Zoom Dinosaurs DINOSAUR QUESTIONS

What does the word dinosaur mean? What does saurus mean?, What does deinos mean?	What color were the dinosaurs?	How (and when) did the dinosaurs go extinct?	How many dinosaurs were there?
What was the biggest dinosaur?	What was the smallest dinosaur?	Which dinosaur was the largest meat-eater?	Were there more plant-eaters or meat-eaters?
How many teeth did T. rex have (and how big were they)?	What is the oldest dinosaur ever found?	What was the first dinosaur ever found?	Did birds evolve from the dinosaurs?
Were there any flying dinosaurs?	Were there any swimming dinosaurs?	How do you know what the enemies of a dinosaur were?	What kind of habitats did the dinosaurs live in?

A: I don't know of any that allow young children. For a page of dinosaur digs, click here.

A: For a page on the ancient shark megalodon, click here.

A: For a page on Pteranodon, click here.

A: It varied by species. For a page on dinosaur eggs and reproduction, click here.

A: Some types of dinosaurs lived in herds - their fossils have been found in bonebeds in which many dinosaurs of the same species were found together. Some herding dinosaurs included Maiasaura, Styracosaurus, Hypsilophodon, Coelophysis, etc.

A: Most types of dinosaurs died in background extinctions (they couldn't adapt to changes that happened, like new competition from other animals, new predators, loss of food sources, disease, climate changes, etc.). Others died in mass extrinctions, when major changes occurred (from major tectontic activity, asteroid impact, etc.) and many groups went extinct around the same time. The last of the terrestrial dinosaurs went extinct around 65 million years ago in the K-T extinction, probably caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth.

A: For all the known dinosaur genera, click here (that is just the "A" page, click on the letters at the top of that page for the other letters).

A: Paleontologists study ancient life, including dinosaurs.

A: For a page on the woolly mammoth, click here.

A: For a Dryptosaurus fact sheet, click here.

A: Pteranodon lived during the late Cretaceous period, the same time that T. rex lived.

A: Ichthyosaurs was not a dinosaur - it was a marine reptile (it looked a bit like a dolphin) that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. No dinosaurs lived in California because most of California was underwater during much of the Mesozoic Era (when the dinosaurs lived). Only a few fragments of dinosaur bones (including a Nodosaur fragment and a few isolated hadrosaur bones of unidentified genera) have been found in California - these dinosaurs probably drowned elsewhere and were washed down river into the sea (which is now California) since these fossils are encrusted with marine organisms that lived on them during the Cretaceous period. For a list of dinosaur finds listed state by state, click here.

A: No one knows exactly how old dinosaurs got to be, but it is estimated that the large sauropods, like Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus), probably got to be about 100 years old.

A: Corythosaurus was about 30-33 feet (9-10 m) long, 6.6 feet (2 m) tall at the hips, and may have weighed up to 5 tons.. Click here for more informationon Corythosaurus.

A: They were only answering questions during July, 2001.

A: Dinosaurs appeared during the Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) and the last of the dinosaurs went extinct during the late Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago during the K-T extinction).

A: For a page on Utahraptor, click here.

A: Liopleurodon fossils have been found in England, France, Germany, and parts of Eastern Europe (which used to be shallow seas). Liopleurodon was about 39-49 ft (12-15 m) long); it is the biggest-known plesiosaur. Even bigger was Mosasaurus, the biggest-known mosasaur; it was from 40-59 ft. feet (12.5-17.6 m) long.

A: Velociraptor was up from 5 to 6 feet (1.5-2 m) long and 3 ft (1 m) tall at the hips.

A: Giganotosaurus [13.5-14.3 m long] may have been slightly longer then Carcharodontosaurus [8-14 m long], but this is not all at certain; only one incomplete Carcharodontosaurus fossil is available for measurement - not much of a population sample.

A: Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) was about 70-90 feet (21-27 m) long and about 10-15 feet (3-4.6 m) tall at the hips. For more information on Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus, click here.

A: The dinosaurs had bones that were made from the same material as our bones (mostly hard calcium phosphate plus a slightly flexible collagen matrix) - not rubber. Brachiosaurus did NOT walk on tree branches.

A: Most paleontologists take Eoraptor to be a very early dinosaur.

A: The Triassic period ended with a mass extinction accompanied by huge volcanic eruptions about 208-213 million years ago. The supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart. 35% of all animal families die out, including virtually all labyrinthodont amphibians, conodonts, and all marine reptiles except ichthyosaurs. Most synapsids, which had dominated the Permian and early Triassic, went extinct (except for the mammals). Most of the early, primitive dinosaurs also went extinct, but other, more adaptive dinosaurs evolved in the Jurassic.

No one is certain what caused this late Triassic extinction; possibilities include global cooling or an asteroid impact. A 210 million-year-old meteor cratersurrounding Manicouagan Reservoir, Quebec, Canada, may be the remains of the culprit.

