Unit 4 Paleobiology of Dinosaurs BSC1005 Dr Gregory Erickson Chapter 1 An Introduction to Terrible Lizards and the science of Dinosaur Paleontology organisms Paleontologist someone who studies any aspect of ancient Paleontology is particularly important with regard to scientific literacy since for many children dinosaurs are their first exposure to scientific concepts Paleobiology somebody who studies the lives of ancient organisms physiology behavior ecology functional anatomy Formally recognized in 1842 China 1676 Giant Human Thighbone was Found in England dragon bones from long dead serpents were unearthed for centuries for medicinal purposes The specimen was named Scrotum humanum technically the first proper scientific name given to a dinosaur Now known to be the end of a dinosaur s thigh bone The American Indians referred to Dinosaur remains as the father of the Buffalo or as a sacred former race of giants In 1806 Lewis Clark found dinosaur bones in Montana and wrote them off as remains of a giant fish At that time most people did not think extinction could occur Thomas Jefferson a fossil fanatic thus told them to be on the lookout for mastodons furry elephants In 1770 a 40 foot long sea monster named Mosasaurus was found in Holland Famous anatomist Baron George Cuvier said it was remains of something that no longer lived The concept was the first time it was recognized by Europeans Cuvier was a very influential man and was considered a genius people for the first time gave serious consideration to the possibility that animals can and have gone extinct In 1824 Reverend William Buckland described a Reptile Jaw pointed serrated teeth from England He called it Megalosaurus big lizard since he thought it was just a giant relative of today s lizards He is credited for naming the first scientifically valid dinosaur About the same time Surgeon Gideon Mantell of England found giant teeth and bones including a horn like spike from a herbivore Cuvier said they were from a Rhino and a Hippo Mantell showed the He named it Iguanodon Iguana Tooth teeth were from a herbivorous reptile like an iguana s Like Buckland Mantell thought it was just a big lizard Unlike the giant meat eating Megalosaurus This was the first described herbivorous dinosaur Buckland and Mantell depicted their first dinosaurs as giant scaled up Had them walking on all fours Reptiles are scaly skinned terrestrialized living on land animals that lay hard shelled eggs British anatomist Sir Richard Owen took stock of all of the crazy fossil giants being found in Europe and noted they were different than reptiles living today in being Giant Having upright posture not sprawling like having reptiles Having more than two fused sacral vertebrae In 1842 Richard Owen designated them as a new group of reptiles The Dinosauria meaning Fearfully Great Reptiles Richard Owen worked with artist Waterhouse Hawkins to depict them in full size as part of a huge display of British Science A famous dinner was held by Owen and Hawkins for scientists and dignitaries inside one of the Iguanodon sculptures Dinosaurs are Archosaurian reptiles and had teeth in sockets like crocodiles pterosaurs flying reptiles and dinomorphs dinosaur like reptiles this these are their close relatives Pterosaurs and dinosauromorphs had mesotarsal ankles and thus are closer relatives to dinosaurs than crocodiles Dinosauromorphs have erect posture like dinosaurs and thus are the closest relatives of all to the dinosaurs Unique Dinosaur Features region 1 three or more sacral vertebrae fused backbones in hip 2 hands with three main fingers 3 perforate acetabulae i e the hole where the thighbone Yankee Dinosaurs attached goes all the way through the hip The first documented remains were tracks found in 1800 Written off as being from giant birds In 1858 scientist Joseph Leidy was given a nearly complete skeleton of a duck billed dinosaur He envisioned it as looking like a Kangaroo the only bipedal animal he It became immediately apparent that Buckland Mantell and Owen were wrong dinosaurs were bipedal could think of with a big tail Subsequent depictions of dinosaurs were shown jumping around like Kangaroo He mounted the dinosaur By the late 1800s there was enough evidence to realize there were two types of dinosaurs Ornitihischians with hips shaped like birds Saurischians with hips shaped like lizards The fossil feud of the late 1800s led to the discovery of some of most famous dinosaurs from the North American west Sent to Europe to avoid the war O C Marsh E D Cope Both were interested in fossils and they sent out camps to look for bones o Most of the famous dinosaurs were found out by these Early 1900s United States Museums take over as American Dinomania strikes Carnegie Melon in Pittsburgh Smithsonian in Washington American expeditions Museum in New York Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Funded by rich backers still happens today After WWII most dinosaur hunting slowed down Science was considered kid stuff these animals were uninteresting dead end failures considered scaled up slow moving pathetic reptilian brutes Most were thought to have been found Dinosaurs were only to get the public to come through the gates and then they use the money to study more relevant things ex Human Evolution 1964 John Ostrom discovered Deinonychus claws on its feet Here was an athletic animal with teeter totter tail and large killing The Dinosaur Renaissance Robert Bakker An Ostrom student took the idea and ran with it Said all dinosaurs were athletic and more like flying birds and mammals The Outcome Everyone started studying dinosaurs and hundreds of jobs were created A method to organize physical characteristics of dinosaurs and the Claudistics relationships Chapter 2 The Age of Dinosaurs When did dinosaurs live 238 million years until 65 5 million years ago during what is called the Mesozoic Era or the Age of Dinosaurs Three Divisions to Age of Dinosaurs 251 200 million years ago Triassic Period The oldest dinosaurs show up midway through this period Jurassic Period Cretaceous Period 200 146 million years ago This was the time of the very largest dinosaurs 146 65 5 million years ago The dinosaurs went extinct 65 54 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period How do we know these ages Radioactive isotopes in volcanic rocks formed at the time of the dinosaurs decay into secondary materials at known rates If you compare original amount to final amount you can access age For
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