Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs

By Moana and Langiola

Palaeontologists

Paleontologists are people that studies on dinosaurs.

Mary Anning was born in 1799 and found a plesiosaur

fossil that was almost complete and in 1828 she found

a pterosaur fossil she found it in Lyme Regis and found some

in England, in 1829 Mary discovers the fossil of an extinct

fish called a squaloraja and in 1847 Mary Anning died

because she had cancer. Joan Wiffen was born in 4 of

Feb 1922 and she found the first dinosaur in New Zealand

then she found a small bone in Mangahouanga Stream,

a few days later Dr Ralph confirmed in 1980 that  she

had found a tailbone from a theropod then Joan made

many more amazing discoveries over the following years.

Richard Owen was born in 20 of July 1804 and he is

married to Caroline Amelia and they had 1 son named

William Owen, Richard Owen discovered a Fossil

Animal and he died in 18 December 1892.

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 rocks. 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 of all rock washes all away. 

Age Of Dinosaurs

The Mesozoic Era is also known as the

Age of Dinosaurs, this is when dinosaurs lived.

The Age of Dinosaurs is made up of 3 time periods.

Triassic Period (251-200 million years ago),

Jurassic Period (200-146 million years ago),

Cretaceous Period (146-65 million years ago).

200 mya: Small mammals appear. 150 mya: Birds

evolve from dinosaurs. 140 mya: First flowering

plants appear, 130 mya: First snakes evolve from

lizards and 65 mya: Dinosaurs die out.

What were dinosaurs like?

Some dinosaurs stand on 2 feet and

some stand on 4 feet. These are the 4

types of dinosaurs Theropod, Sauropod,

Thyreophorid, and Cerapod. Some dinosaurs

are a carnivore eater and some are a herbivore

eater but some dinosaurs are an omnivore eater.

Some dinosaurs are birds means Avian but some

dinosaurs are not birds means Non Avian. Dinosaurs

can run fast but some can’t run. Some dinosaurs had

slow metabolisms which means they could only walk

slowly as they didn’t have a lot of energy. Some had a

fast metabolism so they had a lot of energy to run fast.

Metabolism means the way your body converts food to

energy. Dinosaurs have a hole at the back of their eye

but reptiles don’t have a hole at the back of their eye

and reptiles are warm-blooded. Warm-blooded means

when your blood temperature always stays the same.

Some Dinosaurs live with a family like the theropods and

dinosaurs lay eggs.

Extinction Event

66 million years ago, there was

an extinction event which killed

all the dinosaurs. 

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Age of Mammals

Cenozoic Era is also known as the

Age of Mammals. It is made of 3

time periods. Paleogene Period

(65-23 Mya), Neogene period

(23-2.6 Mya) and Quaternary

Period (2.6-0 Mya). During the

paleogene period, large mammals

appear, including horses and

camels. During the Neogene period,

Hominins (the ancestors of humans)

begin to walk on two legs. During the

Quaternary Period Modern humans evolved.