Are dinosaurs overrated?

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Am I the only person here who thinks that dinosaurs are overrated? Other prehistoric creatures are being ignored due to the immense popularity of dinosaurs.

Sometimes I spend hours looking at drawings of prehistoric pseudosuchians on the internet because they are so awesome. Why aren't pseudosuchians getting more attention? Aren't they awesome enough?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudosuchia

Ornithosuchus
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Simosuchus
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Metriorhynchus
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The dinosaurs are a hard act to follow.

The mammals did produce some cinema-genic monsterous beasts like the mastodon and the sabertooth tigers, and even Australia had killer kangaroos.

Contemporary with the dinosaurs were real "sea monsters" (like the plesiosaur, and the itchysaur), and ofcourse the "greatest freak of all time" the giant flying reptiles (pterasaurs)that even almost upstage T-rex. Though contemporary with, and often popularly lumped with, the "dinosaurs", neither the marine reptiles and the flying reptiles were strictly speaking actual taxomically speaking "dinosuars".

I was very interested in life forms from the permian and cambrian geological era a couple of years ago. I always found it fascinating that the dimetrodon (often sold alongside dinosaurs in playsets) was more closely related to us than to any dinosaur.

I also like Andrewsarchus.



It lives under your bed.

well, they are just so f*****g huge and weird from anything we know it makes sense for people to be fascinated by them. However, i will agree that other creatures such as prehistoric insects need more showtime.

That’s the thing though there are many more examples of giganticism outside the dinosaurs. It really makes no sense why there is a cultural focus on them on not other species. If it’s all about size the largest animal that ever existed by weight exists today (blue whale).

Also my opinion is that humans are way more overrated than dinosaurs.

Not all humans are overrated. Just celebrities.

I love modern day dragonflies, and damselflies. Beautiful, and they eat tons of bugs that I don't like, like mosquitos, and gnats.

So I do like the extinct carbiniforous era giant ones- with two foot wingspans- as big as crows.

The fossil record is full of creatures that weren't all that impressive looking, but were still important to the environment in which they lived, such as Trilophosaurus.

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No, the species as a whole is overrated. For most previous apex species it's taken millions of years for them to change their environment in ways that lead them to extinction. For humans it's taken a few thousands. Vastly overrated.

I also like prehistoric arthropods, though I prefer eurypterids.

Another Thing: I find that the true diversity of Pterosauria generally isn't reflected in the media.

Apparently, TV writers don't know about any pterosaurs beyond Pteranodon.

For example, Tapejara almost never appear in TV or movies despite its magnificence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapejara_(pterosaur)

I also think that giant amphibians deserve more attention.

Unfortunatly for you prehistoric animal fans the dinos pretty much monopolize the public eye. With one exception. That being Megalodon: the extinct bigger brother of Jaws.

Actually there are sharks today that are equal to, or are actually bigger than, Megalodon. Namely the whale shark, and the basking shark. But those are both harmless filter feeders that live on plankton, and (like blue whales) couldn't eat a human if they tried to. Megalodon was a predator like the requiem sharks of today, and in fact was a close cousin of today's great white shark.So it could bite off even more than Jaws could bit off. Fortunately it went extinct two million years ago. Or...DID it? Some media outlets try to push the notion that it could still be lurking around in some corners of the sea (like an aquatic bigfoot) when its ratings week. Right.

I also like Thylacosmilus.



This murderous metathere deserves more attention.

I don't understand why I'm one of the few people here who is obsessed with paleontology.

I also love prehistoric snakes ... because I love snakes in general. Snakes are awesome. They creep and slither through the underbrush. They have venom. They are also vicious flesh-eaters who don't even bother to chew!

Imagine having to tussle with the likes of Gigantophis!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantophis

I also like Najash. It was a basal snake which retained its ancestral legs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najash