Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods
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About this ebook
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs will spark the curiosity of young readers, taking them to a time where Tyrannosaurus rex ruled the land, pterodactyls flew in the skies, and packs of velociraptors prowled the jungles. Filled with up-to-date discoveries about prehistoric life, this tome includes comprehensive material about geography, history, and other scientific information from prehistoric times.
Here is everything young readers want to know about dinosaurs and their world—in one magnificently illustrated, up-to-date family reference.
Profiles all known dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras and beyond. Each main entry has a highly detailed and technically accurate illustration.
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- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bueno, no me gusto mucho repecto a que solo tiene grandes dinos, yo busco datos de casi todo tipo de especimenes -no en sus grandes tamaños, gracias.
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Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs - My Ebook Publishing House
The World of Dinosaurs
1: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
General Introducion on Dinosaurs
The Earth and the creatures living today - or the creatures we know till now- was not the same about hundreds of million years ago. The world back then was very primitive, rampant and teaming with wild creatures. Evolution is the necessary change, which everything on this Earth has to go through. This is so because in the ever changing and dynamic environment present on Earth; without adapting to these changes, it is not possible to survive. Thus, it is very well rightly said by Charles Darwin that only the fittest will win the race of survival; and to remain fit, one has to evolve. Before coming to the present evolved form of all the creatures, one has to look back at life form which existed millions of years ago.
Some of the most fantastic creatures among them were the land-living reptiles called ‘Dinosaurs’. Dinosaurs existed somewhat 65 to 232 million years ago. Many people have a very vague and generalized idea about what the dinosaurs were. Many people believe what they see in movies, comics, animations and cartoons. Thus, it is very necessary to know what exactly these dinosaurs were and what is the definition by which we can classify different primitive creatures in the category of dinosaurs?
Dinosaurs are a group of animals that have different sub groups and many types of species. They are the more evolved form of animals that adapted to diverse conditions. Many studies done on the fossils found by the scientists also suggest that the present day birds are a pedigree of dinosaurs’ existent during the Jurassic period. Paleontologists are everyday researching and finding new species of dinosaurs. It is estimated that over 1700 species of dinosaurs have been identified by paleontologists and it is not even one-third of the actual species! Therefore, on an average each new species of dinosaurs is discovered. But many discoveries are discarded because they do not fit into the definition of a dinosaurs. Out of all the discovered species of dinosaurs discovered, more than 1000 species are non-avian.
Although the name of this fabulous species ‘Dinosaurs’ is in itself incorrect. Dinosaurs literally means terrible lizard
. Lizards are reptiles and dinosaurs are not reptiles that had the characteristics of what we define reptiles as. They did not crawl and neither had sprawling limbs.
Many people had a common misconceptions in their minds that dinosaurs were only, enormous and monstrous in their physical features. However, this is just the half side of the coin. It is true that many species of dinosaurs were extremely large with bulbous heads but there were many species which were small like puppies also. Some species were 5 meters long while some were just small as 50 cm in the length. This misconception can be largely related to the fact that the media and the films like Jurassic Park show enormous dinosaurs to grab the attention of the audience. And due to this, only this image is stuck into the minds of the people.
Like all the other animals on the Earth, dinosaurs were also herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. The ancient dinosaurs were only bipedal but as the more evolved generations of dinosaurs were also quadruped and the others adopted very well and they could walk very well on two and four legs equally. Later on in the book, we will bifurcate the dinosaurs on the basis of many other characteristics and give each and every details about the most prominent species of the dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs are the only dominating animals that have a long era of survival which is nearly165 million years. The next longest surviving dominant species are Homo sapiens, but we have not survived that long yet. The sole reason that could be attributed to their long survival is that they exhibited marvelous adaptive traits. They were able to adapt and evolve according to the changing environments.
Now we will go deep into the history of the dinosaurs, their 165 million years of journey. First of all, dinosaurs existed in the Mesozoic Era. Mesozoic Era ended 65 millions ago, with the extinction of dinosaurs. The Mesozoic Era extends to 183 million years.
Further, this era is divided into three periods. The different species of dinosaurs are categorized on the basis of in which of these three periods, the dinosaurs existed. The three periods namely are:- The Triassic Period, The Jurassic Period and The Cretaceous Period. In the next chapter of this book, we will talk in depth about the kind of and how long the different species of dinosaurs existed; in the reference of these three periods.
