GEL 107 Final Flashcards
What are the eight major group of dinosaurs?
- They are divided into 5 and 3 based on the hip group
- They are divided into Orinthischia
- 1-5: Orinthischia/ Bird-Hip Group
1. Pachycephalpsauria
2. Ceratopsia
3. Ornthiopoda
4. Anyklyosauria
5. Stegosauria - 6-8: Saurichia/ Lizard-Hip Group
6. Prosaurapoda
7. Sauraopoda
8. Theropoda
Which major group was available to Owen?
Ornithopoa
Ankylosauria
Therapoda
Pachycephalosauria (Ornithischia)
- Tiny brain
- Bony skull
- No osteocytes in skull bone
Ceratposia(Ornithischia)
- Parrot-like beak
- Initially bipedal
- Began with no horns, but Head increased in size so it became quadrupedal
one above nose and 2 above the eyes
•2 Possibilities
1. Nose horn is bigger than eyes
2. Grew horns much further on eyes than nose
•up to 9 meters
•huge and heavy
Ornithopoda (Ornithischia)
- Initially bipedal/small
- Strange crest structures
- Dinosaur cows
- Iguanadon
•duck like bills for chopping off plant leaves
Ankylosauria (Ornithischia)
- Body armor
- Osteoderms
- Tail club
- Shoulder spines (for protection from predators)
Stegosauria (Ornithischia)
- Large spines on back, then plates
- Lots of blood vessels in plates
- More for heat dispersion than protection
Prosauropoda (Saurischia)
- Couldn’t grind food well
- Could stand up
Sauropoda (Saurischia)
- Necks were usually long and horizontal
- Very long body, big nose
- 2 groups; short neck, big nose and long neck, long tail (most well known long neck, long tail = Apatosaurus, has most complete skeleton)
Therapoda (Saurischia)
- Bipedal
- Mostly carnivores
- Most well known therapodas:
A) Coelophysis - oldest dinosaur in the US; -small, slender dinosaurs
•ate insects and lizards
B) Tyrannosaurus
C) Oviraptor
D) Velociraptor
E) Archaeopteryx
Was there a herbivorous therapod dinosaur?
Yes
Example:
Dromiceiomimus had small head and no teeth (carnivores usually have big heads to tear meat off), this dinosaur probably had a beak
Oviraptor and Axalausarus – herbivores
What are the amniotes?
Any vertebrate of the group of Amniota, comprising the reptiles, birds, and mammals, characterized by having an amnion during the embryonic stage.
—-Amnion: Protects embryo from toxin or CO2 outside
Amniotes share amniotic eggs.
What were the first 3 dinosaurs to be named? Who discovered them?
A) Megalosaurus – first found
B) Iguanodon
C) Hylaeosaurus
What is the “Dinosaur War”?
“War” between Edward Drinker Cope and Charles Marsh in a race to discover fossil in the western United States. They both were heirs to wealthy families and funneled vast sums of money in their pursuits of uncovering enormous collections of fossils.
Famous example of their dispute:
Elasmosaurus
- Cope thought it had an elongated tail
- Marsh thought it had an elongated neck
When did dinosaurs appear and what kind?
Late Triassic
-Using human history, we know that during the Late Triassic, the only dinosaur or oldest dinosaur was the Staurikosauraus
-it was incomplete
-the exact position was not noted in detail at the time
-Covert laid there and watched the stars in the sky and this is how the name was invented
-Later on, in the early 90s and late 80s
-a fossil hunter finds new fossils everywhere he went
***he found several nice skeletons of an animal called Herrerasaurus
•it was 3-4 m long
•today we consider this animal to be the oldest dinosaur because it comes from the lowest level of the rock
The Oldest Dinosaurs include: 1. Staurikosauraus 2.Herrerasaurus - OLDEST 3.Eoraptor •related to saurodomorpha •much smaller dinosaur 4. Eodromaeus
Dinosaurian Features: Dinosauria features vs. Actual dino features
Reasons for recognizing Dinosauria
•at least five fused vertebrae in the pelvis (five is the later number but the number at the beginning could be as small as 2)
•held their limbs under the body (clear that they stood)
-pleisomorhpy
•terrestrial, not aquatic (before the discovery of dinosaurs people knew of sea monsters)
-pleisomorphy (others were already doing it)
Today we know other Features to characterize dinosaurs
- widely open hip socket
- lack of prefrontal bone
- S-shaped neck (like birds)
- originally bipedal (pleisomorphy)- not as important
- very small heel bone
What are the major types of trace fossils?
