A couple weeks ago, we put together our (imaginary) field trip to look for dinosaur fossils around our country. I had fun mapping these spots out. I think we need to start in Glendive, Montana, work our way down to Millsap, Texas (after "booing the Thunder" in Oklahoma per Phil's request!), head east into Arkansas and Alabama, and then do the coast up until we reach Turner Falls, Massachusetts (making sure to find the intersection where "Capitalsaurus" remains were found in Washington DC!). Then we need to head west again to Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota before making the long trip to the Brooks Range in Alaska. If we start in June we should end up in Alaska by August! What a summer that would be! :)How to top that? Well, let's plan a global field trip next! Please find a good dinosaur hunting ground in another country (one not chosen by someone else already). Again, we'll use the strategy of looking where other dinosaur fossils have been found already. But it would be great if you would specifically find a discovered dinosaur whose name begins with the same letter as your first name (like "Tyrannosaurus" for Tom). And find a website that describes that dino discovery.
Then share the name of the dinosaur, pinpoint where it was found (as precisely as possible within the country of its discovery), describe your personal dinosaur, and include the website so we can read more about if we'd like! One website that compiles information on where dinosaur fossils have been found around the world is Enchanted Learning. It may not keep up with the latest information and it may look like it is geared for younger folks, but it is a great starting point. You need to click on "Mesozoic" on the left-side navigation bar and then select an epoch (like Late Cretaceous) to get a dino megalist arranged by continent and country.
Make sure you have your passport ready so we can take this (imaginary) field trip together next!
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Here's an extra challenge: in addition to finding a dinosaur whose name begins with the same letter as yours, see if you can specifically find one that has been named in the last 10, maybe 15 years (thus, you don't get to use many of the "famous" dinosaur names, like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, etc.) -- this will give you an opportunity to learn about some much newer, if less renown, dinosaurs!
All Aboard!!
We are head'd for Australia! To be more specific, Queensland, Australia, on the mid-eastern coast, just south of Roma. In the Bungil Formation we will find my Dinosaur, the Minmi!
The Minmi is an Herbivore, Quadrupedal of the ornithischia order. He was an Ankylosaur (tough, and tank-like). The Minmi reached 4.5 inches high, 9.8 feet long, but was a big ol' fatso, weighing in at 3750 pounds. The big (lil) guy lived in the Early Cretaceous period.
I picked him, because we share the letter M (and I like his Austin Powers name), he was named/discovered just one year before the year I was born, 1980, so I felt a bit connected with chunky, (although..."shhhhh! he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed"). He used to hold the title for the shortest dinosaur genus name, but was beat out by the new champ, Mei, in 2004.
Good suggestion from "Dinogami"! It comes from Dr. Jerry Harris from Dixie State College in St. George Utah. His main website is: http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/.
You may recognize him from the photos I've shown. And, when we ask questions of paleontologists (in a week or two), I am hoping he will be able to address some of them.
We’re headed to the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. Here, we will find a member of the theropod family, Therizinosaurus, meaning “scythe (or ‘reaping’) lizard”. Only three gigantic claws, each roughly 28 inches long, were found in 1948 and was first thought to be a giant turtle until 1954 when it was named “scythe lizard” by E.A. Maleev. By the size of its claws, scientists suspect the creature was about 23-35 feet long, and weighed around 3 tons. BIG CRITTER.
From what some paleontologists gather, about 80-70 ma, the Therizinosaurus ripped open large termite homes with its enormous claws, making the animal an insectivore. Others assume it was an herbivore and used its claws to gather fruit or leaves from trees (like today’s sloth). How they know all of this from three gargantuan sickle-like claws, I do not know. That’s why we’re going to Mongolia to find more remains of the Therizinosaurus!
Photo of “the claw”:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Therizinosaurus_claw.jpg
More Therizinosaurus info:
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/therizinosaurus.htm
We’re headed to the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. Here, we will find a member of the theropod family, Therizinosaurus, meaning “scythe (or ‘reaping’) lizard”. Only three gigantic claws, each roughly 28 inches long, were found in 1948 and was first thought to be a giant turtle until 1954 when it was named “scythe lizard” by E.A. Maleev. By the size of its claws, scientists suspect the creature was about 23-35 feet long, and weighed around 3 tons. BIG CRITTER.
From what some paleontologists gather, about 80-70 ma, the Therizinosaurus ripped open large termite homes with its enormous claws, making the animal an insectivore. Others assume it was an herbivore and used its claws to gather fruit or leaves from trees (like today’s sloth). How they know all of this from three gargantuan sickle-like claws, I do not know. That’s why we’re going to Mongolia to find more remains of the Therizinosaurus!