Discovery of the Dinosaurs
We have a general idea about the world of dinosaurs. Which means that we are ready to go into the deep seas and explore more about them, where they lived, how they behaved, etc. But before all this, let us have an idea about who discovered about the fabulous creatures called dinosaurs. And as it happens, people have also found fossils of dinosaurs everywhere – Greece and Roman attributed them to their mythical legends such as Ogre and Griffin. While in the Asian Country China, Chinese probably found a huge fossil and termed it to be of a dragon. So when did the people realize that the fossil they were finding were not of some giant or mythical creature but of an ancient creature?
In 1676, a thigh bone was discovered in England by a person name Reverend Plot. He at first, also thought that this belonged to a giant
only. The official and formal report of this discovery was being written in the year 1763 by Robert Brookes. However, this report did not mention the word ‘Dinosaurs’. The term was not coined until 1841.
The term dinosaurs was given by one Sir Richard Owen in the year 1841. He was a British Anatomist. Till 1841, the fossils of three dinosaurs were already discovered. The three species were: - Megalosaurus, Iguanodon & Hylaesaurus. Sir Owen studied these dinosaurs and found that they are different than reptiles. Their body structure was significantly different than the reptiles. First, they did not have the sprawling legs like other reptiles, but instead possessed column legs. Secondly, they had five fused vertebrates attached to their pelvic girdle.
After studying all these things, Owen came up with a new species and termed them ‘Dinosauria’. The new taxonomic name – Dinosauria – laid the foundation of the new discovered vertebrates. Little did Owen knew that he had undertaken a major breakthrough? It is estimated that over 10,000 genera of dinosaurs existed during the Mesozoic Era. Paleontology has received a major boost these days. The research done in this field is extensive and scientific that each month we hear about 2-3 new discoveries of the species of the dinosaurs.
The very first dinosaurs that was discovered was Megalosaurs. Fun Fact is that Iguanodon was the first dinosaur discovered. But at the time when it was discovered, it was not given this name and the term dinosaurs was also not coined till then. Therefore, officially it was discovered after Megalosaurs.
Megalosaurs was discovered by William Buckland. It was found in the year 1819 and given its name in 1824. As stated above also many times, that people are finding the fossils of dinosaurs for thousands years ago but they dismissed it or thought it to be something else.
The science of discovering Dinosaurs is much more complex than it looks. Paleontologists have to go through a rigorous amount of research and brain scratching to identify the species of the newly discovered dinosaurs. This is due to the fact that there are so many different types of dinosaurs that it is very difficult to categorize them.
Now let us peek into what are the groups, sub-groups and species of dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs are largely bifurcated into two main categories:-
I) Saurischians ( It means dinosaurs with lizard hipped)
II) Ornithischians ( It means dinosaurs with bird hipped)
Well, it does not sounds that confusing till now. This is because the real picture is yet to come. Each group has further many sub-groups and these sub-groups have different species in it!
It is a very hefty task for the Paleontologists to put the newly discovered dinosaurs into the right sub group and create new species. Many a times, years get passed and after much thought and research the discovered dinosaur is put into the right sub group and the right species.
Here, we are giving you an insight into what goes into the naming of dinosaurs and putting them under right sub-group.
The further bifurcation of the two main groups goes like this.
Saurischains – Saurischians included the large and enormous dinosaurs like the long necked Sauropods, and the flesh eating killer giants Theropods. The sub groups of Saurischians include - Sauropods, Theropods, Herreraurids, etc.
Ornithischians – This group includes those dinosaurs which have long and sharp horns of Stegosaurs, the hard to kill Ankylosaurs whose skin is armour plated. The sub groups of Ornithischians include, Ornothopods, Ceratopsians, Pachycephalosaurs, Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, etc.
The sub groups mentioned above are just a sample. The actual number is very large and these sub groups are further bifurcated into the different types of species.
The discovery is such an intricate task which is very difficult to undertake and the difficulties does not end here. The real problem starts after the discovery – that is, giving them a name and the legitimate sub groups.
There are a few incidents where Paleontologists find new dinosaurs and give them new name and sub group also. But later on to their misery and embarrassment, they find out that this particular dinosaur has already been discovered many years ago. This is because the species of dinosaurs is more thousands and discoveries happen at a very fast pace, it is really very difficult to keep a track of them.
There is one famous incident that caught the attention of the public. The case was of that of a dinosaurs named Brontosaurs. And since it discovery, it became very famous in the eyes of the people. But later the Paleontologists realized that Brontosaurs has already been discovered with a different name of Apatosaurus. As the name Apatosaurus was given to it first, therefore, the second name of Brontosaurs was