Are you a fan of dinosaurs?

[Silverhoof 2,844]

Yep. I never grew up. I still love em. I even made a trip to see the Dinosaur Natl Monument in northern Utah this summer.

Loved it. Saw several great Dino museums as well.

 

If there were time travel tours, I would so sign up to see Dinosaurs in the field.

[CT-1138 3,182]

I hate being this kind of paleo-nerd, but a few points I must address before I reply to the OP.

Dinosaurs are creatures that existed millions of years ago in earth, they roamed and lived long before any other era, and man is that mind amazing!

Birds are dinosaurs. They are theropods, which are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs isn't some box you can walk in and out of, it's a clade- it's is a term that describes a certain group of animals and all their descendants. All descendants are incapable of leaving their clade. Because of this, birds are descended from Mesozoic-era dinosaurs and therefore are dinosaurs themselves. Think of it this way: If your grandfather is a human, and you are descended from your grandfather, would that not make you a human? In fact, you want proof that birds are dinosaurs? Confuciusornis and Sapeornis. Those are two Early-Cretaceous dinosaurs that fall under the class "Aves", better known as "birds". Here are two more visuals to help explain this:

The first image is a cladogram which is a visual list of what a clade is, this one showing theropods and all groups located within Theropods. The second image gives a list of all the thropod groups and a short explanation as to what they are. As you can see, birds are included here. If birds = theropods and theropods = dinosaurs, then birds = dinosaurs.

Oh how I love ruining peoples childhoods

The raptors in Jurassic Park are in fact not Velociraptors, despite what the movie calls them. They are actually Deinonychus, a relative of the Velociraptor. Here is the comparison between a Deinonychus and a Velociraptor

Actual velociraptors would have been way less cool so Hollywood used its much larger cousin and slapped on the name Velolciraptor just to sound cool.

Firstly, that image shows a Buitreraptor next to a Deinonychus, not a Velociraptor. Buitreraptor, while being a dromaeosaur like Velociraptor, is actually from Cretaceous Argentina, while Velociraptor is from Cretaceous Mongolia/China, and Deijonychus is from Cretaceous Montana.

 

Secondly, the reason that the JP raptors are Deinonychus is actually because of Gregory S. Paul, who had classified the recently discovered Deinonychus antirrhopus as well as other species such as Dromeaosaurus and the then yet to be described Achillobator giganticus all under the genus of "Velociraptor". Spielberg used GS Paul's Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, where Paul first outlined this odd taxonomy, during the making of Jurassic Park, just as Crichton did when writing it. It is due to constant scientific updating that these creatures became scientifically obsolete very soon. These classifications and designs were then carried over to the film version, which Spielberg had already planned on making, before the book was even published.

 

When Jurassic Park /// came out in '03, in the paleontological community was already favoring the idea that ALL raptors had feathers. But it was already too late for JP as the image of the Deinonychus-sized, featherless Raptor had already been imprinted into the Jurassic Park fan community, and it was too late to go back from that. What they did instead was attempt to "update" the design, however in doing so, the JP/// raptors become even less like a dromaeosarine(the subfamily of dinosaurs that holds all the more famous of the "Raptors", i.e. Utahraptor, Velociraptor, Achillobator, Deinonychus). Despite the few pitiful quills given to the JP/// raptors (which no maniraptorforme, the clade that holds all sickle-clawed dinosaurs and their descendants all the way to modern birds, had), the snout is given two large ridges jutting off of it, which is nothing like any snout of any known maniraptor.

 

The Raptors of Jurassic Park could definitively be marked as Deinonychus (in universe, anyway) by a single feature: the resonating chamber. Dr. Grant in JP/// was excavating a "Velociraptor" in Montana which possessed the same sort of vocal feature as present in the live animals he encounters, and is even capable of using a cast of this feature to create sounds that the Raptors recognized. In the mid-late 80's, the unorthodox paleo-artist Gregory S. Paul, had tried reclassifying Deinonychus antirrhopus as well as other taxa such as Dromeaosaurus and the then yet to be described Achillobator giganticus all under the genus of "Velociraptor". Gregory Paul is infamous for his nomenclatural "clumping", or the taking of species that may or may not be related to each other evolutionarily and placing them all under the same genus. Paul did this with Sauronitholestes langstoni, Velociraptor mongoliensis, the scant remains that would later be attributed to Achillobator giganticus, and Deinonychus antirrhopus, clumping them all under the genus "Velociraptor", when all three have little to directly do with the others evolutionarily. Sauronitholestes is from Late-Cretaceous Alberta, Velociraptor is from Late-Cretaceous Mongolia/China same with Achillobator, and Deinonychus is from Middle-Cretaceous Montana/Wyoming. That last one is the same location where Dr. Grant is excavating his Raptors, and because it is not known whether or not any other species of dromaeosaur in the fossil record possesses a resonating chamber like that of Grant's Raptor and the InGen Raptors, it must be assumed that these two animals are of the same species.

