Dinosaur Biology Study Guide Lecture 1 paleontologist someone who studies ancient organisms paleobiology the study of ancient life Scrotum humanum The first named dinosaur Baron George Cuvier man who convinced people to consider that animals can and have gone extinct Reverend William Buckland credited with describing the first scientifically valid dinosaur megalosaurus Gideon Mantell named the first herbivorous dinosaur Iguanodon Reptiles scaly skinned terrestrialized living on land animals that lay hard shelled eggs as defined by Sir Richard Owen Lecture 2 Dinosaurs lived from 238 65 6 million years ago All dinosaurs have three characteristics 1 3 or more sacral vertebrae 2 3 main fingers 3 perforate acetabulae Two main groups 1 Ornithischian bird hips 2 Saurischian lizard hips There were no aquatic dinosaurs study conducted by him The supposed loch ness monster is a plesiosaurs pterosaurs were the birds of the time The largest recorded bite force of any present day crocodile is 3 700lbs Australian saltwater croc A fossil is any remains of ancient life Trace Fossils are any traces of ancient life or evidence of behavior Ex tracks eggs stomach stones gastroliths bite marks trace fossils are the primary means by which paleontologist learn about dinosaur biology Dinosaurs are found in sedimentary rock The closest location to us in Tallahassee that dinosaurs can be found is Georgia Lecture 3 The earliest dinosaurs were small Endocasts Formed when sediments fill the brain cavity during fossilization process and become solidified This allows us to tell the size of their brains There are many crazy theories in paleontology because the field was previously all geologists now biologists are coming in to the field Lecture 4 The sex of dinosaurs in not know Dinosaurs are terrestrial Land Animals Tooth batteries are self sharpening Coprolites Fossilized dino shit Sexual Dimorphism When you can tell male from females based strictly on appearance Over splitting Naming the same species of dinosaur multiple times Lecture 5 Two competing theories surrounding head banging dinosaurs 1 Head on butting what it sounds like 2 Flank butting animals standing side by side Triceratops are the model for The Griffin Diagram on page 57 in book demonstrates that the animal used to have a horn If its tail was at the front of the auditorium then its head would be by the owls in the lobby Lecture 6 Longest dinosaur 140 ft diplodocids Tallest dinosaur 56ft sauropseidon a Brachiosaur Know the diagram on pg 68 Sauropod head nose ontop of head Lecture 7 The first mean eating dinosaur had a gap between its front and back teeth Tetanurans Features Pubis boot and giant hands Finite element model computerized biochemical model built to show how stress was distributed throughout a dinosaurs body There was at least one theropod that ate plants segnosaurs Encephalization quotient a measure of brain size relative to body mass Could determine how smart a dinosaur might have been know that in the head diagram on page 78 the mouth is on the lower right side and the large hole in the middle is the eye socket Deinonychosaurs raptor that was depicted in Jurassic park Lecture 8 Tyrannosaurus rex did not drag its tail The T Rex had huge olfactory bulbs which gave it an excellent sense of smell They could amble at about 21 mph basically speed walking always having two feet on the ground Roland reported that the T Rex was a cannibal It is determined that they are both predators and scavengers Lecture 9 Deinonychus a dinosaur that peeked the interest of Robert Bakker and somewhat kicked off the dinosaur renaissance period beginning in the late 1960 s that invented an interest in the study of dinosaurs Examination of dinosaur bones suggest a blend of both mammal and reptile physiology Dinosaurs grew faster than living reptiles but not as quickly as mammals Grew at a rate similar to marsupials 40 80 of life on this planet died when the dinosaurs did There are three main extinction theories 1 Volcanism A giant volcano exploded and altered earth s climate Evidence of this in India 2 Drastic lowering in sea levels Evidence seaway sediments 3 A 10km asteroid hit the Gulf of M xico evidence giant crater The interesting thing about these theories is that some animals survived Why didn t it kill birds crocodiles frogs and salamanders Archaeopteryx A bird found in Germany fossil was immaculate This discovery revealed feathers and led to the conclusion that birds are dinosaurs The archaeopteryx has the three characteristics of all dinosaurs Paleobiologist believe that birds are theropod dinosaurs The smallest dinosaur weighs only 7oz microraptor
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