Are Any Dinosaurs Still Living Today? Video | AMNH (2024)

FAQs

What dinosaur is still alive to this day? ›

Birds are the only direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs. In an evolutionary sense, they're the closest thing we have to living dinosaurs. The theropods — which include the Tyrannosaurus rex, velociraptor and other dinosaurs — were a diverse group of bipedal carnivores.

Other than birds, however, there is no scientific evidence that any dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive. These, and all other non-avian dinosaurs became extinct at least 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

God told Noah, “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female” (Genesis 6:19). A few small dinosaurs would have been on the ark. The larger species of dinosaurs were probably young and smaller on the ark.

Today, it's extinct just like any other dinosaur, but there still are some animals roaming the Earth that are connected to those ancient species. From soaring birds to swimming crocs, we've found 10 living species that call dinosaurs their (great-great-great-great-great-great-great) grans and grandads.

Their DNA is too old since dinosaurs have been extinct for over 65 million years. Any genetic information is not likely to survive for one million years, so the dinosaurs are simply too old to be cloned. Scientists have not been able to discover intact complete carcasses with skin or muscle.

While birds are the closest living descendants of dinosaurs, crocodilians are their closest living relatives, highlighting the diverse and complex tree of life that connects modern species with their ancient ancestors.

Despite their resemblance to dinosaurs, crocodiles are not directly related to them. However, crocodiles and dinosaurs do share an ancient family member from a group called archosaurs. Interestingly, modern birds are also members of the archosaur group, making them distant relatives of crocodiles.

This means that scientists found the particular order of their DNA. Doing this helped provide more evidence for scientists to confirm that the chicken is currently the closest living relative to the T-Rex.

This article has been updated to clarify that the Ark Encounter says dinosaurs were saved by Noah's ark from the flood described in Genesis. In fact, dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago.

No! After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth. However, small mammals (including shrew-sized primates) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs.

Does the Bible talk about other planets? ›

The other planets are individualized in the Bible only by implication. The worship of gods connected with them is denounced, but without any manifest intention of referring to the heavenly bodies.

Crocodiles

Well, crocodiles share a heritage with dinosaurs as part of a group known as archosaurs (“ruling reptiles”), who date back to the Early Triassic period (250 million years ago). The earliest crocodilian, meanwhile, evolved around 95 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period.

It would not be until the end-Triassic extinction event that occurred 201 million years ago that dinosaurs would finally get their chance. The mass extinction wiped out almost all the other competing archosaurs, meaning that the environment was left wide open for the dinosaurs to fill.

Paleontologists don't know for certain, but perhaps a large body size protected them from most predators, helped to regulate internal body temperature, or let them reach new sources of food (some probably browsed treetops, as giraffes do today).

The exact nature of this catastrophic event is still open to scientific debate. Evidence suggests an asteroid impact was the main culprit. Volcanic eruptions that caused large-scale climate change may also have been involved, together with more gradual changes to Earth's climate that happened over millions of years.

Dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago (at the end of the Cretaceous Period), after living on Earth for about 165 million years.

Pterodactyls, which are a type of pterosaur in the group Pterosauria, lived over 130 million years ago with the dinosaurs and are believed by the scientific community to have since gone extinct.

Together with the next closest sister group, the Ornithomimosauria, Maniraptora comprises the more inclusive clade Maniraptoriformes. Maniraptorans first appear in the fossil record during the Jurassic Period (see Eshanosaurus), and survive today as living birds.