It sounds like the ultimate science fiction storyline: What if the dinosaurs weren't wiped out by an asteroid impact 65 million years ago?

Perhaps they'd still be alive today, in an advanced evolutionary state, developing their space program and their own asteroid impact mitigation strategies. Sadly for us, this would have probably meant that mammals wouldn't have gotten a foothold and the fledgling human race would have become glorified dino-chum.

ANALYSIS: Asteroid Family Not Guilty of Dinosaur Killing

In new research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the rather outlandish prospect of alien -- not terrestrial -- dinosaur life is explored by Ronald Breslow. And these dino-aliens ("Dinolians"?) didn't have the misfortune of being smacked by an asteroid and/or get snuffed out by a volcanic eruption.

But before we get too carried away with thoughts of pirate Velociraptors flying space shuttles, attacking interplanetary supply ships (too late!), there is actually some scientific reasoning behind this work -- even though the "alien dinosaur" conclusion is a bit "iffy."
'Asteroids have us in their sights. The dinosaurs didn't have a space program, so they're not here to talk about this problem. We are.'
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
All sugars, amino acids, DNA and RNA exist in one of two possible orientations, left-handed or right-handed. This handedness is known as "chirality." The theory is that for life to be possible, proteins must contain only one chiral form of amino acids, left or right, for example. Apart from a few bacteria, the chirality of amino acids of all life on Earth is left-handed.