Dinosaur Trivia
I thought it would be fun to spice things up with some with a quiz!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Tag: field museum
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
Why You Should Visit a Fossil Lab
The best part of any museum is the dinosaurs– especially the huge skeletons! But they didn’t just walk into the museum on their own. And those bones weren’t always clean and perfectly shaped.
In fact, the bones fossil hunters dig up are usually damaged in some way. They might have been chewed on by predators or scattered about by wind or water. They can be cracked, split, or smashed. So how do they go from broken to beautiful? This happens in a fossil lab.
It starts with getting the bones safely back to the fossil lab. When a bone is dug out of the ground, sometimes it comes free easily. But more often the bone is attached to the rock, so fossil hunters need to carve out both. They use jackhammers and rock saws, pickaxes, hammers, and chisels.
Scientists call the rock next to the bone the matrix. Fossil hunters leave the matrix around the bone, so it can protect the bone. They cover the bone and its matrix with plaster to provide more protection. The whole thing can weigh several hundred pounds.
Small bones are packaged in crates while big bones may be lifted out by helicopter. They are all sent to a fossil lab. Unloading the bones must be done carefully. The big bones don’t always fit through the door. They need to come in through a loading dock.
Some bones are stored away. There are always more bones needing preparation than time and people to prepare them. Bones not being worked on are put on shelves or in specimen cabinets.
Other bones are brought into the prep lab to have the matrix removed from the bone. The workroom needs to have bright lights, so preparers can see what is rock and what is bone. It also needs good air flow because removing the matrix produces a lot of dust. Stations are set up around the room.
A work station needs to have a large, flat surface to place the fossil on. There should be storage space for the tools the preparer will need and its own light source. It may also have a microscope to study small fossils and an air tube to vacuum up the dust and tiny bits of rock. The preparer should wear protective goggles, a dust mask, and gloves. Preparers using noisy tools, such as a jackhammer, also need ear plugs.
When a bone is selected for preparation, first the preparers need to remove the plaster jacket. They use a cast-cutting saw, like the ones doctors use to remove a cast from a broken limb. A preparer might then use a small jackhammer called an air scribe to remove the matrix that is not too close to the bone.
When preparers get close to the bone, they need to be very careful. The bones break very easily. Using a small metal pick called a pin vise (pictured to the side), preparers scrape away the rock, just like when a dentist scrapes plaque from your teeth. They scrape in a direction away from the bone so that if they slip, they don’t hurt the bone. The key is to go slowly. Sometimes they use a magnifying glass to make sure they are scraping away only the matrix.
Bits of matrix are blown away with an air tube as they come off. Brushes can also be used to keep the surface clean, and a very sharp needle might be used to remove matrix in small cracks. Exposed bone is covered with glue to keep it from breaking apart.
Sometimes preparers use chemicals, such as acid, to dissolve the matrix, but they must be careful to make sure the chemicals don’t hurt the bone. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to hundreds of hours to remove all the matrix. Sometimes part of the matrix is left to hold delicate bones together.
Once the matrix is removed, there is still work to be done. Often the bone is broken, so the pieces must be put together. That can be like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Very small bones can be kept together with wax. Others need glue, and others need wire or steel bands.
Putting together all the bones of a skeleton takes lots of patience. Preparers make sketches and 3-D models. Bones need to be placed next to each other in the same way they were when the dinosaur was alive. A natural-looking pose must be chosen.
It is rare that fossil hunters find all the bones for one dinosaur. Preparers need to figure out which bones are missing. To complete the skeleton, preparers may use bones from several dinosaurs of the same species. Sometimes they can figure out what a bone should look like by the bones around it. Then preparers can sculpt a bone from plaster or plastics.
Many of the prepared bones are stored in cabinets or lockers. They each have a number that tells when and where the fossil was found. Scientists can find the fossil they need and study it.
Sometimes the scientists make a cast of a bone. First, they make a rubber mold from the real bone. Then they put plaster or resin into the mold. When it dries, it’s a perfect copy. Museums often display casts rather than the real bones. This prevents damage to the real bones and makes it easier for scientists to study the real bones. Casts are also used to make model dinosaurs. Artists create realistic-looking dinosaurs for the movies or special exhibits. However, technology is already making this process easier and faster by using 3-D printing. In the future plaster casts will be a thing of the past.
