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Dinosaur FAQ


The way I see it there's so many questions with dinosaurs there should be a FAQ at dinosaurfact.net. So, I've created a question sheet here, and these are answered by my own knowledge. Please keep is mind I am no expert. Just an enormous fan.

When Were dinosaurs found?
from 250 million yrs ago up until 65 million yrs. There were life forms much earlier but they were not dinosaurs. They were during a timeline called "Early life". The creatures were reptiles, bugs, fish, shell fish, and so on. Later on after the cretaceous era(65 million) years ago dinosaur fossil dating never went past. It was as if they all just vanished off the face of the planet.

Where did dinosaurs Come from?
Huh.......Actually it a pretty simple concept called evolution. Through millions of years creatures started to evolve and become more and more adjusted to different area's of the world. With this they went through major changes. I realize this is pretty hard to believe but things do evolve over a very long period of time. Its very hard to track but there's even traces in humans where we have evolved a little bit from 100yrs ago. Supposedly humans are averaging shorter than 100yrs ago.

What did dinosaurs eat?
Their were herbivores and Carnivores. Herbivores ate plants, leaves, vegetables, nuts, etc. The carnivores hunted and ate other dinosaurs and animals.

Will We Ever See a Live Dinosaur?
I predict never. Even though it would be as cool as ever 99% of the world is sure that they are extinct. There is a rumor that deep in a Africa jungle there is a few lurking around, but that has about as much proof as big foot (none). Obviously a satilitte Would've captured this.

Are all fossil animals dinosaurs?
Heck no. There was fish, ancient tigers, mammals, sharks, insects. A bunch of weird looking fossils of lifeforms have been found. I was really fascinated of the prehistoric dragonfly. You should really look it up. It was huge.

Did people and dinosaurs live at the same time?
The bible says yes, but scientists have never found Homo sapiens human relatives only as early as the Ice Age which was 1.75 years ago. Dinosaurs were long gone leaving a gap of about 64 million years.

Where did dinosaurs live?
Everywhere in the world. Some where found in Canada, US, UK, China, France, etc. Not only that but some in the ocean an others in the desert. They were scattered along the planet.
Did all the dinosaurs live together, and at the same time?: No, species here and there became extinct between timeline Era's. They were not all bunched together. The dinosaurs of the triassic era where a lot smaller and probably evolved or died off by the time of the cretaceous era.

How are dinosaurs named?
Usually they are named by a certain unique feature of their fossils and they are all named in Greek. The reason I wouldn't know.

What was the biggest dinosaur? What was the smallest?
The Biggest known dinosaur is the brachiosaurus. It was 40 feet tall. The smallest was the compsognathus. It was close to the size of a chicken.

How many types of dinosaurs are known?
Over 800 confirmed and over 2000 un-confirmed. The difference between the two is that confirmed means that there were full body fossils found, and un-confirmed means that only partial body parts were found.

Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
This is a major debate. There isn't any proof to help scientists to know for sure. It's a debate. I for one would say that they were warm blooded because some of them moved very fast and cold blooded life forms have problems with controlling their temperature. A large thing like a dinosaur could never make it being cold blooded.

What is the fastest dinosaur?
ornithomimids are thought to be the fastest because their bodies were built just like the common ostridge.

Did dinosaurs communicate?
Yes, I'm sure of it. Certain dinosaurs like the Liliensternus had crests on their head with hollow air channels. inside them. Because ever dinosaur had a unique sized and shaped crest it was obvious that all of these dinosaurs had a unique sound.

Was there an earlier pre-dinosaur period of mammal dominance?
Yes, there was a pre-dinosaur Period. It was called "Mesozoic Period". The Mesozoic is divided into three time periods: the Triassic (245-208 Million Years Ago), the Jurassic (208-146 Million Years Ago), and the Cretaceous (146-65 Million Years Ago). Mesozoic means "middle animals", and is the time during which the world fauna changed drastically from that which had been seen in the Paleozoic. Dinosaurs, which are perhaps the most popular organisms of the Mesozoic, evolved in the Triassic, but were not very diverse until the Jurassic. Except for birds, dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Some of the last dinosaurs to have lived are found in the late Cretaceous deposits of Montana in the United States. The Mesozoic was also a time of great change in the terrestrial vegetation. The early Mesozoic was dominated by ferns, cycads, ginkgophytes, bennettitaleans, and other unusual plants. Modern gymnosperms, such as conifers, first appeared in their current recognizable forms in the early Triassic. By the middle of the Cretaceous, the earliest angiosperms had appeared and began to diversify, largely taking over from the other plant groups. Yes there were giant Reptiles of of sea and a fair bit of land animals that were large, However, when Dinosaurs first started to appear from the Triassic Period, many in the later Periods like the Cretaceous were much more bigger.

Did dinosaurs have the emotion of love or were they just like normal animals?
I doubt they felt the actual concept of love. The Parasaurolophus was a group dinosaur which had cranial crest which looked like a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull. It also had hollow chambers that did connect near where the voice chamber would've been which means they did use unique sounds as no tube fossil of this dinosaur has ever been the same. I think it's probably a matter of attraction and not love, though. Kind of like the Buffalo or something in groups we see today. They did have preferences but probably not love.

If dinosaurs survived would we still be on top of the food chain?Impossible. The honest truth is the lifeform that is the smartest is always the successful in building up their stronghold to the existance of their species. Dinosaurs are proven to be not as efficiant thinkers than humans. Not even close. One of the smartest dinosaurs was the Nigersaurus and actually it's a belief by some that this dinosaur could've created the first chain to their extinction. Regardless of the fact that they are stronger and higher on the food chain it's not possible. Think of it this way...We have Bears in the forrests of Canada and US. They are much higher on the food chain. Do we hail to them?

Were dinosaurs social animals?
Yes, Some dinosaur fossils were found in huge herds while others were always alone so the chances are great that they were social.

Carrie Brown Asked: If dinosaurs were reptiles, then why do their skeletons look more like a mammel? Also, since they were suppose to be reptiles, did they have a forked tongue like so many reptiles have today?
The truth is dinosaurs are more commonly believed to be avian than reptilian. There are many reptiles today that do not have the characteristic you are talking about. Such as alligators which do not have forked tongues either. Generally, they don't look more like mammals. The feature you're probably thinking of is the position of the legs, as they hang relatively straight down from the hips, and that is more in line with both birds and mammals than with other reptiles. That similaritiy with mammals is merely superficial. However I'm not going to say you are wrong becuase there is no real proof that it is not true.

 

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Justin Giroux (the owner of this site) does take questions as a request to answer them and add them to this list. If you have a dinosaur question that interests you you can E-mail it at raptor@dinosaurfact.net However it may take a week or so before I list it.

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