If dinosaurs continued to evolve

[darylj]

Hi guys... Looking for some ideas / help / inspiration...

I'm working on a short film project and need to research into what some dinosaurs would be like in modern times had they not gone extinct.

Any ideas, pictures, references etc would be super handy.
Not looking for any dinosauroid stuff.
☺

Thanks guys.

[Loon]

I always liked the idea of tyrannosaurus losing it's arms. Honestly, I'd like to see how birds would have evolved if the other dinosaurs never went extinct.

[Shonisaurus]

A book that you might be interested in would be that of Dougal Dixon, which is the next one. The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution Softcover - 1 Nov 1989

[CityRaptor]

You might also look into "World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island" but that one can be rather expensive and one should keep in mind that they evolved under extreme circumstances.   

[Gwangi]

I also recommend the two books suggested above, especially The New Dinosaurs which is basically THE book for this kind of speculative zoology.

Also recommend checking out the Speculative Dinosaur Project website, enough content there to keep you busy for days.

[brandem]

One thing you may want to consider, is how the major ecological changes after the k-t extinction event would have effected the dinosaurs, for instance, how would evolutionary pressures the ice ages exerted would have changed the dinosaurs. On Wikipedia there is a list you can use. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_periods_and_events_in_climate_history
Our current world is colder than the Mesozoic and we lack megafauna, so while we may see tyrannosaurs, would they be giants still? 

Of some interest to me would be what became of the sea reptiles.  Them, sharks, and ammonites as well as ancient fish would be major players after the 'non-event' so we probably wouldn't see whales evolve.  Would sharks or anyone else fill the role of giant filter feeders? Would the sea-reptiles even be able to survive the extinction event that claimed titanoboa?

[darylj]

Thanks guys,
I'm aware of The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon.. Love that book.
Wasn't aware of the skull island one, so may give that a look.

The film plot, without giving to much away is based around an island that happens to have one / multiple species of dinosaurs that didn't go extinct - but i'm tasked with creating something that's believable as a modern looking creature, yet still looks recognizable as a dinosaur.
I'm thinking theropod is the way to go... feathers... other than that im pretty open.

Thanks for the ideas thus far though!

[Cretaceous Crab]

I'm working on a similar project as well, although the plot line is a little different.

My suggestion is to stick to Genera that were present at the end of the Maastrichtian Age. One of my main beefs with "Lost World" plot lines is throwing in species that had already died out millions of years before the Maastrichtian. In other words, no brachiosaurs, no diplodocids, no stegosaurs, no carnosaurs, no spinosauroids, etc.

[darylj]

LeviRawl that's actually really smart.
I'm contemplating something similar to a short stocky 'terror bird' perhaps with a tail...
I'm hoping if I keep churning out concepts, that one will feel right.. ☺

[CityRaptor]

I'm working on a similar project as well, although the plot line is a little different.

My suggestion is to stick to Genera that were present at the end of the Maastrichtian Age. One of my main beefs with "Lost World" plot lines is throwing in species that had already died out millions of years before the Maastrichtian. In other words, no brachiosaurs, no diplodocids, no stegosaurs, no carnosaurs, no spinosauroids, etc.

Funny thing is that I also have a scenario where non-avian Dinosaurs never went extinct. And it does feature a species of Stegosaur: Stegotitan miraculum.  However it was discovered in what is basically a Lost World.

Also keep in mind that just several groups are not known from the Maastrichtian does not neccesarily mean that they were extinct at the time.

[HD-man]

D @darylj

I recommend reading GSPaul's "An improbable view of Tertiary dinosaurs". Despite a few now-outdated bits (E.g. Prosauropodian segnosaurs), it's not just a great book review, but also a great article about how NOT to create "post K/T" non-bird dinos. I also really like his "Late Tertiary" dinos at the end: http://www.gspauldino.com/Tertiary.pdf

[Papi-Anon]

Another thing to keep in mind with an isolated island is 'island effect'. Larger dinosaurs would likely dwarvenize to adapt to the more limited resources and habitable land, while smaller dinosaurs that lack competition or predators would likely evolve into larger forms. This actually did happen in the Tethys Sea when Europe was still a bunch of scattered islands during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, with dwarf sauropods like Europasaurus and in the enlarged primitive bird Balaur. Other traits to consider would be a higher chance of odd features evolving in a population, as seen with Balaur having an extra 'sickle claw' on each foot further up from the main ones.

[darylj]

Great tip, thankyou!

[HD-man]

Great tip, thankyou!

Anytime! Glad I could help

[Neosodon]

Over their 150 million year reighn I think dinosaurs had allready reached their maximum evolutionary potential in the main features assosiated with them. Like I don't think the laws of physics and biology would have allowed for something much bigger than Argentinosaurus. Or a predator with much more physical power than T. rex.

How ever I could imagine tree climbing therapods with long arms instead of wings evolving in a direction similar to primates. Such as intelligence and oposable thumbs.