To prepare a skeleton for an exhibit, it’s important for preparers to make sure every bone is stable. Fossils are very heavy, so the framework holding them up needs to be able to hold the weight without hurting the fragile fossils.
The bones are held together with such things as glue, metal pegs, bolts, wire, and thick cables. The preparers try to keep these out of sight because they want the dinosaur to look as natural as possible.
It can take several years to mount a big dinosaur. But when it’s all done, thousands and thousands of people will gaze up at the dinosaur skeleton and catch their breath with awe.
Would you like to work in a fossil lab? Please tell me why or why not in the comments section.
I took all the photos
Obscure Facts About the T-Rex
I know the ‘Facts Tier List’ is something that has been done to death in pop-culture. But I thought it would be fun to make a short list of the most obscure facts I could find about the king lizard, Tyrannosaurus Rex. If this is something you find interesting, I may make this a series where we cover less recognizable dinos!
1/3 |T-Rex wasn’t Always The Most Popular
Taking a look at the countless pictures, books, movies, and exhibits on the world of paleontology, it is self-evident that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of, if not the most popular dinosaur. Many would assume that this has always been the case, but what if I told you that wasn’t.
My older readers may recognize the name or shape of the Brontosaurus. A sauropod with a complicated history, this dinosaur was the symbol for Sinclair Oil and at one time was considered the face of the dinosaur world. The Brontosaurs will be the topic of a future post, so subscribe so you don’t miss out!
2/3 | Usable Arms
The T-Rex is often made fun of for it’s tiny arms. They were quite small in proportion to the rest of its body, measuring in at only 2-3 feet. The T-Rex’s head alone was 5 feet long. However, just because they were tiny, doesn’t mean they were useless. Their arms were incredibly capable despite the size and were able to support over 400 pounds in weight.
There is still speculation as to what purpose their arms served. Many believe they were used to help T-Rex lift itself off of the floor or for holding on to recently killed prey.
3/3 | Not the largest Carnivore
Although the T-Rex has earned the moniker: ‘King of the Dinosaurs’, that doesn’t mean that T-Rex was the largest Carnivore of them all. T-Rex was estimated to be about 40 feet long and weighed between 7 and 9 tons. The Giganotosaurus and the Spinosaurus both outclassed the king lizard, with the former weighing 9 tons and the latter weighing over 10 tons. Giganotosaurus barely beats out T-Rex in length, as it was recorded to be 43 feet long. But the Spinosaurus takes the cake at almost 60 feet long from head to tail! I may take a deeper look into the unique features of these 3 species…
I hope you found these facts interesting; I surely did! If there are any facts you would like to share, feel free to do so in the comments below.
Title Image Provided by Fleekus.com
What Color Were Dinosaurs?
Not very long ago paleontologists were sure of at least one thing about dinosaurs: nobody would ever know what color they were – unless somebody invented a time machine. Artists had to make up the colors because there were only bones to work with. And you can’t tell the color of anything’s skin from looking at its bones. Even the discovery of several dinosaur “mummies” didn’t help [See my post on dino mummies here]. Though some of these had preserved dinosaur skin, the skin had taken on the color of the minerals that seeped into it to fossilize it. But modern technology has changed this. There are now a couple of ways to determine what color certain dinosaurs were.
The first is a rare case. In 2011 an armored dinosaur called Borealopelta (BOH-ree-AH-low-PEL-tuh) was discovered. Its skin was so well preserved that scientists were able to use a mass spectrometer to discover its color. How does that work? A mass spectrometer is able to tell the chemical substances something is made of, and when you know the exact chemical substances, and where they are, you know what color it is. In the case of Borealopelta, scientists determined the dinosaur was dark reddish brown on the back and neck and lighter reddish brown on the belly and lower parts.
But finding such well-preserved skin is rare. However, scientists have found another way to determine color. Using an electron microscope they found tiny structures that were smaller than cells. At first these were dismissed as bacteria, but they were, in fact, melanosomes (muh-LAN-uh-sohmz), irregular blobs that contain color pigments. Melanosomes can be found in skin, hair, scales or feathers. The size, shape, thickness, and dispersal of melanosomes found in a fossilized feather can be compared to those found in modern birds to determine a color. Then the trick is finding dinosaur fossils that contain preserved skin, hair, scales, or feathers. So far, feathers have been the main structure to reveal dinosaur color through melanosomes.
