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EOSC 116 > Decoding Dinosaurs > Flashcards

Decoding Dinosaurs Flashcards

1
Q

Who was the first to describe and illustrate a dino femur?

A

Robert Plot in 1677.

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2
Q

Who identified the teeth, jaw, and limbs of an ancient lizard?

A

William Buckland in 1824.

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3
Q

Who named the family of fossils ‘Dinosauria’?

A

Sir Richard Owen in 1842.

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4
Q

When and from who did dinosaurs evolve?

A

Evolved from archosaurs by the Late Triassic. But now some say that it may have happened sometime in Early Triassic.

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5
Q

What are the two broad groups of dinos?

A

The Saurischia and the Ornithischia.

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6
Q

How are the two groups defined?

A

By the structure of their pelvis.
Saurischia: pubis bone points forward (lizard hipped)
Ornithischia: pubis points backwards (bird hipped)

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7
Q

Which dinos where part of which group?

A

Saurischia: T-Rex, sauropods like Diplodocus. Dominated Triassic and Jurassic.
Ornithischia: Hadrosaurus and Triceratops. Dominated Cretaceous.

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8
Q

Which dinos are the most primitive?

A

Two legged theropods.

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9
Q

What does a new study from 2017 bring forward?

A

Including more species, it proposes a new phylogeny. Two main dinos: Saurischia and Ornithischia. Includes traditional ornithischians and theropods.

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10
Q

With respect to morphology, what are the three main ways in whichCoelophysisdiffer from their reptile ancestors?

A

Longer tail and legs and thighs, set of torso bones more hollowed out (lighter).

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11
Q

List 3 characteristics that contributed toCoelophysisbeing an excellent predator.

A

Good smell, eyes, and ears. Fast too.

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12
Q

Using a chronological list of 3 steps, explain what is believed to have happened during the rapid burial ofCoelophysisat Ghost Ranch.

A

There was a drought, they all gathered around the stream, a flood happened.

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13
Q

What approximate speed is thought to be a normal walking pace for an adultCoelophysis? (in km/hr)

A

6.4 km/hr

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14
Q

What approximate speed is thought to the fastest that an adultCoelophysiscould have run? (in km/hr)

A

64.4 km/hr

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15
Q

What size were fully grownCoelophysisrelative to most adult dinosaurs?

A

2m long, they were small compared to others.

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16
Q

How can paleontologists tell how old a specificCoelophysiswas when it died?

A

Growth rings like tree rings of the bones.

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17
Q

What specific evidence suggests thatCoelophysismay have been a cannibal? Why does further study bring this hypothesis in to question?

A

Presence of bones in the belly of one of the specimens. Questioning the hypothesis: the bones didn’t look like a dino’s and they seemed to belong to another creature related to crocs.

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18
Q

How can we tell the external appearance of a dino?

A

Reconstructing skeleton and adding muscles estimated by size of attachment areas on the bones and muscle scars left on bone surfaces.

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19
Q

How do we tell the texture of the skin?

A

Skin impressions have been found (on bones etc) and show that many dinos had scales in many patterns.

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20
Q

How do we tell the colour of the dino skin?

A

Many dinos have frills, fringes, crests, and feathers that acted as display features (probably brightly colored). Colour is produced by the pigment melanin in structures called melanosomes. Different shapes melanosomes are responsible for different colours.

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21
Q

Describe the Psittacosaurus.

A

Small bipedal dino about the size of a gazelle common in Asia in Early Cretaceous.

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22
Q

Describe the colour pattern called countershading.

A

Light under, dark on top.

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23
Q

What does the shading on the animal’s body suggest about where it lived? Why?

A

Environment with diffuse light like a forest. Matched camo that worked best in forested environment.

24
Q

Why was this type of shading likely to protect against predators?

A

The pattern counter-illuminates the body, making the animal look flat to the eye.

25
Q

How could further research in to color patterns help us better understand predators?

A

Help us understand how predators could perceive the environment.

26
Q

Which group of dinos could have developed flight independent of birds?

A

Dromaeosaurs (small forms like Microraptor).

