Misconceptions?
• Dinosaurs represent failure and extinction.
• Dinosaurs and "humans" coexisted.
• Dinosaurs were either all hot-blooded or all cold-blooded.
• Whatever you read in the latest "dinosaur book” or see on
T.V. or in the movies must be true.
• Dinosaurs all lived and died at the same time.
• Mammals arose after the dinosaurs, and helped drive the dinosaurs into
extinction by eating dinosaur eggs.
• An asteroid (or comet) killed the dinosaurs.
• All big reptiles from the prehistoric past ["Monsters"] are
dinosaurs.
• Archaeologists dig up dinosaurs.
What is a Dinosaur?
• What were the dinosaurs?
• terrestrial reptiles
• one of the most successful groups of organisms that have ever lived
Dinosaurs and Reptiles?
• How are they related to the other reptiles?
• More advanced than most living reptiles
• one of the distinguishing features = stance
Major Groups of Dinosaurs
• What are the major groups?
• the “lizard hip” and “bird hip” dinosaurs
Dinosaur Biology
• How much can we ever know?
• What did they really look like?
• feathers and scales
• color?
• What was their metabolism like?
Dinosaur Biology
• How do we know what they ate?
• Teeth
• coprolites
Dinosaur Biology
• Technology
• How smart were the dinosaurs?
• Did they make any sound?
Dinosaur Behavior
• How did they reproduce, and did they care for their young?
• Eggs and nests
• adult fossils on the nest
• several generations of offspring near nest site
Dinosaur Behavior
• How did they move?
– Quadripeds vs. Bipeds
– Stance
• How fast did they run?
– Study modern animals
– Trackways
• Other Behaviors?
What happened to the dinosaurs?
• K/T Mass Extinction
• How did this happen?
– The Alvarez Hypothesis - Asteroid Impact
What happened to the dinosaurs?
• Evidence for an asteroid impact
• The crater site
• iridium
• ”shocked quartz”
• Spherules - small glass beads