The word "dinosaur", which translates as "terrible lizard", appeared in 1842, when humanity was just trying to figure out what kind of bones these are found during excavations. It was then that the science of paleontology was born. The history of dinosaurs has been repeatedly rewritten since then, and at the moment there are a lot of versions about their origin, formation and extinction. Consider the most common and relatively official version.
Attempts to explain in simple terms the history of dinosaurs in a film or cartoon have been made repeatedly, but the events that preceded their appearance on our planet were practically not covered anywhere. As you know, the ancestors of these creatures are reptiles and birds. In particular, the crocodiles that exist at the moment have the most similar features to the ancient monsters. About 300 million years ago, when lizards already existed in the form we are used to, there was a serious climate change. The rainforests were largely destroyed, and the remnants of life huddled in the remaining small enclaves. This gave the first impetus to a huge variety of species, since each population developed independently of each other and tried to adapt to the conditions in which it existed. And they differed greatly in different regions. This is how the ancestors of dinosaurs appeared, called archosaurs by scientists.
The history of dinosaurs, at least in the form in which they are represented by modern man, began about 200-245 million years ago. There is practically no exact data on the features and differences of these creatures compared to later samples, but something can be said for sure:
In general, humanity knows very little about this period. Most of the information is guesswork and theories based on various findings and circumstantial evidence. So things could be completely different.
The size of the "terrible lizards" gradually increased, and this continued until about the end of the Jurassic period (this was about 145 million years ago). In the middle of their life cycle, dinosaurs reached enormous sizes (up to 12 meters in height and 1 ton of net weight). During the "reign" of these monsters, no other species simply could not even conditionally claim dominance on the planet. Even later, in the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago), the creatures began to shrink. According to some reports, they developed the beginnings of feathers, and even warm-blooded species arose. Judging by the available information, the number of predators has significantly decreased, and, accordingly, the number of herbivores has increased. As a result, rare hunters have become truly real "killing machines". They moved quickly, could cope with most opponents, had no shortage of food and were rightly considered at that time the pinnacle of evolution.
The situation with the disappearance of this type of living creatures is well shown in the cartoon "The History of Dinosaurs". Of course, there the information is more focused on children, but active volcanoes, drought, lack of food and other similar problems could really cause the complete extinction of the prehistoric rulers of the planet. According to the official version, it all started with a huge meteorite that fell somewhere in the region of present-day Mexico. Upon impact, a large amount of dust rose into the atmosphere, sharply lowering the temperature on the surface (a similar situation is called "nuclear winter" and can become a reality if countries try to solve their problems with nuclear weapons). Along the way, the impact on the Earth activated dormant volcanoes. As a result, the simultaneous impact of several factors at once led to the fact that the dinosaurs simply did not have time to adapt and almost completely died out within a short period. Most likely, individual individuals remained, but they could not survive in a new world in which other dominant species appeared. Many people think that this particular dinosaur story is for children. Allegedly, in fact, everything was completely different. Unfortunately, in the future, scientists disagree in their opinions, and no one can yet give a clear theory of how everything really happened.
A lot of intriguing and mysterious things are shown in the documentaries "History of Dinosaurs" from popular science channels. True, they cannot be called documentary, since there are no documents, but everything there is reconstructed very competently. Nevertheless, every year more and more discoveries are made that radically change the idea of dinosaurs as such. Let's see what interesting facts the modern history of dinosaurs reveals to us.
The history of dinosaurs is gradually overgrown with new data, some of which contradict each other or do not fit into existing theories. For example, it is believed that dinosaurs and humans could not have existed in the same period of history. Although there are very interesting finds, stones, on which ancient people quite reliably depicted the interaction of a person and a “terrible lizard”. As it was in reality, no one can say yet. We are not able to fully understand even our own history, to say nothing of what happened long before the appearance of man as such.
Dinosaurs have captured the imagination of people for centuries.
Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, published a novel in 1912 called The Lost World. In this novel, the expedition found a place in the remote Venezuelan jungle, where living dinosaurs have allegedly survived to this day. Films such as Jurassic Park and Land of the Lost were clearly inspired by the science fiction of Conan Doyle.
Animated film "Up". The plot of this film also takes place in this lost world, where travelers discover an unknown species of multi-colored dinosaur.
For most of us, living dinosaurs are fantastic. However, some believe that giant dinosaurs still exist today, they just haven't been found yet.
lake monsters
There are hundreds of lakes harboring prehistoric monsters all over the world. Here are the most famous of them: Loch Ness in Scotland, Lake Okanagan in Canada, Lakes Champlain and Nahuel Huapi in Argentina.
