I've had these insane thoughts flitting through my head about a person, or family that finds themselves living with Dinosaurs. I haven't worked out if it is a time travel story, or if they were on a spaceship that took them there. The more I study, I am not sure IF present day humans could live at that time because of differences in the Atmosphere. And I don't know if the soil of the Earth of that day is terriformed enough to support plants and animals that humans can eat? I haven't worked out a premise for how any TG content could happen. And, I haven't written a thing yet.
I've been sicker than a Dawg for nearly a month, so maybe I was just delirious?
Gwen
Comments
Ideas
Check out Dinotopia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinotopia
Or
Lost World
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World:_Jurassic_Park
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
Nothing New Under The Sun Then.
Thanks. I had a feeling that the fever was bringing on delirium.
Better?
I hope that you're better now.
I wouldn't worry too much about issues such as the atmosphere of the time. Not unless it's something blatant to a scientist.
If it's a spaceship bringing someone there, and not a time-travel story, then it's another planet. Now, worry about the ability to live there. Unless life on that planet and Earth had a common ancestor, their chemistry is completely different -- beyond being carbon-based. (Our stomachs might still be able to digest the material into usable stuff.) In fact, they wouldn't be the same species as dinosaurs.
You could think of the "Multiverse", and somehow go to a different universe where Earth still has dinosaurs -- the asteroid might have been going a slightly different direction. I tend to cringe at the notion of the Multiverse, at least regarding universes as splitting off due to quantum theory. (Ick!)
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
I can has dinosaurs
I would remind you that Anmar has both humans and (some) dinosaurs, so it should be possible.
Speaking more generally, the scientific consensus (!) is that, during the period when the dinosaurs were at their height on Earth, the atmospheric contents were somewhat different than they are now. It is debatable whether humans could have survived in that period, if one decided that they got there using a time machine, say.
Now the converse, that dinosaurs could survive on modern-day Earth, is just as debatable. They might manage with the atmosphere we have now (pollution aside!), but most of the planet would likely be too cold for them. Not to mention the fact that the disease-causing bacteria we have around now would probably see them all off inside a week!
(In fact disease germs/viruses are a big problem with any space-going scenario. Most authors have to either ignore the problem entirely or do some hand-wavy to get around the complication. I should imagine that time-travellers face similar problems.)
Penny
Science-Fiction
What you're proposing is Science-Fiction, heavy on the fiction. Regardless of how the dinosaurs and humans get together, we've already reached the point of suspension of belief anyway. All fiction requires a little of that and Fantasy and Sci-Fi all the more.
If you set the story in a fantasy realm, then you can throw out all the problems you foresee. In fantasy you can determine what possible and what's not at your own discretion.
Give a shot. If it turns out to be too hokey, then don't publish it.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
As there is a tradition of using dinosaur eggs for breakfast...
And tradition to feed dinosaurs in parks, not counting business of dinosaur meat and eggs production...
Yes. Birds. They are actually dinosaurs that adopted to changed air density and oxygen content some time ago.
So you can look at any ostrich farm to see how life with bigger of the dinosaurs is organized... :-)
Anyway. You have to decide first if it will be SF or fantasy. If SF - you need to explain how big dinosaurs can survive in the typical human environment or how humans survive in the big dinosaur environment.
In the fantasy you don't need to explain anything. (And yes, Jurassic Park is a pure Fantasy with no hints of SF.)
And, actually, no one apart from us, 30 geeks per billion people, will see the difference. And if the story is good maybe 2 per thousand of geeks will point out inconsistencies... Wait! With current 7 billions of people it is less than one! But story have to be good!...
So... Just "don't worry, be happy (now)" ((c) Bobby McFerren). If you have a story with dinosaurs and humans - write it. There are popular stories with dragons and humans, and dragons are much less plausible than dinosaurs.
Birds?
Okay, maybe.
I have a kids book about ancient gigantic animals. Ancient but far more recent than the dinosaurs. One of those was a gigantic crocodile. The drawing reminded me very much of the T-rex. (Also the Allosaur.) If we can say, "Dinosaurs are birds", why not say, "Dinosaurs are crocodiles (and alligators)"?
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Problem is dinosaurs...
... were not exactly cold blooded reptilians. Most of the famous dinosaurs were warm blooded. And... covered with feathers. So crocs, comodo dragons and such - maybe are related to dinos. But with higher probability are not related at all.
Crocodilians
Cladistics is the science of dividing up the relationships between organisms into logical and coherent groups. The clade that includes all the dinosaurs also includes all the birds. A clade can be drawn that includes all the dinosaurs and all the crocodilians and pretty much nothing else, so crocodiles are close relatives of birds and dinosaurs.
Note that this clade does not include the flying reptiles like pterosaurs, or marine giant reptiles like mosasaurs. You have to draw an even wider clade to get either of those in, which will probably include things like snakes and lizards to confuse the issue.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Varying levels of oxygen and density in our planetary atmosphere
The amount of oxygen in our atmosphere has varied in the geologic past. Aerobic life has a minimal percentage requirement. Atmospheric density has also varied (apparently). We know from current experience that most life forms have a maximum and minimum density also. The more complex the life form the narrower this range. Mamilian mega fauna suggests sauropodian mega fauna could exist at current conditions. The known conditions during dinosaurian times fall within human tolerances too. The more limiting factor for dinosaurs would be food sources. Our historic extinctions includes several that were caused by climate removing a food source. Two species under such threat today are pandas and koalas (bamboo and eucalyptus). Surviving mega fauna sauropods would’ve had to adapt to changing diets. Omnivorous species are better at that.
BAK 0.25tspgirl