The dinosauroid is a hypothetical species created by Dale A. Russell in 1982. Russell theorized that if a dinosaur such as Stenonychosaurus had not perished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, its descendants might have evolved to fill the same ecological niche as humans.[1] While the theory has been met with criticism from other scientists, the dinosauroid has been featured widely in books[2][3][4] and documentaries[5] since the theory's inception.