Tag: dinosaur

Maiasaura: The Good Mother Lizard

Have you heard of Maiasaura? This dinosaur discovery was integral to our understanding of how dinosaurs behaved.

Title Image by JBStuka          

            For decades after dinosaurs were discovered, people thought they were just big, dumb, plodding animals. One of the discoveries that helped convince scientists that there was much more to dinosaurs than that was the discovery of Maiasaura.

Maiasaura Nest Model
Fernando Losada Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            In 1978, paleontologist, Jack Horner, discovered a field of dinosaur nests in Montana. The nests not only had unhatched dinosaur eggs but also skeletons of baby dinosaurs. The babies were not newborns. They were too big to have just hatched. That meant they were living in the nest — which meant the mother dinosaurs were taking care of the babies! If the babies had to feed themselves, they would have wandered away from the nest. This was an amazing idea at the time. No one thought dinosaurs were smart enough to take care of their babies. Horner named the dinosaur Maiasaura, which means “good mother lizard.”

            In many ways, Maiasaura was just an average dinosaur, which makes their caretaking even more interesting. It is one of the duckbilled dinosaurs. Duckbilled is a nickname given to several different types of dinosaurs that had mouths shaped like a duck’s bill. The Maiasaura didn’t have any teeth in the front of its long, flat mouth, but in its cheeks, it had hundreds of them.

T-Rex Taylor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Many duckbilled dinosaurs had fancy crests on their heads, but the Maiasaura’s head was flat, with just a very short, bony spike above its eyes. Some scientists think the Maiasaura might have had a flap of skin, like the comb of a rooster, attached to the spike. Male Maiasauras could have used that to attract the attention of female Maiasauras.

            A Maiasaura was about the size of a camping trailer. That may sound big, but it was only average for a dinosaur. Most adult Maiasauras grew about 20 feet long. They stood about 15 feet high and weighed about two-and-a-half tons.

            Maiasauras walked on all four legs much of the time, but they could walk on just their two back legs if they needed to. Their front legs were smaller and thinner than their back legs and had four fingers.

Pavel.Riha.CB, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            The Maiasaura was a plant-eating dinosaur. It ate tree needles, twigs, seeds and berries. As you might expect, chewing these tough, woody foods wore its teeth down. But the Maiasaura had an easy way to avoid the dentist. It had teeth stacked inside its jaws, one on top of the other. Whenever a tooth wore out, it just fell out and was replaced by the one underneath.

            All dinosaurs hatched from eggs. The Maiasaura laid her eggs in bowl-shaped nests. As you might guess, these big creatures needed BIG nests – about six-feet wide! Scientists think the mothers used their powerful back legs to make a huge mound of dirt on a flat area and used their arms to hollow out the center. Many Maiasauras made their nests in the same area, keeping them about 23 feet apart. That allowed the mothers space to walk between the nests without stepping on anyone else’s nest. The mothers probably brought plants to the nest to cover the eggs to keep them warm. If they had sat on them, they would have squashed them!

            The babies were about 14 inches long when they were born – about the size of one of their mother’s feet. Each weighed only three or four pounds. The mother brought food to the nest, just as a mother bird will do today. We know the babies stayed at least part of the time in the nest because the shells in the nest were broken into tiny pieces as if walked over many times. Some of the baby skeletons Horner found in the nests were about three feet long. It probably took them several months to grow that big, so an adult must have not only brought them food all that time, but also guarded them from meat-eating dinosaurs looking for a snack.

Debivort, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            When the babies were big enough, they joined a herd. Huge herds of Maiasauras roamed the upper coastal plains – as many as 10,000 in a single herd! This was their best defense against predators. Meat eaters would have to look for a single dinosaur that became separated from the herd. Maiasauras had good hearing and good eyesight, so they could be aware of danger. They would eat all the plants in one place and then move on to another. Scientists think they may have traveled a regular route, always returning to the same nesting ground when it was time to lay their eggs.

            Over the years many paleontologists have returned to what they call “Egg Mountain” in Montana to study the bones, eggs, and nests fossilized there. The more they learn, the more amazing this “good mother” dinosaur seems.

Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources (Click me!)

