h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Dinosaurs - A11921573
Author: Galaxy Babe - Scout/ACE/Sub-Ed - U128652

This is the stuff which was removed from my Tyrannosaurus Rex entry.

There is already an edited entry on "were dinosaurs hot- or cold-blooded" so it was pointless talking about that - I've just linked to it and posted the conclusion and supposed theory.

If you want your favourite dinosaur added, just let me know



Submitted 22 June

This is an interesting entry- is it exclusively stuff that you pulled from the T-Rex entry? I've thought about why it doesn't quite feel right to me and I think the reason is that you just have too many headings, which creates the impression of not having a lot to say, because some of the sections are quite brief, whereas it is in fact a pretty extensive entry. I wonder if you need to take out some of the headings (palientologists, for example) and package the exisitng information together in smaller sections. It seems to me that this is a very critical response, but I think that a little tweaking will make this a really good entry.

Hi GB.

Ref 'Why did they die out', you could link to my Entry on 'Comets as Harbingers of Momentous Events' at A3086101

As dinosaurs are generally regarded as being rather large, it might be worth mentioning the world's largest dinosaur, dubbed argentinosaurus.

Argewntine palaeontologists discovered vertebrae of this beast in a disused oil and gas field in SW Argentina, about 750 miles from Buenos Aires, in 1990.

These bones were 3 fett in width, leading experts to conclude that the dinosaur was about 52 feet tall and 130 feet long (twice the length of a cricket pitch) and weighed around 100 tons.

It is thought that the dinosaur lived 87 million years ago.m, and was a herbivore.

...and the smallest dinosaur so far discovered is the compsognathus, uncovered in S. Germany. This weighed 15lb - the weight of an eight month old baby.


The earliest dinosaur so far discovered was discovered in the Andes in 1993. This was a dog-sized dinosaur christened 'eoraptor', dating back 225M years.

The earliest recorded discovery of a dinosaur bone was in 1677. This was from a megalosaurus although, of course, it was not then recognised for what it was.. The study of dinosaurs really began in 1824 when quarry workers unearthed a megalosaurus bone near Woodstock, Oxon (You migfht have already mentioned this; if so, my apologies

It might be worth mentioning that scientists can calculate the speed at which dinosaurs could run by studying fossilised footprints. The fastes could run at 25 mph.

Might be worth giving a list of places to see dinosaurs. In addition to the ones you mentioned in passing: Dinosaur Museum, Icen Way, Dorchester;, University Museum, Parks Road, Oxon; Cambridge University, Downing St, Cantab....

PS How did the dinosaur get into the Natural History Museum?....



He used a skeleton key, of course.

Ref, 'Are birds really dinosaur descendants?':

In early 2001 Chinese palaeontologists discovered the first dinosaur fossil to show head to tail feathers. This specimen was 0.5 meter long and was a juvenile dromeosaur - a close relative of Velociraptor and a member of the therapod family; and dates from 130M years.

It had downy feathers covering its head and tail, and tufts of filaments resembling primitive feathers sprouting from other parts of its body. Branched structures, similar to modern feathers were on the backs of its arms. It was identified as a dinosaur by virtue of its long rigid tail and other skeletal features.

"The Chinese-American team verified that the top and bottom slabs which sandwiched the bones matched exactly to assure that it was not a fake, like the forged Archaeoraptor".(n.b. might be worth mentioning Archaeoraptor )

Hitherto, scientists had found feathers and feather-like structures on several other Chinese dinosaurs, but only on parts of their bodies.

The discovery shows that dinosaurs may well have evolved feathers for insulation before they were used for flight.

Hence "advanced therapod dinosaurs may have looked more like weird birds than giant lizards" (Quote by Mark Norell, a palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, speaking to New Scientist magazine.

... tell you the truth, I'm not entirely comfortable with your assertion towards the end that man and dinosaurs didn't live at the same time. Indeed, if we accept that modern birds are descended from dinosaurs, then there's no earthly reason why dinosaurs and humans couldn't have co-existed (Rember also that some dinosaurs were quite small. I am also mindful of the Biblical references to behemoths and leviathans. I don't mean to say that such creatures lived/existed during recorded history, but that some residual folk nmemory of giant beasts could've been passed down through the generations to eventually be recorded in the OT.

See for example http://www.dinosaur-extinction.com/

... also, until recently, many well-informed people believed that,if the Loch Ness Monster existed, then it could be a plesiosaur. This means that many experts believe that it is not impossible that dinosaurs could hae existed until the present.

Hello Galaxy Babe. Great entry. But there's one nit I'd like to pick: You might want to add (as a footnote, perhaps?) that Brontosaurus is no longer a valid name; the species is now known as Apatosaurus, as that name has been used first to describe it and therefore has priority. Yes, a shame, I agree, but...

Best of with your entry.

Thank you
I've added that footnotealthough it will always be a Brontosaurus to me

I'm still working on all of BigAl's suggestions, although I think it's coming along..

Hi GB,
Before reading this thread I was going to ask what other type of dinosaurs there were apart from 'prehistoric' ones. I now guess you inserted the word to cover BigAl's possible latter-day dinosaurs, but I'd say that since you've now mentioned them in the text it is again redundant. Does that make sense?

Good entry, though, and I agree with you on the Brontosaurus.

Thanks
yea, kinda left me with a dilemma. Back to "Dinosaurs" then?

I still have the feathered-variety to do, don't think I've forgotten BigAl, it's just finding time

You diddidit again!!

Well Done

You have a section for feathered dinasaurs but there isnt anything there
The Archaeopteryx of the feathered variety its from the jurrasic period if that helps.

I'm working on it, thank you MorganFaith

Thanks lilwhat are you celebrating, dear? I'm a mite forgetful today, memory's acting like a dinosaur.

No worries and thanks.

I like the article though dinasaurs always fasinated me as a kid and i never quite got rid of that

Thank you me too, and I got to live the excitement all over again through my children
Have you seen the dinosaur tumble/fights in King Kong?

I havn't seen that. I did however go to the museum with my nephews and neice last year for the dinasuars alive exhibition, it was fantastic!

Well if you love dinosaurs like I do, I can highly recommend King Kong (although, fast-forward 2 hours...)

Reading about the Archaeopteryx from what I can gather it was the earliest and most primitive known bird, not a dinosaur, so I'm not going to mention it in this entry.