by Raqi Haas

Created on: April 14, 2009

Human beings have known about dinosaurs even before the stone ages. Even ancient Romans used dinosaur bones as tools without knowing who these belonged to. And no, these are not myths. Human beings have used the bones of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures over tens and thousands of years; they have imagined of huge, ferocious creatures such as dragons, sea-serpents, and other exotic creatures that were partly, or fully inspired by the remains of prehistoric creatures such as dinosaurs.

Although modern day paleontology has done much to void many of the myths that were so popular in ancient times, there are still many a modern myth about dinosaurs ranging from fantastic to just plain ridiculous. Let's take a look at some these myths.

10. Flying Reptiles/Dragons: Who hasn't heard about dragons and giant medieval reptilian creatures? They were part of folklores of many civilizations, from ancient China to ancient Western civilizations. In fact, in the last decade or so, it has been proven that discovery of large remains of dinosaurs were the main reasons behind folklores behind dragons and other large monster reptiles. But as we all know today, there were never any dragons, and no huge reptile paralleling the size of these fossils ever lived among human beings either. But, good material for fantasy anyways.

9. All giant reptiles (including flying and marine) were dinosaurs: One of the most popular misconceptions. Pterodactyls, Ichtyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, and other prehistoric reptiles are considered to be dinosaurs. Even those giant crocodiles that lived during those times. But hey, just because they are big, doesn't mean they're dinosaurs. In fact, dinosaurs are classified into two orders, Saurischian and Ornithischian and there are countless reptiles from the Mesozoic Era (the time of the dinosaurs) that do not fall into either of the groups, and therefore, are not dinosaurs.

8. ONE giant asteroid impact made the dinosaurs go extinct: Let's see, an asteroid hit the earth. Big explosion. Thousands of times more powerful than the most powerful nuclear bomb. But would it be enough to wipe out around 60% of life from Earth including dinosaurs?

The answer is no. Scientists have found numerous geological phenomena that were occurring towards the end of the Cretaceous period when the dinosaurs went extinct. Sea levels near continental shelves were receding, there were massive global volcanic eruptions such as the Deccan Traps that were releasing greenhouse gases across

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