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Paleo 201 > Week 1 - Appearance and Anatomy > Flashcards

Week 1 - Appearance and Anatomy Flashcards

1
Q

What is a paleontologist?

A

A person who studies dinosaurs

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2
Q

What does the term ‘fossil’ mean?

A

“dug up”, any evidence of ancient life

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3
Q

What era did dinos live in?

A

Mesozoic era

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4
Q

How are bones considered adaptations?

A
  1. resist gravity and maintain an animal’s form
  2. provide a rigid framework for muscle attachment
  3. provide protection and can be major components of horns and other weapons
  4. bones store minerals such as calcium
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5
Q

Why are bones more likely to fossilize?

A

They do not rot away as quickly as muscle fibres, hair or feathers

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6
Q

What is an adapatation?

A

Features or traits that serve particular functions and are the result of evolution

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7
Q

What are the descendants of dinos?

A

birds

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8
Q

What sauropods are the tallest, longest, and heaviest?

A

tallest = giraffatitan
longest = diploclocus
heaviest = argentinosaurus

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9
Q

Why is mass hard to estimate?

A
  • skeletons are usually not complete
  • bones are mineralized –> heavier
  • don’t have other tissues
  • like birds, often have extensive air sac systems throughout their body
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10
Q

What are defining characteristics of vertebrates?

A

have a spine and skull

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11
Q

What are the major fenestrae found in vertebrates, specify where they are found in dinos

A
  • orbits = eye openings
  • nares = nose openings
  • laterotemporal fenestrae = behind the orbits of dinos, lateral side
  • supratemporal fenestrae = behind the orbits of dinos, on top of skull
  • antorbital fenestrae = between each orbit and naris of dinos
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12
Q

What is the brain case? Where is it located, any notable features?

A
  • brain case = hollow chamber formed by multiple bones that houses the brain
  • found in the rear of skull
  • contains small holes for nerves to pass through
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13
Q

What makes up the axial skeleton?

A

vertebrae

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14
Q

What are the components of vertebrae?

A

vertebrae = centrum + many posthesis + hole

  • centrum = disk
  • prosthesis = attach muscle
  • hole = room for spinal cord
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15
Q

Where is the neural arch found and what does it do?

A
  • found = above centrum
  • function = covers the neural canal
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16
Q

What is the neural canal?

A

opening through which spinal nerves run through

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17
Q

What are the functions of vertebral prosthesis? What are the different prosthesis and where are they found?

A

Functions:
- attachment for muscle
- surface for ribs

Types of prosthesis:
- transverse prosthesis –> extend from lateral side of the vertebrae
- spinous prosthesis –> extend upwards from the neural arch

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18
Q

What are the different vertebrae called?

A
  • neck vertebrae = cervical
  • back vertebrae = dorsal
  • hip vertebrae = sacral
  • tail vertebrae = caudal
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19
Q

What are differences between mammalian ribs and dino ribs?

A
  • mammals don’t have ribs in the rear portion of our body, dinos have ribs all the way to their pelvis
  • mammals don’t have gastralia (body ribs), dinos do
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20
Q

What do the shapes of vertebrae represent?

A

adaptations for flexibility and posture

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21
Q

What bones are found underneath caudal vertebrae and what do they do?

A

Chevrons –> protect a large blood and nerve channel and provide support for tail muscles

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22
Q

What makes up the appendicular skeleton?

A

limbs - arms and legs

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23
Q

How are arms and legs connected to the rest of the body?

A

via limb girdles:
- pectoral/ shoulder girdle
- hips/pelvis girdle

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24
Q

What is the scapula?

A

shoulder socket

25
Q

What is the acetabulum?

A

hip socket

26
Q

what do the shapes and proportions of bones in our body represent?

A

adaptations to the environment

27
Q

describe how the arm bones are similar and different between a human and tyrannosaurs

A

Similarity:
-same bones in humans and tyrannosaurs - humerous = upper arm bone –> same location and function in humans
- radius + ulna = lower arm bone that attach to humerous and wrist (carpals)

Differences:
- tyrannosaurs arm is bigger and has two main fingers
- phalanges in tyrannousaurs = two outer fingers became smaller and eventually disappeared, same with the middle finger (seen as a thin bone in the palm)
- large claws on fingers (fingernails in humans

28
Q

Describe the leg bones of dinos

A
  • femur = upper bones
  • tibia and fibula = lower bones
  • ankle (tarsals) = small and support long feet bones (metatarsals)
  • toes (phalanges): inside = small and doesn’t touch the ground; 2nd, 3rd, and 4th toes = support dinos weight; outer toe = lost in dinos
29
Q

What is the advantage of walking on your toes?

A

helps dinos take longer steps and run faster because leg length was effectively longer

30
Q

What are the three bones that make up the pelvis of dinos and which bone divides dinos into saurischians and ornithischians?

