Living dinosaurs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Living dinosaurs is a term sometimes used to denote birds, which are the only clade of dinosaurs known to have survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

See:

• Living fossil, an informal term for animals such as crocodiles and tuataras, which are also occasionally called "living dinosaurs" by journalists.
• Origin of birds for information on the evolution of birds from dinosaurs.
• Lazarus taxon is a taxon that disappears from one or more periods of the fossil record, only to appear again later.
• Paleocene dinosaurs, controversial fossils of non-avian dinosaurs which may have survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction.

[edit] Mythology, fiction, and pseudoscientific speculation

The term is also used for non-avian dinosaurs that are either mythological, fictional or claimed to exist today, but the existence of which is unsupported by current scientific research.

• Cryptozoology for popular speculation about dinosaurs surviving into modern times.
• Creationist perspectives on dinosaurs for creationist beliefs on living dinosaurs, mainly in young earth creationism
• Jurassic Park for fiction about making dinosaurs live again
• The Lost World for seminal fiction about surviving dinosaurs
• Land of the Lost for the cult-classic children's television series about dinosaurs that survive in a land accessible through a dimensional portal.
• Skull Island for the fictional island where King Kong is discovered along with living dinosaurs.
• Godzilla for the mutated monster star of eponymous films.
• Dinotopia is a fictitious series about a hidden utopia where humans and surviving dinosaurs live together in harmony.