27
Q

Which dino could have burrowed underground?

A

Oryctodromeus. Found in southwest Montana. Other dino burrows were found in Cretaceous rocks from Australia. Was probably really cold in that area.

28
Q

What are not dinosaurs?

A

Ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs. They are marine reptiles.

29
Q

Describe the Spinosaurus.

A

Fish eating dinos that may have been semi aquatic. Mister Big.

30
Q

Could the sail ofSpinosaurushave been used as a heat regulator or as storage for fat? Why, or why not?

A

No because it was tightly wrapped with few blood vessels and thin spines.

31
Q

What could the sail have been used for?

A

Display.

32
Q

What kind of environment didSpinosauruslive in, and what did the animal eat?

A

Water and fish.

33
Q

What are three pieces of evidence from the skeleton that were used to answer the previous question?

A

Nostrils were high, barrel-shaped torso, density of ribs and bones were of an aquatic animal, legs for paddling, teeth to kill fish.

34
Q

How do the researchers explain the presence of so many large predators in the Kem Kem beds when there are so few large terrestrial plant eaters?

A

Sampling error.

35
Q

How is it possible to findSpinosaurusfossils in the Sahara Dessert today?

A

It used to be a river system.

36
Q

How to tell if dino was a carnivore or herbivore?

A

Teeth.

37
Q

What do we find sometimes in the stomachs of herbivores?

A

Gastroliths.

38
Q

What are some possibilities of hunting strategies of carnivores?

A

Running down prey and killing swiftly like cats, ambushing and waiting for animal to die, maybe in packs.

39
Q

How could we get clues about how they hunted?

A

Dino tracks and comparing brains. Ex. Allosaurus brains look like crocodilian brains. Olfactory bulbs were large for good sense of smell but the area for processing data was small. So Al probably just smelled prey and went for it.

40
Q

What happened at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Utah?

A

79 dinos found with 2/3 being allosaurs. It was a trap where the area was a muddy watering hole that had rotting flesh that attracted dinos.

41
Q

Who is Big Al and what period did he live in?

A

Allosaurus found in Howe Quarry in Wyoming and Jurassic (145 Ma)

42
Q

In what type of sedimentary environment was he preserved?

A

River channel deposit.

43
Q

Who are Big Al’s closest living relatives?

A

Crocs, alligators, birds

44
Q

How long did it take for an allosaur to grow to full size?

A

6-8 years.

45
Q

Were allosaur brains more like birds or alligators?

A

Alligators.

46
Q

Other than brain shape, what also suggests that allosaur feeding behavior may have been similar to that of alligators?

A

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry.

47
Q

What do paleontologists think caused Big Al’s death?

A

Drought, injury, thirst. Flood sediments buried him.

48
Q

Do dinosaurs show parenting skills?

A

There is evidence that some dinos cared for their young. It came from a discovery in Western Montana at Egg Mountain. Discovered by Jack Horner.

49
Q

What was found on Egg Mountain?

A

Eggs and eggshells. Some eggs had junveniles and the nests were made by the Maiasaura. The nests were close together like a colony.

50
Q

Were dinos warm-blooded?

A

They were thought to be like reptiles, ectotherms, slow etc. Bob Bakker, however, proposed that they were endotherms and active.

51
Q

How did posture and gate provide ideas?

A

Ectotherms like lizards have a sprawling gate and endotherms like birds have their limbs under their bodies. This observation is fairly weak though.

52
Q

How did bone structure provide ideas?

A

Numerous channels through a dino bone can be for blood vessels, a characteristic for endotherms.

53
Q

How did oxygen isotopes provide ideas?

A

As endotherms maintain stable temp, the ratio of the two isotopes should be the same throughout the skeleton. T. Rex skeleton shows this.

54
Q

How do predator-prey relationships provide ideas?

A

Endotherms need to eat a lot more so we need an ecosystem that can support many predators. The results of an analysis do suggest endothermy.

55
Q

What is the alternate metabolism for sauropods.

A

They were huge and would have generated a lot of heat, so they may have had their own metabolism called gigantothermy.

EOSC 116 (7 decks)

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