Dinosaurs : What Are Dinosaurs?

The Glen Rose Trackway is a 107-million-year–old series of fossilized dinosaur footprints. Excavated from the bed of the Paluxy River in Texas, the trackway gives a picture of dinosaurs that in some ways is more striking than that offered by fossils. Collected in 1938, the smaller prints are from a theropod, a dinosaur that walked on two hind feet. The larger ones were probably left by a plant-eating sauropod, such as Apatosaurus, the hind feet of which measured 3 feet in length. Birds are dinosaurs. Just as humans are both primates and mammals because we descended from the first primate and the first mammal, birds are dinosaurs because they descended from the first theropod and the first dinosaur. Their upright stance came from the very first dinosaur.

While a theropod “beast-footed” carnivore includes the T. Rex, the ones that likely roamed Wrangel-St.Elias National Park were considerably smaller. The researchers found evidence of a single theropod that was likely a tiny 9 cm long and 7 cm wide due to an impression of the sinusoidal shape. Several ornithopod, medium and large plant-eating dinosaurs, was identified by blunt and rounded digit impressions which are usually 22 cm long and 26 wide. It was the first evidence that dinosaurs roamed this vast region.

Sedimentary rocks interpret dinosaur habitats through encased environmental structures of the past. Through sedimentary rocks, paleoecologists’ can examine the arranged formation of sedimentary structures to specify what type of environment the dinosaurs’ lived in. An example of a specific sedimentary rock structure can be seen through formed weathering and ripple marks by how wind and sand formed distinct patterns in the past layered sediment. These arrangements provide interpretations on the structure of the sediment and the habitat of encased fossils, through modern day comparisons

Staurikosaurus is a dinosaur within the therapod group. Its name is Greek for “Southern Cross Lizard,” named after a small cross constellation visible in the southern hemisphere. It was named by Edwin H. Colbert and its species name is “pricei,” named after Colbert’s colleague, Llewellyn Ivor Price. Price discovered the dinosaur in 1936 in Southern Brazil, but it was described by Colbert in 1970. Staurikosaurus lived in the late Triassic period, roughly 225 million years ago, making it one of the earlier dinosaurs. It was relatively small, standing only 2.25 meters tall, but stretching to a long 7.5 meters from head to tail. It also only weighed about 66 pounds. While the fossil record of the Staurikosaurus is relatively incomplete, scientists

Tyrannosaurus is the type genus of the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea. Albertosaurinae and Tyrannosaurinae are the two subfamilies of Tyrannosuridea. Other than Tyrannosurus, the tyrannosaurine subfamily also include the North American Daspletosaurus and the Asian Tarbosaurus.(1) Spinosaurus gives its name to the Spinosauridae family of dinosaurs, which includes two subfamilies: Baryonychinae and Spinosaurinae.

Because dinosaurs are animals that lived millions of years ago, we are entirely dependent on the fossils that they have left behind for any understanding that we hope to gain. As any paleontologist will tell you, fossil hunting is difficult. There are no certainties, no guarantees. A certain amount of luck is as valuable as any scientific knowledge.

The Triassic was a period that consisted of dinosaurs who mainly roamed ocean related life. Cymbospondylus, a Triassic flesh consuming carnivore could be found in the Mediterranean Sea 200 million years ago. A Cymbospondylus was a 10-meter, (30 foot) Ichthyosaur, which falls under the reptile group of ancient dinosaurs. A Cymbospondylus main food source was a 6 -meter

Second of all, the writer of the reading passage mentions that dinosaurs had legs under their body and might are able to run, and this point shows that dinosaurs were endotherms. In contrast, the lecturer challenge this idea by the opinion

Paleontology, or the study of fossils, was still a young science at the start of Victorian times, and the idea that fossils were the remains of species extinct for millions of years was only gradually taking hold. The term "dinosaur," meaning "terrible lizard," was coined in 1842 by the British paleontologist Richard Owen, who went on to produce the first life-size reconstructions of dinosaurs based on the evidence of their skeletons. The Victorian era saw the rise of the first great dinosaur hunters, including the legendary American rivals Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker

The Triassic period from 252 million to 200 million years ago, saw the rise of reptiles and the first dinosaurs, the Jurassic period , from about 200 million to 145 million years ago, ushered in birds and

Brusatte did more research on this topic when he was a graduate student when his colleague Richard Butler proposed the idea of both of them together looking at the changes that dinosaurs went through during the ten to fifteen million year before they became extinct. I thought this was very interesting as a reader to see how Brusatte, someone who focuses on early life of dinosaurs and birds combine with someone like Butler who works in the more mathematical side of evolutionary trends. They were able to join forces and research about a single topic in order to discover something they both want to know about. Together they did their research by examining dinosaur diversity trends by using morphological disparity. They learned that most dinosaurs had a steady disparity and only herbivore dinosaurs like horned and duck billed had a declining

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton demonstrated many dinosaur characteristics and behaviors. The dinosaurs were fictionally characterized to appeal to the readers. By examining the dinosaur’s appearance and behaviors of dinosaurs such as the duckbilled dinosaur, velociraptor, hypsilophodontids, dilophosaurs, Triceratops, apatosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurs, and maiasaurs distinguished whether the evidence existed in the field of paleontology. The behaviors and characteristics of the dinosaur are divided into three factors as behaviors that were supported, not supported, and no evidence to support or refute the behavior.

The Orrorin tugenensis was found with thigh bones. And the Orrorin tugenensis had small teeth like the Australopithicus.

There are four main groups of reptiles, known as Crocodilians, Squamates, Tuataras, and Turtles. Crocodilians consists of large reptiles which includes alligators, crocodiles, gharials, and caimans. Squamates are lizards, snakes, and worm-lizards. A worm-lizard is a subterranean burrowing reptile that resembles an earthworm, a legless lizard. Tuataras are a group of reptiles that are lizard-like in appearance but are different from squamates because their skull isn’t jointed. Turtles are the most ancient reptiles alive today. They have changed very little since they first showed up 220 million years ago. The first turtle appeared 220 million years ago.(Laura Klappenbach)

The word dinosaur was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen. Dinosaur comes from the Greek word “deinos” and “sauros” which translates to fearfully great lizard (“Learn about Dinosaurs”). Dinosaurs are always named in Greek and usually named after their unique fossils, where they 're found, it’s size or a person. Before a dinosaur can be officially named it must be approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. It’s difficult to figure out how dinosaurs sounded, mated, behaved, what color/pattern they were and which ones are male or female. Paleontologists have however been able to discover that dinosaurs hatch from eggs, their bones have growth rings which can help figure out their age and that the larger dinosaurs lived for roughly 100 years and smaller ones for less. All dinosaurs evolved from other reptiles during the Triassic period. Dinosaurs are either herbivores or carnivores and are divided into two major groups. Bird hipped, Ornithischian, or lizard hipped, Saurischa. In the Saurischa hipped dinosaurs the pubis bone is down and to the front but in Ornithischian hipped it is point down and towards the tail (“Zoom Dinosaur”). The next step was to examine how dinosaurs behaved and their characteristics.