Smithsonian Institution Dinosaur Museum/DINOSAUR_MUSEUM.ISO/pc/mswin/archives/notes.txt

Text File | 1994-03-23 | 10KB | 211 lines

Fossils are any evidence of life from the geologic past.

Scientists can tell the relative age of rocks from the fossils they contain.

Scientists can often use fossils to determine the climates of the geologic past.

A fossil palm tree found in a rock in Scotland tells us that the climate must have been much warmer there when the palm tree was alive.

Scientists learn most about dinosaurs, animals which are extinct, from comparing their fossil remains to animals which are still living.

The oldest-known fossils were found in rocks dating 3500 million years old.

The earliest-known dinosaur did not appear until about 225 million years ago.

Fossils in the same family that includes humans first appeared about 5 or 6 million years ago.

Dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era which means “Era of Middle Life”.

The Mesozoic Era lasted about 185 million years.

The Mesozoic Era consisted of three important periods known as the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.

Humans occupy the late Tertiary and entire Quaternary periods (about 5 or 6 million years ago - Present) of the Cenozoic Era.

The planet Earth is about 4,600 million years old.

Plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and ichthyosaurs dominated the sea life during the Mesozoic Era.  They were not dinosaurs, but lived at the same time.

Pterodactyls and other flying pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, but they all lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

Cretaceous (kreh-TAY-shuss) - A period in the history of the Earth lasting from about 146 million years ago to 65 million years ago.

Jurassic (juh-RASS-ick) - A period in the history of the Earth lasting from about 208 million years ago until 146 million years ago.

Triassic (try-ASS-ick)- A period in the history of the Earth lasting from about 251 million years ago until 208 million years ago.

Serrated - Having an edge shaped like a row of zigzags, like the edge of a saw.

Armored dinosaurs - Ornithischians that have bony plates and/or spikes.

DINOSAUR - Although the word simply translates to “terrible lizard”,  not all were terrible and none was a lizard.

Dinosaurs are often thought to be like living reptiles - but some seem to have been as warm-blooded and lively as birds and mammals.

Fossils - Any evidence of life from the geologic past.  Many fossils are bits of leaves, shells, bones, and even footprints.

Hadrosaurs - A group of big ornithopods.  Sometimes called “duckbills” or “helmet heads.”

Dinosaurs and pterosaurs were not like any reptiles now living.

Ornithischians - Dinosaurs with hip bones arranged like those of modern birds.  All were plant eaters.

The earliest-known dinosaur egg was found in 1923.

The earliest-known dinosaur egg was found in the Flaming Cliffs of Shabarakh Usu, People’s Republic of Mongolia.

Some dinosaurs grew to be the largest land animals that have ever lived.

Legs positioned directly under a dinosaur enabled the animal to support a great deal of weight, allowing growth to a large size.

To help dinosaurs balance on their two hind legs, many had three long toes spread widely, forming a stable tripod effect.

The main prey of flesh-eating dinosaurs was plant-eating dinosaurs.

Armor was important to many plant-eating dinosaurs to protect them from flesh-eating dinosaurs.

The tails of armored dinosaurs probably were used as defensive weapons.

The largest dinosaurs known were plant-eaters called sauropods.

Sauropods were large, quadrupedal dinosaurs with very long necks and tails.

The bodies of large reptiles can hold heat longer than those of smaller reptiles.

Early sauropod dinosaurs were not very big.

As sauropods got larger, it became harder and harder for them to balance on their two hind legs.

The very largest sauropods were the biggest and heaviest land animals that ever lived.

Long necks on plant-eating sauropods made it easier for them to reach food.

Sauropod dinosaurs were capable of using their tails as defensive weapons.

Marine reptile giants like ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs ruled the oceans at the same time that dinosaurs ruled the land.

The cause of dinosaur extinction is one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Undoubtedly, there were thousands of different dinosaur species.  However, we probably have found only a fraction of them.

If dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they probably could have survived a temporary small sustained drop in world temperature.

Almost all large animals in the world died at the end of the Cretaceous Period.  Many small animals like mammals and birds survived.

Dinosaurs were one of the most successful groups of vertebrates that ever lived.

“Gertie” was the name of the first dinosaur  portrayed in a movie.  The movie was produced in 1912.

Willis O’Brien was the originator and father of “STOP ACTION” dinosaur animation in the movies.

In 1933, Willis O’Brien produced the classic stop action dinosaur animation seen in the movie KING KONG!