Gaur, Aakanksha. “Maiasaura.” Britannica. 6 December 2019.             https://www.britannica.com/ animal/Maiasaura

Horner, John R. and James Gorman. Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up. Running Press, 1987. “Largest dinosaur population growth study ever shows how Maiasaura lived and died.” Montana State University News Service. 1 October 2015. https://www.montana.edu/news/15769/largest-dinosaur-population-growth-study-ever-shows-how-maiasaura-lived-and-died

Okoyomon, Adesuwa. “Meet Maiasaura, the Good Mother Lizard.” Science World. 12 July 2022. https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/maiasaura-good-mother-lizard/

Riehecky, Janet. Maiasara. The Child’s World, 1989.

My Favorite Dino Memes Vol #2

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the season!

The Discovery of Dinosaurs

Two hundred years ago, the word “dinosaur” didn’t exist. It didn’t need to. No one knew that giant reptiles had once walked the earth.

            Occasionally people found large bones, but they usually thought they belonged to some animal, like an elephant or a giraffe. One piece of bone was thought to have been from a race of giant people. Dinosaur bones may even be responsible for the belief in dragons in ancient China. Then, in England, two gentlemen working separately discovered dinosaurs at about the same time.       

            The first was Dr. Gideon Mantell, a physician and amateur geologist. In 1822 his wife, Mary Ann Mantell, found some very large, unusual teeth in a pile of gravel. Mantell sent the teeth to other experts, but they dismissed them as belonging to a known animal. One paleontologist said they were from a rhinoceros. Mantell didn’t give up. He was sure the teeth were something special. He learned that the pile of gravel his wife had found the fossils in came from a nearby stone quarry. There he found more teeth and some bones. After much study, he determined that the bones and teeth came from a giant reptile. The teeth resembled those of the iguana lizard, but they were twenty times bigger!

Illustration of the original Iguanodon teeth found by Mantell
Gideon Mantell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            In 1825, Mantell published a description of the creature, describing it as being at least 40 feet long. He named it Iguanodon (eh-GWA-nuh-don), Iguana from the iguana lizard and don, meaning tooth.

            Meanwhile, in 1824, the Rev. William Buckland of Oxford came into the possession of some bones, including part of a jaw with teeth.

Mary Buckland, née Morland (1797-1857), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            These teeth were clearly those of a giant reptile. Buckland named it Megalosaurus (MEH·guh·luh·sore·us), which means “great lizard.” He published a description of it that same year, which means it was the first dinosaur described scientifically. Mantell was still struggling with skeptics, and, as I said above, he didn’t publish until 1825. But, in 1833, Mantell discovered another giant reptile, Hylaeosaurus (hy-LEE-oh-sore-us). Hylaeosaurus was an armored, plant-eating dinosaur that grew about 16 feet long. So he discovered two of the first three dinosaurs.

            A scientist named Sir Richard Owen was the one who put it all together. He studied the bones and teeth of all three creatures. He found them to share some characteristics, such as fused vertebrae at the base of the spine. But he found them quite unlike modern reptiles. He determined that these three animals deserved their own category. In 1842, he invented the name dinosaurs, which means “terrible lizards,” to describe them.

            People were excited about these huge creatures and wanted to know what they looked like. Scientists tried to figure out how to put together the bones that had been found. But it was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with only half the pieces. They thought Iguanodon looked something like a fat rhinoceros. In 1852, a sculptor named Waterhouse Hawkins made life-sized models of what scientists thought Iguanodon and Megalosaurus looked like.

Statues of Iguanadon and Megalodon Jes from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            He and the scientists made a lot of mistakes. For example, when they found a spike from the Iguanodon, they put it on its nose. It was really the creature’s thumb. But they didn’t know they’d made so many mistakes. In fact, they were anxious to show the world their dinosaurs. When the model was half done, they decided to have a dinner party – in the dinosaur!

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Many important scientists were invited. The seating area was a bit crowded, but everyone had a wonderful time. This was probably the only time in history that a dinner was inside a dinosaur without being the dinosaur’s dinner!

            Since that time, we’ve learned so much more about dinosaurs, including more about how Iguanodon and Megalosaurus looked. They stood with all four legs directly under their bodies and didn’t drag their tails. They were active, not slow, sluggish creatures. But the excitement people felt then is the same excitement people still feel today.

