Famous monsters like Tyrannosaurs and Velociraptors, most likely, are not like the monsters in our imaginations and certainly behaved differently. Many of us, as children, and I speak for myself absolutely sincerely, had a difficult period of love for dinosaurs. And now it turns out that much of what I knew was not true. It turns out that the modern scientific view of these things bypasses the popular image of dinosaurs a step.
Until the “dinosaur revival” of the late 1960s, dinosaurs were always portrayed as lethargic and ruminant. But experts realized that dinosaurs led an active lifestyle and gradually brought this to the general public - including with the help of the 1993 Jurassic Park.
Over the past two decades, we have witnessed another major revolution in our understanding of dinosaurs, thanks to new fossils from China and advances in technology. But most of these findings have not influenced the conventional wisdom about dinosaurs. And now I understand how strongly the images of legendary dinosaurs have eaten into my memory - since childhood. This is how Pluto is considered a planet in the solar system.
But now you may not recognize these dinosaurs.
Velociraptor
Let's start with an idea that many have heard of but few have accepted: some dinosaurs had feathers. Not just a couple of feathers here and there, but a body completely covered in feathers.
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Already in the 1980s, some paleontologists began to suspect that feathered dinosaurs, it turns out, were creatures. Increasingly, fossils of primitive dromaeosaurids - the family to which the Velociraptor belongs - with fully feathered wings, have been found. Nevertheless, depictions of this iconic predator have remained fairly traditional.
That all changed in 2007 when American scientists discovered feather tubercles on the forearm bone of the Velociraptor fossil. These tubercles are found where the feather is attached and provide strong evidence for the feathered and avian-like velociraptors.
Those human-sized dinosaurs shown in Jurassic Park had nothing to do with their real ancestors.
“If animals like Velociraptor were alive today, we would immediately think they look like unusual birds,” says Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History. And this is reflected not only in the feathers: the real velociraptors were the size of turkeys.
Michael Crichton, author of the original Jurassic Park novel, modeled his Raptors after the larger Deinonychus. And, apparently, deliberately named them incorrectly, because he thought that "Velociraptor" sounds more dramatic.
Archeopteryx
Archeopteryx is widely regarded as the "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds. This mysterious status attracted a lot of attention to them, and not only positive.
Forgeries have plagued the Archeopteryx fossils for many years, usually from people who don't like this clear evidence of evolution.
In fact, new research suggests that Archeopteryx may not be a missing link, but clearly not for reasons promoted by opponents of evolution. After the discovery of a very Archeopteryx-like dinosaur in China, scientists speculated that the famous avian ancestor may have actually preceded small carnivorous dinosaurs such as Velociraptors. This version has since been disputed.
Even if Archeopteryx is considered the first bird, this label is not true. "It is fundamentally impossible to draw a line on the evolutionary tree between dinosaurs and birds," says Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh in the UK, co-author of a 2014 paper examining the evolution of the first birds.
All indications are that there was no missing link between birds and dinosaurs, but only a gradual transition involving many avian intermediate species.
Triceratops
This eternal Tyrannosaurus adversary and favorite model for plastic figurines - who doesn't love Triceratops?
So when, in 2009, John Scannella and John Horner published a paper suggesting that Triceratops was simply a juvenile version of a larger but lesser-known Torosaurus, they were hit by waves of hatred and disappointment. The hashtag #TriceraFAIL was invented. People decided that their favorite dinosaur was simply invented.
But that was not the case. Very soon, commentators began to point out that Triceratops had been found earlier, so if anyone should be removed, it is Torosaurs. But the lesson turned out to be very important. Our knowledge of dinosaurs is often based on scarce fossils, so that even known species undergo changes.
Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus gets its name from archetypal sauropods: huge, clumsy herbivores with long necks. But for hundreds of years, scientists have been convinced that this dinosaur never existed.
The skeleton, which was first introduced as a Brontosaurus, is a remnant of an Apatosaurus with a Camarosaurus skull.
However, in 2015, a team of scientists presented an analysis demonstrating significant differences between the original brontosaurus and the fossil Apatosaurus, suggesting that the genus of brontosaurus should be resurrected.
The key differentiator, the team says, is size. In a family of giant reptiles, the Apatosaurus was huge.
Tyrannosaurus rex
Some scientists have definitely shielded the Tyrannosaurus. After decades of making excuses that it was the humble grass-eater and not the ferocious predator of popular imagination, this lizard is now in yet another identity crisis.
As the feathered revolution swept across paleontology, experts began to wonder about the genus Tyrannosaurus. Of course, could the most charismatic predator of all time be feathered?
