As a group, dinosaurs have somewhat of a monstrous reputation, no doubt thanks to T.rex - the largest, fiercest, and deadliest land-based predator that has ever lived. But there were countless other species of dinosaurs, many of which were no bigger and no more ferocious than today’s domestic cats and dogs.
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Of course, there were no domesticated dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era; it was another 66 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs that humans evolved (around 300,000 years ago) and started to domesticate animals (from about 14,000 years ago onwards).
However, if it was possible to go back in time, choose a dinosaur, domesticate it, and bring it back to the modern day, what would be the best dinosaur to pick? Let’s take a look…
The cutest dinosaur
The word ‘cute’ isn’t normally used to describe dinosaurs; particularly the large, carnivorous kind that often serve as the antagonists in the Jurassic Park franchise. That said, there were several species of dinosaurs that would have rivalled dogs, cats, rabbits, and hamsters in terms of cuteness.
Like a lot of animals deemed ‘cute’ today, these adorable dinosaurs had big eyes, large heads, chubby cheeks, and short, stumpy legs. Psittacosaurus - the pint-sized relative of the more well-known Triceratops - had a lot of these cutesy features. It was roughly the same size as an English Bulldog and, as a strict vegetarian, subsisted on a diet of plants, nuts, and seeds.
Chaoyangsaurus (above) looks very similar to Psittacosaurus and, like its distant cousin, was also a rather docile plant eater. However, it was a lot smaller; measuring 1m in length and weighing in at just 6kg, you could easily carry one in a backpack. Yinlong, the earliest known ceratopsian and a relative of both Chaoyangsaurus and Psittacosaurus, was similarly small and just as cute.
Other contenders for the title of ‘cutest dinosaur of all time’ include Micropachycephalosaurus, a diminutive, bipedal herbivore whose name translates to ‘tiny thick-headed lizard’, Leaellynasaura, a dog-sized dinosaur whose large eyes helped it to see in the dark, and Mononykus, a slender, insect-eating dinosaur that may have been covered in a coat of shaggy feathers.
While most of the cutest dinosaurs are relatively small, at least by dinosaur standards, there are several gentle-looking giants that could certainly be described as cute. The long-necked plant eater Europasaurus may be the smallest sauropod currently known to science, but at roughly the same size as a black rhinoceros it’s a giant by animal standards today.
Europasaurus was a product of island dwarfism, a phenomenon whereby typically large animals shrink after a population finds themselves trapped on an island. The dwarf titanosaur, Magyarosaurus, and the dwarf hadrosaur, Telmatosaurus, are products of the same evolutionary phenomenon and, like Europasaurus, would make great ‘supersized’ pets.
The fluffiest dinosaur
As our understanding of dinosaurs improves, the way we picture them changes. Not too long ago, most dinosaurs were reconstructed as scaly, lizard-like beasts, but following the discovery of some fantastic fossils that preserve the soft parts of some dinosaurs, we now know that many species were covered in soft, downy feathers.
The fluffiest dinosaurs belong to Theropoda, one of the three major groups of dinosaurs and - if you include birds - the only group still alive today. This group includes a lot of large, predatory dinosaurs, such as T.rex, Giganotosaurus, and Spinosaurus, but it also comprises many small, bird-like dinosaurs, such as Velociraptor, Anchiornis, and perhaps the fluffiest dinosaur of the lot, Sinosauropteryx.
Sinosauropteryx was described in 1996 following the discovery of an incredible fossil that not only preserved the body, arms, legs, head, and tail of a small, bipedal dinosaur, but its feathery coat too. These short, filament-like feathers are so well preserved that by just looking at the fossil you can see that, in life, Sinosauropteryx’s tail would have had a distinctive banded pattern.
A study of the melanosomes of the closely related dinosaur, Huadanosaurus, revealed that both were likely reddish brown in colour. Like most other theropods, Huadanosaurus and Sinosauropteryx were meat eaters, though at roughly the same size as a housecat they weren’t exactly the apex predators in the arid, open habitats they lived in. Instead, Huadanosaurus and Sinosauropteryx are thought to have been near the bottom of the food chain, hunting small, fast-moving lizards.
The larger, more distantly related dromaeosaurs were covered in feathers too, although unlike the short, filament-like feathers of Huadanosaurus and Sinosauropteryx, the feathers of dromaeosaurs were long, flat, and a lot more bird-like. Velociraptor, Utahraptor, and Deinonychus - three of the most well-known dromaeosaurs - sported these kinds of feathers, concentrated on their arms, their legs, and the tips of their incredibly long tails.
While some dinosaurs used feathers to help them fly (or glide), such as Archaeopteryx, Anchiornis, and Microraptor, it’s widely thought that the original function of feathers was simply for display, and/or for insulation. This in mind, a lot of feathered dinosaurs, particularly small species such as Sinosauropteryx, Huadanosaurus, and perhaps even Velociraptor, would make fantastic cuddle buddies.