The 150th anniversary of the word, “dinosaur”, was on August 2, 1991.

Jurassic Park is a novel by Michael Crichton.  It is also a 1993 movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

Sir Richard Owen proposed the name, “dinosaur,” in August, 1841.

In 1859, Charles Darwin published THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION.

In 1867, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh published papers noting the similarity of dinosaurs to birds.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh was founded in 1896.

In 1942, Rudolf Zallinger began painting the Age of  Reptiles mural at the Yale Peabody Museum and completed it 5 years later.

The first dinosaur bones found in Antarctica were discovered in 1986.  These fossils help to prove the theory of continental drift.

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, was designated a national landmark in 1977.

The Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta opened on September 25, 1985.

Paleoanthropologists study just 1 family (humans).  Paleontologists study ALL other forms of ancient life.

Paleoanthropologists study only the last 5 or 6 million years.  Paleontologists study the last 3.5 billion years.

Paleoanthropologists out-number their fossil specimens.  Paleontologists do not.

Dinosaurs do not represent failure through their extinction.

Dinosaurs and “cave-men” did not co-exist.  They were separated by about 65 million years.

Monsters and dragons are the products of fiction and mythology.  Dinosaurs are real!

Dinosaurs comprise less than 7% of the 35 types of reptiles known from the Mesozoic Era.

Pterodactyls, sea-serpents, giant lizards and many other big prehistoric beasts were not dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs did not have a second brain in their hip.   The only life forms known to have a brain-in-their-butt are politicians.  Just kidding!

Only one-fifth of all dinosaurs known are based on either a skull or skeleton.

Less than half of all dinosaurs known are based on one specimen.

17% of all dinosaurs known are based on teeth alone.

A dinosaur genus existed about 5 million years.

Of all the species that have ever lived in the geologic past,  paleontologists estimate we have only found about 5% of them as fossils.

Dinosaurs ruled the land for about 140 million years.

Dinosaurs’ direct descendants, the birds, are one of the most successful terrestrial groups alive today.

There were no flying dinosaurs except their descendants the birds nor were there marine dinosaurs.  All dinosaurs lived on land.

The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by Congress on August 10, 1846.

President Wilson created Dinosaur National Monument on October 4, 1915.

The American Museum of Natural History Museum opened on December 18, 1877.

All known dinosaurs are divided into two large groups: Saurischia (“lizard-hipped”) and Ornithischia (“bird-hipped”).

Most saurischians had pubic bones which jutted forward.

Ornithischians had pubic bones in which the major part slanted back parallel to the ischium.

Reptiles ruled life on land during the Triassic Period.

By the Late Cretaceous Period, deciduous hardwood trees and other flowering plants began to co-exist with the conifers.

Many dinosaurs made nests, laid eggs, and even tended their young.

Some dinosaurs grouped their nests within large breeding colonies.

Many young dinosaurs probably fell prey to flesh-eating theropods before reaching adulthood.

Perhaps no more than one dinosaur in a million was fossilized.

Types of fossils include bones, shells, teeth, fossil footprints, mummies, burrows, droppings, eggs, impressions, and the remains of plants.

Most fossilization of dinosaurs took place when the animal died in or near an aquatic environment such as a pond, lake, stream, or marshland.

Trace fossils are fossils that preserve evidence of the activity of ancient animals, rather than the actual body parts of the organism.

A fossil footprint is known as a track.

Fossil footprints can indicate the size, weight, speed, and stance of a dinosaur.

Parallel sets of dinosaur trackways may indicate dinosaurs roamed in herds.

Approximately 110 genera of dinosaurs have been discovered in the United States, more than in any other country.

Approximately 95 genera of dinosaurs have been discovered in China, second in number only to the United States.

In 1980, Ralph Molnar described evidence of the first-known dinosaur from New Zealand, a theropod on North Island found by Joan Wiffen.

The North Slope of Alaska has yielded many Late Cretaceous dinosaurs.

By 1993, both a sauropod and a horned theropod had been discovered in Antarctica.

Badland environments of today represent one of the best places to search for dinosaur fossils.

Radiometric dating can pinpoint the age of a dinosaur within a few million years.

Skin texture seen on museum restorations is based partly on fossil skin impressions.

The color of a dinosaur is a scientific best guess.

The rarity of a tail imprint between fossil footprints indicates that dinosaurs did not habitually drag their tails.