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The discovery of dinosaurs
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Fossils What was the motivation for the discovery? Really there wasn't much of a drive to find the first fossils discovered. When they were first found, that's all they were, found. As stated by Sues in “European Dinosaur Hunters” (1997) most of the first fossils discovered were usually fragments found in quarries. They just started showing up when people dug holes or built things. But once it was realized by the scientific community that these were the petrified remains of creatures that once lived, they became more and more valuable, and they actually became sought after. Paleontologists are always looking for new fossils of new animals to add to the list of discoveries. Like explorers in the dark depths of the jungles of South America,
Nevertheless, many people won’t care about paleontologists. There is a quote that I found from Maya Angelou, “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you” (Pollock). This is a quote that I think many people should go by, it is saying that when you do the things you love you do it well and people like that. So, just do something you love to do, do it well, and you will be
What is scaly, creepy, 50 feet long, and swims in the world's most notorious lake? If you said The Loch Ness Monster, then you’re correct! The Loch Ness Monster, mostly known as the creature Nessie, is a huge, “mythical” creature that has been scaring the people of Ireland for centuries, but this monster is actually real.
In the year 2002 a bizarre looking theropod dinosaur fossil was found in China (Xu). It challenges the way researchers have been thinking of theropods and other dinosaurs for a long time. In the Sahara desert, the oldest hominid skull in the world was found that same year. These are just two of many discoveries that have challenged the way we perceive the ancient world.
Palaeogeography deals with the reconstruction of physical geographical conditions for the eras of the Earth's history. The term comes from the Greek παλαιός (palaiós) meaning ‘old’ and γεωγραφία (geōgraphía) meaning ‘a description of the earth’ and seems to have been introduced in the Earth sciences vocabulary as ‘Palaeo-Geographie’ by Ami Boué (1794‒1881), a French‒Austrian geologist, in his publication Einiges zur palaeo-geologischen Geographie (Boué, 1875, p. 2). Palaeogeography focuses on the distribution of land and sea, the spread of mountains and volcanoes and the expansion of glaciations, among others. The results are presented in geographic depictions called palaeogeographic maps. A special kind of palaeogeograpahical map is palaeobiogeographical maps depicting the distribution of
The Megalodon (or Carcharodon Megalodon) is a pre-historic creature who stalked the open global oceans of the Paleozoic Era. This beast was a much larger version of today's Great White. The monstrous demon if the deep went extinct around 2.6 million years ago that time is included in the Cenozoic Era. The Epoch it died in was the mid-Miocene to Pliocene. The Megalodon first appeared 510-425 years ago during the Paleozoic Era or the "Age of Fish". The diet consisted of large whales of the time period, for example, the Livyatan an 18 meter (59 feet.) Killer Whale. The Megalodon being 20 meters (Approximately 65 feet.) it has no trouble dispatching and eating its prey. Considering its size and ferocity this beast was the apex predator of its time
In 1993, Universal Studios released an epic movie known as Jurassic Park. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg and his incredible cast took the viewers on an adventure that brought dinosaurs back from the dead and set the bar for how people would expect special effects in a movie should be. The movie was critically acclaimed and won many awards for special effects and sound. Jurassic Park is one of the greatest movies of all time because it brought dinosaurs to life on screen in a way that had never been attempted before plus leading edge audio/video special effects turned the world on its head with their stunning realism and lifelike sound.
The modern view on cannibalism mostly rejects evidence of cannibalism in the fossil record. Bio-archeologist Christy G. Turner ii has spent 30 years trying to improve the criteria for supporting signs of cannibalism and prove its practice. The main evidence in the article, Archaeologists Rediscover cannibals, is not based so much on the variety of the sites with possible signs of cannibalism but the similar patterns in which the sites show repetitive evidence of the practice compared to one another. The major debate between whether cannibalism was practice in the fossil record has to do with
The Paleolithic Age was the earliest period of man. This time period dates back to 15,000 BCE. There are many artifacts from the Paleolithic Age including Lucy (female hominid), Otzi (ice man), and cave art.