A: No dinosaurs lived in California. For a list of dinosaur finds listed state by state, click here.

A: That was the Permian Extinction (which occurred about 248 million years ago); it was the biggest mass extinction ever.

A: Most of the enormous sauropods lived during the Jurassic period.

A: No, some parts of what is now the USA were underwater when the dinosaurs lived (the Mesozoic Era). During this time, the Earth was warmer and there was no polar ice, so the sea level was higher. This left parts of the USA a shallow sea.

A: T. rex's closest relatives were other tyrannosaurids (meat-eating dinosaurs with small arms and two-fingered hands). Since the birds evolved from the dinosaurs, birds are the closest living relatives to the dinosaurs.

A: No one knows what color Brachiosaurus was. It was an herbivore (a plant-eater) that probably ate leaves from the tops of trees.

A: Pterodactylus grew to have a wingspan of up to about 2.5 to 3.1 foot (0.75 - 1 m) wide wingspan. It could no pick up a baby Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus is now called Apatosaurus). For a page on Pterodactylus, click here.

A: Thanks - for a page of dinosaur links, click here.

A: For a page on Velociraptor, click here.

A: That was Dilophosaurus, but it wasn't a spitter in reality. For information on Dilophosaurus, click here.

A: Most walk, some slither (like snakes and legless lizards), some glide, some swim (like Ichthyosaurs), and some fly (like pterosaurs).

A: Not any more than a bird would be the friensd of a cow.

A: Yes, including Atlascopcosaurus, Austrosaurus, Fulgurotherium, Kakuru, Leaellynasauria, Minmi, Muttaburrasaurus, Ozraptor, "Qantassaurus," Rapator, Rhoetosaurus, Timimus, Walgettosuchus. For a page on dinosaur fossils from Australia, click here.

A: Velociraptor was about 5 to 6 feet long (1.5-2 m), and 3 feet tall (1 m). It may have weighed about 15 to 33 pounds (7 to 15 kg).. For more information on Velociraptor, click here.

A: Therizinosaurs include: Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, Alxasaurus elesitaiensis, Beipiaosaurus inexpectus, Erlikosaurus andrewsi and Segnosaurus galbinensis.

A: The dinosaur Minmi was found in the Bungil Formation, near Roma, Queensland, Australia.

A: The biggest known plesiosaur is Liopleurodon (Kronosaurus used to be the biggest known).

A: For a list of all the dinosaurs Marsh named (quite a long list), click here.

A: Most biologists agree that DNA, which is relatively fragile, would not be stable for many millions of years (the last of the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago). Even if dinosaur DNA could be found in a mosquito encased in amber, the DNA would be too degraded to clone a dinosaur.

A: The dinosaurs lived from about 230 million to 65 million years ago.

A: No one knows what dinosaur population figures were, or even how many genera (genera is the plural of genus) or species there were. Almost 1,000 genera of dinosaurs have been found, but these are probably only a fraction of those that existed. Also, most genera were probably represented by many, many species, and each species had unknown population numbers.

A: No, it does not say that. It says, "Tylosaurs (including Mosasaurus and Hainosaurus) were the largest mosasaurs." Mosasaurus is a type of tylosaur - it belongs to the Subfamily Tylosaurinae, as does Tylosaurus. I've fixed the length figures, which were outdated.

A: We've just added a Eustreptospondylus fact sheet - click here.

A: Othniel Marsh named Claosaurus agilis (Marsh, 1872) (originally called Hadrosaurus), Nodosaurus textilis (Marsh, 1889), both of which were found in the Niobara Chalk Formation in Kansas (many of Marsh's fossils were found by his fossil collectors).

A: We've just added a Therizinosaurus fact sheet - click here.

A: Baryonyx walkeri was found by William Walker (the species name walkeri was given to honor Wm. Walker). Bary in the dinosaur's name means heavy in Greek. Only one partial skeleton has been found (in Surrey, England).

A: The main problem with carbon dating is the existence of cranks who dislike science and would rather return to a more medieval way of life. Carbon dating is based on basic physics - isotopes of elements decay into more stable forms over time (there have never been any irregularities observed in the process of radioisotope decay). There is nothing in doubt about radioisotope decay - it's as inevitable as death, taxes, and the lunatic fringe.

A: Not only did they live in different lications, they were also separated by millions of years. I don't know who would have won - they were pretty evenly matched and would probably both damage each other quite a bit (although Spinosaurus might have been a bit larger than T. rex).

A: Yes, they are all archosaurs (a type of reptile), but the crocodilians evolved even earlier than the dinosaurs (see the cladogram below).

A: We've never put the largest theropods in order - we just list the largest theropods - the order is arbitrary. The reason for this is that the exact length of any of these genera is not known. For example, Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus are known only from a few incomplete skeletons. Bahariasaurus is known from even skimpier remains.

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