Iguanodon
Megalosaurus
Sources (Click Me!)

Andrei, Mihai. “The Fearsome Megalosaurus: A Glimpse into the Jurassic World.” ZME Science.  9 August, 2023. https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/natural-sciences/geology-and-paleontology/dinosaurs/megalosaurus/

Norman, David. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Crescent Books, 1985.

Osterloff, Emily. “Dinosauria: How the ‘terrible lizards’ got their name.” London Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-dinosaurs-got-their-name.html

Walker, Bob. “Gideon Mantell: The Forgotten Man Who Discovered Dinosaurs.” The Guardian. 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/03/gideon-mantell-play-fight-over-first-dinosaur

Meet Hadrosaurus

The First Complete Dinosaur Skeleton

            In 1868, the hottest ticket in town was to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Before that year about 30,000 people visited the museum annually. But in 1868, attendance more than doubled to 66,000. The next year it soared to 100,000. What was it that people stood in line for hours to see? The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever displayed to the public: Hadrosaurus. People stared in awe. It was three stories tall! Philadelphia had to build a bigger museum to have room for the crowds.

            Hadrosaurus was found in New Jersey in 1858. And at that time, it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton that had ever been found in the whole world.

            What do we know about it today? It was just an average duckbill dinosaur. It didn’t even have a crazy crest like some duckbill dinosaurs. Its head was flat.

Danny Cicchetti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            It grew about 23-26 feet long and could have weighed 2-4 tons. Its back legs were much longer than its front legs. It could walk on just its hind legs or on all four legs. The front of its mouth was a beak, covered in keratin, just like your fingernails. This helped it nip off plants, which it ground up with its large teeth. It traveled in herds. 

            The original pose was upright. But we now think it probably stood like this, with the tail balancing the head:

Audrey.m.horn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            When it was first displayed almost everyone was thrilled to see it – but that’s almost. A copy of Hadrosaurus was made and was supposed to go on display in 1871 in New York City. But it never did. One of the most powerful men in New York in that day, William Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, ordered members of his gang to destroy the skeleton. No one knows why. They tore it apart and tossed the pieces of it into a nearby lake.

            Today Hadrosaurus doesn’t cause any controversy. People know it as just an average dinosaur. But New Jersey is proud that it is its state dinosaur, and people still flock to see it.

            Can you draw a duckbill dinosaur head with a crazy crest? Please put one in the comment section or message me on Facebook at Janet Riehecky

            To learn more about dinosaurs, please visit here once a week. Please also visit my web site: www.janetriehecky.com

What Was the Biggest Dinosaur?

            It’s almost impossible to declare that one dinosaur was the biggest of them all. Do you mean longest, heaviest, or tallest? Also, it’s very unlikely that paleontologists have actually found the biggest specimen of a dinosaur type. Millions and millions of dinosaurs once lived on Earth, and we’ve found only a small percent of them. We do know that all of the biggest dinosaurs are plant eaters. They come from the group of dinosaurs called sauropods, the long-necked dinosaurs – and most of the very biggest ones have been found in Argentina.

            So, how do paleontologists figure out how long or tall a dinosaur was? They need to look at the spine. Put your fingers on the back of your neck. The little bones you feel there that are part of your spine are called vertebrae. When a dinosaur skeleton is found, usually many of the vertebrae are missing. When there is a gap, paleontologists have to guess how many are missing. One way they do this is by comparing the bones they have to other, similar dinosaurs. If a similar dinosaur had, say, 80 vertebrae in its tail, paleontologists would assume that a closely related dinosaur had 80, too. But that might not be true. And it’s hard to know how big those missing vertebrae would be. Scientists have to make the best estimate they can, but they often don’t agree with one another. However, they have provided some great contenders for biggest dinosaur!

Longest:

Danny Cicchetti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            This might be Barosaurus (BARE-uh-sore-us). It was discovered in 1889 in South Dakota. Its name means slow, heavy lizard, and it must have been. Scientists think it was probably 82-89 feet long. That’s long, but that’s not what put it in contention for longest. Scientists have found a huge vertebra that they think belonged to Barosaurus. From the size of it, the creature it came from was likely about 157 feet long! That’s almost as long as three eighteen-wheeler trucks set end to end.

Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Another contender is Argentinosaurus (are-juhn-tee-nuh-SORE-us). Scientists have only found 13 of its bones: a few ribs, some vertebrae, and a five-foot-long femur (thigh bone). This isn’t much to try to figure out  how big this dinosaur was, but the sizes of those bones have led scientists to estimate that Argentinosaurus was between 75 and 100 feet long. If that top limit is right, Argentinosaurus is definitely among the very biggest dinosaurs.

Heaviest:

User:Mariolanzas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Argentinosaurus is also a contender for the heaviest dinosaur, but because estimates of its weight are based on so few bones, some scientists discount it. However, paleontologists have unearthed more than 200 bones of Patagotitan (PAT-ah-go-TIE-ton). These  bones were found in Argentina in 2012 and cause scientists to estimate that it weighed about 76 tons. The largest land animal today is the African elephant. Its top weight is seven tons. That means that Patagotitan weighed nearly as much as 11 elephants. And some scientists think at its biggest it weighed as much as 14 elephants.  

Nobu Tamura email:nobu.tamura@yahoo.com http://spinops.blogspot.com/,
CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Dreadnoughtus (dred-NOHR-tus) is a definite contender in weight. Its name means fearing nothing. And it’s hard to imagine any creature that it would have to be afraid of. It was discovered in Argentina in 2005.  Scientists have recovered almost half of its bones, so they are able to be fairly accurate in their estimates. They place its weight between 54 and 65 tons (though some scientists say that’s too high). It was also about 85 feet long and as tall as a two-story building.   

Tallest:

Levi bernardo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Two stories, however, is not a contender for height.  The tallest dinosaurs reached close to the height of a six-story building, though again, it’s tricky to know for sure. Scientists don’t agree on how high up long-necked dinosaurs could lift their heads. Sauroposeidon  (Sore-uh-ps-SY-don) is certainly one of the tallest.
            It was found in Oklahoma in 1994 and named for the Greek god Poseidon. Poseidon could cause earthquakes, and it probably felt like this dinosaur could do that, too – just by walking. It probably stood just over 55 feet tall, which is, as it says above, almost the height of a six-story building.

            Patagotitan shows up again here. Depending on how it carried its long neck, it might have been as tall as a seven-story building. If it carried its head and neck low to the ground, straight out from its body, it’s a contender for longest dinosaur at 122-130 feet. The picture at the right shows Patagotitan at the Field Museum in Chicago

            Scientist do not agree which one was the biggest dinosaur. Other lists would include such dinosaurs as Mamenchisaurus (mah-MUN-chi-SORE-us), a creature whose neck was longer than the rest of its body, or Giraffatitan (ji-RAF-ah-TIE-tan), which had the same general build as a gigantic giraffe. We may never know which dinosaur was the biggest. But we can all agree that they were awesome!

            Which dinosaur do you vote for as biggest? Do you know a big dinosaur that isn’t in this list? Please leave your answers in the comment section.

Ask Me Anything

Happy Tuesday Friends! Over the last few weeks we have covered a lot of Dino-related info, from the T-Rex to the Pachycephalosaurus. I appreciate the interest you all have shown in the world of dinosaurs!

Many of you have have left thought provoking and intriguing comments and I have enjoyed reading and responding to all of them. Because of this, I thought we should have an experiment this week.

For the next week, feel free to ask me about anything, or respond to other threads or messages. The hope is that we can have fun and share interesting facts about dinosaurs!

If this goes well, maybe we have more group discussions like this in the future 🙂

Thank you all for taking the time to read my little blog. Enjoy the rest of your week and don’t forget to comment below!

Leave a comment

4 responses to “Ask Me Anything”

  1. jcpunk Avatar
    jcpunk

    What is your favorite dinosaur from each geologic period?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Janet Riehecky Avatar
      Janet Riehecky

      Triassic Period: Coelophysis– I have a lifesize figure of one in my living room.
      Jurassic Period: Apatosaurus — I have 5′ 7″ femur from one in my living room, a gift from my husband
      Cretaceous Period: Triceratops — All I have from it is a horn from its brow, but I’ve always like it best.

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      Reply
  2. hungerwinter Avatar
    hungerwinter

    If you were being hunted by a dinosaur (pick any meat eater) how would you use your knowledge of dinosaurs to evade the predator and possibly even knock it in the noggin?

