What would happen if Dinosaurs did come back?

[SpiderLover]

So I was watching a documentary called DinoTasia. I was wondering what would happen if Jurassic Park was real? Would the dinosaurs thrive or would it be more like what happened to that Triceratops in Jurassic park, where they would get sick. Do you think they would over take humanity, or would we just enslave and erase them from existence? Any thoughts?

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

When we talk about dinosaurs we're talking about millions and millions of different creatures at various stages of evolution. Even if you picked a particular era, say the Triassic, we're talking about a ton of biodiversity. So We'd probably kill some, breed some and be entirely unable to exterminate some no matter how hard we try. Just like with modern animals.

[Cowboy Centaur]

They'd be ridiculously expensive until the corporation creatin them finds a way to get some kind of government subsidy after which we'd see the award winning multibillion dollar multimedia extravaganza dinosaur world tour! It'd last three years before winding up with a Vegas show, and a park in Northern California and Eastern Europe, an maybe Japan or Taiwan. Every kid in America would see the show of make their parents take them until the timeless wonder of those great beasts wore off and the kids go back to their video games. Without the kids begging them to take them the parents would quit going and the entertainment venue would dry up.

At this point, the logistics behind breeding them would be simplified, and producing dinosaurs would be rendered cost-effective, and the food market would be the next target.

 Then just like the emu and llama fads of the 90's, Dinoburgers would be a year and a half long fad before going bankrupt, the rich would hunt them and own them as pets for at least a five year period, then you'd see them mostly on rural farms before feed costs would force the low income owners to turn them loose where they would go feral (of course its be just herbavores) and they'd destroy commercial crops for at least one growing season until corporate agriculturalists exterminated them.

Then you only see the odd triceratops or stegosaurus at a zoo, and maybe a smaller species at a low rent wildlife park. Rappers and sports celebrities would own exotic stuff like Raptors and Tyrannasours until one of them had a kid eaten.

By then we'll have the flying car, total recall, and Kevin Costner on a raft.

[Rob, no not that one.]

Both valid points well made I would like to present a counter argument in pictorial form..



I rest my case.

[SpiderLover]

Very true, there is a different periods and different creatures. I would love to make a game for like iPhone where you make a city and just let a bunch of raptors, or pterodactyl loose. I digress, I don't know why I've been on this kick lately. Anything Prehistoric I just have to watch or read about. So far the most frightening creatures I've read about are terror birds. (That huge evil grin just creeps me out, when I see a digital representation I can't sleep.) Then this huge frogs that would eat juvenile dinosaurs. Thats a creepy creepy animal.

[Alisha Mynx]

Slightly off topic, but...

I digress, I don't know why I've been on this kick lately. Anything Prehistoric I just have to watch or read about.

Some of my favorite stories in certain franchises involve alternate history or incidents where some Dinosaurs didn't die (such as the semi-recent Doctor Who episode where they found some Dinos on a spaceship, Marvel's Savage Land or the Dinotopia novels when I was a kid).  I've even used it as a basis of one of the alternate timelines in my story's setting (a parallel Earth where Dinosaurs never died out and some evolved alongside humans, some are still beast-like, and the entire world is very, very different).

When Jurassic Park first came out, I remember being very excited to read some articles that theorized what if different dinosaurs from different eras were to exist at the same time (picking specific types that would create a semi-harmonious ecosystem, which ones would cause others to be wiped out, etc.).