It has been millions and millions of years since dinosaurs have roamed the Earth, and they still capture the imagination and attention of scientists and researchers everywhere. Big, small, omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore, dinosaurs came in all different sizes with many different backgrounds. Many dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, and only a few are well known about. While everyone has heard of the Tyrannosaurus Rex or the Triceratops, there are many other unique and interesting dinosaurs to learn about. One of the most fascinating dinosaur species that are not often talked about is the Troodon formosus.
The Troodon formosus had the appearance of a cross between a bird and a raptor. “Troodon is Greek for “wounding tooth,” a reference to the single incisor by which it was originally known” (Troodon- The Only Dinosaur That Could Pronounce Its Own Name). Scientists believe that the dinosaur was feathered and was relatively small, only about six feet in length and three feet tall ranging from around 100-130 pounds. Researchers also believe that the Troodon formosus was nocturnal and had some depth perception due to its large, front facing eyes (Troodon). The Troodon formosus also had bendable arms that resembled a modern-day birds’ wings. Troodon formosus had a U-shaped jaw with serrated teeth, and sharp claws on a couple of their toes (Troodon Formosus Dinosaur).
Picture from: http://www.palaeocritti.com/_/rsrc/1257637299934/by-group/dinosauria/deinynochosauria/troodon/troodon_NT.jpg
Troodon formosus, though nowhere near the biggest dinosaur, are thought to have been one of the smartest dinosaurs based on their brain being the largest in proportion to its body weight. The earliest Troodon fossils were found as ...
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...onounce Its Own Name). The Troodon formosus was a unique dinosaur that is not always discussed during common science conversations about dinosaurs.
Works Cited
“Troodon.” Troodon Dinosaur, Dinosaur History, Dino, Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Egg, Flying Dinosaur, Dinosaur Tooth, Dinosaur Brain, Dinosaur Activity. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.rareresource.com/troodon.htm . 10 May 2014.
“Troodon Fact Sheet.” Troodon Fact Sheet-EnchantedLearning.com. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/facts/Troodon/ . 11 May 2014.
"Troodon Formosus Dinosaur." Troodon Formosus Dinosaur. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.dinosaur-world.com/feathered_dinosaurs/troodon_formosus.htm . 11 May 2014.
“Troodon-The Only Dinosaur That Could Pronounce Its Own Name.” About.com Dinosaurs. N.p., n.d. Web http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/typesofdinosaurs/a/Troodon-Facts.htm
Incisivosaurus Gauthier was what is believed to be a primitive Oviraptorosaurian that was recently discovered in China. The Theropod and its highly specialized skull is described as a bizarre creature that lived 128 million years ago (Gee). The characteristic that “sticks out” the most are it’s rodent-like teeth. Harry Gee has described the dinosaur as “a [cross between] Roadrunner [and] Bugs Bunny” (Ibid.) and Hillary Mayell calls it a “’Weird’ Bucktoothed Dino.” (Mayell)
Raymond Rogers, David Krause, and Kristina Curry Rogers found significant evidence that the carnivorous dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, was also a cannibal (Krause et al 2003). The dinosaur remains of the Majungatholus atopus were dated in the late Cretaceous Period from 65 to 70 million years ago. The Majungatholus atopus inhabited the plains of the northwestern Madagascar and bones and teeth continue to be found throughout the Maevarno Formation and within the channel-belt deposits of the Anembalemba Member. The Majungatholus is commonly found, along with other vertebra taxa in ‘bonebeds’ in the Madagascar area, which is probably the reason this dinosaur is still preserved. The trio discovered teeth marks in many bones of the ribs, ilium, and precaudal axial skeleton co...
The difficulty in re-constructing dinosaurs for television and movies lies in the fact that not everything can be preserved. Fossilized bones create the skeleton of a dinosaur, thereby allowing scientists to study how they moved, how big they grew, and how different body parts worked as a whole. But what children see on television: the scaly green skin of the brontosaurs or the brown hair of a mastodon may not hold much fact. Unfortunately, particular physical features cannot be fossilized. Skin, cartilage, hair and other soft tissues usually decay before leaving science no clues to what these dinosaurs truly looked like. The public also cannot know the social behaviors of dinosaurs. Movies generally portray all carnivores like the T-Rex as monstrous bullies while the larger vegetarians all seem slow and peaceful. Up until recently, no hard evidence can be found to help support or dismiss any of these stereo-types. In the barren deserts of Argentina, a team of scientists from the National Geographic Society came across a massive graveyard of fossilized dinosaur eggs. In 1997, Dr. Luis Chiappe and Dr. Lowell Dingus discovered a rare opportunity to finally study the external functions of an ancient creature that contained fossilized teeth imprints, embryos and skin impressions. This unearthing unlocks endless prospects to learn about dinosaur behavior and external attributes, topics which used to be some of the most problematic areas of study. The most remarkable aspect, of course, is how the most delicate of information is found within an egg.
The Thescelosaurus was a “bird-hipped” dinosaur or an ornithischian ( Russell 2). This herbivore lived near the end of the Cretaceous period, about one million years before the conclusion of the dinosaur era. Thescelosaurus was about the size of a short-legged pony, according to paleontologist Dr. Dale Russell and was native to North America from Wyoming up to Alberta, Canada.
“66 Million–Year–Old Dino With A Heart.” Media Kit 17 April 2000. North Carolina University. 2000 <http://www.dinoheart.org/mediakit/index.html>.
