Dinosaur stuff

[Elliot Kane]

The American Museum of Natural History is putting on a Dinosaur Exhibition.

Looks kinda cool

[Shan]

Wow! this sounds really cool Elliot. I will have to look at this one more
carefully when I have more time.

The girls really love dinosaurs. We have all kinds of plastic ones around here
and even a creative learning game about them. We also found some
craft pieces that they can make pictures with of dinosaurs and other
landscape pieces.

This could be really good for them. There is a dinosaur museum on the Isle
of Wight that we found on line that they had fun looking at things there too.

Thanks for the link.

Shan

[Elliot Kane]

I adored the critters when I was a kid, and I'm still very interested now. Couldn't resist sharing that one

Glad you like it, Shan

[Shan]

Elliot, here is the link to the site I mentioned.

Dinosaur Museum

Dinosaur Isle

I am still fascinated by the dinosaurs and with the girls beginning to take
an interest in them it has renewed my interest even more.

Shan

[Elliot Kane]

Thanks, Shan

Looks cool

[Shan]

It was a site that we really enjoyed.

They have changed their website since we were there, so I am still hope that
they haven't gotten rid of all the cool stuff they had on it. I am hoping that
they have made it even better.

Shan

[Dr. Doom]

Cool stuff. I've loved dinosaurs since I was a wee tot, but haven't read as many books as I used to in about 10 years. Back in the day, all I read was dinosaur books and I still remember quite a bit about them.

And I agree about the dinosaurs becoming birds (not so sure that birds actually are dinosaurs). I just look at chickens and their behavior and it just yells dinosaur.

Not that I actually know what they acted like, but I watched Jurassic Park.

[Venom65437]

I loved dinosaurs as a kid, and am still interested in them now, even though I haven't read a book about them in years. This would be interesting to see though. I guess I need to buy some books about them again.

I love me some T-Rex!

[hector]

I must've been a wierd kid 'coz I never had much interest in dinosaurs, unless they tranformed into awesome robots and stuff.

P.S. The site was nice.

[Elliot Kane]

This one is a bit of a slow loader, but might be of interest to dino fans anyway:

The Jurassic Park Institute

[Shan]

Elliots dinosaur thread got me to thinking that it might be fun and interesting to collect some dinosaur facts. I also thought you might enjoy reading some of the ones that my daughters and I come up with.

The facts listed below are from the Jurassic Park site that Elliot posted earlier Enjoy.



Name Means:"tyrant lizard", Length:40 feet (13 m), Height:16 feet (5 m), Weight:6 tons (6,000 kilos), Diet:Carnivore (Meat-Eater)

The jaws of a Tyrannosaurus rex are close to five feet long and could open as wide as three feet.

It had the biggest teeth of any dinosaur - teeth that were not only sharp and cutting edged, but also thick and strong, capable of crushing bones.

It had enormous strength in its jaws; it could bite right through the frill of a Triceratops or into the back of a hadrosaur. In fact, the only thing that a T. rex had to fear was another T. rex. Most of the scars and wounds found on fossil bones of these great creatures seem to come from others of its kind.

Most scientists believe that T. rex was both an effective hunter and an opportunistic scavenger.

The most famous of the fossils of this creature is "Sue" which is now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Sue is about 42 feet long; her largest tooth is almost 12 inches.

T rex is the favorite of my girls. They think he is cool. Can you imagine what they would look like standing next to this creature? Interesting to say the least.

Shan

[Terrordar]

I still look into Dinosaurs even today.

They've discovered 2 predators larger then Tyranosaurus Rex.

They've also found a Sauripod, that was the biggest animal to walk the earth. 80-100+ feet long, and weighing in at 100 tons

And if you wantto know how dinosaurs behaved, just look at the ones we have today. Land based birds can probably give us the best idea on their behavior, no joke. A large number people in the scientific community now firmly believe that Dinosaurs and birds are one and the same.

And, Dinosaurs were still the dominant predators even after 65 Million years ago. Mammals finally surpassed them in that regard only 10 million years later. There were great hunting birds after the extinction occured.

