Our knowledge of dinosaurs has expanded considerably since these creatures were first described in scientific literature in the 19th century.
But paleontologists are still trying to dispel the myths about these early inhabitants of our planet.
That task is made more difficult by the inaccurate representation of dinosaurs in popular culture - such as the wildly successful movie franchise Jurassic park.
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- Get to know the land of dinosaurs
- Dinosaurs among us
- Birds are today's dinosaurs
Here are some misconceptions that still persist.
Did the infamous asteroid kill all the dinosaurs?
About 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs had the worst possible day: a huge asteroid, estimated to be 10 kilometers in diameter, hit the Earth directly.
The collision, which left behind a huge crater buried beneath Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, triggered a mass extinction event.
However, scientists claim that "only" 75 percent of animals on Earth have died out.
And some dinosaurs were among the survivors.
"Although many dinosaurs died after the asteroid impact, an important group of super-small and feathered dinosaurs actually continued to live and we still see them today," Professor Paul Barrett, a paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum (NHM), told the BBC.
"Birds are direct members of the same group that dinosaurs belonged to."
"They are living dinosaurs, and in terms of the number of living bird species, there are more dinosaur species today than there were 66 million years ago."
Can you hide from the tyrannosaurus rex if you don't move?
Tyrannosaurus Rex is the star of the first film of the hugely successful Jurassic Park franchise, which premiered in 1993, featuring many striking scenes in which he terrorizes the human protagonists.
But the film presented the T-rex as an animal with poor vision that can only register potential prey if it is moving.
In nature, such a trait is indeed present in animals such as amphibians, but Professor Barrett says this was not the case with these predators.
"Dinosaurs probably had a much higher visual acuity. A study from 15 years ago actually even showed that the T-rex had probably the best eyesight of any animal that ever lived."
"Standing still in front of a t-rex would probably be one of the dumbest things you could do."
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Whether Tiranosaurus rex could overtake a moving vehicle?
Similarly, the film features a scene in which a t-rex runs and overtakes a moving vehicle.
There are indeed studies that have previously calculated that this magnificent predator can run at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.
More recent - and more advanced - simulations suggested a more leisurely speed of around 20 to 29 kilometers per hour.
"It's also important to keep in mind that the fastest speed you can develop is one thing, and the comfortable speed at which you can run for longer is quite another," says Dr. Mariana Di Giacomo, conservator at the Peabody Museum of National History at Yale University.
"Marathon runners don't run as fast as sprinters, and sprinters' races are very short because it's very taxing on the body to maintain such a high speed for long periods of time."
"Maybe a T-rex could run fast for short sprints, but that wouldn't be enough to overtake a moving car," she adds.
Mwe will li to clone a dinosaur?
The T-rex left this world tens of millions of years before the dawn of our species, and it is unlikely that we will meet again anytime soon - contrary to the central premise of Jurassic Park, scientists are firmly behind the view that dinosaurs cannot yet be cloned .
The biggest reason is that dinosaur DNA has not aged well.
"It doesn't last very long, as far as we know," Professor Barrett explains.
"The oldest DNA we know of in fossil remains is about two million years old. And that DNA is fragments from bacteria, soil, fungi and the like."
For animals, the oldest available genetic data is from creatures that died up to 50.000 years ago, Professor Barrett says.
“We don't have DNA from any other extinct animal or plant until we get much closer to our time.
"And that's why I'm very skeptical about this," he concludes.
Dr. Di Giacomo agrees, saying that even scientific advances in dinosaur genetics do not translate into cloning success.
"Cloning a species that is so far away from us in geological time is very complex because there are too many unknown variables."
It also raises potential ethical issues:
"Films like Jurassic Park and Jurassic World show us all the reasons why we shouldn't do it, which mostly focus on the people who suffer the consequences.
"But little is said about the cruelty of bringing these animals into a world that looks nothing like what they encountered in their time."
Watch the video: What a secret dinosaur graveyard looks like
Were dinosaurs "stupid creatures"?
Dr. Di Giacomo explains that technological advances have given scientists more resources to understand how dinosaurs lived and behaved.
"Not all dinosaurs were exceptionally bright and not all dinosaurs were unintelligent."
"They were as intelligent as they needed to be for the world they lived in."
Professor Barrett adds that some dinosaurs were "actually quite clever", especially the smaller carnivores.
"Some of them may have lived at night to avoid competition with larger animals.
"If that was the case, you obviously need a bigger brain to deal with the extra information you need, as well as better senses of hearing, sight and smell."
Were Dinosaurs Terrible Parents?
For more than a century, dinosaurs were thought to be ferocious loners who weren't really "in the business" of parenting.
And then, in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs, new discoveries showed that they had more complex social behavior.
The herbivorous dinosaur believed to have lived 77 million years ago was even named Maiasaurin - meaning "good mother lizard" from the Greek and Latin words.
A more recent study, published in the journal Scientific Reports last October, went even a step further and suggested that dinosaurs that lived 193 million years ago already organized themselves into packs and raised their young.
"We understand dinosaurs better these days and know that at least some of them were good parents," says Professor Barrett.
"Yes, there were those who weren't."
Dr. Di Giacomo mentions other cases of dinosaurs that "took care of their own."
"There are other species that have been identified as having the parental side, and these include raptors like Allosaurus," she says.
"Furthermore, there is a dinosaur, citipati osomoskae, which earned the nickname 'Big Mom' because it was found lying on eggs."
You may also be interested in this video: Largest dinosaur skeleton sold for $6,6 million
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