The Dinosaurs, formed in 1982, was a
Bay Area supergroup to emerge from the
psychedelic music era of
San Francisco. The core group consisted of Peter Albin of
Big Brother and the Holding Company,
John Cipollina of
Quicksilver Messenger Service,
Spencer Dryden of
Jefferson Airplane,
Robert Hunter of the
Grateful Dead,
Barry Melton of
Country Joe and The Fish and keyboardist
Merl Saunders from the Saunders-Garcia Band. Over time
Papa John Creach of
Hot Tuna,
Jack Casady of
Jefferson Airplane,
Nicky Hopkins,
Dave Getz,
Country Joe McDonald and other prominent San Francisco musicians would guest star with the group. In the 1990s
David LaFlamme of
It's a Beautiful Day and
Jerry Miller of
Moby Grape also toured with this group.