If Dinosaurs roamed the Earth now?

[BitBuster]

Which reminds me, that Twilight thread still cries out to be made...



Anyway, if the native peoples of the Americas had had dinosaurs as pets/trained warriors, would Cortez et. al. have been quite as successful at conquering them (the issue of foreign diseases notwithstanding)?

[PB_guy]

Do a search on the text of "the travels of marco polo". You can read a description of the chinese dinosaurs and their habits there along with a description of how they were hunted.

Here are seen huge serpents, ten paces in length, and ten spans in the girt of the body. At the fore−part, nearthe head, they have two short legs, having three claws like those of a tiger, with eyes larger than a fourpenny

loaf (pane da quattro denari) and very glaring. The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are

large and sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor any kind of animal, can

approach them without terror. Others are met with of a smaller size, being eight, six, or five paces long; and

the following method is used for taking them. In the day−time, by reason of the great heat, they lurk in

caverns, from whence, at night, they issue to seek their food, and whatever beast they meet with and can lay

hold of, whether tiger, wolf, or any other, they devour; after which they drag themselves towards some lake,

spring of water, or river, in order to drink.

[geodave]

Sound like a "dragon" more than a dinosaur.

[PB_guy]

The word dinosaur wasn't coined until the 1800's. Marco predates that by a few hundred years.

[geodave]

Well, true. My point is that other cultures also spoke of "dragons". I believe there's one in the Catholic bible (in Daniel originally).

When you talk about dinosaurs most people think T Rex. It's entirely possible that dinosaurs like Brontosaurus died out a long time ago, but other large lizard-like animals (dragons) were with us until the last few centuries. I hear there are fresh bones of "dinosaurs" out there, but I don't know who to trust on this one -- everyone seems to have an agenda.

If we had as bad record-keeping as England had 1500 years ago, then 1500 years from now maybe no one would believe that we lived contemporary with Gorillas.

[PB_guy]

Yes, before the word 'dinosaur' was coined, they had to use some word to describe these creatures. Remember the story of St George and the dragon (not his wife). Many cultures around the world have descriptions (and paintings/etchings) for them. There are 2 described in the book of Job; behemoth (apatosaurus type) and leviathin (plesiosaur? type).

ian

[geodave]

Yeah. I wonder about the "fire breathing" thing, which is alluded to both with St. George and the Leviathan. Someday maybe I'll know everything.

[PB_guy]

The 'fire-breathing' thing could be a variation of the bombardier beetle phenomenon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-wVFLucTks

[geodave]

That's crazy!