Dinosaurs
By Tisharn and Marlene
Paleontologist
A palaeontology is a scientist that studies on ancient things including dinosaurs.
Did you know that Joan Wiffen was the First person that found a fossil in new zealand When she found one she became famous. other people like Richard Owen and Mary Anning. People found a one big fossil they didn’t know What it was so they send it to London,England were Richard Owen was. He looks at it.It was the biggest Animal on Earth it was called Moa. Mary Anning grew up in lyme regis on england’s south coast, an area known for its unusual fossils and shells. Because her family was poor.
Fossils
Fossils are dead animals or plants. They are usually skeletons found embedded in rock. Sometimes fossils are footprints or poo. Small animals or insects get stuck in tree sap which hardens and traps them forever. Large animals can get trapped in ice, or their carcass gets trapped in layers of rock. Over thousands of years, pressure builds up and the ground. Next the mould left is filled with minerals that form rock. This rock shape is the fossil - an exact replica of the dinosaurs. This process takes 10,000 years. Palaeontologists find fossils when the top layer of dirt or rock washes away.
Age of dinosaurs
The triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million from the end of the permian period 251.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the to the Jurassic Period 201.3 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era.
200 Million years ago small mammals appear,150 Million years ago birds evolved from dinosaurs and 130 Million years ago First snakes evolved from lizards.
What were dinosaurs like?
Dinosaurs that had 2 feet were called bipedal and 4 feet dinosaurs were called quadruped. The 4 types of groups were called Theropods,sauropods,ankylosaur and pterosaur. Avian(birds) is a dinosaur that is a flying reptile,Dinosaurs ruled the land while the pterosaurs ruled the sky. Non Avian are not birds,they are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are not lizards because lizards legs are on the side of their body but dinosaurs legs are under their bodies,and dinosaurs have a hole in their skull unlike a lizard. Dinosaurs have modifications (which means changes) such as spikes, armour, horns or crests. For example a Triceratops have horns and crest to protect them. Sauropods and ankylosaur are herbivores (only eat plants),Tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptor are carnivores (only meat eaters). Ornithomimus and Oviraptor were omnivores(meat and plant eaters) and they also ate eggs and insects. All dinosaurs have babies by laying eggs,but if the dinosaur that is looking after the egg is gone to get food it moves the egg and the rest of the clade (Family) looked after the egg. Some dinosaurs were small and some dinosaurs were big. For example A t rex is 40 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet long.A Xixianykus is 20 cm tall and 50 cm long.T rex could run 45 miles per hour and a velociraptor can run 64 km per hour.
Extinction event
An extinction event is something when all the animals die and there is no more left.
66 million years ago a meteor hit the earth and it made earthquakes also volcanic eruptions. The other thing people think is that the dinosaurs froze and starved to death.
Age of mammals
Cenzosoic Era means Age of mammals. It is made up of three time periods; Palaeogene period (65-23 mya), Neogene period (23- 2.6 mya) and Quaternary period (2.6-0 mya). Hominins (Humans that walked on 2 feet)Hominins were humans that could start walking on 2 feet, Humans arrived in New Zealand was in the Quaternary period. The other mammals that were living in neogene period was Alligator, mammoth, crocodiles, turtles and other kinds of snakes. The Titanoboa was as long as a bus,it was also the top of the food chain and when it eats it constraints its prey.
