Q: What did ichthyosurus look like?
from Kaitlyn S., Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada; September 30, 2001

A: For a page on Ichthyosaurus, click here

A: For dinosaur genera that begin with the letter "R," click here.

A: For Mongolian dinosaurs, click here and look under the entry for Mongolia. For dinosaur genera that begin with the letter "M," click here.

A: Yes, an unidentified hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosuar) has been found along the coast of Oregon. Oregon was under a shallow sea during much of the Cretaceous; this hadrosaur probably floated to its resting place in Oregon.

A: Very few fossilized dinosaur internal organs have been found. The finest-known example of fossilized soft-tissue inprints (including some muscles and internal organs) is Scipionyx (an Italian theropod).

A: T. rex left footprints 1.55 feet (46 cm) long (although its feet were much longer, about 3.3 feet (1 m) long; T. rex, like other dinosaurs walked on its toes).

A: Archimedes was a corkscrew-shaped colonial genus of bryozoan named for the ancient Greek Archimedes, who invented the water screw (the bryozoan looks like the water screw). The marine bryozoan Archimedes were tubular-shaped zooids with calcified walls. They lived in colonies during the Carboniferous, roughly 360 to 280 million years ago. Classification: Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Bryozoa, Class Stenolaemata, Order Fenestrida, Family Fenestellidae, Genus Archimedes, many species.

A: No, dinosaurs came in many sizes - the smallest ones were the size of a chicken.

A: It means lizard.

A: Click here to see an animated map of the Earth over time.

A: We have pages on most of the known dinosaurs - and dictionary entries of most genera - which dinosaurs were you looking for?

A: No one knows how Maiasaura communicated.

A: Luis Alvarez and his son Walter Alvarez.

A: No, there is no fossil evidence that any dinosaurs spat poison.

A: The dinosaurs that had the longest necks were the sauropods, like Sauroposeidon and Mamemchisaurus.

A: No dinosaurs lived exclusively in the water. There were a lot of reptiles that were adapted to life in the water during the time of the dinosaurs. Some marine reptiles from the Mesozoic Era include the plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and Nothosaurs.

A: For a page on Megalodon, click here. By the way, we're in Mercer Island too.

A: That might have been Giganotosaurus. A pack of theropods (meat-eating dinosaur) was found in the Patagonian Desert of Argentina in the late 1990's. These 100 million -year-old dinosaurs were described as having a needle nose, scissor-like jaws, and razor-sharp teeth; they were shorter than T. rex, but heavier. This new dinosaur is about 45 feet long. Philip Currie (of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada) and Rudolpho Coria (of the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum in Argentina) led the team of paleontologists who excavated it. Giganotosaurus had three fingers on each hand.

A: Click here for a page on T. rex.

A: Learn HTML, get an ISP (Internet service provider), and be prepared to pay a lot for bandwidth (the money you pay each time someone looks at your site).

A: Allosaurus lived from about 154-144 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period. There have been Allosaurus-like fossils (of undetermined species) found that date from the early to middle Cretaceous period.

A: For a page on the woolly mammoth (with drawings), click here.

A: The fastest dinosaurs were the light-weight, long-legged, ostrich-like ornithomimids (like Gallimimus and Ornithomimus).

A: Komodo dragons live on the island of Komodo and nearby islands in Indonesia. For a page on the Komodo dragon, click here

A: Dimetrodon was not a dinosaur; it was a pelycosaur and lived during the Permian Period, before the dinosaur evolved. Dimetrodon was the dominant carnivore of its time and didn't have any predators.

A: The biggest insect that ever lived was the ancient dragonfly called Meganeura. This predatory flying insect lived about 250 million years ago and had a wingspan of about 2 feet.

A: No. The biggest dinosaurs (the largest sauropods like Argentinosaurus and Seismosaurus) weight 80-100 tons (160,000-200,000 pounds).

A: There are roughly 200 or so bones in a T, rex.

A: Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur named (Iguanodon was found first, but named second).

A: There are roughly 200 or so bones in a Stegosaurus.

A: Anhingas (also called snake birds, darters, or water turkeys) is a family of long-necked birds (containing 4 species) related to cormorants.

A: Itis thought that the larger dinosaurs (like the long-necked, long-tailed sauropods) lived about 100 years or more.

A: There are a few different ways to date fossils - for information on fossil dating, click here.

A: About 1,000 dinosaur genera have been found, and many more species (many genera have one known species, but for some, there are many known species).

A: Dinosaur species went extinct throughout the Mesozoic Era (when the dinosuars lived). Most dinosaur species went extinct in background extinction (the type of extinction in which most genera die out). The last remaining dinosuars died out 65 million years ago, during the K-T extinction.

A: For the earliest dinosaur discoveries, click here.

A: To do that, you need intact dinosaur DNA, which no one has found.

A: See the faq's above.

A: See the faq's above.

A: See the faq's above.

A: Dinosaurs ranged in size from the size of a chicken to over 100 feet long (much bigger than a bus).

A: No 100 percent complete skeletons of T. rex have ever been found. Sue, the recently-found T. rex (found by Sue Hendrickson), is the most complete T. rex that has been found so far. The first T. rex fossil was found in 1902 by Barnum Brown.

A: No one knows much about dinosaur communication, since that type of behavior is often difficult to learn about with only fossil evidence. Some dinosaurs, like Parasaurolophus had a large, hollow crest atttached to the nostril, from which they likely made foghorn-like sounds. It is unknown whether they used these sounds for alerting other Parasaurolophus to danger, for attracting mates, or something else.

A: Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent, including Antarctica (which was warmer when the dinosaurs lived, and was located closer to the equator).

