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What is a dinosaur?

Definition

The taxon Dinosauria was formally named by the English palaeontologist Richard Owen in 1842 as "a distinct tribe or suborder of Saurian reptiles". The term is derived from the [[Ancient current discovery of polar dinosaurs in Australia and Antarctica (where they would have experienced a cold, dark six-month winter), the discovery of dinosaurs whose feathers may have provided regulatory insulation, and analysis of blood-vessel structures that are typical of endotherms within dinosaur bone. Skeletal structures suggest that theropods and other dinosaurs had active lifestyles better suited to an endothermic cardiovascular system, while sauropods exhibit fewer endothermic characteristics. It is certainly possible that some dinosaurs were endothermic while others were not. Scientific debate over the specifics continues.

Complicating the debate is the fact that warm-bloodedness can emerge based on more than one mechanism. Most discussions of dinosaur endothermy tend to compare them to average birds or mammals, which expend energy to elevate body temperature above that of the environment. Small birds and mammals also possess insulation, such as fat, fur, or feathers, which slows down heat loss. However, large mammals, such as elephants, face a different problem due to their relatively small ratio of surface area to volume (Haldane's principle). This ratio compares the volume of an animal with the area of its skin: as an animal gets bigger, its surface area increases more slowly than its volume. At a certain point, the amount of heat radiated away through the skin drops below the amount of heat produced inside the body, forcing animals to use additional methods to avoid overheating. In the case of elephants, they are hairless, and have large ears which increase their surface area, and have behavioral adaptations as well (such as using the trunk to spray water on themselves and mud wallowing). These behaviors increase cooling through evaporation.

Large dinosaurs would presumably have had to deal with similar issues; their body size would dictate that they lost heat relatively slowly to the surrounding air, and so could have been what are called inertial homeotherms, animals that are warmer than their environments through sheer size rather than through special adaptations like those of birds or mammals. However, so far this theory fails to account for the vast number of dog- and goat-sized dinosaur species which made up the bulk of the ecosystem during the Mesozoic period.

Feathered dinosaurs and the bird connection

Birds and non-avian dinosaurs share many features. Birds share over a hundred distinct anatomical features with theropod dinosaurs, which are generally accepted to have been their closest ancient relatives.

Feathers

Archaeopteryx, the first good example of a "feathered dinosaur", was discovered in 1861. The initial specimen was found in the Solnhofen limestone in southern Germany, which is a lagerstätte, a rare and remarkable geological formation known for its superbly detailed fossils. Archaeopteryx is a transitional fossil, with features clearly intermediate between those of modern reptiles and birds. Brought to light just two years after Darwin's seminal The Origin of Species, its discovery spurred the nascent debate between proponents of evolutionary biology and creationism. This early bird is so dinosaur-like that, without a clear impression of feathers in the surrounding rock, specimens are commonly mistaken for Compsognathus.

Since the 1990s, a number of additional feathered dinosaurs have been found, providing even stronger evidence of the close relationship between dinosaurs and modern birds. Most of these specimens were unearthed in the Liaoning province in northeastern China, which was part of an island continent during the Cretaceous period. Though feathers have been found only in the lagerstätte of the Yixian Formation and a few other places, it is possible that non-avian dinosaurs elsewhere in the world were also feathered. The lack of widespread fossil evidence for feathered non-avian dinosaurs may be due to the fact that delicate features like skin and feathers are not often preserved by fossilization and thus are absent from the fossil record.

The feathered dinosaurs discovered so far include Beipiaosaurus, Caudipteryx, Dilong, Microraptor, Protarchaeopteryx, Shuvuuia, Sinornithosaurus, Sinosauropteryx, and Jinfengopteryx. Dinosaur-like birds like Confuciusornis, which are anatomically closer to modern avians, have also been discovered. All of these specimens come from the same formation in northern China. The dromaeosauridae family in particular seems to have been heavily feathered, and at least one dromaeosaurid, Cryptovolans, may have been capable of flight.

Skeleton

Because feathers are often associated with birds, feathered dinosaurs are often touted as the missing link between birds and dinosaurs. However, the multiple skeletal features also shared by the two groups represent the more important link for paleontologists. Furthermore, it is increasingly clear that the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, and the evolution of flight, are more complex topics than previously realized. For example, while it was once believed that birds evolved from dinosaurs in one linear progression, some scientists, most notably Gregory S. Paul, conclude that dinosaurs such as the dromaeosaurs may have evolved from birds, losing the power of flight while keeping their feathers in a manner similar to the modern ostrich and other ratites.