Therizinosaurus, like many other theropods, also had feathers, but standing 5m tall, weighing in at more than five tons, and sporting 1m-long claws on both its hands, it probably wasn’t the best at giving hugs. That said, if your idea of a great pet is a giant, shaggy beast that can deter trespassers while also using its scythe-like claws to help you with the gardening, then Therizinosaurus is the dinosaur for you.
The smallest dinosaur
A massive, bus-sized dinosaur might sound like it’d make a great pet, in theory, but when you take into account how much food it’d need to eat per day and the very real possibility that a single tail swipe could level your house, it doesn’t seem like the best idea to welcome such a giant into your home.
This in mind, a tiny, pocket-sized dinosaur may make the best pet for most people. Of the more than 700 species of dinosaurs that have been discovered so far, most are larger (and heavier) than today’s cows and closer in size to modern rhinos and elephants. However, there were a handful of pipsqueaks that lived in the shadows of these giants and were no bigger than pigeons.
Scansoriopteryx, whose name translates to ‘climbing wing’, is widely regarded as one of the smallest dinosaurs that ever lived. It’s roughly the same size as a sparrow and, like many of the dinosaurs mentioned above, it had feathers. It’s thought Scansoriopteryx lived in forests, high up in the canopy where it hunted insects and other small, forest-dwelling creatures. Based on its unusual, elongated third finger, some think it may have even had membranous wings that helped it to glide from tree to tree.
Microraptor may have been even smaller than Scansoriopteryx and could easily perch on your shoulder - if you wouldn’t mind a few scratches from its razor-sharp claws, mind you. Like the famous dinosaur Archaeopteryx, Microraptor could fly (or at least glide), but unlike its more well-known relative it had four wings rather than two: two projecting from its arms and two from its legs.
Not all tiny dinosaurs were nimble forest dwellers; Liaoningosaurus is a tiny, armoured dinosaur that bucks this particular trend in that it may have had a semi-aquatic lifestyle. This 40cm-long dinosaur looks like a miniature ankylosaur, and it may even be distantly related to these large, tank-like dinosaurs. However, there’s a lot of debate currently surrounding Liaoningosaurus, not only regarding its placement on the dinosaur family tree, but whether or not it could actually swim.
Dilong is by no means a tiny dinosaur; measuring 2m in length and weighing in at around 10kg, it’s roughly the same size as a stretched-out Schnauzer. However, it’s the smallest member of a menacing group of dinosaurs known as the tyrannosaurs. This means that Dilong may have behaved a lot like T.rex and other large tyrannosaurs, though it probably had a lot more bark than bite and was a lot less likely to rip you limb from limb.
The most useful dinosaur
Not everyone wants a cute, fluffy pet that can fit in the palm of their hand, some want a domesticated animal that can help them in their everyday lives, serving as guardians, guides, transportation, and more.
There are lots of dinosaurs that seem like they’d make great guardians - just one look at a pet T.rex, Spinosaurus, Allosaurus, or Carcharodontosaurus would be enough to make any would-be trespasser flee in fear. However, it’s hard to imagine that any of these menacing meat eaters would be happy wearing a lead, or even be able to recognise the difference between their owner and their next meal.
A better guardian would be a dinosaur that’s got bark, bite, and - most importantly - brains. Stenonychosaurus is widely regarded as one of the smartest dinosaurs that ever lived, and measuring around 2.5m long and weighing in at just over 35kg, it’s around the same size as a German Shepherd - one of the most popular guard dogs today.
Stenonychosaurus had the largest brain of any dinosaur relative to its body size, as well as a sharp, sickle-shaped claw on each of its second toes. As a theropod, Stenonychosaurus was most likely a meat eater but unlike most other theropods it’s thought it may have also eaten plants, based on patterns of wear identified on some fossilised teeth. An omnivorous diet would make Stenonychosaurus particularly easy to feed and mean that one could even join you for a Sunday dinner.
When it comes to serving as a guide, no dinosaur had better senses than T.rex. The ‘king of the tyrant lizards’ had an acute sense of smell - perhaps the best of any dinosaur - and great binocular vision. It’s thought T.rex would have been able to sniff the wind and smell its prey from miles away, easily distinguishing between living prey and rotting carcasses. As long as you kept it well fed and muzzled, a pet T.rex could lead you to pretty much anything - provided it had a particularly smelly point of reference.
As for transportation, suitable dinosaurs can be split into two main categories: fast rides and comfortable rides. Gallimimus and Struthiomimus were both incredibly fast, capable of reaching speeds in excess of 55 km/hr according to some studies. These ostrich lookalikes were large enough to fit one, maybe two riders on their backs, and as obligate herbivores they could be fed a pretty simple diet of grass and hay, just like today’s racehorses.
The giant, long-necked sauropods were nowhere near as fast as Gallimimus and Struthiomimus; there’s some speculation that, as adults, sauropods couldn’t even run. That said, several species grew up to 40m in length - Argentinosaurus, for example - and would therefore be able to carry a busload of people, literally. These leviathans are also thought to have travelled long distances in search of food. They were, in many ways, nature’s cross-country coaches, only they ran on plants rather than petrol.
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