Opinion: What does the word ‘dinosaur’ mean to you? To me, it’s awe-inspiring

What do you think about when you hear the word “dinosaur”?

Maybe it’s an out-of-touch politician or antiquated technology.

Or maybe you think of lumbering giants that once ruled the world and then got wiped out 66 million years ago by that asteroid.

But those giants were around for at least 167 million years — an unfathomable amount of time. If Earth’s history were laid out on a football field, dinosaurs first appeared around the five-yard line (for context, humans don’t appear until one-eighth of an inch from the end zone ).

We can learn so much from them, and they’ve been fascinating us humans for ages. One study found petroglyphs in Brazil from around 10,000 years ago alongside Early Cretaceous dinosaur tracks. These carvings were made intentionally, and show that the tracks were meaningful to the people who etched them.

This year marks 200 years since the first scientific naming of a dinosaur — Megalosaurus, a fearsome carnivore. Though there is still a lot to learn, we’ve come a long way in our understanding of them.

That anniversary, plus the amazing work being done in Utah alone (like the Utahraptor Project ) and the nearby discovery of new dinosaurs such as Eoneophron infernalis , is the perfect time for us to redefine how we think of dinosaurs and give them the respect they deserve.

In addition to being so successful and living for millions and millions of years, dinosaurs were fast and intelligent. Being around so long, they survived climate changes and other major transformations of the Earth, such as when the continents broke apart.

Dinosaurs didn’t go extinct with the asteroid. In fact, they’re still around today in the form of their modern descendants — birds.

Birds are adaptable, fearless and tough as nails. Think about cassowaries, owls and even seagulls. I was once walking down the street, holding a hot dog in one hand just a few inches from my face, when a gull dive-bombed into me to knock the food out of my hand. Within seconds of hitting the ground, the gull was guzzling it down. That bird had no fear.

We now know that many dinosaurs were covered in feathers — including one large distant Tyrannosaurus relative, Yutyrannus — and some could probably even fly. We know at least several of them took care of their young. We even know the colors of a few dinosaurs, like the bird-like Anchiornis , which was black, white and red.

I’ve co-produced a weekly dinosaur podcast, “ I Know Dino ,” with my husband, Garret, for over nine years. Listeners have reached out and told us how the show has reignited their love of science, helped them connect with their kids and even inspired them to switch careers.

The best takeaway is the realization that dinosaurs are for everyone, and they can teach us so much — about biology, history, climatology and more. Dinosaurs help us better understand the world and our place in it.

That’s not all. Here are some other key lessons:

• Dinosaurs are everywhere. More hot spots are popping up around the world, with paleontologists studying dinosaurs in numerous countries: Australia, Brazil, Morocco and South Africa, to name just a few.
• Dinosaurs bring people together. People travel hundreds of miles to volunteer to dig and prepare fossils. Museums have frequent dinosaur-related events. Crowds come together dressed in inflatable T. rex costumes, all to meet other amazing people in the dino community.
• Anyone can become a paleontologist. There are so many different paths that lead to paleo: research, fossil hunting, preparing fossils and more.

From the biggest dinosaurs that may have weighed as much as a blue whale, despite walking on land (I’m looking at you, Bruhathkayosaurus ), to the smallest ones that lay eggs the size of a coffee bean (hey there, bee hummingbird), we can learn a lot. And luckily, there are many amazing museums to visit , including Salt Lake City’s own Natural History Museum of Utah, the Museum of Ancient Life and the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park.

Dinosaurs are far from obsolete. They’re awe-inspiring.

Sabrina Ricci is the co-producer of the popular weekly dinosaur podcast “I Know Dino.”