Dinosaur history

DINOSAUR HISTORY

By Junefia and Janett

This information report is about dinosaurs that ruled the earth. 

Palaeontologists

A paleontologists are scientists that study ancient things including mammals and dinosaurs. Mary Anning was famous because she was a  fossil hunter and she also finds shell and fossils. Her dad was very clever and he even taught Mary what the fossil were called,she called them “curios”.Mary Anning was much different to another old woman named “Joan Wiffen”,Joan Wiffen was a famous DINOSAUR hunter and she was the first person to find one peice of a dinosaurs tailbone in New Zealand. She proved for the first time that dinosaurs had once been in NZ. One day,Mary’s brother Joseph led her along a cliff,than Mary saw a skull.straight away, Mary could see that this was the skull of no ordinary creature,and it was huge over a metre long.Joan Wiffen was a very smart woman who hunts dinosaurs and see if they are extinct or not extinct.She knew that AMMONITES became extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs,and soon,dinosaurs were at the top of her most wanted list.

Fossils

Fossils are dead animals or plants. They are usually skeletons found embedded in rock. Sometimes fossils are footprints or poo. Small animals or insects get stuck in tree sap which hardens and traps them forever. Large animals can get trapped in ice ,or their carcass gets trapped in layers  of rock. Over thousands of years ,pressure builds up and the ground. Next the mould left is filled with minerals that form rock. This rock shape is the fossils - an exact replica of the dinosaurs. This process takes 10,000 years. Palaeontologists find fossils when the top layer of dirt or rock washes away. When dinosaurs died their skin gets washed off,and then that is when you see the fossil of an dinosaur. 

Age of dinosaurs

The age of dinosaurs when dinosaurs existed. Dinosaurs started existing around 230 million years ago and died 66 million years ago. This time is also called the Mesozoic Era. During this time lots of different animals evolved.  230 mya dinosaurs evolve. 200 mya small mammals appear. 200-146 mya their were no people. 150 mya Birds evolve from dinosaurs. 140 mya first flowering plants appear. 130 mya first snakes evolve from lizard. 65 mya dinosaurs die out.      

What were dinosaurs like?

Some animal eats meat (carnivore), but some animals eat plants (herbivores), some animals eat both (omnivore). Female dinosaurs lay eggs , dinosaurs lives in family’s.  Non avian means dinosaurs that are not birds but avian mean birds. Dinosaur that are warm- blooded because their temperature is always the same. When they eat food they get more energy and then they run fast. But if they don’t eat food they were not have much energy and then they were walk slow. This is called their metabolism. Some dinosaurs had modifications (changes) like horns, spikes, crests or armour. 

Extinction event

Extinction means “DEAD” which means an extinction event is something that all the dinosaurs were dead. The scientist two ideas about how did the dinosaurs die,their ideas were,the dinosaur could have died because of the big meteorite that hit the world and formed earthquakes killed them and it is just like the movie Ice age.

Age of mammals

The Age of Mammals is the period of time after dinosaurs became extinct, and mammals ruled the Earth. It is also called the Cenozoic Era. There are 3 time periods in this Era; palaeogene period-60-58 mya, Neogene period (23-2.6 million years ago) and the Quaternary period (0.25 million years ago). During this time different mammals evolved. Titanoboa becomes one of the predators at the top of the food chain. 55-34 mya:large mammals appear,including horses and camels. 23-2.6 mya: Hominins begin to walk on two legs. 2.6-0 mya:Modern humans evolve.

Dinosaurs were the most powerful creatures to roam the Earth. If they lived now, they would be the dominant species.