Unit 4 Paleobiology of Dinosaurs Dinosaurs are the largest animals to walk the Earth Paleontologist Someone who studies any aspect of ancient organisms ICLICKER QUESTION I want to know how many of you were interested dinosaurs as kids A Yes Paleobiology The study of ancient living organisms physiology behavior ecology function The History of the Field o 1842 Dinosaurs were scientifically recognized in 1842 o China Dragon Bones from long dead serpents were unearthed for centuries for medicinal purposes o 1676 Giant Human thighbone was found in England The species was named Scrotum Humanum technically the first proper scientific name given to a dinosaur Scrotum Humanum is known to be the end of a dinosaur s thighbone o The American Indians referred to Dinosaur remains as the Father of the Buffalo or as a sacred Former Race of Giants o 1806 Lewis and Clark found Dinosaur bones in Montana and wrote them off as remains of giant fish At that time most people did not think extinction could occur o Thomas Jefferson a fossil fanatic thus told them to be on the look out for Mastodons furry elephants o 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 of extinction was for the first time realized by Europeans o 1824 William Buckland described a reptile jaw with pointed serrated teeth from England He called it Megalosaurus Big Lizard since he thought it was just a giant relative of today s lizard He is credited for naming the first scientifically valid dinosaur No one paid attention o Early 1800s 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 teeth were from a herbivorous reptile like an iguana Like Buckland Mantell thought it was just a big lizard He named it Iguanodon Iguana Tooth Unlike the giant meat eating Megalosaurus Iguanodon caused a huge sensation Early renditions Buckland and Mantell depicted their first dinosaurs as giant scaled up crawling animals Reptiles like lizards and o Have scaly skin o Lay large eggs Richard Owen o British anatomist Richard Owen took stock of all of the crazy fossil giants being found in Europe and noted they were different than reptiles living today Giant Having upright posture o In 1842 Richard Owen designated them as a new group of reptiles Dinosauria Fearfully Great Reptiles 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 The depictions are humorous and can still be seen today in Crystal Palace Park they are a far cry from Jurassic Park Dinosaurs o Owen made several excusable mistakes Said all dinosaurs were o Dino mania began and hundreds of thousands of people came to see quadro reptiles the display o During Owen s time they only had scraps to work with So makes a Dinosaur and Dinosaur o Dinosaurs had teeth in sockets like crocodiles pterosaurs flying reptiles and dinomorphs dinosaur like reptiles thus they are close relatives o Pterosaurs and Dinosauromorphs o Dinosauromorphs have erect posture like dinosaurs and thus are the closest relatives on dinosaurs o Unique Feature 1 Three or more sacral vertebrae fused backbones in hip region o Unique Feature 2 Hands with three main fingers o Unique Feature 3 Perforate acetabulae the hole where the thighbone attached goes all the way though the hip o 1800 The first documented remains were tracks found Written off as giant birds o 1858 Scientist Joseph Leidy was given a nearly complete skeleton of a duck billed dinosaur It became immediately that Buckland Owen and Mantell were wrong dinosaurs were bipedal Yankee Dinosaurs He envisioned it looking like a kangaroo The only bipedal animal he could think of with a big tail Despite having to break the tail to do it Leidy had it mounted with the tail on the ground since reptiles today drag their tails and so do kangaroos most of the time o New York officials wanted to show up the Brits and planned their own crystal Palace type exposition in Central Park showing the proper way to mount a Dinosaur They even hired Waterhouse Hawkins to sculpt them In a political fight over territory thugs broke into Hawkins studio and destroyed the renditions The dinosaurs are still buried there today o By the late 1800s there was enough evidence to realize there were two types of Dinosaurs Ornithischians with hips shaped like birds Saursichians with hips shaped like lizards o The Fossil feud of the late 1800s led to the discovery of some of the most famous dinosaurs from the North American west O C Marsh and E D Cope o Early 1900s Unites States Museums take over as American dino mania strikes Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh American Museum in New York Royal Ontario Museum in Smithsonian Institute in Washington Toronto Funded by rich backers o 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 dinosaurs were thought to have been found The Dinosaur Renaissance o 1964 John Ostrom discovered Deinonychus the real raptor from Jurassic Park it o The outcome Robert Bakker An Ostrom student took the idea and ran with Said all dinosaurs were athletic Everyone started studying dinosaurs and hundreds of jobs were created More money is spent on dinosaurs than ever o Other events that have fueled the renaissance o Cladistics A method to organize physical characteristics o All in all dinosaur Paleobiology is live and well and growing and we are learning more about these animals every day The Age of Dinosaurs o When did dinosaurs live 238 million years ago till 65 5 million years ago The Mesozoic Era or Age of Dinosaurs o Three Divisions to Age of Dinosaurs Triassic Period 251 200 million years ago Dinosaurs showed up 238 million years ago Jurassic Period 200 146 million years ago time of the giant dinosaurs Cretaceous Period 146 65 5 million years ago end of the dinosaurs o How do we know the 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 see the average For dinosaur age sediments Uranium 235 is the
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