"Evidence For Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs." Science & Children 51.1 (2013): 19-20. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Every so often a discovery is made that attempts to shake up pre-conceived notions of how the dinosaurs actually lived or how they came to be. On June 22, 2000, in Oregon, scientists announced the discovery of the oldest known animal to have feathers. Though no records indicate how the age of the animal was determined, the fossil was dated at 220 million years old. It lived at the time of the very earliest dinosaurs, and about 75 million years before the first known bird.1[1]
This recent discovery has left scientists with many questions to be answered. The discovery is quite important because any research up until now has failed to uncover any evidence that would reveal that dinosaurs fed among their own kind. Ray Rogers whom has been leading the ten-year excavation states in the article that there are at least 14 current day animals that still practice cannibalism such as lions, komodo dragons, crocodiles, hyenas, black bears and grasshopper mice, but in contrast, any evidence of cannibalism among dinosaurs is sparse.
Dinosaurs held their own, according to studies, for at least 150 million years. After becoming extinct and finding fossilized remains dinosaurs have become a way in which we not only measure the changes that have occurred as the planet evolved, but also how we express ourselves today.
The dinosaurs were brought to life using ground breaking CGI by the “wizards” at Industrial Light & Magic and life-size animatronics by Stan Winston. Each frame the digital dinosaurs were in would take hours to render but the results speak for themselves. Stan’s team created animatronics for several of the film’s main dinosaurs. The T-Rex animatronic alone stood 20 feet tall and weighed 17,500 pounds (Jurassic Park (film), 1993). Animatronics were also created for the film’s triceratops, velociraptors and dilophosaurus. To give the dinosaurs their voice, samples from around the animal kingdom were combined to create unique blending of sounds for all the main dinosaurs. To make sure the audience would hear the dinosaurs as he intended, Steven Spielberg invested in the creation of a new company dedicated to digital surround formats called DTS. This brought digital sound into theatres in a way like never before. All of these innovations earned the film three Oscars for best sound, best sound effect editing and best visual effects.
...ll. This group still remained successful during the Jurassic period and had a wide geopraphic distribution. Other reptiles evolved to not only live on land, but to fly. The earliest known birds appeared during this period; Archaeoteryx being the first to be considered the intermediate between the birds and predatory dinosaurs. It is debated on whether this ancient bird could actually fly or merely glid from tree to tree. Carnosaurus, meaning “meat-eating” is another group of dinosaurs that ruled during the Jurassic. With such large herbivorous prey animals, the correlation of these large predators make sense of why they were so common. An Allosaurus was one of the most common Carnosaurs in North America. Upon finding numerous intact skeletons in fossil beds, it has been reported that the Allosaurus was superficially similar to the later evolving Tyrannosaurus rex.
Until recently, scientists believed the chances of finding a fossilized dinosaur heart were extremely slim. The heart belonged to a 66 million year old dinosaur found in Harding County in Northwestern South Dakota. The dinosaur, found in 1993, weighed over 650 pounds and was 13 feet long. The dinosaur was in fairly good condition with the exception of the left side of the skeleton. The small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, nicknamed ‘Willo’ has been acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Thescelosaurus was an ornithischian, or "bird-hipped," dinosaur that lived in the latter stage of the Cretaceous period. This was approximately 1 million years before the end of the dinosaur era. Native to North America, its range extended from the northern United States up into Canada. Since using the 3-D software to reveal Willo's heart, scientists have also used it to create 3-D images of the fossil's skull, and of remains from other dinosaurs in the museum's collection. (Fisher, Paul)
The Triceratops’ scientific name is Triceratops, which means three-horned face. Othniel C. Marsh named the Triceratops. Othniel C. Marsh discovered many dinosaurs such as the Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, etc. The Triceratops is apart of the Ceratopsidae family along with the Vegaceratops, Sinoceratops, and the Centrosaurus. It is classified by the horns on its head.
Reptiles are vertebrate, or backboned animals constituting the class Reptilia and are characterized by a combination of features, none of which alone could separate all reptiles from all other animals.The characteristics of reptiles are numerous, therefore can not be explained in great detail in this report. In no special order, the characteristics of reptiles are: cold-bloodedness; the presence of lungs; direct development, without larval forms as in amphibians; a dry skin with scales but not feathers or hair; an amniote egg; internal fertilization; a three or four-chambered heart; two aortic arches (blood vessels) carrying blood from the heart to the body, unlike mammals and birds that only have one; a metanephric kidney; twelve pairs of cranial nerves; and skeletal features such as limbs with usually five clawed fingers or toes, at least two spinal bones associated with the pelvis, a single ball-and-socket connection at the head-neck joint instead of two, as in advanced amphibians and mammals, and an incomplete or complete partition along the roof of the mouth, separating the food and air passageways so that breathing can continue while food is being chewed. These and other traditional defining characteristics of reptiles have been subjected to considerable modification in recent times. The extinct flying reptiles, called pterosaurs or pterodactyls, are now thought to have been warm-blooded and covered with hair. Also, the dinosaurs are also now considered by many authorities to have been warm-blooded. The earliest known bird, archaeopteryx, is now regarded by many to have been a small dinosaur, despite its covering of feathers The extinct ancestors of the mammals, the therapsids, or mammallike reptiles, are also believed to have been warm-blooded and haired.
Norell, Mark, Lowell Dingus, and Eugene S. Gaffney. "Why Did Nonavian Dinosaurs Become Extinct?" Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory. Berkeley: U of California, 1995. N. pag. Print.