Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs
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Nearly one-hundred and sixty million years ago, dinosaurs were moving about on this Earth. These majestic creatures lived in what is called the Mesozoic Era, which is further subdivided into three periods. The three periods are the Triassic Period, the more commonly understood Jurassic Period and the Cretaceous Period. Of all the species of the animal world, dinosaurs were the dominant species. Unfortunately, we would be millions of years from ever witnessing them roaming about this Earth. To be specific, we would miss them by about sixty-six million years.
The word “Dinosaur” can be traced back to Sir Richard Owen. He was a biologist from England and he originally coined this term, “dinosaur” in order to classify, or organize, this grand group of animals. The actual word 'Dinosaur' comes from a Greek word “deinos” which translates to “big and terrible” and the second part of the word, “sauros” which means “lizard”. In all actuality, despite this label, dinosaurs are not truly lizards.
A surprising number of dinosaur species have been discovered. In fact, there are greater than seven hundred dinosaur species. It is the hope of paleontologists to discover more dinosaur species from various excavation sites. The American geologist, by the name of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, goes down in the record books as the first individual to discover dinosaur bones in the continent of North America.
There are some misunderstandings about dinosaurs. For instance, Pterodactyls are not actually dinosaurs. They were merely reptiles, that could fly, and they lived in the same time period. Theropods are dinosaurs and are the recognizably the ancestors of birds. Prior to dinosaurs, there were reptiles that existed on Earth. Two of the reptile species which ruled the Earth were the Archosaurs and Therapsids. They had a long presence of ruling the Earth for millions of years.
Moreover, a giant carnivore, the Megalosaurus, could be found roaming the Earth nearly one-hundred and sixty nine years ago. It was an amazing nine meters long and its height was three meters. It was one the first fossils of dinosaurs that was discovered. A geologist, named Reverend William Buckland, was the very first to study the fossil of this dinosaur, back in the year 1824 and he even gave it the name, Megalosaurus.
Dinosaur fossils were even discovered in Antarctica. There is a curious question about this phenomenon of discovery there. No evidence suggests that the dinosaur lived in Antarctica when a sole landmass of Earth existed and was called Pangaea. It is now discovered that dinosaur remains have been found on every continent, and it is the hope of scientists that more species of dinosaurs are yet to be discovered.
Some more amazing facts about dinosaurs were that several of them, actually had body feathers. Others had horns in order to defend itself against the attacks of predators, and they were called Triceratops. Spikes could be found on the tail of the Stegosaurus. The largest dinosaur, which was a carnivore, or meat eater, was the Spinosaurus. They lived on both land and in the water. And the reward for long life could go to the Apatosaurus as these notably large dinosaurs lived an amazing three hundred years.
For greater than one-hundred and forty million years, a
dinosaur's dominance remained unaffected, except by the presence of other
dinosaurs. In a moment that all changed,
nearly overnight, when these beautiful creatures, the dinosaur, were
eliminated. It is not known why
dinosaurs became extinct. One theory
that seems to be most accepted is the theory that sixty six million years ago,
an asteroid struck the Earth, and that is what caused the extinction of the
dinosaur.
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