Many believe that the monsters supposedly living in these lakes may be prehistoric reptiles that have survived to this day. For example, such as the plesiosaur (an aquatic reptile with a very long neck up to 12 meters) or the ichthyosaur Shonisaurus (shonisaurus sikanniensis), which were as huge as a submarine.
In the remote jungles of Central Africa, local tribes tell of the existence in these jungles of dinosaurs up to 11 meters long, with brownish-gray skin and a long, flexible neck. Many believe that they live in caves, roam the banks of rivers and feed on elephants, hippos and crocodiles.
Roy Makal, a biologist at the University of Chicago who led two expeditions looking for Mokele-Membe, says the creature's descriptions are reminiscent of "a small sauropod dinosaur."
Despite the fact that last year more than twenty expeditions were carried out in order to search for a "living dinosaur", but no one has yet been found in the area. Unfortunately, there are no photographs, no videos, not even partial remains of the creatures they were looking for, but only oral stories and legends of local residents.
Amazing Truth
Of course, the theory that giant dinosaurs still lurk in thick jungles or cold, deep lakes may be wrong, as all evidence suggests they went extinct around 65.5 million years ago. Many of the lakes where dinosaurs are said to hide were formed only about 10,000 years ago.
If dinosaurs had died out not too long ago, say during the reign of Nixon or even during the time of Shakespeare, the possibility that there were a few lone huge dinosaurs left might be plausible. But 65.5 million years is too long for a long-extinct species to survive.
A large number of artifacts have been found that can prove that not all dinosaurs died out as a result of a fatal cataclysm and the ice age that followed it, but were able to survive these cataclysms and lasted much longer than modern science believes.
Although, who knows? As the saying goes: "the ways of the Lord are inscrutable", perhaps prehistoric monsters still roam our land or plow the seas and oceans. Scientists can be wrong too.
However, from a scientific point of view, not all dinosaurs became extinct. Most of us look at dinosaurs every day, and some even live in human homes. Birds are the modern version of dinosaurs, they are the closest descendants of dinosaurs.
DINOSAURS
When were dinosaur bones first discovered?
Approximately in 1820, the attention of English and French explorers was attracted by fossilized teeth and large bones. Studying them, they came to the conclusion that the fossils belong to unusually large lizards - reptiles that lived in prehistoric times. In 1822, the English physician Parkinson named one of the finds in the collection of the geologist Buckland the name Megalosaurus (giant lizard). In 1924, Buckland began to describe it and gave it a scientific designation. It was then that for the first time the dinosaur was recognized as such and acquired its name. The second sensational message appeared in 1825. It was made by the English. Doctor Mantel. Three years ago, his wife Mary found a cobblestone in the rubble of the street, in which teeth ranging in size from 4 to 5 cm were enclosed. Nearby, such teeth and fossilized bones were also found in the quarry. Since the teeth resembled in shape the teeth of iguanas - lizards found in the Center. and South America, - Mantel called the newly discovered animal iguanodon (iguana tooth). Following this, the remains of dinosaurs were discovered in England. In Germany, in 1837, the bones of a certain dinosaur were also found, which Professor Hermann Meyer called Plateosaurus (plain lizard). At that time, it never occurred to any of the researchers that the discovered animals, known only from fragments, belonged to an independent species of reptiles. London professor Richard Owen was the first to come to this conclusion when their more complete skeletons were discovered. In 1841, he proposed that all representatives of this group of reptiles be called dinosaurs - terrible or terribly large lizards. What is left of the dinosaurs?
Most of them are bones. Finding a complete skeleton or skull with teeth is an exceptionally rare occurrence. Most often, paleontologists (paleontology is the science of animals and plants in the geological past) have to be content with bone fragments and individual teeth.
The soft parts of the body could not be preserved, but sometimes there are prints of skin areas on which the smallest details are clearly visible. Findings of fossilized dinosaur eggs or shell pieces still cause a sensation. Unfortunately, one can only guess about their belonging to one or another type of dinosaur. Even if a nest with eggs and a skeleton lying on top are found, it cannot be said with complete certainty that they belong to the same species.
Of particular interest are the remains of food preserved in the area of the dinosaur's stomach, for example, the bones of a lizard between the ribs of a small carnivorous dinosaur compsognathus. You can also learn about what the dinosaur ate from its petrified excrement.
Body traces are very valuable, especially footprints, since they can be used to judge the lifestyle, speed of movement and mass of animals.
