The Mesozoic Era

DinosaursBy: Mr. Litaker

Millions ofyears ago, Great beasts called "dinosaurs" thundered over the earth.

Yet, up until the lastcentury, when the first dinosaur fossils were discovered, no one even imagined such animals existed.

Dinosaurs

Before there were any people there were dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs were one of several kinds of prehistoric reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era the “Age of the Reptiles”

Mesozoic Era

•The Mesozoic Era began about 245 mya and ended 66 mya

•The were 3 Periods including

- Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous

•At the beginning of the Mesozoic, Pangaea had formed

•Breakup of Pangaea, a major geologic event, began in the late TRIASSIC and continued thru the CRETACEOUS.

•Tethys Sea was a shallow embayment that separated India and Asia.

The name dinosaur comes from the term Dinosauria, which means terrible lizards.

Dinosaur is the name of a group of prehistoric reptiles that ruled the earth about 160 million years ago.

These animals died out millions of years ago, but they have fascinated people ever since they were first described in the early 1800’s.

The Coelophysis (below), a small meat eater that also walked on three toes and possessed hollow bones much like those found in birds.

The Dilophosaurus (above), a large carnivore that walked on three toes.

http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/triassic.htm

Brachiosaurus is one of the better known sauropods

http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/jurassic.htm

http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/cretace.htm

Kinds of Dinosaurs

Allosaurus

Do you know what the Utah State Fossil is?

Big Al Nickname: Different Lizard Age: 160-145 million years ago during the

late Jurassic Period Size: 35-40 feet long (as long as two big

Python snakes!) Weight: Anywhere from 2 tons to over 5 tons Characteristics: Sharp claws up to 6 inches

long. Teeth up to almost 4 inches long Special Talents: Super smart compared to

other dinosaurs. Extremely fierce. Known to attack other dinos twice his size.

The Utah State Fossil:The Allosaurus

The allosaurus was designated the State Fossil in 1988. More allosaurus specimens have been found in two of Utah's quarries than any other dinosaur. Sixty individuals, from juveniles to adults, were found at one site in Utah.

Where Dinosaurs Lived

•See the world as it looked during the Jurassic Period!

•The Jurassic climate was warm•The Air was damp, like a tropical forest

Paleontology

Paleontology (PAY lee ahn TAHL uh jee), is the study of animals, plants, and other organisms that lived in prehistoric times (more than 5,500 years ago). Fossil remains of organisms occur in layers of sedimentary rocks (rocks formed when mineral matter settled out of air, ice, or water). The organisms that are now fossils were alive when the rocks were being formed. They were buried and preserved as the layers of rock piled up.

So what do you thinka Paleontologist is?

A paleontologist is a scientist who studiespaleontology, learning aboutthe forms of life that existed in former geologic periods, chiefly by studying fossils.

Fossils are the reason we have most of this information. For almost 200 years, paleontologists have been discovering fossils all over the world. They’ve identified more than 330 different kinds of dinosaur fossils. And every year, they find new fossils. These fossils can tell us how big an animal grew, what it ate, even how it died. 

A stony frieze at one of the continent’s largest and richest dinosaur quarries holds the bones of beasts that ruled the Jurassic: stegosaurs, allosaurs, apatosaurs and many more.

Dinosaur National Monument

Utah/Colorado

The first dinosaur to be described scientifically was Megalosaurus in 1824, by William Buckland.

Buckland (1784-1856) was a British fossil hunter and clergyman who discovered some Megalosaurus fossils in1819 and named the reptile in 1824. It was the first dinosaur ever described scientifically and first theropod dinosaur discovered (this is all in hindsight, because the dinosaurs had not yet been recognized as a separate taxonomic group - the word dinosaur hadn't even been invented yet).

Megalosaurus

Did They Have Colors? It is very difficult to figure out how

the dinosaurs sounded, how they behaved, or what color they were.

Plant-Eaters

Most dinosaurs were plant-eaters like:

Triceratops What do we call plant-eaters?

Herbivores

Meat-Eaters

Some were meat-eaters like:

T-Rex What do we call meat-eaters?

Carnivores

Meat-eating animals (carnivores like Tyrannosaurus rex) get their energy by eating other animals, mostly plant-eating animals (herbivores like Triceratops). The herbivores get their energy by eating plants (like cycads).

The Food Chain

Where Did Everybody Go?

You may havenoticed that there are no dinosaurs around these days.In fact, there haven'tbeen any around forabout 66 million years.

What is the most likely held theory as to the Demise (Disappearance of) the Dinosaurs?

Well, we don’t know the real absolute theory of how they became extinct, but----

One thing for sure is……….

We will have an incredible time going back in time to learn about these marvelous creatures.