Study Notes The Science and History of Dinosaur Paleontology I Definitions and Core Concepts Paleontology The scientific study of ancient organisms Paleobiology A branch of biology focused on the study of ancient life specifically looking at the anatomy physiology behavior and ecology of dinosaurs Scientific Literacy For many children dinosaurs serve as their first exposure to complex scientific concepts like extinction environmental change and plate tectonics II Early History and Discovery Pre 1842 Early Interpretations dinosaur remains China Western Jin Dynasty Records of dragon bones were likely based on Europe In 1676 a Megalosaurus femur was mistaken for the thigh bone of a giant human and later dubbed Scrotum humanum which was technically the first proper scientific name given to a dinosaur Early 1800s Findings were often misidentified as remains of giant birds the father of the buffalo or immense fish The Concept of Extinction Prior to the 1800s people generally did not believe animals could go extinct Baron George Cuvier changed this paradigm by studying the Mosasaurus a seagoing lizard not a dinosaur and arguing that such animals must have died out long ago Thomas Jefferson A fossil fanatic known as Mr Mammoth Jefferson is considered a Founding Father of paleontology for his extensive fossil collection First Valid Descriptions Reverend William Buckland 1824 Credited with the first scientifically valid dinosaur description the Megalosaurus big reptile which he correctly identified as a reptile based on teeth Gideon Mantell Described the first herbivorous dinosaur Iguanodon iguana tooth III The Naming and Classification of Dinosauria Sir Richard Owen 1842 Formally named the group Dinosauria fearfully great reptiles He characterized them as Giant Possessing upright stances more like mammals than living reptiles Non aquatic Having three or more sacral vertebrae Evolutionary Relationships Dinosaurs are Archosaurian reptiles a group that includes crocodilians pterosaurs and dinosauromorphs They are all distinguished by having teeth in sockets Unique Dinosaur Features Dinosaurs are distinguished from their closest relatives by Three or more sacral vertebrae Hands with three main fingers Perforate acetabulae a hole in the hip socket where the thigh bone attaches The Two Flavors of Dinosaurs In 1887 Harry Govier Seeley categorized dinosaurs into two groups based on hip structure Ornithischians Bird hipped e g Iguanodon Saurischians Lizard hipped e g Megalosaurus IV Early Renditions and the American Fossil Feud Crystal Palace Sculptures In 1854 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins created full size concrete models under Richard Owen s direction These early renditions mistakenly depicted dinosaurs as fat quadrupedal lizards with horns on their noses the Iguanodon horn was actually a thumb spike The Fossil Feud 1870s 1890s A fierce rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope They hired massive teams to find fossils in the American West often resorting to stealing specimens and sabotage Though their haste led to many invalid descriptions they named famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus Triceratops and Allosaurus During this period Marsh s team invented protective plaster jackets for transporting fossils V The Decline and Renaissance of Paleontology Post WWI Stagnation Interest in dinosaurs as a science declined they were viewed as kid s stuff and slow moving pathetic reptilian brutes that were an evolutionary dead end The Dinosaur Renaissance 1960s John Ostrom 1964 Discovered Deinonychus terrible claw an agile large brained predator that challenged the sluggish reptile stereotype Robert Bakker Argued that all dinosaurs were physiologically more like modern birds than previously thought Modern Methodology Walter Alvarez 1980 Proposed that a meteorite killed off the dinosaurs 65 5 million years ago Cladistics In the 1990s this computer based technique reached fruition using physical characteristics to establish genealogical relationships via cladograms VI Notable Figures and Discoveries Louis Dollo Often called the first dinosaur paleobiologist he studied 39 Iguanodon skeletons in Belgium and theorized about their ecosystems and herding behavior Joseph Leidy Described the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in America the Hadrosaurus in 1858 He was the first to recognize that some dinosaurs were bipedal Edward Hitchcock Initially interpreted dinosaur tracks in Massachusetts as being made by giant birds He later theorized some tracks showed feather impressions though modern research suggests these were likely slip marks in sediment While the previous notes provided a broad overview the sources contain several additional specific details and historical anecdotes that are worth noting for a more comprehensive understanding I Additional Early Misidentifications and Folklore The Father of the Buffalo In the 1800s French Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste L Heureux reported that the native Peigan people of Alberta Canada referred to giant fossils as the remains of the father of the buffalo The Immense Fish In 1806 during the exploration of the American West Meriwether Lewis discovered a giant rib in Montana and identified it as the remains of an immense fish Noah s Raven Early dinosaur track findings in England were often interpreted as the tracks of giant birds such as Noah s raven II Evolutionary Context and Shared Traits Archosaurian Lineage Dinosaurs belong to a larger group called Archosaurian reptiles which also includes crocodilians pterosaurs and dinosauromorphs Teeth in Sockets The defining attribute shared by all archosaurs is having teeth in sockets that are replaced throughout life Closest Relatives Pterosaurs and dinosauromorphs are the closest relatives to dinosaurs collectively known as Avemetatarsalians They share specific traits like Hinge like ankles where the pivot is in the middle of the ankle bone cluster Erect posture due to an inturned ball on the femur Defining the Hole The perforate acetabula a unique dinosaur trait is specifically a hole where the thigh bone attaches that goes all the way through the hip III The Darker Side of Dinosaur History The Head on the Tail Incident The fierce rivalry between Marsh and Cope was pushed to a final straw when Marsh publicly pointed out that Cope had accidentally placed the head of a Plesiosaur a sea monster on the tip of its tail Sabotage at Paleozoic Park In an attempt to rival the English Crystal Palace display New
View Full Document
Unlocking...