Myths, dug up

Pterosaurs weren’t dinosaurs. They were close cousins.

Pterosaurs such as Pteranodon weren’t dinosaurs, but they were close relatives. [source] “Pterodactyl” is a popular name for any pterosaur, but strictly it means members of one genus, Pterodactylus. [source]

Plesiosaurs weren’t dinosaurs either, and the Nessie pose doesn’t work.

Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles, and not dinosaurs. [source] A plesiosaur couldn’t have lifted its head out of the water like a swan, the way the Loch Ness monster supposedly does. [source]

You probably saw one this morning.

Birds are feathered dinosaurs. They evolved from theropods in the Late Jurassic, and they’re the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the mass extinction about 66 million years ago. [source · checked 24 Oct 2026]

It’s complicated. It was dropped in 1903, brought back in 2015, and the argument isn’t over.

In 1903 Elmer Riggs decided Brontosaurus was too like Apatosaurus to be a separate genus, so for decades the name was dropped. [source] A 2015 study by Emmanuel Tschopp and colleagues found Brontosaurus to be distinct after all, though some palaeontologists still treat it as Apatosaurus. [source]

They were turkey-sized, and feathered.

The real Velociraptor was roughly the size of a turkey, much smaller than the “raptors” in the Jurassic Park films. [source] Quill knobs, where big wing feathers attach, have been reported on a Velociraptor arm bone. [source]

That was its thumb.

Early reconstructions put Iguanodon’s spike on its nose. Later fossils showed it was really a thumb spike. [source]

The “second brain” idea came from a large canal Marsh spotted in the hip. Its real brain was small, though.

Stegosaurus was once said to have a “second brain” in its hips. The idea came from a large canal Marsh noticed in the hip region. [source] For such a big animal, Stegosaurus had a small braincase, no larger than a dog’s. [source]

Most palaeontologists say predator.

Most palaeontologists today accept that T. rex was a predator. The idea that it was mainly a scavenger has been discredited. [source]

Plenty were human-sized or smaller.

Plenty of Mesozoic dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller. [source] Archaeopteryx was about the size of a magpie. [source]

Even in 1897 one painter showed them leaping.

Charles R. Knight’s 1897 painting Leaping Laelaps was one of the few pictures before the 1960s to show dinosaurs as active, fast-moving animals. [source] All dinosaurs stood with their legs straight underneath them, like birds, rather than sprawled out to the side like a lizard’s. [source]