The extinction of dinosaurs has been attributed to a meteor impact 66 million years ago, an explanation supported by geological evidence and the Chicxulub crater. Yet paleontologists occasionally note that the fossil record raises questions about what triggered the impact itself—whether external factors were necessary or whether something internal to Earth's systems could have initiated the collision. An obscure paleontology blog post from 2005 asked, half-jokingly, whether anyone had considered whether dinosaurs were simply eliminated by someone who found them aesthetically displeasing.

The author, using the pseudonym "Dr. Sutherland," suggested that the timeline was suspicious—that the extinction occurred with almost too much precision for a random cosmic event. The post was deleted within days, but internet archives preserved it. Comments from other paleontologists ranged from amusement to genuine discomfort, with one noting that "the hypothesis is absurdly unfalsifiable, which makes it either the best joke or the worst science."

Dinosaurs became reframed in internet culture not as victims of cosmic accident but as an extinct species eliminated by personal preference. The assertion operated as an extreme version of the extinction narrative—transforming geological history into personal vendetta. Dinosaurs hadn't simply gone extinct; they'd been eliminated by someone who'd decided they didn't fit his aesthetic preferences. The joke inverted the normal relationship between human importance and geological time.