 

Yeah, I think they're pretty awesome! My favourite is probably the pterodactyl because it's a huge bird witch can fly and be quite deadly as well.

Pterodactyls were actully about the size of a fox, and are not dinosaurs or birds. Though they are reptiles, like dinosaurs, they're actually their own type of reptile called "Pterosaurs", that died out at the end of the Mesozoic era.

 

Anyway, do I like Dinosaurs? Well...

-there's the above

-there's my username

-I was at college for paleontology for a short while

-I had wanted to be a paleontologist since I was three

-I'm an admin on Jurassic Park Legacy, the largest Jurassic Park fansite on the web

 

... I guess you could say I'm a fan.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Dinos4Ever

[NightOwl 912]

 

 

Pterodactyls were actully about the size of a fox, and are not dinosaurs or birds. Though they are reptiles, like dinosaurs, they're actually their own type of reptile called "Pterosaurs", that died out at the end of the Mesozoic era.

 

 

Wow didn't know that. Thank's for letting me know! I'm not really an expert on dinosaurs so I kind of assumed they were a bird species. 

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs, everyone was I think at some point. I used to watch Jurassic park a lot and I would collect so many dinosaurs. I would remember their names and stuff, everyone I knew collected them.

 

I still love dinosaurs and still enjoy watching movies that include dinosaurs and I really enjoy documentaries and such on them.

 

My favorite used to be the T-rex but later it became the Velociraptor, I just think it's an amazing dinosaur and since it's fast and agile like me I really liked it.

 

Dinosaur fan for life!

[Splashee 28,559]

Standard fan, you know? Like, "oh they are cool!" and "this is how the world used to look like?", and "get me merchandise!". But nothing more than that.

[ExplosionMare 18,060]

2 hours ago, Splashee said:

Standard fan, you know? Like, "oh they are cool!" and "this is how the world used to look like?", and "get me merchandise!". But nothing more than that.

Same here, but I think Yoshi is a dinosaur so I’m a bigger fan of him than regular dinosaurs

[Lucky Bolt 35,058]

They're cool, but I'm not super fascinated by them honestly. 

[Sonic Shimmer 4,131]

Yeah, it was a really good show!

Edited August 3, 2021 by Sonic Shimmer

[TheRockASaurus Rex 50,302]

I love dinosaurs.

They amazed and captivated me when I was a little kid and they still do today.

[Evil Pink One 13,505]

Every kid is.... Land before time was traumatizing though.... Second dose of Bambi.....  

[DixonTheAdversary 1,632]

I never really cared for dinosaurs that much, even as a kid. 

[Clawdeen 12,182]

Sure. They’re pretty cool.

[Dreambiscuit 9,467]

It’s hard not to find them interesting on some level at least. They’re often huge, diverse and just scary enough to grab the attention. It’s really amazing to think these enormous creatures ever roamed the earth and it’s cool to think about it. I wouldn’t mind if they were still around…just far away from me and preferably behind a 10,000 volt electric fence.

[KingKetchup 9]

Dinosaurs are pretty cool! 

[Savy 5,072]

I used to be obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid. I was such a huge tomboy, Instead of dolls I played with dinosaur toys. LOL

Not so interested in them nowadays though.

[Astralshy 26,242]

Well, they are definitely interesting and fascinating and I loved the movies and the tv show with the Animatronics from 90s but Dinosuars never really played a big role for me so I wouldn't say I would have been a fan of them.

[Stardust 641]

Yea they cool very scaly

[Paleopony 699]

Yep, I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs for sure!

[Twilight Sparkle97 402]

Yep. Dinosaurs are cool. 

[BritishBrony2012 787]

I like dinosaurs, my hometown has dinosaurs (statues that moved it head, mouth and tail and make roar sound) and seen Dippy the dinosaur (famous dinosaur bones from Natirual History museum, now on tour). Was obessive with Disney movie, Dinosaurs, not sure why.

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,579]

There are dinosaurs in Star Wars:  The Old Republic, so I maybe a dinosaur fan  

[Tom Gallagher 33,580]

You’re never too old to love dinosaurs!

[Starforce 26,586]

Yes I do, I believe they were mostly all feathered like birds were. Who knows what they really looked like though. 

[ExplosionMare 18,060]

I like dinosaurs well enough

[Sovereign Leader Rarity 12,006]

I used to be. They're a little on the underwhelming side as of late.