    If you could have a dinosaur as a pet, which one would you choose and why?

    Does it bother you when someone accuses another person of being out of date and says, “You are such a dinosaur”? Is that kind of a slam on dinosaurs?

    You needn’t reply to all my questions. Pick the one(s) you like.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Janet Riehecky Avatar
      Janet Riehecky

      Thanks for your questions!
      To avoid T-rex, the last thing you want to do is stand still. If you’re a good runner, you can out-distance it. It takes very large steps, but it was probably too heavy to run for an extended period of time.
      I would like a Triceratops. They’ve always been my favorite.
      Telling someone they’re a dinosaur is actually a compliment and not just because they’re awesome. They managed to live on Earth for 120 million years — not bad survival skills. People wouldn’t have managed any better in the face of that asteroid.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Pachycephalosaurus: The Bone-Head

One of the reasons I like dinosaurs so much is that some of them are just plain weird. And, for me, one of the weirdest is Pachycephalosaurus
(pa-KEE-seh·fuh·luh-SORE-us).

            Pachycephalosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous Period, 72 – 66 million years ago, in what is now the western United States and Canada. This was the same time and place that Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops lived. Pachycephalosaurus probably walked on two legs with its tail stretched out behind it and its head leaning forward to balance it. It was about 15 feet long, and weighed almost 1000 pounds. None of that makes it unusual. But when people take a closer look at this dinosaur, it definitely stands out.

            Pachycephalosaurus means “thick-headed lizard.” It is a bizarre creature for several reasons. First, the name is weird, even for a dinosaur, because it has so many syllables. If you ever want to impress someone, just rattle off that name without any pauses.

            Second, it had nine to ten inches of solid bone in a dome on top of its skull, twenty times thicker than the skulls of most other dinosaurs. That’s a huge difference!

Eden, Janine and Jim from New York City, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia 

            Scientists don’t know for sure why this dinosaur had such a thick skull, but some of them think Pachycephalosaurus liked to butt its head into things, especially other dinosaurs. Head-butting is used by modern animals, such as bighorn sheep or mountain goats, to establish dominance.

            The winner controls a territory and impresses the females. The thick skull of Pachycephalosaurus might have protected its brain when it collided with another dinosaur. Scars on the domes of some skulls also support this idea.

Photo via <a href=” ttps://www.goodfreephotos .com/”>Good Free Photos</a>

            But some scientists doubt head-butting was possible, saying the shape of its neck makes it unlikely its spine could withstand a head-on collision. And, the top of its head is rounded, so not much surface would collide with the other dinosaur. These scientists think that maybe Pachycephalosaurus used glancing blows to the side while fighting others to see who would control a territory. It also might be that Pachycephalosaurus having a big head just helped males to attract females. One thing scientists do agree on is that its thick skull wouldn’t have been much good as defense if it were attacked by Tyrannosaurus because the rest of its body had no defenses.  

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            However, it wasn’t just the thickness of the skull that made this dinosaur weird. Across the back of the dome and on its snout, it had large circular bumps (see skull above). Bumps aren’t all that weird, but scientists think most of the bumps started out as spikes, flattening as the dinosaur grew older. They have found skulls of smaller dome-headed dinosaurs that were thought to be different species of dinosaurs, such as one called Dracorex hogwartsia, which means “the Dragon King of Hogwarts” (named for Harry Potter’s school). They are now thought to be juvenile pachycephalosaurs. It seems odd that spikes would flatten into bumps as the dinosaur grew up, as spikes seem more useful than bumps, but, as I said, this is a weird dinosaur.  

            Another strange thing was its teeth. In the back of its mouth, it had wide, leaf-shaped teeth, similar to those found in many plant-eating dinosaurs. According to paleontologist, Philip Currie, “We have always been somewhat mystified by what these animals were eating, but I think the teeth at the back of the jaws clearly show it’s an herbivore.” But in 2018, paleontologists reported finding a more complete jaw, and they couldn’t believe what it showed. In the front of its mouth, it had sharp, triangular teeth, that were more like a carnivore.