A
  1. ilium
  2. pubis (diff in saurischians and ornithischians)
  3. ischium
31
Q

Describe the features of the ilium (i.e which hip bone is it, functions, anatomical features)

A
  • upper hip bone
  • sacral vertebrae are fused here = sacrum
  • muscle attatchments at font –> go to the front of the leg and pull the leg forwards
  • muscle attachments at back –> go to tail and back of leg and pull the leg backwards
32
Q

Describe the features of the pubis (i.e which hip bone is it, functions, anatomical features)

A
  • middle hip bones
  • supports weight of animal when squatting on the ground
  • attaches muscle
  • in ornithischian dinos, the pubis reorientates itself back beside the ischium
33
Q

Describe the features of the ischium (i.e which hip bone is it, functions, anatomical features)

A
  • lower hip bone
  • attaches and orientates muscle
34
Q

Describe the orientation of the pubis bone in saurischians and ornithischians and if they are bird-hipped or lizard-hipped

A

Saurischians:
- lizard-hipped
- pubis facing foward

Ornithischians:
- bird-hipped
- pubis facing backward (might have small projection facing forward)

35
Q

Describe the defining features of sauropods

A
  • largest land animals to exist
  • long necks and tails
  • walked on all fours
  • limb bones are thick and look like columns
  • vertebrae are complex and many of them have cavities for air sacs
  • skulls are small compared to the rest of their body
  • teeth are simple and peg-like
36
Q

Describe the defining characteristics of theropods

A
  • highly diverse –> carnivores (sharp teeth vs toothless beaks), omniovores, herbivores, long snouts vs short snouts, horns over eyes vs over nose
  • walked on hindlegs
  • modern birds evolved from theropods
  • usually have 3 clawed fingers, but some had two fingers (e.g. T rex), or a single claw
37
Q

Describe the defining features of prosauropods

A
  • early group of herbivores
  • smaller
  • small heads and lock necks
  • grasping hands
  • walked on hind legs
38
Q

Describe some general features of ornithischians

A
  • bird hipped dinos (evolutionary convergence)
  • special bone in lower jaw = predentary
  • all herbivores
39
Q

What are some ornithischian adaptations to a vegetarian lifestyle?

A
  • predentary = forms a cropping beak in the front of the mouth –> slice off plant stems –> allowed teeth to become specialized for grinding and chewing (dental batteries)
  • backward pointing pubis –> more room for a larger GIT –> digest tough plant matter
40
Q

Describe some features of hadrosaurs

A
  • duck billed dinos
  • some bipeds and some quadrapeds
  • complex dentations for shearing and grinding plants (broad beaks)
  • flat vs elaborate crests on heads
  • hand encased in a mitten of skin
41
Q

Describe some features of igaunodons

A
  • evolved complex dentations for shearing and grinding plants (broad beaks)
  • had a spiky thumb
42
Q

Describe some features of ceratopsians

A
  • quadrapeds
  • shorter tails
  • frills at back of head
  • horns and spikes can develop on frills
  • many have horns over their eyes
  • narrow skulls
  • parrot like beak
43
Q

Describe some features of pachrhinosaurus

A
  • ceratopsian
  • nasal boss over its nose
  • superorbital boss
44
Q

Describe some features of pachycephalosaurs

A
  • high dome skull –> mostly bones, used as a marker to recognize each other, battering rams
  • smol brain
  • shorter legs –> don’t run fast
45
Q

Describe some features of stegosaurs

A
  • 4-legged –> front legs shorter than back
  • small, long, narrow skull
  • teeth are leaf-shaped
  • narrow beak
  • plates/spikes along the back –> formed via osteoderms
  • long tail –> spikes at the end
46
Q

Describe some features of ankylosaurs

A
  • armoured dinos –> osteoderms of many sizes and shapes
  • 4-legged
  • round fat bodies
  • blocky shaped
  • small, leaf shaped teeth
  • some had tail clubs
47
Q

How do we know that a dino has been mummified vs fossilized?

A

mummified dinos are rare and have lots of skin associated with the dino

48
Q

What are claws, beaks and feathers made of, and what is a consequence of this?

A

keratin - harder than flesh, but still rarely fossilized

49
Q

Name and describe some examples of feathered saurischians

A

Sinosuaroptyrex
- theropod
- body had feathers –> body was buried in volcanic ash –> preserves soft tissues

Yutyrannus
- large tyrannosaurid with feathers

50
Q

Name and describe some examples of feathered ornithischians

A

Psitiacosaurus:
- ceratopsian
- long bristle like structure on its tail

Tianyulong:
- had long filaments over most of its body

Kulindadomeus:
- bristle-like filaments
- branching feather like structures

51
Q

Why is volcanic ash and mud good for preserving details?

A

alters the chemistry of the water –> prevents decomposition by bacteria

52
Q

What dinos have we found scaly impressions of?

A

hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, stegosaurs, sauropods, don’t have impressions for pachycephalosaurs

53
Q

Describe characterisitics of osteoderms

A
  • formed completely within the dermis
  • cros and armidillos have osteoderms
  • some sauropods have osteoderms
54
Q

What are the advantages of osteoderms?

A
  • store calcium
  • gathers heat from sun (some had skin and blood vessels)
  • protection from bites and clawing predators
  • to look good
55
Q

What is feather colour influenced by?

A

the shape and arrangement of pigment cells called eumelanosomes

56
Q

Describe the different known arrangements of eumelanosomes and what colour they correspond to

A
  • long and narrow –> black and grey
  • short and wise –> brown and reddish brown
  • none –> white
  • narrow and aligned in same direction –> iridescence
57
Q

What lines of evidence tell us about muscles in dinos?

A
  • coprolite (poopies) from a tyrannosaur have the remains of muscle fibres
  • some fossils have preserved cartialginour tracheal rings in the throat and muscle fibres in the base of the tail
  • looking at the bones
58
Q

Describe how tyrannosaur bones have demonstrated soft anatomy

A

Upper arm bone:
- can see striations where muscles attach to the bone
- scars on bone –> where muscles attached and that those were powerful muscles

Femur:
- crest by the head –> lever for muscle attatchment to pull the dino forwards

59
Q

Describe how different positions of jaw muscles vary

A
  • e.g jaw muscles of tyrannosaurus are relativley short and broad and attached to the lower jaw muscle in a way to maximize bite force
  • e.g. longer jaw muscles of gigantosaur –> less powerful bite, but can close its jaws much faster

Paleo 201 (9 decks)

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