Photo of “the claw”:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Therizinosaurus_claw.jpg
More Therizinosaurus info:
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/therizinosaurus.htm
We will be going to the Jaxartes River in Kazakhstan to begin a journey in finding Jaxartosaurus fossils. A hadrosaurid dinosaur similar to corythosaurus. Its large helmet-like crest that it may have used for visual identification or to vocalize with members of the same herd. This wide headed plant eater had flat topped teeth and lived during the late Cretaceous period about 91 to 83 million years ago.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/detail.dsml?Genusqtype=starts+with&disp=gall&identifier=Jaxartosaurus&sort=Genus&dataHeaderText_EX=dinosaurs+beginning+with+%27J%27&Genus=J&beginIndex=1&listPageURL=nameAZ%2edsml%3fGenusqtype%3dstarts%2bwith%26disp%3dgall%26sort%3dGenus%26Genus%3dJ
Let's go to the Shangdong Province in China! :) The fossils of the Shantungosaurus was discovered there in 1973. It is possibly the largest duck-billed dinosaur and has the most teeth of any dinosaur! It lived about 70.6-68.5 million years ago.
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/dinosaurs/shantungosaurus.htm
http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/SHANTUNGOSAURUS
We are headed to Cross Hands Quarry, Warwickshire, UK to see the large-bodied theropod;Cruxicheiros newmanorum found in 2009
Very exciting and perhaps we can have a pint and some mushy peas after digging.
http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app55/app20090083.pdf
Africa is the continent where humans first evolved, why not look for dinosaurs there? The Afrovenator meaning African hunter is from the region of Abaka in Niger. It is one of the possible dinosaurs species hypothesized to be the Kasai rex
(a possible surviving bipedal meat eater)
(The Kasai rex is a Congo Bigfoot/lock ness monster type creature)
(Kasai rex-Kevin)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrovenator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasai_rex
"V" is for China, I mean, Velociraptor!
We are heading to Northen china near the border of Mongolia. We are using a site that a velociraptor skeleton was found by a joint team from China and Canada. The velociraptor was a 1.6 foot tall, 6.8 foot long bipedal carnivore with feathers. By far the smartest of the dinosaurs. It hunted in packs. It had an elongated skul with 28 teeth spaced apart that were serrated to tear apart the meat that was for dinner. Their fingers have three claws and their feet have four digits with the second toe having a sickle shaped claw made famous, or infamous, from the movie Jurassic Park.
Here is a great website to learn about velociraptors so please, please check it out. http://www.jurassictimes.com/velociraptor
Here is a less...scientific site, but really fun! http://www.velociraptors.info/
We are heading to the woodlands of Madagascar where the fossils of a bird looking raptor known as Rahonavis was found. The Rahonavis is from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 million years ago, but its fossils weren't found until about 1995. Researchers at first thought it was a bird because of its feathers but it had a lot of similar characteristics as the raptor does such as the single huge claw on each hind foot.
for more information on the Rahonavis here is some websites.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/indexr.shtml
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/carnivorousdinosaurs/p/rahonavis.htm
and for some images of the Rahonavis.
http://www.livescience.com/images/Avian_Rahonavis_02.jpg
http://umlauf.websnadno.cz/rahonavis-tmk.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Rahonavis_BW.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/b/ba/20070807062030!Rahonavis_BW.jpg
Gallimimus was found in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the early 1970s.
Gallimimus is presumed to have been an omnivore, eating small critters, eggs and plants. It walked bipedally, and was pretty speedy on its pins, guessed to have managed ostrich speeds, around 40mph.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Gallimimus.shtml
Hello all! K is for Kentrosaurus! This dinosaur is closely related to the Stegosaurus. In order to find Kentrosaurus we will need to head to Africa to the country of Tanzania. This dinosaur is from the Late Jurassic period, and measured around 16 feet in length as an adult weighing in at 2 tons. Kentrosaurus had plates along its back as well as spikes down its tail. The spikes were used as armor against predators, and were around 2 feet long. I would not want to get wacked by a Kentrosaurus' tail!
http://www.kentrosaurus.org/
Since we will already be in Africa, lets kill two birds with one stone and make a run to Tanzania where the Kentrosaurus, The "Spiked Lizard", was found in 1909-1912. It was known to have lived during the late Jurassic Period, 156 to 150 M.A.
This mighty dinosaur, with a keen sense of smell, was a 17-foot plant eater and was estimated to weigh 4,000 pounds. As a smaller version of the Stegosaurus, its bone structure implies it was an inactive, sluggish dinosaur. With a small head and toothless mouth, it guarded itself with double rows of bony plates that trailed from the neck half way down its back where they then turned into spikes that ended at the tip of its tail. The armor also included a pair of shoulder spikes.
At one point, there was a nearly complete skeleton of the Kentrosaurus, but it was sadly destroyed in a bombing during World War II.
