26 July 2017 - UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT DINOSAURS

UNKNOWN FACTS 

ABOUT DINOSAURS

G'day folks,

Dinosaurs is a topic most people feel they have some kind of knowledge about. After all, nearly everyone has seen or heard of the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park, and young children are usually the experts in any house on the names, shapes, sizes, and eating habits of these ancient reptiles. However, even though dinosaurs might have been extinct for more than 60 million years, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing new to learn about them. Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about dinosaurs in our modern world, but will after reading this list.

10. Triceratops and the Brontosaurus

There are some paleontologists who think one of the species of dinosaurs we take for granted – the species that includes dinosaurs such as the Triceratops and the Brontosaurus – did not actually exist. They think two other existing species have been confused for all of these years, and there might be something to the idea, given that paleontologists actually still have never found a complete skeleton of a triceratops.

 9. Humans & Dinosaurs

 

A surprisingly high percentage of people in the United States – more than 4 out of every 10 adults, in fact – actually believe that human beings and dinosaurs were on the planet at the same time. They weren’t, of course, as dinosaurs preceded human beings by hundreds of millions of years. But it’s fun to think Jurassic Park could really have existed, isn’t it?

 8. Chickenosaurus Dinosaur Facts

 

Jack Homer is one of the best known paleontologists in the United States who discovered and named Maiasaura, he provided the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young ones. In addition to his many paleontological discoveries, He was also one of the consultants for Jurassic Park, serving as a partial inspiration for one of the lead characters, Dr. Alan Grant. Since the movie, he has put his efforts toward the creation of a real life dinosaur. His goal is to make a chickenosaurus, which, as you can imagine, is designed to be a hybrid of sorts between a small prehistoric dinosaur and the modern chicken.

7. Sauropods

Even though the Tyrannosaurus Rex gets a lot of attention from movies like Jurassic Park, the truth is that it wasn’t even one of the biggest dinosaurs. These were a group of dinosaurs known as the Sauropods. The biggest of these was actually 200 or more feet long and actually capable of making sonic booms by the speed at which they could whip their tails.

  6. Clive Palmer and Dinosaurs:

 

Clive Palmer is a billionaire in Australia who has a lot of ideas about whimsical things to do with his money. Among other things, like his desire to build a new Titanic, he also wants to make a Jurassic Park, like the movie. However, his will just have lots of mechanical dinosaurs that are life sized; there won’t be any genetic recombination with chicken eggs.

5. Theory of Dinosaur’s Brain:

There used to be a theory, which has now been disproved, that some dinosaurs actually had not one, but two brains! The idea at the time was that the second brain was located in the dinosaur’s bottom. That gives a new meaning to the phrase about having one’s head…you know where.

4. Discoveries of Various Species of Dinosaurs

Back between 1877 and 1892, there were a pair of paleontologists, or dinosaur scientists, who were part of something odd called the ‘Bone Wars’. This meant they ended up stealing, destroying, and otherwise sabotaging each other’s work over the decades. However, at the same time, they were also responsible for the discovery of more than 140 new species of dinosaurs at the time. Was it worth it?

 3. Pterodactyl vs Dinosaurs

 

The largest animals in the history of the Earth that ever took flight were not dinosaurs, but a special clade of reptiles that just lived alongside dinosaurs back in the day. These included other non dinosaurs such as the pterodactyl, which lots of children and not a small number of adults are probably still familiar with. More broadly, however, these ancient reptiles were called pterosaurs. The largest of them had wingspans 40 feet in length, which is wider than some of today’s airplanes!

 2. Birds vs Dinosaurs

 

Birds are actually classified as part of the super group that encompasses all dinosaurs known as a clade. That’s right; birds are really dinosaurs! It’s thought that birds were among the few kinds of dinosaurs that survived the mass extinctions hundreds of millions of years ago. However, to keep from confusing the general public, scientists don’t call birds dinosaurs, except for when you go to their yearly conferences or read classification guides.

 1. Rapetosaurus Dinosaur Facts

 

Finally, the fact most people probably don’t know about dinosaurs is that there is actually a dinosaur named Rapetosaurus. An odd name, for sure, but don’t worry – all it really means is mischievous giant lizard. However, the funny thing about rapetosaurus is that is’s actually related to the very first dinosaur bone that was ever found, from a giant dinosaur called a megalosaurus. And the very first bone found from that dinosaur was called (you’ll never guess this) scrotum humanum. Why? Because it resembled a certain part of the male human anatomy.

 

Clancy's comment: Mm ... I've never met one, but they look pretty big and fierce to me.

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