In 2009 scientists found a feathered dinosaur, which they named Anchiornis (ANG-kee-OR-niss). It lived during the late Jurassic Period. The fossil included some preserved feathers, which were examined under an electron microscope. Analysis of the melanosomes indicated this was a black-and-white dinosaur with a patch of red on the back of its head.
Other dinosaurs have been colorized by this same process. A recent discovery in China, Caihong (KAY-hong), was found with remains of actual feathers. When these were analyzed, they showed that most of the dinosaur was iridescent black, a glossy black that subtly changed its hue when looked at from different angles. The head, chest, and the base of the tail contained melanosomes that produce bright iridescent colors in modern birds. These colors could not be specifically identified, but artists have guessed at what they might be.
Other dinosaurs that have been colorized include Sinosauropteryx (SIEN-oh-soh-ROP-tuh-riks) – which lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had bright orangish feathers with a lighter belly and a striped tail.
And they include Microraptor – a small meat-eating dinosaur that also lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had feathers that gleamed an iridescent blue/black, like ravens or starlings.
As stated earlier, melanosomes can also be found in scales. Psittacosaurus (SIT-a-ko-SOR-us) is an early Cretaceous dinosaur distantly related to Triceratops. It does not have feathers, but one of the skeletons found had preserved scales that contained melanosomes. They revealed the dinosaur was dark brown on its back and a paler brown on its underside with its hind legs being striped on the inside and spotted on the outside.
Melanosomes are not the answer to the color of every dinosaur. There has to be preserved soft tissue to have melanosomes, and most fossils lack that. Additionally, some colors, such as blues and yellows, are not made by melanosomes. Still, even knowing the colors of a few dinosaurs is something most scientists once thought would never happen.
What color do you think Tyrannosaurus rex was? Put your guesses in the comment section.
Sources (Click Me)
Black, Riley. “The Colors of Dinosaurs Open a Window to Study the Past.” Smithsonian Magazine. 21 May 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/colors-dinosaurs-open-new-window-study-past-180972070/
—. “Microraptor was a Glossy Dinosaur.” Smithsonian Magazine. 9 March 2012. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/microraptor-was-a-glossy-dinosaur-119691559/
“Caihung.” Wikipedia. 18 May 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caihong
“Dinosaurs – Sinosauropteryx prima.” Australian Museum. 12 Feb. 2020. https://australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/fact-sheets/sinosauropteryx-prima/
Dunham, Will. “Scientists decipher color of ‘super cute’ bristly dinosaur.” Reuters. 2021. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-dinosaur/scientists-decipher-color-of-super-cute-bristly-dinosaur-idUSKCN11L1OI
“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/
Woodford, Chris. “Mass Spectrometers.” Explain That Stuff! 4 Feb., 2021. https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-mass-spectrometers-work.html
Yong, Ed. “The Renaissance of Technicolour Dinosaurs Continues (And the Gloves Come Off). Not Exactly Rocket Science. National Geographic.com. 4 Feb. 2010. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-renaissance-of-technicolour-dinosaurs-continues-and-the-gloves-come-off
Note: Title Image Sourced from BBC Science Focus Magazine
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!
4 responses to “Ask Me Anything”
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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.LikeLike
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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.
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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.
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Tyrannosaurus Footprints
Lets discover the hidden history in the tracks!
I don’t know who makes up the names for groups of animals: a herd of cows, a pack of wolves, or a litter of kittens. Some of the group names are funny: a business of ferrets, a kettle of hawks, a bloat of hippopotami, a shiver of sharks, a stench of skunks, and an ambush of tigers. But whoever makes up those names certainly got it right for Tyrannosaurus. A group of them is called a terror of tyrannosaurs. Several species of dinosaur fall into the category of tyrannosaur, such as Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and Daspletosaurus. The most famous, of course, is Tyrannosaurus rex. All of them are among the largest meat-eating creatures that ever lived.
