“Dinosaurs aren’t real” is a pretty common one. Usually because it supposedly contradicts the Bible or Flat Earth.
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iNat doesn’t have a taxonomic structure suited to long-extinct organisms, because iNat isn’t really meant to be used for such organisms. There are often so many gaps in the fossil record that clades aren’t assigned taxonomic levels in the same way they are for extant species.
Contrary to how it is displayed on iNat, Dinosauria is a clade (but not a Class) under Reptilia. Though, Aves is a Class and below Dinosauria. So Dinosauria is a clade below Class in reference to reptiles and above Class in reference to birds. Which is why some people argue that Aves should be nested under Reptilia somehow (and it is in many phylogenetic taxonomies).
I’ve heard people say dinosaur fossils were put in the earth by Satan to trick “nonbelievers”.
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I know people said this in 1850, but 2024?
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I find your surprise surprising. We are living in an age ripe with science denialism.
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I know people believe the earth is 6,000 years old, (though I believe this belief is less common than it used to be) but normally they just say the dinosaurs went extinct like 3,000 years ago instead of 66,000,000. Saying the fossils were created by satan just seems weird and isn’t necessary to justify the belief in a 6,000 year old earth
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I always belived/had heard it was a name given based on food they both eat
" The name "panda " is believed to be derived from the Nepalese words: “nigalya ponya” meaning “bamboo eater.”
And the Panda, was named after the Panda, because of having a bamboo focused diet.
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This is in danger of taking over the conversation on this post, so I suggest this not continue after this so that others can continue to take part in the original conversation.
Yes, the Red Panda was named a panda due to its diet. Later when the Giant Panda was being named, as previously mentioned, the superficial similarities (which includes their food) led to them being given the name that originally referred just to the Red Panda.
Regardless, the true pandas are the Red Panda, and the Giant Panda are bears that also eat bamboo. Not the only bamboo eating bear though, the Spectacled Bear (another black and white bear) in South America also ats bamboo and is the last of the sort-faced bears.
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I’ve avoided taking part in the discussion so far, because at some point it moves on from humorous to harmful (for either the animals or the believers), and may come from communities that may be ridiculed for their beliefs, however nonsensical the beliefs really are.
However, here are two from people who ought to know better -
Seeing an owl will cause the death of a family member (owls can see into the future with their large eyes, though how this causes a death is never explained).
A bite from Lycodonomorphus rufulus will result in death, unless you race to the river and drink from it before the snake does (the snake is not venomous, and is quite small).
The most common nonsenses I hear generally relate to snakes living in nuclear families; and that if you kill an adult or a baby, the partner/parent will avenge their death.
Many of these beliefs end in the needless deaths of wild animals.
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As a scientist who believes this (a global flood creating fossils, coal/oil, Grand Canyon, etc 4,000 years ago) I can confirm that that statement is not useful. Both sides of the debate use the exact same evidence but interpret it differently so saying your evidence (dino fossils) disproves the other side is meaningless. Dino soft tissue is interesting though. On a logic note, you can’t “prove” forensic science anyway like you can experimental science.
As an apologist ’ve heard I insanely sillier things said than that though
Edit: in case of misunderstanding, I mean that a creationist saying fossils proves their side is not meaningful or helpful as it does not address why.
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That dinosaurs and humans co-existed. Blame it on education? Religious beliefs? Or simply the childhood of some of us, of a certain age, who grew up in the US watching “The Flintstones” on Saturday morning?
(Hey, I just realized that the Flintstones’ car did not run on fossil fuel! But maybe that’s for another topic…)
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It’s ok to find some humor in these myths, but attacks on people or groups of people who maybe believe them are not OK. I’m sure we’ve all believed in some of these myths (I know I have) or have similar irrational thoughts or beliefs. Rather than putting other people down, help to lift them up.
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Sometimes converts become the most vehement polemicists against what they were converted from. Thank you for reminding us that this is not helpful. Polemic seldom persuades anyone who is not ready to be persuaded.
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When I was working in Ecuador the local folks had a similar belief about nightjars, although t’s more general misfortune than specifically a death in the family.
We were tracking a radio collared bear up in the páramo and came across a nightjar right at the same time as two young women were heading back from the grassland to their village. They didn’t see us at first, so we saw their reaction to the nightjar and they were really freaked out.
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There’s a grain of truth here. Dogs bark for various reasons, but some barks are warnings. (Along with freezing, side-eyeing, lip-curling, and snarling, for example.) Dogs who deliver ample warnings, and learn that those warnings will be respected, are in fact less likely to bite than dogs who don’t warn (either because the non-warning dog is quick on the trigger or because they’ve learned that warnings aren’t respected or because warning behaviors have been punished to the point of extinction).
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In the last month or so
Dinosaurs aren’t real
It’s impossible for them to get that big (referring to sauropods)
The New York Natural History Museum is hiding giants/dragons
Dinosaurs aren’t extinct (so close and yet so far ) they are hidden in Area 51 which is run by Jewish people. There’s a lot of antisemitic ones
Theres still a few left hiding in the jungle or whatever that are cryptids being hidden by “Them”
They found all the dinosaurs a while back and all the new ones are made up by paleontologists for money
They were wiped out by the flood according to the bible so all this “asteroid nonsense” is made up by atheists
They can’t have evolved into birds
They were wiped out by Aliens/God to make room for humans.
Humans and non avian dinosaurs were around at the same time
I think that covers most of them. It’s honestly my favorite part of working there is being lectured by people who haven’t paid attention to science since 1st grade who are fully employed or even retired while I struggle to find a fulltime job that pays more than minimum wage with a stem degree
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I know of at least one more:
That the human footprints at Glen Rose were modified to look like dinosaur footprints to cover up that humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
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It’s true. My grandfather saw an owl, and sure enough, less than 8 years later, he died.
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Koala bears aren’t real bears. There are no real bears in Australia, because when Gondwana broke up it was winter and the bears were hibernating and got left behind.
I heard this from the managing director of a multi million dollar conservation organisation, while all the biologists and ecologists looked uncomfortably at their shoes.
I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say, and eventually muttered ‘that’s not even wrong’, which might not have helped our funding next year.
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Koala bears aren’t real bears is true though
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I saw my first nightjar last year https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178900429 though could be wrong on ID.
But I was quite confused initially because I didnt know about them, so when I saw it on the ground initially I wondered if it was hurt. They seem pretty unique, so could see some mythos developing around them.
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