DINO+READING


 * __ Use these answers to answer the questions on your papers __**

** 1. Answer: ** No one knows. Animal's skin colors are produced by organic pigments which are not preserved in the process of fossilization.

** 2. Answer: **The dinosaurs (except the birds) went extinct 65 million years ago, probably due to the after-effects of an asteroid impact off the Yucatan Peninsula.

There are a [|lot of theories] about why this [|K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) extinction] occurred, but a widely accepted theory (proposed in 1980 by physicist Luis Alvarez and his son Walter Alvarez, a geologist), is that an [|asteroid] 4-9 miles (6-15 km) in diameter hit the [|Earth] about 65 million years ago. The impact would have penetrated the Earth's crust, scattering dust and debris into the atmosphere, and caused huge fires, volcanic activity, tsunamis, severe storms with high windsand highly acidic rain. The impact could have caused chemical changes in the [|Earth's atmosphere], increasing concentrations of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and fluoride compounds. The heat from the impact's blast wave would have incinerated all the life forms in its path.

The dust and debris thrust into the atmosphere would have blocked most of the sunlight for months, and lowered the temperature globally

** 3. Answer: **The biggest dinosaurs were [|sauropods]; they were gigantic, slow-moving, tiny-headed, cow-like plant-eaters from the late [|Jurassic] period and the early [|Cretaceous] period. They had very long necks which were useful for reaching wide (and tall) swatches of vegetation. The lengthy neck was counterbalanced by a massive tail. The following sauropods are the largest land animals ever discovered: But [|blue whales] are BIGGER THAN ANY of the dinosaurs were!
 * [[image:file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Teacher/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif width="100" height="52"]] || * [|Argentinosaurus huinculensis] - 115-130 feet long (35-40? m); 80-100 metric tons
 * [|Paralititan] 35-40 m) - 70 tonnes
 * [|Seismosaurus] hallorum ("Earth-shaking lizard") - 120+ feet long (37 m); 30-80 tons
 * [|Supersaurus vivianae]- 100-130 feet long (30-40 m); 45-55 metric tons
 * [|Ultrasauros] - 100+ feet long (30 m), +80 tons (this may be a large Brachiosaurus)
 * [|Andesaurus delgadoi] 130? feet (40 m)
 * Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi 130? feet (40 m?)
 * Argyrosaurus superbus 65-130? feet (20-40 m)
 * [|Giraffatitan brancai] 75-100? feet (23-30 m)
 * [|Diplodocus] - grew up to 90 feet long (28 m).
 * [|Brachiosaurus] - about 85 feet long (26 m), 40 feet tall, and weighed 70-80 tons. ||

** 4. Answer: **The smallest dinosaurs yet discovered are:
 * A new, crow-sized theropod, [|Microraptor] was recently found in China. It is about 16 inches (40 cm long) and may be an adult.

** 5. Answer: ** The biggest meat eaters include [|T. rex], [|Spinosaurus], [|Carcharodontosaurus], [|Bahariasaurus], [|Giganotosaurus], [|Acrocanthosaurus], [|Epanterias], [|Allosaurus], [|Torvosaurus]

** 6. Answer: ** T. rex's had over 60 thick, conical, bone-crunching teeth that were up to 9 inches (23 cm) long. Its jaws were up to 4 feet (1.2 m) long.

** 7. Answer: **People have been finding dinosaur fossils for hundreds of years, probably even thousands of years. There are references to "dragon" bones found in Wucheng, Sichuan, China (written by Chang Qu) over 2,000 years ago; these were probably dinosaur fossils.

Much later, in 1676, a huge thigh bone (femur) was found in England by Reverend Plot. It was thought that the bone belonged to a "giant," but was probably from a dinosaur. A report of this find was published by R. Brookes in 1763.

The first dinosaur to be described scientifically was [|Megalosaurus] in 1824, by William Buckland. Buckland (1784-1856) was a British [|fossil hunter]

** 8. Answer: ** Recent prosauropods from [|Madagascar are the oldest, about 230 million years old].

** 9. Answer: **Yes, they most likely did. Many [|recent finds of feathered dinosaurs in China], like [|Caudipteryx] and [|Sinosauropteryx] have bolstered this theory, which was first advanced by the biologist Thomas Huxley in the late 1800's.

** 10. Answer: **[|Sir Richard Owen] coined the word dinosaur, meaning "fearfully great lizard," in 1842. In Greek, deinos means "fearfully great" and sauros means "lizard."

11. ** Answer: ** There are over [|dinosaur 500 genera] (the plural of [|genus]) that have been found, named and scientifically accepted.

** 12. Answer: **No dinosaurs were adapted to an entirely aquatic life, although some may have gone into the water to get prey. [|Baryonyx], for example, was found with fossilized fish scales in its stomach.

** 13. Answer: **Although the birds likely evolved from the dinosaurs, pre-avian dinosaurs probably could not fly. But there were many flying, non-avian reptiles that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. They were the pterosaurs which included Plesiosaurus, [|Pteranodon], Pterodactylus, [|Dimorphodon], [|Rhamphorhynchus], [|Quetzalcoatlus], and many others. [|**PTEROSAURS**] (pronounced TER-o-SAWRS) Pterosaurs (meaning "winged lizard") were flying, prehistoric reptiles. They were not dinosaurs, but were closely related to them. Pterosaurs were named by Kaup in 1834.