Transcript The Mesozoic Era best Robs

The
Mesozoic
Era
Dinosaurs
By: Mr. Litaker
Millions of
years ago,
Great beasts called
"dinosaurs" thundered
over the earth.
Yet, up until the last
century, when the
first dinosaur fossils
were discovered, no
one even imagined
such animals existed.
Dinosaurs
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Before there were any people there
were dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs were one of several kinds of
prehistoric reptiles that lived during the
Mesozoic Era the “Age of the Reptiles”
Mesozoic Era
•The Mesozoic Era began about 245 mya and ended 66 mya
•The were 3 Periods including
- Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous
•At the beginning of the Mesozoic, Pangaea had formed
•Breakup of Pangaea, a major geologic event, began in the late
TRIASSIC and continued thru the CRETACEOUS.
•Tethys Sea was a shallow embayment that separated India
and Asia.
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The name dinosaur comes
from the term Dinosauria,
which means terrible
lizards.
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Dinosaur is the name of a group of
prehistoric reptiles that ruled the earth
about 160 million years ago.
These animals died out millions of years
ago, but they have fascinated people
ever since they were first described in
the early 1800’s.
The Coelophysis
(below), a small
meat eater that
also walked on
three toes and
possessed hollow
bones much like
those found in
birds.
The
Dilophosaurus
(above), a large
carnivore that
walked on three
toes.
http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/triassic.htm
Brachiosaurus is one of the better known sauropods
http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/jurassic.htm
http://www.prehistory.com/timeline/cretace.htm
Kinds of
Dinosaurs
Allosaurus
Do you know
what the
Utah State
Fossil is?
Big Al
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Nickname: Different Lizard
Age: 160-145 million years ago during the
late Jurassic Period
Size: 35-40 feet long (as long as two big
Python snakes!)
Weight: Anywhere from 2 tons to over 5
tons
Characteristics: Sharp claws up to 6 inches
long. Teeth up to almost 4 inches long
Special Talents: Super smart compared to
other dinosaurs. Extremely fierce. Known
to attack other dinos twice his size.
The Utah State Fossil:
The Allosaurus
The allosaurus was
designated
the State Fossil in 1988. More allosaurus
specimens have been found in two of Utah's
quarries than any other dinosaur. Sixty
individuals, from
juveniles to adults, were found
at one site in Utah.
Where Dinosaurs Lived
•See the world as it looked during
the Jurassic Period!
•The Jurassic climate was warm
•The Air was damp, like a tropical forest
Paleontology
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Paleontology (PAY lee ahn TAHL uh jee), is
the study of animals, plants, and other
organisms that lived in prehistoric times
(more than 5,500 years ago). Fossil remains
of organisms occur in layers of sedimentary
rocks (rocks formed when mineral matter
settled out of air, ice, or water). The
organisms that are now fossils were alive
when the rocks were being formed. They
were buried and preserved as the layers of
rock piled up.
So what do you think
a Paleontologist is?
A paleontologist
is a scientist
who studies
paleontology,
learning about
the forms of life
that existed in
former geologic
periods, chiefly by
studying fossils.
Fossils are the reason we have most of this information. For
almost 200 years, paleontologists have been discovering fossils
all over the world. They’ve identified more than 330 different
kinds of dinosaur fossils. And every year, they find new
fossils. These fossils can tell us how big an animal grew, what
it ate, even how it died.
Dinosaur National Monument
Utah/Colorado
A stony frieze at one of the continent’s largest
and richest dinosaur quarries holds the bones of
beasts that ruled the Jurassic: stegosaurs,
allosaurs, apatosaurs and many more.
The first dinosaur to be described
scientifically was Megalosaurus
in 1824, by William Buckland.
Buckland (1784-1856) was a
British fossil hunter and
clergyman who discovered
some Megalosaurus fossils in
1819 and named the reptile
in 1824. It was the first dinosaur
ever described scientifically and
first theropod dinosaur discovered
(this is all in hindsight, because the dinosaurs had not yet
been recognized as a separate taxonomic group - the word
dinosaur hadn't even been invented yet).
Megalosaurus
Did They Have Colors?
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It is very difficult to figure out how the
dinosaurs sounded, how they behaved,
or what color they were.
Plant-Eaters
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Most dinosaurs were plant-eaters like:
Triceratops
What do we call plant-eaters?
Herbivores
Meat-Eaters
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Some were meat-eaters like:
T-Rex
What do we call meat-eaters?
Carnivores
The Food Chain
Meat-eating animals (carnivores like Tyrannosaurus rex)
get their energy by eating other animals, mostly plant-eating
animals (herbivores like Triceratops). The herbivores
get their energy by eating plants (like cycads).
Where Did Everybody Go?
You may have
noticed that there
are no dinosaurs
around these days.
In fact, there haven't
been any around for
about 66 million
years.
What is the most likely held
theory as to the Demise
(Disappearance of) the
Dinosaurs?
Well, we don’t know the real
absolute theory of how they became
extinct, but----
One thing for sure is……….
 We will have an incredible
time going back in time to
learn about these
marvelous creatures.
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