You can kind more fun facts about the Kentrosaurus at:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Kentrosaurus-Facts&id=1806541
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/
http://www.rareresource.com/kentrosaurus.htm
My suggestion for our little imaginary dinosaur hunt takes us to “dinosaur valley” located in the province of Neuquien, Argentina where, in 2001, a new species of sauropod was discovered and informally named Sauropodus. Acording to wikipedia.org and enchantedlearning.com, the Sauropodus is an “undescribed genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous,” and as such “has not yet been formalized”. It was found by Edith Simon said her 11-member team at “the same area that in 1990 yielded the bones of Argentinosaurus, the biggest dinosaur known to have walked the Earth.” Despite that fact the researcher “are comparing it with other fossils in the area and it doesn't seem to match any”, for that reason the researchers believe it may be a new species. According to the researchers the Sauropodus was a herbivore that measured 30 yards long and weighed about 70tons and existed during in the Cretaceous Late Cenomanian era (about 95ma).
http://dml.cmnh.org/2001Feb/msg00345.html
http://dml.cmnh.org/2001Feb/msg00351.html
http://en.argentina-excepcion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&lang=us&id=778
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropodus
http://www.dinodata.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7480&Itemid=67
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/
the best perserved Pterosaurs fossils came from Araripe plateau, Brazil. These dinosaurs are often called pterodactyls, and are well known for their ability to fly. according to Wikipedia.org Pterosaurs anatomy and bones are highly modified for the ability to fly. Their bones are hollow and filled with air, they are a very complex creature.
Asia. The Gobi desert.
Klamelisaurus was found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Klamelisaurus-scene-v1.jpg - Representation of this dinosaur.
154 million years ago, this sauropod dinosaur roamed Asia (more than likely). Not much else is known, except that it could be the adult of the already named genus, Bellusaurus.
We'll find the "spiny scaled" Acanthopholis near Folkestone in Kent, England.
At 15 feet long and 380kg, this herbivore lived during the early Cretaceous Period, and had thick oval plates set into its skin, not to mention the spikes coming out of its neck, shoulders, and spine! Truly a dino to be left alone
Fossilized footprints found near Sucre, Bolivia, South America suggest that these dinos could even jog and a fairly decent pace!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Acanthopholis.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthopholis
We are going to Alberta, Canada! A very famous area for finding dino fossils!
My dinosaur is the Euoplocephalus!! His name means well armoured head. And he looks similar to a triceratops! He was about 20 feet long and weighing 2 tons! He was strickly an herbavore but had lots of armor from his head to his "club-like" tail! With all if his armor and traveling in herds they were well protected from other dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous like Tyrannasaurus.
What a cute dino!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euoplocephalus
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/dinosaurs/euoplocephalus.htm
Get those passports ready, people. We are off to sunny Malawi to search for the aptly named Malawisaurus. This sauropod walked the Earth in the Early Cretaceous period and was first researched by western science in 1928. Checking in at 52 feet, the Malawisaurus is relatively small in comparison with other sauropods. Analyzation of fossil specimens has shown records of ossicles on the skin, which are believed to represent dermal scutes covering the skin. Current visual representation of Malawisaurus shows a beauthiful purple/green coloring to the beast. Now we just have to get our pick-axes through TSA.
Today, ladies and gentlemen, our tour group will be moving on to scenic northwest Africa, where we will be visiting Province de Ksar es Souk in Morocco. There we will visit the Kem Kem Beds, a geological formation from the Late Cretaceous period to look for fossils! This area is rich in fossils, including the fearsome Carcharodontosaurus.
The carcharodontosaurus was a huge carnivore, similar to the T. rex but even larger, measuring from 26-44 feet and weighing up to 8 tons. Carcharodontosaurus walked on two legs and was a fast runner, despite his size. He had very large sharp teeth much like a shark, which is where he got his name, meaning "shark-tooth lizard."
If you would like to read more about the Carcharodontosaurus or the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco and Algeria, you can find information on Wikipedia, Enchanted Learning, and DinoData.
Folks, we've got a lot of work to do in Africa -- hope somebody brought lion-repellent! (Especially while we're in Tanzania. A lion eats 2 people a week there. A WEEK!)
Anyway, we're in Zimbabwe to visit my personal dinosaur, the Vulcanodon! (I chose him because I like the name -- volcano tooth! The fossil was found between two volcanic flows.) This fella was discovered in 1972. So he was outside the 10-15 year range, but still a new discovery by paleological standards -- especially considering there's only a handful of dinosaurs starting with the letter V!
We'll be looking for him in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, where a partial fossil was found. He was an early Jurassic sauropod, living between 208-201 Ma. It was an herbivore, probably eating mostly conifers. He was a tiny fella, for a sauropod -- he was only about 20 feet long and a few tons. The intriguing thing is that he had nail-like claws and one enlarged claw on each big toe. Wonder what those were for?
Otherwise, he looked a lot like a typical sauropod -- long neck, small head, and a bulky body. His forelimbs were unusually long for a sauropod.
Wanna see a picture? I like this one -- makes me think the claws and long legs were for self-defense. Didn't stop our Zimbabwe fella from being some theropod's lunch, though!: http://www.gstboces.org/iss/hancock/home/dinosaurs/Vulcanodon.htm
Forgot to include a link! I used Enchanted Learning, Wikipedia, and this place: http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/VULCANODON
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