Why do dinosaurs have such strange names?
Each new dinosaur species gets its own name. The role of the godfather is played by a scientist who studied the find in detail and made a comparison with already known species. A "birth certificate" is a publication in one of the special scientific journals.
The name is always composed of two parts: the name of the family (with a capital letter) and the name of the species (with a lowercase letter). In accordance with the scientific tradition, Latin and Latin scripts are used. When choosing a name, they often also resort to Greek words, place names and proper names. Most often, the name reflects the characteristic properties of this type of dinosaur or its remains found. Stegosaurus armatus (stegosaurus armatus, armed lizard with plates on its back) - the name is given for the plates and spikes characteristic of this dinosaur. Ceratosaurus nasicornis (horned nose horn dinosaur) - This dinosaur has a large horn on its nose. Diplodocus longus (long double beam) is an elongated dinosaur, the distinguishing feature of which is the presence of double processes on most of the bones of the tail vertebrae.
Often the name reflects the location of the find, for example, in the name Mamenchisaurus hochianensis (mamenchisaurus hechuanensis). Mamenchi and Hechuan - a place of discovery and locality in China. Lesothosaurus (Lesothosaurus) is found in Lesotho, Africa, and Albertosaurus (Albertosaurus) is found in Alberta, Canada.
Personal names are used in titles to honor the merits of outstanding scientists. English names. The researchers of the dinosaurs of Mantel and Buckland entered the names Megalosaurus bucklandi (megalosaurus bucklandi) and Iguanodon mantelli (Iguanodon mantel). The name of the American paleontologist who discovered previously unknown lizards, Otniel Charles Marsh, is captured in the name of the small gazelle dinosaur otniel, and the name of the German lizard researcher Yanensch is the name of the giant dinosaur yanenshiya. Janensch himself immortalized the name of the director of the Berlin Museum of Natural History Branca, giving the largest giant dinosaur the name Brachiosaurus brancai (brachiosaurus brancai) - the long-armed lizard Branca. The full name of two parts is used mainly in scientific works. In other cases, they are usually limited to the specific name. Of the translated Latin names, only a few have come into use, for example, the armored lizard instead of Panoplosaurus. When literally translated from Latin, the names most often turn out to be unreadable. Therefore, they usually prefer to use the original names - many of them, such as dinosaur, brontosaurus or diplodocus, have become familiar.
Where were dinosaurs found?
Australia
Pedigree tree of reptiles and their descendants
Euparkeria pangolin (root tooth)
Flora in the Triassic period
Plant life in the Jurassic period
In the Jurassic period, 210-145 million years ago, the continents gradually moved apart, shallow seas formed between them. The climate became humid and warm, and vast areas were covered with lush vegetation, primarily a variety of forests. Favorable habitat conditions contributed to the unprecedented flourishing of the world of dinosaurs: numerous new species arose that spread throughout the Earth. Of the creatures that lived on land, dinosaurs now dominated everywhere, and not other lizards.
In parallel, the evolution of numerous species of giant herbivorous dinosaurs. Huge land animals appeared, the largest of those that have ever existed on Earth. Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Super, Ultra, and Seismosaurus all lived during the Late Jurassic. Small gazelle and larger beak-nosed dinosaurs led a group lifestyle. Then came the amazing spiny dinosaurs. Along with smaller, nimble predatory dinosaurs, such as Compsognathus and Archeopteryx, giants also lived at that time - Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus, which, thanks to their powerful jaws, also coped with large herbivorous animals.
When did the last dinosaurs live?
Flora at the beginning of the Cretaceous period
Tyrannosaurs attacking a herd of Triceratops
Comparison of skeletons
Corythosaurus group
fat head dinosaurs
Prenocephalus skull
Rigid areas and elastic skin folds are clearly distinguished.
Stegosaurus skeleton
Speed characteristics of various dinosaurs
found in the Gobi desert. dinosaur egg
Duckbill dinosaurs: female with cubs
Triceratops, extinct 65 million years ago
Suborder Sauropods (Sauropoda) Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Dinosaurs (from the Greek dinosauria, deinos - "terrible" and saurus - "lizard") lived in the Mesozoic era, which is divided into three periods: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. Throughout the history of studying the remains of ancient lizards, paleontologists have been able to identify and describe over 500 different species of these reptiles.
The first dinosaurs, the archosaurs, appeared 230 million years ago. Typical representatives of the Triassic period were Placerias, Plateosaurus, Coelophysis, Cynodont, and Peteinosaurus.