One of the most well-known urban legends told is the story of Bigfoot. Much of the research has shown that there are several names assigned to the mammoth ape. According to Napier (1973), Bigfoot would be the creature found mostly in Northwest America, Sasquatch would be a creature named in British Colombia, the 49th parallel in the north-west states of America and Northern California, and the Abominable Snowman, or the Yeti would be the creature named in the Himalayas. Of course, “Wild Man” and “Savage” have also been names used to identify the creature. There’s been thousands of sightings across the world, but there have also been many misidentifications where those who think they have seen Bigfoot have really just seen an ordinary animal or person. Arment (2006) states an individual’s perception may color the eyewitness account. Such misidentifications include: hermits, fugitives, refugees, bears, gorillas, and simply people making up stories or rumors. In addition to sightings, there have been photos, videos, movies, and TV shows that strongly indicates the possibility of the existence of this creature. Though there is much evidence from sightings, myths, and recordings that Bigfoot exists, there is also much proof that it could all be a hoax. Incorrect sightings have led skeptics to argue over the existence of this being stating Bigfoot is really just a fable. So one has to ask oneself, does Bigfoot really exist or is it just another urban legend?
Michael Crichton’s classic novel Jurassic Park sparked controversy among scientists, excited science-fiction fans, and captivated paleontologists as Chrichton proposed the idea that dinosaurs could be cloned. The plot elicited criticism from scientists around the world, but support from others. Cloning a dinosaur was made possible in the fictional text: take some amber, fill in missing DNA, obtain an ostrich egg, keep the egg in a controlled environment, then a dinosaur is born. Unfortunately, each of the steps are of intricate design.
Did you know, in the state of Oklahoma it is against the law to either hunt or catch whales? Sounds sort of ridiculous when you think logically about it, but according to paleontologists it isn’t that far fetched. Over 65 million years ago Kansas, including the whole Midwest Region of North America from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico, was covered by the Sea. Due to the continental uplifts of the mountain ranges in North America during the Pangaea stage, the once shallow sea of Kansas became shut off from the sea-water flow and dried out to what we know it as today. The biome of Kansas over the last 65 million years has become extremely dry and flat, which would account for a once shallow inland sea. For example; Salt Lake City was once in the mist of a glacier that filled the inside “hole” of the City, causing the surface of it to be extremely flat excluding the surrounding mountains.
Listening to the melodious tune, “Pithecanthropus Erectus,” by Charles Mingus, had my heart racing at times. The first time I heard this song, I felt like Mingus was simply improvising. The melody is very distinctive to most jazz songs I’ve heard. While listening to his music continuously, I began to notice that the tune would change drastically from time to time. It started slowly and sounding smooth, then it would spontaneously burst with, what I consider an “off-beat” melody and towards the ending, it “perished”.
Dinosauria, We by Charles Bukowski, is about the downfall of humanity and how priorities changed to greed, violence, and survival of the fittest. It is about how we are “born into this,” how we are born into a society where it is cheaper to die or plead guilty rather than pay the hospital bill or to get a lawyer. Where we are “made violent” and our “heart is blackened.” Where the good things in life are hidden from view like the “masked sun.” “The sun will not be seen and it will always be night.” Where in the end, the good is still hidden and “the most beautiful silence” is never heard.
When a paleontologist makes a discovery about Dinosaurs it is usually a celebrated event and will appear on all sorts of covers of magazines and even newspapers, with good reason. These discoveries are often quite exciting for a few reasons. The whole experience of finding a fossil that is hundreds of millions of years old is quite an adrenaline rush, but the fact that each discovery has the ability to answer questions in relation to evolution is quite amazing. Each finding of Dinosaur remains can help answer questions of how that certain species evolved from another. If our species can fully understand how Dinosaurs evolved, maybe in the future we can learn something about our evolution. Without discoveries from the past how is our society supposed to persevere and learn from mistakes that may lead to our own extinction, and who to learn better from than perhaps the dinosaurs that have gone through many stages of evolution and have faced extinction.
The upper paleolithic era brought us many social and cultural innovations. From the development of art, to the continued development of useful tools and weapons, the people existing in this time were the true forbears of modern human civilization. The advances made in self-awareness are extremely apparent as well, with significant new trends in social networks and personal adornment leading to what would be the foundation of society as we know it. These things combined make the upper paleolithic one of the most important periods of human development.