- "DINOSAURS"
- Studying dinosaurs is very interesting because it involves
travel all over the world. You might be able to uncover secrets
from the long lost past. You could go though the prehistoric
times and relive the past. This might make you able to meet a
famous paleontologist and get some hints. A crew could help you
or it could just be you. You might want to put on a scuba suit
and look for an ichthosauras skeleton at the bottom of the ocean.
- There have been many famous paleontologists in the past.
One famous paleontologist was Sir Richard Owen, who was a superintendent
at the British Museum of natural history from 1856 to 1884. He
gave dinosaurs their mane. Jim Jensen found a three eyed dinosaur.
Werner Janensch lead an expedition to East Africa where he found
the remains of a brachsaurus. Dr. Walter Granger was the first
ever to find a fossil in Mongolia. Mary Anning sold fossils to
scientists. She was the first to find three complete fossils
of different dinosaurs the names of these dinosaurs ere ichthyosaur,
plesiosaur, and pterosaurs. She was born in 1799 and she died
in the 1847; she was forty-eight years old when she died. She
lived in Lymel Regis in Dorset, England. Andrew Carnegie donated
replicas of gigantic sauropods to museums. Edward C. Drinker
was a professor at Haverford in Pennsylvania in 1866. He was
the owner and editor of American Naturalist from 1889 to 1897.
He found over one thousand fossils species. Othniel Charles Marsh
wrote two books called The Dinosaurs of North America
and Fossil Horses in North America. He discovered over
one thousand fossils. He died when he was sixty-eight years old.
- If you plan on going on a dig, here are some materials you
will need. A map would be handy to tell you where you are trying
to go. You will need a magnifying glass, at least a ten power
lens, so you can look at small fossils from beyond. You will
also need a wiskbroom to brush away soil and rocks from your
fossils. A newspaper and small boxes of cotton would be handy
to pack your fossils in. A chisel and a hammer would be helpful
to break away rocks from the ground. An ordinary hammer will
not work. You will need an awl and a cork to break off soft dirt,
a notebook with a ballpoint pen to write down where you found
the fossil, and masking tape to tape paper around your fossil.
- To be safe you will need gloves and goggles to protect your
hands and eyes from flying chips of rocks. If you get hit by
a rock you will need a band-aid. You will also need a knapsack
and food in case you have to spend the night or get hungry.
- There are a lot of famous dinosaur discoveries. A brachiosaurus
was found in East Africa. A protoceratopos was found in 1963
on a trip to Mongolia. A rhynchosaurs was found in South America
a distant cousin to a rhinoceros. A stegosaurs and a diplolocus
were found in North America. The diplodocuses hind limb bone
was found there too. A nothosaurs and peloneustes were found
on the beaches of the Tethys Seas.
- Did you ever wonder what the names and how the dinosaurs
looked? The ankylosaurs was covered in armor the tail was a huge
club. It had a broad heavy body with short legs. It could reach
up to fourteen feet from head to tail. It lived in North America,
and Central and South Asia. An allosaurs could reach thirty feet
tall. It could walk five miles per hour. Paleontologists think
that it was a scavenger because of it's small arms and because
it could not run fast. It was found in Wyoming, Colorado, and
Western United States. It lived in the Jurassic through the Cretaceous
period. An elasmosaurus was a carnivore it ate squid and other
cephalopods. The largest it could grow to be was twelve meters
long. The elasmosauruses died out at the end of the Cretaceous
period. The nothosaurs had a long neck and webbed feet it could
grow up to six meters long. It was an amphibious creature. It
lived in the Triassic period. A rhynchosaurs had a nut cracker
jaw. It was a plant eater. It had a heavy built body. It lived
in South America in the Triassic period. A stegosaurus had two
rows of plates down it's back on it's tail were four big spikes.
Scientists think the plates had blood running through them to
cool it's body down. It ate plants and lived in North America
in the late Jurassic period. Placodonts were large newt like
creatures. Their bodies were armored with bony lumps. They had
flat teeth for crushing shellfish. The placodonts were extinct
by the end of the Triassic period. The tanystropheus had a long
neck to reach out and get it's prey with sharp teeth. It lived
in the Cenozoic era. The kuehneosaurus ribs were extended sideways
to help support it's membrane. It's skin was stretched to it's
bones to help it glide from tree to tree. It lived in the Cretaceous
period. A diplodocus could grow to be eighty eight feet tall.
It had a long neck with a small head. It ate soft pants. It lived
in the Jurassic period. A polacanthus was an armored dinosaur.
It had a double row of spikes on it's back and it's tail. It
lived in the Cretaceous period. The mesosaurus had a lizard like
body and a crocodile like head with webbed feet. It could grow
to be forty center meters in length. It was a conorvor[carnivore].
It lived in the Triassic period. An ichthyosaurs evolved into
a perfect stream lined shape. A fish like tail propelled them
through the water at a high speed. It had sharp teeth and feed
on fish. It began to die out in the early Cretaceous period.
- Paleontologists do fantastic things. Over the years, the
paleontologists have made tools that they used to find dinosaurs.
Paleontologists like Bob Baker[Bakker] of Casper has made famous
discoveries over the years. Everyone can have a lot of fun digging
for dinosaurs!!!
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Brasch, Kate and Varin, Philippe Jean. Prehistoric Monsters.
New York: The Trumpet Club, C. 1985. pages 16, 24 & 25, 38
& 39, 47.
- Chapman, Roy, Andrews. In The Days of The Dinosaurs.
New York: Random House. C. 1980. page 65.
- Hussey, Lois J. and Pessino, Catherine. Collecting Small
Fossils. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. C. 1970. pages
22-25 &33.
- May, Julian. They Turned To Stone. New York: Holiday
House. C. 1965. pages 65-67.
- McMullen, Kate. Dinosaur Hunters. New York: Random
House, C. 1989. pages & 23
- Prehistoric Life Encyclopedia: Chicago, New York, San
Francisco: Rand McNally & Company. C. 1982. pages & 56
- 59 & 65
- Webster's New Biographical Dictionary. Springfield
Massachusetts INC, C. 1988. page. 762
- First Place
Dinosaur Story/Essay
Age 11-14
David Adam Stanley
Casper, Wyoming
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