Scientists don’t know whether or not Tyrannosaurus lived or travelled in groups. There are only two clues that could help with this. Sometimes paleontologists find bonebeds that contain many dinosaurs of the same kind that all died at the same time. That might happen if a flash flood killed a large herd of animals. For example, in Alberta, Canada, thousands of bones of the dinosaur Centrosaurus were found in a bonebed measuring about 1 ½ square miles. This is strong evidence that centrosaurs travelled in large groups. Dinosaur bonebeds for Protoceratops, Avimimus, Pinacosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and others have been found. But no bonebeds of Tyrannosaurus or any other tyrannosaur have ever been discovered.
The other evidence of animals living or travelling in groups is footprints. Often just one, single footprint is found. Other times a trackway is found, showing the progress of a single dinosaur.
Sometimes there are many footprints, showing the travels of a whole herd. Prior to 2011, only single footprints of tyrannosaurs had been found. Though it’s hard to say for sure which made a footprint, scientists can make educated guesses. The one most confidently attributed to Tyrannosaurus rex was found in Montana in 2007. The Montana footprint was 2 ½ feet long with slender toes, and it was found in the right age of rock for Tyrannosaurus. Also, its toes were correctly positioned for T-rex, so paleontologists are fairly certain they have correctly identified it. But that print doesn’t tell us much about how Tyrannosaurus lived and moved.
Some scientists thought that because they had never found a tyrannosaur bonebed or more than one footprint of a tyrannosaur that Tyrannosaurus was a solitary creature, perhaps only associating with others of its kind for mating. Many of today’s predatory birds, such as eagles and hawks, are largely solitary. That way they don’t have to compete for food. But in 2011 a trackway showing three tyrannosaurs walking together made scientists reconsider the idea of tyrannosaurs as loners.
In the forests of northeastern British Columbia, paleontologists uncovered a series of tracks showing three large dinosaurs walking side by side. A total of seven footprints were found: three from one dinosaur and two from each of the other two, but all the footprints were made at the same time, and they are clearly walking together. The prints are so well preserved that scientists can even see scales on the dinosaurs’ feet. The size of the tracks and the size and positioning of the toes clearly make these tyrannosaur tracks. However, it’s not possible to know which species of tyrannosaur they are from.
The size of the footprints does indicate that the creatures were of a similar age, different scientists estimating perhaps 25, 26, and 29 years old. The size also indicates their approximate height: 7.5 to 9.4 feet tall, measured at the hip. Dinosaur height is usually measured at the hip because most of them didn’t hold their heads at a consistent height. By knowing the height of the animal and measuring how far apart the footprints are, scientists can determine how fast the dinosaurs were going. When scientists did the math for these footprints, they concluded that these three dinosaurs were going 3.9 to 5.2 m.p.h. However, in 2021 researchers from the Netherlands made a computer reconstruction of a Tyrannosaurus walking, and they concluded that its top speed was only about 3 m.p.h. More evidence is needed to figure out how fast a tyrannosaur could walk.
Still the trackways give a tantalizing look at the life of a tyrannosaur, no longer a loner, but a friendly guy who liked to hang out with his terror of friends.
Make up a name for a group of you and your friends. Please put it in the comments below!
Sources (Click Me!)
Bryner, Jeanna. “Tyrannosaur Footprint Found in Montana.” Live Science.” 11 Oct. 2007. https://www.livescience.com/1939-tyrannosaur-footprint-montana.html
Burns, M. E., T. A. Tumanova and Philip J. Currie. “Postcrania of Juvenile Pinacosaurus grangeri (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Alagteeg Formation, Alag Teeg, Mongolia: Implications for Ontogenetic Allometry in Ankylosaurs.” Journal of Paleontology. 2015. Vol. 89, pp. 168-182. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jpaleontol/ article-abstract/89/1/168/139797/Postcrania-of-juvenile-Pinacosaurus-grangeri.
Choi, Charles Q. “Tyrannosaurus Trackways Reveal a Dinosaur’s Walk.” Popular Mechanics. 23 July 2014. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a10933/ tyrannosaurus-trackways-reveal-a-dinosaurs-walk-17016027/
Evans, D. C., D. A. Eberth, and M. J. Ryan. “Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) Bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: Geology, Preliminary Taphonomy, and Significance.” Canadian Journal of Earth Science. 2015. Vol. 52, pp. 642–654. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjes-2014-0184?download=true.
