r/Naturewasmetal • u/Laubroko • 7d ago
If you could bring back exactly ONE non-avian dinosaur, but you had to release it somewhere on Earth today, which dinosaur would cause the biggest ecological disaster. And why?
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u/AacornSoup 7d ago
Edmontosaurus.
-No natural predators.
-Greater tolerance for cold temperatures than Sauropods.
-Can and will eat any vegetation.
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u/HalcyonTraveler 7d ago
However they are altricial ground nesters, making the young very vulnerable. I don’t know if they could survive the existence of rats
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u/DepthOfSanity 7d ago
I don't think this is true considering throughout the Mesozoic, there were a large variety of mammals that were rodents or rodent like in general and filled very similar niches as them probably.
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u/HalcyonTraveler 7d ago
Multis generally seem to be herbivores, rather than the dangerously predatory omnivores like modern rats
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u/PDXhasaRedhead 7d ago
Eutriconodonts were Mesozoic carnivorous mammals.
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u/FeatherMelodyArt 6d ago
this is probably a better answer than the sauropod. Hadrosaurs are known for protecting their young, making them contribute far less to the food web.
I imagine it would be something like the north american white tailed deer problem with their natural predators having been removed by humans
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u/orangenakor 7d ago
Is it cheating to introduce a small predator to isolated islands? Big dinosaurs would be easy for humans to hunt down, but something that fills a small predator/egg eating niche will devastate isolated bird and mammal populations just like cats and rats do.
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u/AfricanAmericanMage 7d ago
I wouldn't say that's it's cheating, but is one island's collapse really the biggest ecological disaster possible by introducing a new dinosaur/dinosaur species?
Also I know the prompt says exactly one but, realistically, no single dinosaur is going to throw of an ecosystem that much. Even something as large as a sauropod. So the question is much more interesting to think about in terms of species. At least in my opinion.
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u/HalcyonTraveler 7d ago
Smaller eudromaeosaur like Velociraptor or Saurornitholestes. Time has shown that a foreign mesopredator is THE most devastating invasive. They’re big and powerful enough to be a serious predator for a lot of modern animals and small enough to reproduce quickly and be too hard to track to easily eradicate. They could easily be accidentally spread on ships or other vehicles especially when young, could bypass a lot of natural and man made barriers, etc.
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u/wishnana 7d ago
Would have to be an exponentially fast-growing “pest”. So for that Compsognathus gets my vote. Having multiple swarms/colonies of them can just devastate foodwebs, livestock and human population (especially unaware children).
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u/Impactor07 7d ago
Read the title again, you can only spawn ONE dinosaur, one singular dinosaur of one species.
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u/MewtwoMainIsHere 7d ago
And we have no idea how comsognathus reproduced or lived. For all we know they could be solitary and isolationist, in fact they very likely were.
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u/Mahajangasuchus 7d ago
The most damaging invasive species tend not to be anything large or dramatic, but instead small generalists that outcompete native species. Something small like a Sinosauropteryx or Fruitadens could potentially be the worst.
Anything larger than a deer could probably be easily managed, large animals just can’t spread and multiply that fast, even reptiles.
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u/mmcjawa_reborn 7d ago
I am going to interpret the author as referring to a single species, not individual, because unless you are releasing the individual to a tiny island with a fragile ecosystem, it's unlikely for a single individual to have much of a impact on an entire ecosystem long term.
It's almost certainly than going to have to go with a small (coyote-sized at largest) theropod dinosaur. A small carnivorous dinosaur with a likely high reproductive output is going to do a number on the small birds and mammals. and unlike a larger theropod or herbivore they are often hard to remove from ecosystems because they can avoid detection or get into areas larger animals can't
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u/PomeloBackground4902 7d ago
if it's going to magically come back as an adult, an Argentinosaurus would be devastating. if it comes back as an egg or something, any mega therapod
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u/DiGiorn0s 7d ago
none would survive very long. Todays bacteria, fungi, and viruses are totally different from what they were evolved to handle. So any of them would probably die before they could cause a total ecological disaster.
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u/Arnab_chakraborty 7d ago
Come on, I'm sure you can gauge that this is not where this hypothetical is supposed to be headed.
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u/_OriginalUsername- 7d ago
Did dinosaurs not have immune systems or something? Isn't the point of an immune system is to defend against unknown pathogens for an organism from birth? Yes some die, but the majority that survive then go on to propagate?
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u/Ok-Meat-9169 7d ago
The biggest Sauropod because the Planet literally isn't the same with them, they are so large that they trample Ground Plants, and that'd probablly end Grasslands pretty quickly, which is not good for us. They also make Forests much sparser due to them just shoving through them and crushing anything. Even if this is beneficial for certain Organisms, Cenozoic Rainforest Organisms are really addapted to the cramped world they live in and would not appreciate this at all
One Herd of Titanosaurs could probablly destroy an entire ecossistem because we have never had something nearly as large as them since they died 66 Million Years ago, and there is no way our puny modern enviorment can Handle them.
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u/Notonfoodstamps 7d ago edited 7d ago
Small-to-medium sized dromeosaurs. All lethality of felines, but with way faster reproduction rates.
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u/Impactor07 7d ago
Honestly, drop a giant sauropod somewhere in the Amazon or Congo and it'll eat through forests so fast that it'll trigger a chain reaction which leads to the extinctions of countless species.
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u/headcoat2013 7d ago
I doubt it would make much difference. Let's be generous and say the sauropod is 10x the size of an African elephant. Would 10 African elephants unleashed in the Amazon do meaningful damage to the ecosystem? If they established a breeding population and kept growing in number maybe. Otherwise not really. A lone dinosaur would have even less impact.
