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

"everyone knows that the oldest-known mosquitoes come from the Cretaceous period anyway"[Bluebottle]

That may be true, but not everyone knows that the Triassic came before the Jurassic, and the Jurassic came after the Jurassic. Historical Geography is not a course that is likely to have been widely taken by students at most schools.

Sorry, I meant that the *Cretaceous* came after the Jurassic.

And crocodiles were never extinct

If they count as dinosaurs, not sure if they do or not

They do not.

And in my opinion, birds shouldn't either. But unfortunately the paleontological community disagrees.



While we're on the subject, pterosaurs are also not dinosaurs.

Nor are ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs and plesiosaurs. Dinosaurs were land-bound and had legs that were vertical below the hip. That means crocodilians weren't dinosaurs. (Crocodiles didn't survive the big extinction, they evolved from animals that did.) Creatures like dimetrodon weren't dinosaurs, they are classed as mammal-like reptiles.

I may have been reading a bit too much about dinosaurs over recent years.

One good book on the history of paleontology and its impact on our view of evolution is Written in Stone by Brian Switek. I've been re-reading it recently and recommend it.

>>Crocodiles didn't survive the big extinction/

The Permian–Triassic event was The Big extinction, really.

There have been at least five big extinctions. Nevertheless, we still have the Kardashians.

And cockroaches.

Yeah, but Permian-Triassic is the biggest. 95% of all life-forms, if I remember correctly. I mean, DAMN.



"I may have been reading a bit too much about dinosaurs over recent years."

Oh, I shouldn't worry about it. After all, I already knew all that and I'M not crazy, so you're probably fine too.

Dinosaurs as we know about them, are fascinating. The fossil record represents a very tiny percentage of what dinosaurs were like. They were on the Earth for about 200 million years, but what little remains of them isn't very much. Who knows what "new" dinosaur discoveries will be made in the future?

I have never been overly intrigued by dinosaurs, that is not to say I didn't have books and plastic models as a kid.

I read, and may still have, a book about 'Warm Blooded Dinosaurs' which argued they might not have been reptiles at all.

I found an Edited Entry on the subject A13200229 It links several Edited Entries from the IOW

The most interesting part of this thread I have found is about the various eras, or epics of history (the Jurassic etc.) I would like to read more about them. I think we may have been too much influenced by the film 'Jurassic Park”.

There is a local dinosaur theme park in Plant City (about 2/3 the way between Orlando and Tampa on Interstate 4).

** Spoiler Alert**

I have also seen some disturbing links between dragons and dinosaur skulls.



F S

Cool old Guy with some expected delay
"Dinosaurs have never managed to capture my imagination!

The only currently concidered dinosaurs ever managing to really capture my _attention_ were the IBM PC's; Intel8088 10Mc and 256KByte memory.
I have played with them (and the software) until they became dinosaurs. They did not capture my imagination, I merely used them to create my concepts and visions. I produced 'graphics' (ASCII-art) for the mathematics we had at school, I wrote cellular models, games, 'music' programs (playing with the internal speaker). Eventually just using the debug program to write code directly to file.

Years later the last thing I did with one of these dinosaurs was running a linux kernel on it, finally I found the unleash button . (Now they are just collecting dust.)

The extinct beasts 'dinosaurs', they certainly never managed to catch me in any way. I have read several paleontology history books, however the continental drift, ice ages, stromatolites (oxygen producing bacteria), the encapsulation of a bacteria in another organic cell (ending up as mitochondria) all are more _interesting_ then some stage of a certain strain of animals. "

Dimetridon was from before the Permian-Triassic extinction surely - has anyone claimed it was a dinosaur?

Life had to re-evolve out of the sea did it not after that one? Insects aside

>And in my opinion, birds shouldn't either. But unfortunately the paleontological community disagrees.<

Never mind the experts then eh?

That's right, nevermind the experts. They're hidebound.



"Dimetridon was from before the Permian-Triassic extinction surely - has anyone claimed it was a dinosaur?"

Lots of people think it is, 'cause little plastic models of Dimetridon are often included with little plastic models of dinosaurs. As are pterosaurs, often, which is why I went out of my way to point it out.

Every single time I go to a dinosaur museum with my Mom, without fail, she'll always be *surprised* to learn this. Depite the fact that she's "learned" it at least half-a-dozen times by now.



"Life had to re-evolve out of the sea did it not after that one? Insects aside"

No, there were still some land-going animals left, including precursors to both mammals and dinosaurs.



For the record, my favorite dinosaur is Ankylosaurus. He doesn't get enough love.

Dimetridon was in my Ladybird book of dinosaurs, which is absolutely the best authority on the subject, so therefore it's a dinosaur

Mol

Drat!

Pliny just threw away my copy and put me back in to "Post To A Conversation".

I wouldn't dare attempt to use "Preview" in Pliny, throws away my copy every time.

It seems as though there is a 'timeout' problem with Pliny since I can't post more than a paragraph or two from it.

Continuing in Brunel...




With reference to a personal experience that really seized my imagination in connection of dinosaurs, it came for me with examination of a specimen of the iridium rich boundary layer between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary from a San Diego County location where its sandwiched between two otherwise identical shale formations, from which the Alvarez layer material is easily detached.

When I collected a specimen, I was surprised to find it had a rather cob-webby coating of globules of carbon black on the underside which left sooty smudges on my fingertips.

Carbon black is formed when fuel is fed through a flame too rapidly for it to combust completely, or there is insufficient oxygen to allow it to combust completely.

A traditional method for making the stuff is to use an excessively long wick in an oil lamp, the collect the lamp black by means of placing the smoky flame under a cold metal or glass collecting surface, a technique traditional, for example, in the manufacture of carbon black for India ink.




(The carbon black on the underside of the Alvarez layer material was of a quality such that one could use it eadily for calligraphy by means of dabbling in it with a wet paint brush.)




For me, this was a basis of a stunning realization.

Though the KT object had impacted in the Yucatan, at Chixalub, the impact had created fire storm conditions as far north as San Diego County, California.

On later study, I found that the forestorm had, as a matter of fact, been global.

My imagination was captured by dinosaurs, but eventually it escaped and stowed out in a Vogon destructor ship along with the only two Earthlings who didn't deserve rescue.