Comparison of bird and dinosaur skeletons, as well as cladistic analysis, strengthens the case for the link, particularly for a branch of theropods called maniraptors. Skeletal similarities include the neck, pubis, wrist (semi-lunate carpal), arm and pectoral girdle, shoulder blade, clavicle and breast bone.

Reproductive biology

A discovery of features in a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton recently provided even more evidence that dinosaurs and birds evolved from a common ancestor and, for the first time, allowed paleontologists to establish the sex of a dinosaur. When laying eggs, female birds grow a special type of bone in their limbs. This medullary bone, which is rich in calcium, forms a layer inside the hard outer bone that is used to make eggshells. The presence of endosteally-derived bone tissues lining the interior marrow cavities of portions of the Tyrannosaurus rex specimen's hind limb suggested that T. rex used similar reproductive strategies, and revealed the specimen to be female.

A dinosaur embryo was found without teeth, suggesting that some parental care was required to feed the young dinosaur. It is also possible that the adult dinosaurs regurgitated into a young dinosaur's mouth to provide sustenance, a behavior that is also characteristic of numerous modern bird species.

Lungs

Large meat-eating dinosaurs had a complex system of air sacs similar to those found in modern birds, according to an investigation which was led by Patrick O'Connor of Ohio University. The lungs of theropod dinosaurs (carnivores that walked on two legs and had birdlike feet) likely pumped air into hollow sacs in their skeletons, as is the case in birds. "What was once formally considered unique to birds was present in some form in the ancestors of birds", O'Connor said. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

Heart and sleeping posture

Modern computerized tomography (CT) scans of dinosaur chest cavities (conducted in 2000) found the apparent remnants of complex four-chambered hearts, much like those found in today's mammals and birds. A recently discovered troodont fossil demonstrates that the dinosaurs slept like certain modern birds, with their heads tucked under their arms. This behavior, which may have helped to keep the head warm, is also characteristic of modern birds.

Gizzard

Another piece of evidence that birds and dinosaurs are closely related is the use of gizzard stones. These stones are swallowed by animals to aid digestion and break down food and hard fibres once they enter the stomach. When found in association with fossils, gizzard stones are called gastroliths. Because a particular stone could have been swallowed at one location before being carried to another during migration, paleontologists sometimes use the stones found in dinosaur stomachs to establish possible migration routes.

Evidence for Cenozoic dinosaurs

In 2002, paleontologists Zielinski and Budahn reported the discovery of a single hadrosaur leg bone fossil in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. The formation in which the bone was discovered has been dated to the early Paleocene epoch approximately 64.5 million years ago. If the bone was not re-deposited into that stratum by weathering action, it would provide evidence that some dinosaur populations may have survived at least a half million years into the Cenozoic Era.

Bringing dinosaurs back to life

There has been much speculation about the use of technology to bring dinosaurs back to life. In Michael Crichton's book Jurassic Park (later adapted into a movie), which popularized the idea, scientists use blood from fossilized mosquitos that have been suspended in tree sap since the Mesozoic to reconstruct the DNA of dinosaurs, filling chromosomal gaps with modern frog genes. It is probably impossible to resurrect dinosaurs in this manner. One problem with the amber extraction method is that DNA decays over time by exposure to air, water and radiation, making it unlikely that such an approach would recover any useful DNA (DNA decay can be measured by a racemization test).

The successful extraction of ancient DNA from dinosaur fossils has been reported on two separate occasions, but upon further inspection and peer review, neither of these reports could be confirmed. However, a functional visual peptide of a (theoretical) dinosaur has been inferred using analytical phylogenetic reconstruction methods on gene sequences of still-living related species (reptiles and birds).

Even if dinosaur DNA could be reconstructed, it would be exceedingly difficult to "grow" dinosaurs using current technology since no closely related species exist to provide zygotes or a suitable environment for embryonic development.

Soft tissue in dinosaur fossils

One of the best examples of soft tissue impressions in a fossil dinosaur was discovered in Petraroia, Italy. The discovery was reported in 1998, and described the specimen of a small, very young coelurosaur, Scipionyx samniticus. The fossil includes portions of the intestines, colon, liver, muscles, and windpipe of this immature dinosaur.