A) Coprolites - fossilized feces B) Trackway - fossilized tracks •trackway is a series of footprints and footprint refers to a single footprint C) Ejecta - fossilized vomit D) Nests and Burrows
What can trackway fossils tell us?
- Walking/Running Speed Estimation
-it is based on the stride length: distance between the same sided footprints
-pace: length between the right and left footprint
-if the stride length is longer the speed must be faster
•if you combine multiple species the line blurs because there is no line to correlate stride length to the speed
•to unify these lines, you can convert the x and y axis to relative number
-they used the leg length and divide the stride length by the leg length to get dimensionless speed. You can then use stride length to get stride length, use hip height to get speed
•Large theropods did not have fast speeds
•smaller theropods seemed to be slightly faster
•giant theropods were slower
-The fastest estimated speed for dinosaurs come from a single trackway
•tracked walking and running
•walk: under shoulders
•run: in center of body while one foot is off
•as theropods got bigger they could not run, because they did not have muscles to run - Foot Motion
-look at footprint sizes
•cane be used to determine the number of species
•you can confirm this by making birds walk on substrate and observe how the feet get into the substrate and you get something similar to what you see in the footprint fossils
•depending on the substance of the substrate, you get many different types of footprints and that can explain the variation
•making a 3d/ CT scanner you can recreate the motion of the foot - Posture
-trackway can tell us about the posture
•if you see handprints next to footprints its quadrupedal if not it is bipedal - Group Behavior (?)
-if you have a trackway fossil you may see a theropod footprint going in directions and based on this one person might infer there are 7 individuals of the same species going the same way and infer that this is group behavior
•instead dinosaurs could have collided, it just means the surface was wet for a long time so any dinosaur could come and leave tracks, so it could be the same dinosaur on different days
-it is hard to establish group behavior on the trackway alone - Body Mass (?)
-you think that if you are heavier you footprint is deeper
-a single footprint can give many different body masses
•it is next to impossible to come up with a body mass from a footprint
•THIS is the LEAST likely thing that can be inferred from trackway and the next worse is group behavior
GEL107F: Which is not an Ornithischia? A) Anklyosauria B) Ceratopsia C) Pachyecephalosauria D) Prosauropoda
D) Prosauropoda
GEL107F: Which of the following is NOT a lissamphibians? A) Caudata B) Gymnophiona C) Salienta D) Squamata
D) Squamata
GEL107F: When did pelycosaurs appear? A) Devonian B) Carboniferous C) Permian D) Triassic
B) Carboniferous
Which one of the following is not among the three living groups of mammals? A) Marsupials B) Monotremes C) Morganucodontids D) Placentals
C) Morganucodontids
GEL107F:
Dinosaur rivalry was between:
Marsh (neck) and Cope (tail)
GEL107F: Which one is NOT an amniote? A) Bull Frog B) Crow C) Monitor Lizard D) Orangutan
A) Bull Frog
GEL107F:
Where is the evidence of extensive volcanism during K/T extinction located today?
Russia
Which is inappropriate evidence for bolide impact during K/T extinction? A) Burned Dino bones B) Chicxulub Crater C) Iridium Spike D) Shocked Quartz E) Spherule and tektite
A) Burned Dino Bones
GEL107F:
Number of mass extinctions?
5
GEL107F:
Hominid Sister Group?
Chimpanzees
GEL107F:
What is the largest Mesozoic marine reptile?
Ichthyosaur
GEL107F:
Oldest lissamphibian fossil?
Frog from the lower triassic
Then caudata in Late Jurassic
GEL107F:
What did not become extinct in K/T extinction?
Ichthyosaurs and many mammals
