- Allosaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Archaeopteryx*
- Brachiosaurus
- Brontosaurus
- Camarasaurus
- Centrosaurus (Monoclonius)
- Dilophosaurus
- Dimetrodon*
- Diplodocus
- Edaphosaurus*
- Edmontosaurus (Anatosaurus)
- Iguanodon
- Mosasaur*
- Ornitholestes
- Pachycephalosaurus
- Parasaurolophus
- Plesiosaur*
- Pterodactyl*
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Velociraptor
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Favorite Dinosaur Week (cancelled)
Today is the start of favorite dinosaur week. Please choose your favorite dinosaur from the list below and leave a comment with the name of that dinosaur. At the end of the week, the top 7 dinosaurs chosen will be covered in detail next week. (Dinosaurus marked with a * are not actually dinosaurs but other prehistoric reptiles)
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Last day of Extinction Week
Hope you had a good extinction week. Extinction week is raise awareness about animals living today that are under the threat of extinction. Some examples of species that are almost extinct are the Siberian tiger, the panda, and the black rhinoceros. Many species are under threat from human activity. If you want to help endangered animals and plants to survive here is what to do
- Do not buy a products that come from endangered animals such as fur coats and snakeskin of other reptile skin purses
- Be wary of exotic foods. Shark fin soup in China is one example
- Do not release exotic animals into the wild. They can be a threat for other animals in your local ecosystem
- Do not keep rare or exotic plants.
The Cretaceous Mass Extinction (65 MYA)
The Cretaceous Mass Extinction is also know as the "dinosaur extinction". This extinction wiped out the dinosaurs, flying and marine reptiles, and toothed birds forever. 70% of all animals died and 90% of the plants. There are several theories to this event. One is that the dinosaurs were to slow and stupid to survive. But there are several problems about this theory. One of these problems is that many scientists have shown that some dinosaurs, especially that flesh-eaters were very active, smart, and warm-blooded during their reign. Another problem is that the theory states that dinosaurs went extinct some time, 150-100 million years ago, but how do you explain 70-66 million year old fossils of the last dinosaurs. These pieces of evidence show that the "to stupid to survive" theory is a very unlikely reason for the dinosaur extinction. Another theory is the environment got to cold and cold blooded dinosaurs died out. This theory also has some evidence to disprove it. Yes the giant plant-eating dinosaurs were probably cold-blooded, died out because of the cold, and starved the meat-eaters. But by the end of the Cretaceous, there were hardly any of the giant plant-eating dinosaurs left on Earth, and how about the reptiles under the sea, even if the temperature of the water got colder, most marine reptiles living at the end of the Cretaceous were warm blooded and could have adapted to the temperature change. Yet another theory is that it got to hot, but it brings up a similar problem to the "to cold to survive" theory. If the oceans got to hot for the marine reptiles almost nothing, including our modern birds and mammal ancestors would have made it. Out far out in a cloud of comets in a deep freeze at the edge of our solar system, there exists a darker twin of the sun. It is a failed star. It never got enough mass to shine. This is Nemesis Star. As it wanders the dark void between the stars, it sucks up comets into its orbit. The Nemesis Star returns every 25 million years to the orbit of the Earth and sheds its comets on to the Earth, creating a heavy bombardment. Geological evidence shows that it aligns with dinosaur extinction and other "minor" extinctions. When the dinosaurs met the Nemesis Star they knew it was there last. But there is a problem with this theory. The Nemesis Star may not even exist. At first scientists thought that for every steadily shining star, there was 10 failed stars. Now astronomers have turned the tables and proved for every failed star there are 10 steadily shining We may never know for sure if our sun's dark twin really exists. The most likely story is that 65 million years ago, an asteroid was heading toward the Earth, fast, very, very fast. It slammed into the Earth at a 30 degree angle with the force of 100,000 H-bombs in to the Gulf of Mexico. It sent up hundreds, maybe even thousands of hot rocks and boulders, killing all animals in the impact zone. Giant fires raged up the continent of North America, incinerating anything in their path. Giant cracks opened up in the ground trapping any unlucky animals. Giant waves flooded beaches, swamps, and