Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs have captured the attention of audiences all over the world. The veil of mystique that covered the dinosaur has been lifted with the advent of movies such as Jurassic Park and Lost World. Recent dinosaur fossil findings have given us fresh insights into the way they lived and behaved. The name dinosaur is derived from the Greek language. Sir Richard Owen coined it in 1842. Deinò means terrifying and saurus means lizard. The name probably originated from the pictorial depictions of the big lizard. Dinosaurs were one of several kinds of prehistoric reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era, which was known as the Age of Reptiles. The first dinosaur fossil was discovered in the year 1818. The Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus were the first dinosaurs to be discovered.

They first appeared on earth more than 165 million years ago but within a short period 100 million years they were extinct. Theories for their extinction revolve around the occurrence of an asteroid hitting earth. The climatic changes that this brought about were too drastic for the dinosaur to survive. However, it would be interesting to theorize that with the number of carnivorous dinosaurs walking the earth would it have been possible for man to evolve. There are no known predators of the dinosaur other than the other members of its own species.

Dinosaurs were land-dwelling reptiles that walked with an erect stance. The unique aspect being that they were bipedal in nature. Their hipbones were aligned in such a way that they walked erect and did not have to crawl on all fours like its present day relatives. There was a huge variance as far as size and appearance was concerned. They were tall, squat, small, lean, heavy, fast or slow. Some of them were slow, while some of them were fast. There were even dinosaurs that could fly. Their skin texture could range from feathers to a substance that was as hard as present day plated armour. Dinosaurs were herbivores as well as carnivores. The Brachiosaurus is considered the largest of all the dinosaurs; it reached a height of close to 10 meters and a length of 25 meters. Its forelegs are longer than its hind legs. Nevertheless, there is speculation that there were dinosaurs, which were much larger than the Brachiosaurus. The Compsognathus at 1 mtr in length was the smallest of all the dinosaurs.

The oldest dinosaur types date back to more than 230 million years ago and are known from rocks found in South America. The most primitive of these types, Eoraptor, was a small meat-eating dinosaur. It is considered the progenitor for the latter day dinosaurs. The most famous or rather infamous of all the dinosaurs is the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the King of the dinosaurs. This flesh-eating monster tyrannized anything that moved including other dinosaurs. It weighed more than 7000kg and its 60 teeth could rip apart any vertebrate known at the time. It stood more than 6 meters in height. The Tyrannosaurus Rex has been a symbol for all dinosaurs for the current generation. Its likeness was used on all merchandise related to the movie Jurassic Park.

Another of the famous dinosaurs was the Triceratops that has been immortalized in the children’s detective short story – Try Sara Tops. The Triceratops is said to be the inspiration behind the modern day battle tank. It had a ridge of bones that ran across its spine that provided additional protection to its skin, which was one of the toughest in the animal kingdom. It is said to be one of the most aggressive herbivores that ever lived. The pterosaur and pterodactyl were the flying dinosaurs. They had wings and could traverse great distances in one flight. The Oviraptor was a small dinosaur that was named after the Latin words for egg (ovum) and robber (raptor). This was due to its tendency of raiding nests of other dinosaurs and stealing their eggs. The pachycephalosaur derives its name from Greek for thick head. Its pronounced forehead saves it from being head butted by the bigger and more aggressive beasts. The allosaurus was different because its limbs were bent backwards; this prevented any prey they had ensnared from escaping. Most kids who are comic fans would have encountered the stegosaurus before they knew of the existence of dinosaurs because of the presence of "Stegi" in Lee Falk’s Phantom. In the comic it was depicted as a fearsome partner of the main protagonist but in reality it was one of the most benign creatures.

As a rule animal lifespan corresponded to their size and rate of metabolism. According to present day research, dinosaurs could have lived from 10 to 100 years of age.