[Terrordar]

ANATOMY
Carcharodontosaurus was a huge meat eater from the Cretaceous period. This North African carnosaur had a massive tail, a bulky body, and heavy bones. Its arms were short and had three-fingered hands with sharp claws.

Carcharodontosaurus was from 26-44 feet long (8-14 m), perhaps weighing up to 8 tons. It had a a skull that was as big as a person - 5'4" (1.6 m). It had large, powerful jaws with long, serrated, sharp teeth up to 8 inches long. Although Carcharodontosaurus was larger than T. rex, its brain was smaller. Carcharodontosaurus was closely related to Giganotosaurus but not to T. rex. Carcharodontosaurus was a more primitive dinosaur than T. rex.

CARCHARODONTOSAURUS
"Shark-tooth Lizard"

Next, the biggest predator that we know of, to ever walk the earth-

The longgest meat-eating dinosaur yet discovered is Giganotosaurus, a 44-46 ft (13.5-14.3 m) long behemoth, who weighed about 8 tons and stood 12 feet tall (at the hips). It walked on two legs, had a brain the size of a banana, and had enormous jaws with 8-inch long serrated teeth in a 6-foot (1.8 m) long skull. Giganotosaurus was a theropod from the mid-Cretaceous, living about 100-95 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic Era, the "Age of Reptiles".
Giga-noto-saurus means "giant southern reptile". Its fossil was unearthed in Argentina in 1994. 70 percent of the skeleton has been found. Near the Giganotosaurus, fossils were found of 75-foot-long plant eaters, presumably victims of this Giganotosaurus.

Size: Giganotosaurus was probably bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex , who was about 40-50 feet long, about 5 tons in weight and about 10 feet tall at the hips. Giganotosaurus, however, was more lightly built and had a much smaller brain case.

GIGANOTOSAURUS: "Giant Reptile of the South"

This is an artist's rend of the best-

www.dinosauriaong.hpg.ig.com.br/gpal/tm/giganotosaurus.jpg

And please not, this, and every other picture of a carnosaur you've ever seen, may be entirely inaccurate. Resent studies, show that most predators brains, had the nervous center... for feathers.

Thats right, those big ass predators, may have been covered in um.

[Shan]

Terrordar, you seem to have a vast knowledge of dinosaurs.

Could you tell me what the smallest dinosaur was and a little about it?

I would really appreciate it if you could.

Shan

[Terrordar]

Hmmm... Small... Thats going to be tough, I specialize in bigger monsters, lemme see...

Compsognathus, little bugger from the Jurassic Peroid. We know it ate meat, meaning it was liekly a scavenger, unless it ate small lizards and early reptiles.

It was 28 inches to 4.6 feet long. (about 1.4 meters at max length), weighed about 6 pounds. All in all, it was about the size of a chicken, aside from length of course, but in mass in general, it was chicken sized.

[Elliot Kane]

Ornitholestes was pretty darn small. Also probably spelled wrong after all this time Ate eggs, IIRC. Beyond that, I'm drawing a blank, though...

[Terrordar]

Yea, you are correct, he was a bit bigger however, and I think you did spell his name wrong

It is believes both he, and Comp, are related to modern-day birds.

Orn was slightly bigger however.

Ornitholestes was about 6.5 feet (2 m) long (from snout to tail) and weighed roughly 25 pounds (12 kg).



Edit- Nope, just spellchecked it, you got the name right.

[Elliot Kane]

Wow. I'm stunned. I can't even remember the last time I read the name... Sheer fluke, I reckon

[Shan]

Wow, you guys are good. Thank you both.

Terrordar's dinosaur - Compsognathus - Elegant Jaw



Quote below:

This little hunter probably ate bugs and small lizards. In fact, the first fossil skeleton of this dinosaur had the remains of its last meal, a lizard, still in its stomach.

Compsognathus shares a number of characteristics with Archeopteryx (the early feathered reptile), but Compsognathus did not appear to have feathers. This is one of those interesting dinosaurs where scientists hope to find more specimens to learn the answers to many questions..

Man, this little guy was small. The girls think he is cute.

Shan

[Terrordar]

My personal favorite dinosaur is Tyrannosaurus baatar.

Not quite as big, or meaty as T-rex, T-bataar is faster, and almost as powerful.