            Paleontologist, Steve Brusatte, said, “It had the combination of a beak with these very sharp, steak knife-like serrated teeth … They must have been eating some kind of meat. Why else would you have steak knives at the front of your mouth?” This combination is very unusual. Scientists have suggested that this means it might be an omnivore, eating both plants and meat. The meat would have been small animals, such as lizards, frogs, or even small mammals; the plants would have been ferns, leaves, and conifer needles.   

            All in all, Pachycephalosaurus certainly qualifies as a strange and weird dinosaur. It’s one of my favorites, and I hope it is now one of yours.

UnexpectedDinoLesson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Title Image provided by DKfindout

Sources (Click Me)

Sykes, Ben. “Seventeen Unusual, Bizarre, and Downright Weird Dinosaurs.” BBC Science Focus Magazine. 31 May 2018. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/17-of-the-weirdest-dinosaurs-to-walk-the-planet/

“Pachycephalosaurus.” Find Out. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2022. https://www.dkfindout. com/us/dinosaurs-and-prehistoric-life/dinosaurs/pachycephalosaurus/

Pickrell, John. “Vegetarian Dinosaur May Have Actually Eaten Meat, Skull Suggests.” National Geographic. 24 Oct. 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-vegetarian-dinosaur-ate-meat-pachycephalosaurus-paleontology

Dinosaur Mummies

            Everybody knows where you find mummies – in pyramids in Egypt. But not always. People made the Egyptian mummies, but under just the right conditions, Mother Nature can make them, too. A few, very rare dinosaur mummies have been found. Not just a skeleton but a fossil with skin and soft tissue preserved.

AntoninJury, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            To become a mummy, a dinosaur that died would first need to be protected somehow from predators, so they couldn’t tear it apart. That could happen in a number of ways. The dinosaur could die in a place away from predators or be covered over with water from a flood or a giant mudslide. Some could be covered by the collapse of a sand dune.

            Being away from predators isn’t enough. Minerals need to soak into the skin and soft tissue before they have a chance to decay. It helps if the dinosaur is covered with something that slows down the microbes that cause that decay, such as certain kinds of mud. It also helps to have the right kind of skin. Some scientists have suggested that the reason most of the dinosaur mummies that have been found are duckbilled dinosaurs is that there was something in their skin that slowed down decay, giving the skin time to fossilize.

            The first dinosaur mummy was found in Wyoming in 1908. It was an Edmontosaurus (ed-MON-to-SAWR-us), a duckbill dinosaur common in the late Cretaceous. Though it’s hard to see in this picture, almost 2/3 of the body is still covered with skin. The skin consists of very small scales, less than two tenths of an inch in diameter. Unlike those of many reptiles, the scales are more like separate bumps than overlapping scales.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Different sizes are clustered together. The scales on the upper side of the body are larger than those on the lower side. Soft tissue between the claws on its hands suggests that it had padded feet, and tissue above the spine suggests it had a soft ridge along the back of the neck and spine.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Several other duckbill dinosaur mummies were found during the 1900s, but they didn’t have as much preserved soft tissue or skin. The next dinosaur mummy of any importance was not found until 2000 when scientists in Montana unearthed a Brachylophosaurus (BRACK-uh-LOF-o-SAWR-us), which is another type of duckbilled dinosaur. They named it Leonardo (nearby graffiti from 1916 said that Leonard loved Geneva). This mummy was 90% complete and revealed that the neck had unusually strong muscles and that its skin was scaly, similar to Edmontosaurus. Scientists were able to examine the contents of its stomach. It ate leaves, conifers, ferns, and flowering plants like magnolias. Its stomach also revealed parasites – small bristly worms.

ケラトプスユウタ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Probably the most spectacular dinosaur mummy of all was discovered in 2011 in Alberta, Canada. It is Borealopelta (BORE-e-AL-o-PEL-ta), not a duckbilled dinosaur but a nodosaur, an armored dinosaur. In life it was 18 feet long and weighed about 3000 pounds. The back legs and tail are missing, but what is there is amazing. The skin was so well preserved that scientists were able to use a mass spectrometer to find out what the color of the dinosaur was.

© Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, illustration by Julius Csotonyi

            The back and sides of the dinosaur were a dark reddish brown, while the belly was a lighter reddish brown. We see that pattern of coloring, ark on top and light underneath, in many animals today. It helps those animals hide from predators. Not only was the skin well preserved, but also the armor itself. Usually, the armor falls off armored dinosaurs before they fossilize. Sometimes pieces of armor are found nearby, but often they aren’t. This mummy shows exactly where and how every piece of armor was attached. In addition, scientists have learned that the spikes were covered with keratin, the same stuff that fingernails are made of. This made the armor look bigger: the better to scare away predators – or perhaps to attract a mate.  

            No doubt additional exciting dinosaur mummies will be found in the future. A potential one, discovered in Montana in 2014, still lies encased in a 35,000-pound block of stone, waiting to be dug out. Each mummy helps fill in gaps in our knowledge of how dinosaurs looked and behaved.

            Which do you like better? Egyptian mummies or dinosaur mummies? Let me know in the comment section below.

Sources (Click Me)

Brachylophosaurus. Wikipedia. 22 March 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Brachylophosaurus#cite_note-MTT06-7

“Dinosaur Mummies.” Fossil Wiki. Fandom. n.d. https://fossil.fandom.com/wiki/ Dinosaur_mummies#Discovery_and_analysis

“Fossil ‘Mummy’ Shows Glimpse of Dinosaur Skin.” American Museum of Natural History.

            28 April, 2017, https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/news-posts/fossil-mummy-shows-glimpse-of-dinosaur-skin.

Greshko, Michael. “The Amazing Dinosaur Found (Accidentally) by Miners in Canada.” National Geographic. June 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/ article/dinosaur-nodosaur-fossil-discovery

“Nodosaur Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Unveiled with Skin and Guts Intact.” All That’s Interesting. 19 June 2020, https://allthatsinteresting.com/nodosaur-dinosaur-mummy.

“Spectacularly Detailed Armored Dinosaur “Mummy” Makes Its Debut.” Smart News. Smithsonian Magazine. 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mummified-armored-dinosaur-makes-its-debut-1-180963311/

Velociraptor or Not

How accurate is Jurassic Park?

            In the first movie of the Jurassic Park series, the second scariest dinosaur was Velociraptor. (Scariest? T-rex, of course.) The movie showed a creature that was about six feet tall, with a huge foot claw that it held upright. Its body was thick, like a tyrannosaur, it was highly intelligent, and it hunted in a pack during the day. Given that most of us like watching movies with scary creatures, a star was born. Overnight Velociraptor became famous.

            But like many movies, Jurassic Park got it wrong. In fact, pretty much all of it was wrong. To start with, Velociraptor was little: only about three feet tall (one meter) measured at the hip. From the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, it measured about six feet (2 meters), but almost half of that length was its long, stiff tail. When Velociraptor was fully grown, it weighed only about 33 pounds (15 kg). A Great Dane, which is about the same height, can weigh up to 140 pounds (64 kg.).

Why is the height of a dinosaur measured at its hip? (Click Me)

Dinosaurs that walked on two legs didn’t stand upright. They leaned forward (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and used their tail to balance their head. This means that the head wouldn’t always be at the same height. It could go up and down. But the legs of dinosaurs are directly under their bodies, so the measurement of height at the hip would always be the same.

            The movie showed Velociraptor covered with scales, but scientists have found marks on the arm and tail bones of this dinosaur that show feathers were attached there. In fact, it’s likely their whole bodies were covered with feathers. However, though their arms may have looked like wings, Velociraptors weren’t capable of flight. Their arms were too short, and their bodies were too long. Instead, they walked on two legs.

            If you’re now picturing a fluffy, cute, little dinosaur, think again. It would not make a good pet. It may have been only about the size of a Great Dane, but it was a fierce hunter. Its upright, sickle (curved in an arc) claw was about 2½ inches (6.5 cm.) long, measured around the outer edge. That’s not very big compared to that claw in the movies, but an eagle’s talons are only two inches long, and think of the damage it can do with those!

            The movie did get it right that Velociraptor was a carnivore, a meat eater. It had a mouth full of very sharp, serrated (having a jagged edge , like a steak knife) teeth.  Its head was flat with large eyes that enabled it to see very clearly. It also had great senses of smell and hearing. The three claws on each hand were very sharp. Each foot had sharp claws, too, including that famous sickle claw. This claw was held up off the ground, which kept it very sharp. Claws that scrape along the ground become dull.