No plumage has been found in over 50 T. rex remains throughout North America. But along with the excavations in China, very, very interesting hints were drawn.
In 2004, a primitive Tyrannosauroid was found with a coating of feathers similar to those of other small carnivorous dinosaurs. This was followed by the opening of Yutyrannus in 2012 - which means "feathered tyrant". This giant predator was closely related to T. rex, and not only in terms of size. It was covered with long feathers.
These findings suggest that the most famous predator of all time needs to be looked at differently. The question is, was the feathered Tyrannosaurus not as scary as the roaring and law-devouring monster we all love so much?
Stegosaurus
Experts are renowned for their ability to come up with wacky explanations for strange dinosaurs; explanations that confidently creep into popular opinions and remain there.
For example, there is a widespread "fact" that the stegosaurus had an extra brain in the pelvic area that compensated for a tiny brain (cerebellum?) In a small head.
But no, the stegosaurus may not have been the wittiest of its friends, but it didn't need an extra brain. This additional cavity, which gave rise to the myth, most likely housed the "glycogen body": a structure that many birds have and that is involved in storing energy.
He also has plates on his back.
For some time, the most popular theory has been that the stegosaurus's most distinctive feature is … "solar panels" that help it regulate body temperature. But this has always remained the subject of violent scientific battles. If so, why do other stegosaur decorations look more like thorns than panels?
The variety of stegosaurus spines played a role in another train of thought. Like the bright and colorful plumage of tropical birds, these plates may have helped dinosaurs distinguish each other and attract mates.
Sex could be a key factor in the development of many of the extravagant traits seen in dinosaurs. In recent years, everything from long-necked sauropods to the lush frill of ceratopsians has come to be considered sex selection.
Pachycephalosaurus
And although this dinosaur is not among the first class of legendary lizards, the pachycephalosaurus is well known among dinosaur fans for its armored head.
These dinosaurs were almost exclusively depicted as taking part in battles, clashing their heads. Pachycephalosaurus had domed heads with a powerful reinforced skull. It was believed that the males used these built-in battering rams to fight each other, much like the rams of our day.
However, some scientists questioned the Pachycephalosaurs were fighters.
"Our research has shown that pachycephalosaurs could only hit their heads once and subsequent trauma could kill them," says John Horner of Montana State University in the US, who studied the microstructure of dinosaur cranial tissues. He suggests that domes were another way to attract partners (sex, of course, not business).
Ankylosaurus
Covered in thick armor plates from head to tail, the ankylosaurus was such a medieval knight of the Cretaceous period.
Modern paleontologists are using the latest technology to squeeze more and more information out of the fossils. In 2004, Thorsten Scheyer of the University of Bonn in Germany used polarizing microscopy to uncover remarkable new levels of complexity in the ankylosaurus shell.
The bulky-looking armor was found to have a complex microstructure of bone and collagen, similar to that of fiberglass or Kevlar.
“The shell was very strong in all places,” says Scheyer. And surprisingly light. "Modern composite materials that are used to create blades for wind farms or body armor are based on the same principle."
It looks like the ankylosaurus looked more like a modern super-soldier than a medieval knight.
Spinosaurus
Another dinosaur made famous by the movie Jurassic Park is the Spinosaurus: in the movie, he fought a Tyrannosaurus.
It is easy to see why the filmmakers' choice fell on the Spinosaurus. At 15.2 meters long, it is 2.7 meters longer than the Tyrannosaurus. It also had a long and scary jaw and a bizarre sail sticking out of its back.
Spinosaurus has always been a mysterious dinosaur, known only from skeletal fragments found in the deserts of North Africa. But in 2014, a group of archaeologists led by Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Chicago in Illinois announced the discovery of new remains. These fossils seem to confirm what has long been suspected: Spinosaurus is the only aquatic dinosaur.
Ibrahim's analysis revealed a creature with small hind limbs, which are more suitable for swimming than hunting on land. It also had a long crocodile snout and a bony microstructure similar to the bone microstructure of other aquatic vertebrates.
“Working on this animal was like studying an alien from space,” Ibrahim says. "This dinosaur is unlike any other."
Bonus: pterosaurs
This point does not quite count as pterosaurs were not dinosaurs: a fact that is periodically overlooked.
Many of us are familiar with the name pterodactyl. But this name hides many groups of flying reptiles, collectively referred to as "pterosaurs." And this group was just huge.
At one end of the spectrum, we find the nonmycolopterus, a tiny pterosaur with a wingspan of 25 centimeters (10 inches). There are also larger creatures: the Azhdarchids. When they spread their wings, their span was a whopping 10 meters. If so, they were the largest flying animals of all time.
Based on materials from the BBC