Gamillo, Elizabeth. “New Study Finds T-rex Walked at a Slow Pace of Three Miles Per Hour.” Smithsonian Magazine. 23 April 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-finds-that-t-rex-walked-at-slow-pace-of-3-miles-per-hour-180977572/
“Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Found in Alberta.” The Canadian Press. 17 June 2010. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/largest-dinosaur-graveyard-found-in-alberta-1.874716
McCrea R.T., L.G. Buckley, J.O. Farlow, M.G. Lockley, P.J. Currie, et al. “A ‘Terror of Tyrannosaurs’: The First Trackways of Tyrannosaurids and Evidence of Gregariousness and Pathology in Tyrannosauridae.” 30 July 2014. PLoS ONE Vol. 9, p. 7: e103613. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.01036
Title Image: Stock photo shows a dinosaur footprint in the ground. Footprints in Texas have been revealed as drought persists.
NEENAWAT/GETTY
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
Loving All Things Dinosaur
When did you start to love dinosaurs? I began when I watched The Flintstones on TV as a kid. It was a cartoon show about a “stone age” family, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. The people on the show used dinosaurs for all kinds of things, such as a little dinosaur as a garbage disposal in the kitchen and a big dinosaur for construction. Their airplanes were Pteranodons. I wanted a pet dinosaur, like the Flintstones had, but I knew it was all make-believe.
I learned about real dinosaurs by going to the Field Museum in Chicago. We went there on field trips throughout elementary school, and my family visited there, too. Staring up at those huge skeletons was just amazing! They were so big! I didn’t even come up to their knees. There weren’t as many of them in the museum then as there are now. And the scientists still had a lot to discover, such as that dinosaurs didn’t drag their tails. But those extinct creatures stirred my imagination. If there was a real Jurassic Park, I would go in a second.
I remember in sixth grade reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a story about a group of explorers who find live dinosaurs on a plateau in South America. It inspired me to write the first story I ever wrote. It was about a group of kids who find live dinosaurs on a plateau in South America. Well, okay, it wasn’t very original, but it was still fun.
Dinosaurs were popular back then, but they weren’t in the media as much as they are now. I still loved them, but they took a backseat as I grew up, got married, and had a child. Then in the late 1980s, I got an opportunity to write a series of dinosaur books for the publisher I worked for. As I did the research, I was amazed at how far paleontology had come. Scientists thought that dinosaurs were far more exciting than they used to think. Dinosaurs weren’t just big plodding monsters, who sat around in swamps munching plants all day. They were as diverse as the different animals alive today. When I was growing up, scientists knew about only a few hundred dinosaurs. Now they have identified more than 2000 different species. Some lived in herds. Others traveled in packs and worked together to bring down large prey. Still others were loving parents who took care of their babies.
I ended up publishing a series of 24 dinosaur books. Most of them are pictured below, with some of the bones from my collection. They sold all across the country, were translated into Spanish, and won Best Children’s Nonfiction Books that year (1989) from the Society of Midland Authors.
Since that time, I’ve published another 12 dinosaur books. I’ve collected more than 50 dinosaur bones and replicas, and I’ve traveled throughout the Midwest with those bones doing programs on dinosaurs (please see my web site http://www.janetriehecky.com).
I’ve kept up with the current research and plan most of my vacations Around visiting dinosaur museums around the country. I love how weird and big and awesome dinosaurs are, so I thought I’d start a blog on dinosaurs. Along the way I’ve found out some pretty amazing things about them – like,
did you know that half the length of a Mamenchisaurus was its neck? – and I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you.
If you’re interested in finding out more about dinosaurs, you can visit here once a week. Also, I would love to learn how you started to love dinosaurs. Please drop a note with your dinosaur story in the comment field.
Title Image Provided by Allie Caulfield (processed by User:MathKnight), Tadek Kurpaski, User:EvaK, User:J. Spencer, User:Domser, User:Captmondo, User:Fir0002, User:FunkMonk. Collage created by User:IJReid, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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