A: The dinosaurs lived from about 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era.

A: The Komodo dragon is the biggest living lizard. For a page on the Komodo dragon, click here.

A: The birds.

A: No. Pterodactyls, like other plerosaurs, was a flying reptile that was closely related to the dinosaurs, but is not classified as a dinosaur.

A: Brachiosaurus was a quadruped - it walked on four column-like legs.

A: Dinosaurs usually walked on their toes; the scientific term for this is digitigrade (unlike humans, who are flat-footed or plantigrade). For more on dinosaur locomotion (how they moved), click here.

A: Huge size was an adaptation to the very cod weather during the last Ice Age. Bigger animals retain their body heat better than smaller animals. Most of these animals, like mammoths, also had thick, hairy coats, which helped insulate them (again keeping them from losing much of their body heat).

A: Most dinosaurs were plant-eaters (herbivores). For more information on dinosaurs diets, click here.

A: Yes, some Cretaceous period sauropods included Algoasaurus, Astrodon, Malawisaurus, Asiatosaurus, Mongolosaurus, Ultrasaurus, Aepisaurus, Aragosaurus, Losillasaurus, Macrurosaurus, Oplosaurus, Pelorosaurus, Pleurocoelus, Venenosaurus, Cedarosaurus, Aegyptosaurus, Paralititan, Rebbachisaurus, Hisanohamasaurus, Megacervixosaurus, Microdontosaurus, Mongolosaurus, Austrosaurus, Aragosaurus, Chondrosteosaurus, Oplosaurus, Sauroposeidon, Sonorasaurus, Campylodoniscus, Clasmosaurus, Loricosaurus, Microsaurops, Neuquensaurus, Rapetosaurus, Chiayusaurus, Hisanohamasaurus, Megacervixosaurus, etc.

A: Postosuchus fossils have been found in Texas and Arizona, USA. For a page on Postosuchus, click here.

A: No one knows what color the dinosaurs were. The drawings you see are just guesses.

A: Click here for a page on how fossils are dated.

A: Kingdom Animalia (animals), Class Aves (birds), Order Passeriformes, Family Furnariidae, Genus Xenops, Species X. minutus. For more information on Xenops, click here.

A: Archaeopteryx is the earliest-known bird. For a page on Archaeopteryx, click here.

A: That was a Thescelosauurs, but now, some paleontologists doubt that the heart was found. For more information , click here.

A: For a page on woolly mammoths, click here.

A: The dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era.

A: Richard Owen.

A: The Mesozoic Era lasted from 248 until 65 million years ago.

A: No, people evolves over 63 million years after the dinosaurs died out.

A: Albertosaurus was probably the top predator in its area.

A: The Royal Tyrrell Museum is in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.

A: Triceratops was a ceratopsian dinosaur; the ceratopsians were horned, frilled, beaked, quadrupedal plant-eaters that lived during the Cretaceous period. Some other ceratopsians include Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Asiaceratops, Ceratops, Diceratops, Monoclonuis, Montanoceratops, Pentaceratops, Protoceratops, Styracosaurus, Psittocacosaurus, Torosaurus, and many others.

A: Fossil fuels are organic materials that are high in energy, like coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas. Fossils fuels are formed in a process that takes millions of years. The organic material (dead plants and animals) is covered by layers of sediment, then heat, pressure, and bacterial action change the material into pools of oil and gas (or are compressed as coal)

A: Stegosaurus had of 17 plates on its back, arranged in two, alternating rows. For a page on Stegosaurus, click here.

A: The La Brea Tar Pits are famous tar pits in Southern California, USA. A tar pit is a pool of gooey asphalt. It is created when crude oil seeps up from deep inside the Earth through a crack, called a fissure. The less dense elements of the crude oil evaporate, leaving asphalt (a very sticky mess). Water pooled on the tar, attracting thirsty animals. As an animal gets stuck in the tar, it probably attracted predators, who also got stuck. The animals' bones, teeth, and other hard parts are well-preserved in this environment (but they turn brown from the asphalt). Tar pits are located around the world. The oldest organism (a wood fragment) found in the La Brea Tar Pit is from 40,000 years ago.

A: Unenlagia was a small, meat-eating dinosaur that probably ate insects and other small animals.

A: Cro-Magnon man was an early group of Homo sapiens (the species to which we belong) that lived about 40,000 years ago in what is now Europe. Skeletal remains of the Cro-Magnon were first found in caverns in Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France (in 1868).

A: People have looked in Loch Ness, Scotland, but have had no success. Maybe they're looking in the wrong lake.

A: Liopleurodon is the genus name of that plesiosaur. There were many species of Liopleurodon, including L. ferox (Martill, 1991), the biggest-known species of Liopleurodon.

A: That isn't known. For a page on Ankylosaurus, click here.

A: T. rex had large, cone-shaped teeth; rows of serrations ran down each tooth. Each T. rex had a variety of sizes of teeth in its mouth. The teeth were replaced if broken or worn down.

A: For a page on the dinosaur genera that have been found in Europe, click here. We don't have a page on individual bones that were found in each European location.

A: Jeananda Col - for more information, click on my name at the bottom of the table of contents of Zoom Dinosaurs or under the red navigation bar in the frames version.

A: Zoologists study animals.

A: All dinosaurs had a braincase - the braincase is the set of bones in the skull that surrounds and protects the brain. Many dinosaurs had solid bones, including the sauropods (long-necked, log-tailed plant-eaters) and some ornithischians (like ankylosaurs, most stegosaurs, etc.).

A: The Cambrian period lasted from about 540 to 500 million years ago. For a chart of geologic time, click here.