            The movie showed a highly intelligent, coordinated attack by a pack of Velociraptors in the daytime. However, none of that is true. First, Velociraptor was not that smart. Its brain was large compared to its body, but it’s a small body and a small brain. It was about as smart as a bird of prey, such as a hawk. Many modern mammals could have outthought it.

            Next, it probably wasn’t a pack hunter. Strangely, it is their teeth that make some scientists think this. Scientists have analyzed the teeth of young Velociraptors and compared them to adult Velociraptors. They’ve found that the chemicals in each set of teeth are different. This is important information because in pack animals the chemical makeup of the teeth is usually the same because old and young share the same food.

Dragos Andrei, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

            Young animals which are not taken care of by their parents or the pack usually have different chemicals in their teeth than adults because they eat different food. They would eat lizards and insects, small creatures that a little dinosaur could catch. As an adult they’d eat bigger things. Young animals that have not been taken care of by their parents also tend not to hang out with others of their kind. And, dinosaurs are more closely related to reptiles and birds which generally do not hunt in packs. So, at least for right now, these facts have caused scientists to lean toward the theory that Velociraptor did not hunt in packs.  

            But whichever way it goes, it is certain that Velociraptor’s slim body and long legs made it a fast runner. It could run as fast as a roadrunner, maybe as fast as 25 mph (40 kph). Small prey, with their short legs, didn’t stand a chance of outrunning it. Their only chance of escaping lay in having a big head start because Velociraptor’s leg muscles weren’t strong enough to run really fast over a long distance.

            Sometimes Velociraptor is shown in books and movies using its sickle claw to rip open its prey, but that isn’t likely. The claw could break through the skin of a dinosaur, but tests show it wasn’t strong enough or long enough to kill another animal. Most likely that claw was used to hold onto its prey while Velociraptor used its other claws and its teeth to kill. Hawks and various other birds of prey use their talons in this way.

            Velociraptors also probably hunted at night, not in the day as in Jurassic Park. Scientists have noted that all birds and many reptiles alive today have a ring of bone around the eye. In those animals that hunt at night, the opening in the ring is large, to let in as much light as possible. Those that hunt in the day have a much smaller opening. Velociraptor has a large opening in its ring of bone. This makes it almost certain that it hunted at night. And that makes sense as the area Velociraptor lived in was mostly desert. It would want to hunt at night when it would be cooler. Its body wouldn’t overheat, and small creatures would be more likely to come out.

            All in all, Velociraptor is not much like the creature in the movie that made it famous, but the real Velociraptor was still a deadly predator.

            Which do you like better? The real Velociraptor or the one in the movie? Please let me know in the comments below.

Sources (Click Me)

“Dinosaurs: Where Jurassic Park Got It Wrong.” The Guardian. Theguardian.com. 8 Feb. 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/feb/08/jurassic-park-dinosaur-inaccuracies

Hendry, Lisa. “Vicious Velociraptor: Tales of a Turkey-sized Dinosaur.” Natural History Museum London. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html.

Maxwell, W. Desmond, and John H. Ostrom. “Taphonomy and Paleobiological Implications of Tenontosaurus-Deinonychus Associations.” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 15, no. 4, [Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.], 1995, pp. 707–12, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4523664.

Osterloff, Emily. “Were Dinosaurs Good Parents?” Natural History Museum London. n.d. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/were-dinosaurs-good-parents.html

Switek, Brian. “Dinosaurs Behaving Badly: Did Velociraptors Hunt in Packs?” 29 March 2011. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/mar/29/dinosaurs-behaviour-raptors-pack-hunters

Taylor, Ian. “The Scary Truth about Velociraptors.”  Science Focus. BBC Focus Magazine. 30 May 2021. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/the-scary-truth-about-velociraptors/

“Velociraptor Had Feathers, Scientists Say.” CBS News. 20 Sept. 2007. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/velociraptor-had-feathers-scientists-say-1.686873

Yong, Ed. “How We Know Velociraptor Hunted by Night.” National Geographic. 14 April 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dinosaurs-around-the-clock-or-how-we-know-velociraptor-hunted-by-night

First feathered dinosaur from Dreamstime, paid for July 15, 2023