forests. Later in the night as the impact died down heated clouds released acid rain. Many dinosaurs survived this because of there hard scaly skin, but the trees and plants were burned up. As snow began to fall great herds of plant-eaters hopelessly searched for food, but found none and died. The meat-eating dinosaurs also fed on the plant-eating dinosaurs carcasses as long as they could, but when the food ran out they eventually killed each other in hunger. This probably lasted for a couple of months. As soon as the long, dark winter was over, a new era dawned. The world was almost the same as it was before the asteroid strike, but something was missing. The dinosaurs and flying reptiles. They could not make it through the dark and cold and eventually perished, but the dinosaurs may not really be extinct. Examination of fossils and scientific tests of dinosaur and bird DNA shows that birds are really dinosaurs! So if you want to see a dinosaur just look up in a tree
An asteroid slamming into the Earth is the prime theory of why the dinosaurs went extinct |
The Triassic Mass Extinction (200 MYA)
more than 50 million years after the Permian Mass Extinction, another mass extinction wiped out many species of animal life. This was the Triassic Mass Extinction. Like the Permian Mass Extinction, the Triassic Mass Extinction was cause primary by volcanic activity. It all started with the break up of a continent. During this time all the continents we know today were all crammed together in the one and giant Pangea supercontinent. The slow break up of this continent caused fissures in the ground to erupt creating volcanoes. Ammonites and other shelled cephalopods were devastated. Brachiopods greatly decreased in diversity. Crocodiles relatives and dinosaur ancestors were gone. It is very likely that a asteroid helped in this dying.
Volcanic eruptions and asteroids are believed to be the cause of the Triassic Mass Extinction Event |
Friday, July 18, 2014
The Permian Mass Extinction (251 MYA)
The mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, was the most devastating catastrophe to ever affect our Earth. More than 95% of all life disappeared in the endless night of extinction It started with giant lava flows in what is now Siberia. The heat and gases from the vents killed off all reptiles and amphibians for miles around. Forests were incinerated. Animals burnt to grotesque skeletons. The volcanic gases spread over the world and dumped sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon into the oceans, releasing deadly compounds such sulfur dioxide and hydrochloride killing most of the marine life. These noxious chemicals also turned the sky green and the water purple. The only organisms that benefited from this disaster were bacteria that fed on nickel and released deadly hydrogen compounds that further killed off most life. This extinction is sometimes called the great dying.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
The Devonian Mass Extinction (359 MYA)
The Late Devonian Mass Extinction wiped out as much as 45% of all life. Corals were almost wiped out completely.Giant armored fish vanished forever, but sharks living today have hardly changed from this time. The cause of the extinction is believed to be changing sea levels or salinity in the oceans changed. During the this period fish had crawled on land to become amphibians and the first trees appeared.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
The Ordovician Mass Extinction (450-435 MYA)
The Ordovician Mass Extinction occurred long before any animals had appeared on land. It was the second most devastating mass extinction to ever affect the planet. As much as 50% of all species disappeared forever. The trilobites, many legged shelled creatures, were most affected. The cause of this extinction was due to a long ice age. The water began to freeze into great ice sheets at the South Pole, and the sea levels dropped dramatically. Another possibility is that a giant star, thousands of times bigger than our own sun, far out in space, started to collapse in on itself. Then it exploded, sending highly harmful gamma rays toward the Earth, poisoning the seas and atmosphere with high radioactivity.
The Ordovician sea before the mass extincion |
Monday, July 14, 2014
Mass Extinction Week!
Hi! Starting tomorrow is mass extinction week. Will cover different mass extinctions through until Saturday. A mass extinction is when an enormous amount species go extinct at one time. There have been five major mass extinctions in the Earths history. They all have been very devastating. Please check each day for a new post.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Cool Picture of the Late Cretaceous Period
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