Paleobiology of Dinosaurs Dr Erickson hoo10 my fsu edu Lamarcus 1 yahoo com 04 03 2013 4 3 2013 Why the fascination Learning that dinosaurs are real is exhilarating This often leads to early occupational goals whereby one inspires to become a Paleontologist someone who studies any aspect of ancient organisms Clicker Question I want to know how many of you were interested in dinosaurs as kids A Yes interested B No never had an interest This course is specifically about Paleobiology the study of the lives of ancient organisms physiology behavior ecology etc The History of the Field Clearly people knew about them before their scientific recognition in 1824 It is hard to miss dinosaur bones Dragon bones from long dead serpents that were used for medicinal purposes China England 1676 Giant human thigh bone was found Later reinterpreted as the Giant s private parts The specimen was name Scrotum Humanum which we know now to be the end of a dinosaurs thigh bone Thomas Jefferson Sent Lewis and Clark out to explore the Louisiana Purchase to find mastodoms furry elephants 1770 A 40 foot long monster named Mosasaurus was found in Holland The first time the word extinct was used 1824 William Buckland found a reptile jaw with pointed serrated teeth from England He called it Megalosaurus Iguanodon This caused a huge sensatin because giant herbivore reptiles were not heard of Note reptiles like lizards and crocodiles Have scaly skin Lay hard shell eggs on land Scrawl on 4 legs Richard Owen Fearfully Great Reptiles In 1842 designated them as a new group of reptiles The Dinosauria meaning Dino mania began and hundreds of thousands of people came to see the dinosaurs So what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur Scrawl on 4 legs three or more sacral vertebrae fused Hands with three main fingers Perforate acetabulae the hole where the thighbone attaches goes all the way through the hip Yankee Dinosaurs The first documented remains were tracks found in 1800 Written off as being from giant birds Joseph Leidy was given a nearly complete skeleton of a duck billed dinosaur 1858 Dinosaurs were bipedal Now began to be compared to kangaroos When it came to mounting the skeleton they figured that the dinosaurs would drag its tail just like other reptiles they had to break the tail to give it the assumed look Fossil Feud The late 1800s Led to the discovery of some of the most famous dinosaurs from the North American Two types Ornithischians with hips shaped like birds Saursichians with hips shaped like reptiles west Marsh vs Cope United States Museums Carnegie Smithsonian American Museum Funded by rich backers still happens today It was considered kid stuff After WWII most dinosaur hunting slowed down Most dinosaurs were thought to have been found Dinosaurs were only to get the public to come through the gates so scientists could pay for their important work on mammals and birds The Dinosaur Renaissance Deinonychus the raptor from Jurassic Park Robert Bakker Said all dinosaurs were athletic and more like living birds and animals He pointed to their athletic builds and their bone microstructure The Outcome Everyone started studying and hundreds of jobs were created A new dinosaur is being named every week Bakker was partially right Other events that have fueled the Renaissance Cladistics It was proposed that a giant asteroid hit the Earth and wiped out all the dinosaurs a method to organize physical characteristics of dinosaurs and discern relationships came into common use 04 03 2013 How do we know these ages Radioactive isotopes in volcanic rocks formed at the time of the dinosaurs decay into After 704 million years only 50 of the original Uranium remains This amount 4 5 13 When did dinosaurs live 238 million years until 65 5 million years ago secondary materials know as rates Uranium 235 breaks down over time of time is called a half life Climate It was a lot warmer in the Age of Dinosaurs It was arid in equatorial regions Plate Tectonics Continents move via seafloor spreading By the end of the Cretaceous they were close to present positions Dinosaur distributions have helped to figure out where the continents were and In the Triassic continents were adjoined called Pangea explains their distributions For example fossils of late Jurassic North America dinosaurs are also found in Africa With a Warmer Earth there was no ice at the poles Ocean levels were higher and covered much of the continents and ironically dinosaurs had less land to live on than there is today Seaways crossed the continents and influences where dinosaurs can travel 04 03 2013 Mountain Systems The world used to be fairly flat compared to today The Flora The types of plants available for forage had a large influence on were dinosaurs can live Triassic and Jurassic Plants There was less ground to cover back then since there was no grass Trees had great height and chemical defenses and poor ability to regenerate Pteridiophytes in wet ares Cycads in dryer areas Pine trees conifers and ginkos were dry area trees Cretaceous Period flowering plants These plants regenerated quickly can survive grazing The first known grass appeared Who lived with the Dinosaurs For the most part dinosaurs are terrestrial live on land 04 03 2013 Crocodilians First ones were terrestrial land dwellers Some were even bipedal Some were fully aquatic sea monsters Some were just like todays crocodiles They could be up to 40ft Considered to be dinosaur killers The giant crocodile Deinosuchus growth Grew at rates like living alligators very unlike the dinosaur pattern Kept growing slowly over many years What was the Supercroc s biting force Saltwater crocodile has 3 700 lbs of bite force highest bite force ever measured Supercroc and Deinosuchus 31 000 lbs Turtles Most were like today s turtles but reached giant sizes Icthyosaurs look like dolphins but are related to lizards engage in live birth 04 03 2013 Long Necked Plesiosaurs The supposed Loch Ness Monster Mosasaurs Aquatic animals closely related to komodo dragon Xiphaxtinus audax a 17 foot tarpon In the air were pterosaurus First ones had long tails some were filter feeders some have been found with fur Russians found a specimen with fur on it The giants were the Quetalcoatalids with 35 40 foot wingspan They are always found well inland and are thought to be dinosaur scavengers Mammals appear at the same time as dinosaurs Mostly Rat or Possum sized throughout the Age of Dinosaurs Possums have remained almost unchanged In the
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