During the Jurassic period, when a temperate climate was established on Earth, flying lizards appeared (Archeopteryx, Pterodactyl, Pterosaurus), as well as large predatory dinosaurs (Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, Anurognathus, Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus and others). The remains of some of them paleontologists found in the Saratov region.
During the last period of the Mesozoic era, giant lizards lived on Earth, many of them reached 5-8 meters in height and 20 meters in length. Typical Cretaceous reptiles: Velociraptor, Seismosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Iguanodon and Culasuchus.
Paleontologists believe that the lifespan of small species ranged from one to two decades, and large dinosaurs could live from 200 to 300 years.
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Surprisingly, even 120 years ago, paleontologists believed that there were simply no dinosaurs in Russia. American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh stated: "Russian dinosaurs, like the snakes of Ireland, are remarkable only because they do not exist." However, further excavations did not confirm the statement of Charles Marsh, and by now Russian dinosaurs found quite a large number.
The main reason that far fewer dinosaur bones have been found in our country than in some other countries is the peculiarity of the landscape. Most of Russia is covered with dense and impenetrable forests. Archaeologists simply do not have the opportunity to cut down part of the forest to unearth the bones of prehistoric animals. Those areas that are free from forests and cultivated fields provide extremely scarce material. A hundred years ago, in Asia and America, where there are vast desert areas where there are neither forests nor cultivated fields, thousands of dinosaur bones and even entire dinosaur cemeteries were found. Compared to this, the finds even in modern Russia are more than scarce.
Another reason why Russian archaeologists have no luck with dinosaurs is the fact that in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which were rich in dinosaur diversity, half of the territory of present-day Russia was covered by seas. According to scientists, there were no less dinosaurs on land than on the territory of present-day Canada, the USA or China, but their remains ended up in the zone of demolition of sediments from sand and clay, which dragged the bones into the seas and literally ground them into dust. Unlike the arid regions of the world, where most of the prehistoric pangolins were found, dinosaur bones in Russia suffered a rather deplorable fate. Even those bones that were well preserved in the ground were literally erased and destroyed from the glaciers that passed through the territory of Russia, and then the melt waters that formed from the melting glaciers came into play. As a result, the bones were broken, and subsequently blurred. This explains the paucity of finds on the territory of the largest country, which, it would seem, should have given a real "harvest" of a variety of dinosaurs.
However, not everything is so bad. All the negative factors that influenced the fossilized remains of dinosaurs could not completely destroy their traces and now we know several types of dinosaurs that lived in certain regions of our country.
Often the remains of dinosaurs are found by chance: during the development of rock, during mining, unexpected finds of ordinary people, erosion of bones by rivers and lakes, and so on. Unfortunately, few people pay attention to the bones that come across on the way, and often people just pass by. For example, paleontologist and writer Ivan Yefremov described his expedition to the Kazakh steppes in the 1920s as follows: "The whole day the horse walked over countless dinosaur bones." The bones covered territories of tens of kilometers. However, in those days, no one needed these skeletons, there were much more pressing issues in the country than collecting the bones of extinct animals. Fifty years later, the researchers went to the Kazakh steppes, but the cemetery was lost and a negligible amount of what Efremov described was found.
For a long time, archaeologists found only individual bones, vertebrae, parts of skulls. A complete dinosaur skeleton was only found in the 1990s. The dinosaur was found in the Far East in the hills near Kundur. turned out to be a hadrozvr, which was given the name Olorotitan Arharin (Olorotitan arharensis). This discovery was followed by others. The scientists finally got lucky. The Hadrosvars of these places are considered to be among the very last that existed on earth before the prehistoric lizards became extinct.
Several large dinosaur cemeteries have been found in the last twenty years. The main locations are beyond the Urals - in Kundur, Blagoveshchensk, Shestakov. Also, dinosaurs were found in Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, the Republic of Tyva, the Kemerovo Region, the Moscow Region. Finds in the Krasnoyarsk Territory are considered truly unique. Here were found turtle shells, crocodile teeth, claws of dinosaurs that lived in the middle of the Jurassic period. This bone deposit is unique in that the middle of the Jurassic period is considered a white spot all over the world. Very few traces of him have survived. Not surprisingly, new species of dinosaurs have been found here, including Stegosaurus and the dinosaur Kileskus (Kileskus aristotocus), which is considered the ancestor of tyrannosaurs.
Ivantosaurus
Compsognathus
Kulindadromeus zabaikalsky
Olorotitan Arkharinsky
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