Dinosaurs and wooly mammoths - is there a Torah viewpoint?

Abstract

Dinosaurs and, to a lesser extent, wooly mammoths are exciting and appealing to children and stimulate the imagination of young minds. The Museum of Natural History in Manhattan is visited by many Jewish day schools, yeshivas, and seminaries. In the spring of 2016, the Museum introduced a new exhibit: the Titanosaur, a gigantic dinosaur with a length of 122 feet and neck length of 39 feet [1]. What is the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint towards these long extinct creatures? In the “Ask the Rabbi” section of the on-line site, Ohr Somayach [2], the following question was asked. “A friend recently asked me how Orthodox Judaism deals with the issue of scientific proof of dinosaurs’ existence. Is there an explanation to be found in Torah? Your answer or explanation would be greatly appreciated as we are both teachers in a Hebrew day school and the children argue amongst themselves about whether dinosaurs did or did not really exist.” This article discusses, within a Torah framework, the occurrence of these creatures. In the Torah, there is no mention of these creatures, nor should there be, as these animals are extinct (i.e., kashrus is not an issue), have no relevance to halachic Judaism and the performance of mitzvos, and their mention could not have been understood by earlier generations, as the fossilized skeletons of these gigantic creatures were found only within the past 200 years