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u/Impactor07 7d ago
What other dinosaur do you think would cause more ecological damage?
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u/headcoat2013 7d ago
Oh, definitely a large sauropod would cause the most disruption. I'm just saying that a large rainforest could easily contain the impact of one individual. But a breeding herd would be very different.
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u/FemRevan64 7d ago
Probably something like Heterodontosaurus, small, fast-reproducing omnivores can be insanely destructive.
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u/BigBlueToast 7d ago
Deinosuchus? Basically a mega-croc. If they’re anything like modern crocs, they can go long stretches without eating and they’d dominate inland waterways.
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u/DarkJurassicUser 7d ago
Baryonyx if you're looking to go for a semi-aquatic. Release them into a delicate ecosystem like the Amazon River basin or maybe particularly remote parts of the Everglades. Say bye-bye to every single large fish like arapaima, crocodilians like American alligators or caiman are getting viciously outcompeted, and endangered species like manatee would be getting pushed out of crucial river / swampland habitat.
Furthermore, young Baryonyx could also target animals like small fish, ducks, frogs, other kinds of water loving-birds, as well as things like domestic pets, smaller livestock like goats or rabbits, capybara, weasels and other small carnivores, etc. Furthermore, Baryonyx also produce a massive amount of waste into any given ecosystem, which you if you have seen the devastating effects of Pablo Escobar's hippopotamus population, you should know that large megafauna are absolutely amazing for nitrate devastation.
But, that is not even considering the full terrestrial capabilities of this animal. An adult Baryonyx probably could take on quite a bit. I could absolutely see a full grown Baryonyx going after cattle or introduced water buffalo, big cats such as Jaguars or the Florida panther, and perhaps even the occasional unlucky human. Speaking of humans, that is why I chose this species over a much larger spinosaurid, such as Spinosaurus itself.
Once the species gets established and learns that humans are threats to themselves, the animals will naturally want to stick to foliage and avoid detection. A Baryonyx can slip through places that is Spinosaurus cannot, giving a slightly less chance that the military would be able to eradicate them, at least before they are able to properly reproduce. But, there is one more angle I would like to bring up. Another user here pointed out that dinosaurs wouldn't be able to survive in the modern world due to all the foreign pathogens and bacteria.
The opposite is also true. Supposing that we somehow managed to rip these Baryonyx through a rift in space and time, the modern animals are also going to get exposed to foreign microbes their immune systems are not prepared for. Kind of a double-edged sword.
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u/DaddyCatALSO 7d ago
A few packs of smaller rpators (Velociraptor, dei nonychus) could eta their way througha whoel losal ecosystem. But if we wer elucky they'd specialize in feral hogs
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u/FeatherMelodyArt 6d ago
Technically not a dinosaur, but I feel like large azdarchids like quetzelcoatulus or hatzegopteryx would cause the biggest disruption.
A giraffe sized animal with kayak sized blade for a face wouldn't be very geographically bound, wouldn't be threatened by much other than humans(who are roughly the size of some of their normal prey), and would probably have too easy of a time dispatching most modern fauna.
One or 2 pecks would be enough to cause most animals to bleed to death.
The only saving grace would be that they MIGHT be picky eaters when presented with so many options and avoid things like rhinos, hippos, bears, and elephants.
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u/Jazzlike_Standard871 6d ago
Troodontid or an Ostrich mimic. One would just be a nocturnal cryptid till it starts being a menace, the other would be the Emu wars on roids once established.
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u/Foxyfan57 6d ago
Assuming that we're introducing an entire species and not just one individual (I doubt one of anything would be able to overthrow an entire ecosystem), and that humans would attempt to intervene, my bet would be Nanotyrannus.
Nano is in the perfect size range to not only dunk on many modern animals (Lower estimates of Nano have it around 1,500 lbs, around the size of your average Brown Bear), but also there is a good chance that Nano could've been gregarious, making even a small pack a terrifying sight in really any area. They would've also been rather speedy, allowing them to avoid what they couldn't kill, including humans.
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u/Zillajami-Fnaffan2 6d ago
Yutyrannus or Albertosaurus. Think about it. They're both relatively large predators that are fast and have a higher tolerance to cooler weather
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u/Iamnotburgerking 6d ago
Any terrestrial megatheropod.
It would be even worse than what we did to the megafauna.
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u/MercurialMarc 5d ago
I feel like a mid-sized pachycephalosaur would do the most damage. They have gnarly teeth and potential for highly varied diets, which could lead gives them an EXTREME competitive edge against other similarly sized animals
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u/LowProfession9191 5d ago
Procompsognathis. Small and social hunters, they'll have an impact on the small stuff that bigger species eat.
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u/Skyfall_WS_Official 4d ago
Nanupsaurus released in Southern Siberia. This would allow them to build up numbers before beginning to expand further north were human technology would hardly be sufficient to fully extirpate them. This means that repeated migrations would keep a constant stream of nanupsaurus pushing further into Eurasia and Africa whenever possible. Their juveniles would take a toll on all smaller critters. Exotic animal trade could lead to then becoming extended in the Americas.
Their population booms would produce sudden and brutal famines as individuals take months to go from being cat sized to being capable of slaughtering juvenile cattle.
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u/Knight_of_Rohan1964 7d ago
As others have said, a small, easily adaptable predator (I suggest Comspognathus) would be enough to cause massive upheaval. Although it'll probably take a while for it to happen, since they first need to adapt to our mammalian-dominated fauna and not go themselves extinct as result.
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u/Arnab_chakraborty 7d ago
Some large sauropod probably...if it got to adulthood, the lack of natural predators and the "overgrazing" of vegetation would certainly cause some imbalance in the local ecosystem.