur did evolve into a creature that later become birds. I've not read if birds have a common ancestor so thus 1 type of dinosaur evolved into what later became birds, or several evolved into different types of birds.
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*nods* I, personally, believe the dinosaurs to birds theory.
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Imagine if some were around, maybe you could have a Compsagnathus as a pet or companion.
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Yes. *chuckles* A pasture full of Ankylosaur. :p Beats horse-back riding any day! =D
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Yes, imagine riding an Ankylosaur, or other types of dinos.
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There is the ever so popular Hallow Earth theory.
A world within our world. Most people still believe this theory, and some even believe that the dinosaurs still exists down there
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I wonder if it's possible to clone one then. ;)
On this subject, has anyone seen the preview of the program "Dinosaurs: Return to Life?"? I saw the preview earlier today. From what I can make out, the program talks about how science behind recreating the dinosaur genome is coming close to reality. I'm hoping to catch it. It's going to be on the Discovery Channel I believe on Sunday, the 17th of this month, around.. 8 PM Eastern time I think.
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Maybe you can ask someone to see if they can catch it for you in case you miss it and get it to you somehow.
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A world within our world. Most people still believe this theory, and some even believe that the dinosaurs still exists down there
Most people do? I must say I doubt most people would believe such a thing.
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Isn't that some name like the hollow earth theory? I didn't think many believed in that anymore. Though many have used the idea for stories, like Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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What view do the supporters of such a theory take of volcanoes or the shifting continental plates? What is that theory based on other than fictions by Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne (and a couple of other authors)?
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What view do the supporters of such a theory take of volcanoes or the shifting continental plates? What is that theory based on other than fictions by Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne (and a couple of other authors)?
Just take look around on Youtube, there are folks who are nuts about the theory... conspiracy theorist mostly. But these groups still exsistsand they have their own set of scientific explanations
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I guess they are related to the flat earth society that I heard about, but no details.
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Hollow Earth is an interesting theory but I'm not sure if I believe it.
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Hollow Earth is an interesting theory but I'm not sure if I believe it.
From the scientific point of view just don't. The origin of the theory goes back to times when mankind only just got started with the natural sciences and in their overenthusiasm they came up with many theories which cannot stand the test of modern scientific evidence. I don't want to sound patronizing. After all natural scientists in those days didn't have knowledge of the more recent discoveries (even the shifting of continents and the existence of a former "supercontinent" Pangea is a relatively new discovery, only about a 100 years old), but nevertheless we can be certain today that there is no hollow space within our earth whether we want to "believe" it or not.
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I think they would have found any large hollow space with the earth by now with the various instruments and other means they have. Though if someone wants to use it in their fiction no reason they can't.
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All true points. Though they can always live in fiction as well. When the last extinction event happened there were less genus around then well before it, I wonder how long dinosaurs would have lasted if the extinction event had not happened. Would they be down to only a few species today maybe?
There is a program that touches up on that I believe. "My Pet Dinosaur" presents a world where dinosaurs are still around, and humans are around as well. They explained how dinosaurs could still appear mostly the same even after 65 million years, and how people could exist along side them. It's a very interesting program.
Here's a link about it if anyone is interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes...tx/petdinosaur/ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/petdinosaur/)
That would be crazy and intresting if we were living side by side with dinosaurs. :wow :wow :wow :wow :wow :wow
To quote what I said about this if they were alive than it would just like the Flinstones.