In the March 2005 issue of Science, Dr. Mary Higby Schweitzer and her team announced the discovery of flexible material resembling actual soft tissue inside a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. After recovery, the tissue was rehydrated by the science team.

When the fossilized bone was treated over several weeks to remove mineral content from the fossilized bone marrow cavity (a process called demineralization), Schweitzer found evidence of intact structures such as blood vessels, bone matrix, and connective tissue (bone fibers). Scrutiny under the microscope further revealed that the putative dinosaur soft tissue had retained fine structures (microstructures) even at the cellular level. The exact nature and composition of this material are not yet clear, although many news reports immediately linked it with the movie Jurassic Park. Interpretation of the artifact is ongoing, and the relative importance of Dr. Schweitzer's discovery is not yet clear.

Extinction theories

The sudden mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, which occurred around 65 million years ago, is one of the most intriguing mysteries in paleontology. Many other groups of animals also became extinct at this time, including ammonites (nautilus-like mollusks), mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, herbivorous turtles and crocodiles, most birds, and many groups of mammals. The nature of the event that caused this mass extinction has been extensively studied since the 1970s. At present, several related theories are broadly supported by paleontologists.

Asteroid collision

The asteroid collision theory, which was first proposed by Walter Alvarez in the late 1970s, links the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period to a bolide impact approximately 65.5 million years ago. Alvarez proposed that a sudden increase in iridium levels, recorded around the world in the period's rock stratum, was direct evidence of the impact. The bulk of the evidence now suggests that a 5-15 km wide bolide hit in the vicinity of the Yucatán Peninsula, creating the 170 km-wide Chicxulub Crater and triggering the mass extinction. Scientists are not certain whether dinosaurs were thriving or declining before the impact event. Some scientists propose that the meteorite caused a long and unnatural drop in Earth's atmospheric temperature, while others claim that it would have instead created an unusual heat wave.

Although the speed of extinction cannot be deduced from the fossil record alone, various models suggest that the extinction was extremely rapid. The consensus among scientists who support this theory is that the impact caused extinctions both directly (by heat from the meteorite impact) and also indirectly (via a worldwide cooling brought about when matter ejected from the impact crater reflected thermal radiation from the sun).

Multiple collisions—the Oort cloud

While similar to Alvarez's impact theory (which involved a single asteroid or comet), this theory proposes that a stream of comets was dislodged from the Oort cloud due to the gravitational disruption caused by a passing star. One or more of these objects then collided with the Earth at approximately the same time, causing the worldwide extinction. As with the impact of a single asteroid, the end result of this comet bombardment would have been a sudden drop in global temperatures, followed by a protracted cool period.

Environment changes

At the peak of the dinosaur era, there were no polar ice caps, and sea levels are estimated to have been from 100 to 250 metres (330 to 820 feet) higher than they are today. The planet's temperature was also much more uniform, with only 25 degrees Celsius separating average polar temperatures from those at the equator. On average, atmospheric temperatures were also much warmer; the poles, for example, were 50 °C warmer than today.

The atmosphere's composition during the dinosaur era was vastly different as well. Carbon dioxide levels were up to 12 times higher than today's levels, and oxygen formed 32 to 35% of the atmosphere, as compared with 21% today. However, by the late Cretaceous, the environment was changing dramatically. Volcanic activity was decreasing, which led to a cooling trend as levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere also started to fluctuate and would ultimately fall considerably. Some scientists hypothesize that climate change, combined with lower oxygen levels, might have led directly to the demise of many species. If the dinosaurs had respiratory systems similar to those commonly found in modern birds, it may have been particularly difficult for them to cope with reduced respiratory efficiency, given the enormous oxygen demands of their very large bodies.

History of discovery

Dinosaur fossils have been known for millennia, although their true nature was not recognized. The Chinese, whose own word for dinosaur is konglong (恐龍, or "terrible dragon"), considered them to be dragon bones and documented them as such. For example, Hua Yang Guo Zhi, a book written by Zhang Qu during the Western Jin Dynasty, reported the discovery of dragon bones at Wucheng in Sichuan Province.. In Europe, dinosaur fossils were generally believed to be the remains of giants and other creatures killed by the Great Flood.

Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be formally described, in 1677, when part of a bone was recovered from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Oxford, England. This bone fragment was identified correctly as the lower extremity of the femur of an animal larger than anything living in modern times. The second dinosaur species to be identified, Iguanodon, was discovered in 1822 by the English geologist Gideon Mantell, who recognized similarities between his fossils and the bones of modern iguanas. Two years later, the Rev William Buckland, a professor of geology at Oxford University, unearthed more fossilized bones of Megalosaurus and became the first person to describe dinosaurs in a scientific journal.

The study of these "great fossil lizards" soon became of great interest to European and American scientists, and in 1842 the English paleontologist Richard Owen coined the term "dinosaur". He recognized that the remains that had been found so far, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus, shared a number of distinctive features, and so decided to present them as a distinct taxonomic group. With the backing of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria, Owen established the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, to display the national collection of dinosaur fossils and other biological and geological exhibits.

In 1858, the first known American dinosaur was discovered, in marl pits in the small town of Haddonfield, New Jersey (although fossils had been found before, their nature had not been correctly discerned). The creature was named Hadrosaurus foulkii, after the town and the discoverer, William Parker Foulke. It was an extremely important find; Hadrosaurus was the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton found and it was clearly a bipedal creature. This was a revolutionary discovery as, until that point, most scientists had believed dinosaurs walked on four feet, like other lizards. Foulke's discoveries sparked a wave of dinosaur mania in the United States.

Dinosaur mania was exemplified by the fierce rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, both of whom raced to be the first to find new dinosaurs in what came to be known as the Bone Wars. The feud probably originated when Marsh publicly pointed out that Cope's reconstruction of an Elasmosaurus skeleton was flawed; Cope had inadvertently placed the plesiosaur's head at what should have been the animal's tail end. The fight between the two scientists lasted for over 30 years, ending in 1897 when Cope died after spending his entire fortune on the dinosaur hunt. Marsh won the contest primarily because he was better funded through a relationship with the US Geological Survey. Unfortunately, many valuable dinosaur specimens were damaged or destroyed due to the pair's rough methods; for example, their diggers often used dynamite to unearth bones (a method modern paleontologists would find appalling). Despite the pair's unrefined methods, their contributions to paleontology were vast; Marsh unearthed 86 new species of dinosaur and Cope discovered 56, for a total of 142 new species. Cope's collection is now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, while Marsh's is on display at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.

Since 1897, the search for dinosaur fossils has extended to every continent, including Antarctica. The first Antarctic dinosaur to be discovered, the ankylosaurid Antarctopelta oliveroi, was found on Ross Island in 1986, although it was 1994 before an Antarctic species, the theropod Cryolophosaurus ellioti, was formally named and described in a scientific journal.

Current dinosaur "hot spots" include southern South America (especially Argentina) and China. China in particular has produced many exceptional feathered dinosaur specimens due to the unique geology of its dinosaur beds, as well as an ancient arid climate particularly conducive to fossilization.

In popular culture

By human standards, dinosaurs were creatures of fantastic appearance and often enormous size. As such, they have captured people's imagination and become an enduring part of human popular culture. Dinosaur exhibitions, parks and museum exhibits around the world both cater to and reinforce the public's interest. The popular preoccupation with dinosaurs is also reflected in a broad array of fictional and non-fictional works.

Notable examples of older fictional works featuring dinosaurs include Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World; the 1933 film King Kong; and Godzilla.

Religious views

Various religious groups have views about dinosaurs that differ from those held by scientists. While many mainstream scientists respect these views as faith positions, they argue that religiously-inspired interpretations of dinosaurs do not withstand serious scientific scrutiny. See the referenced article for specific examples and further context.

See also

• Dinosaur classification
• Fossils
• List of dinosaurs
• Prehistoric life
• Prehistoric reptiles

Notes and references

1. * Owen, Richard. 1842. "Report on British Fossil Reptiles." Part II. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Plymouth, England.
2. Parsons, K.M. (2001). Drawing Out Leviathan. Indiana University Press. 22-48. ISBN 0-253-33937-5.
3. Mayr, G., Pohl, B. and Peters, D.S. (2005). A Well-Preserved Archaeopteryx Specimen with Theropod Features. Science 310:1483-1486.See commentary on the article.
4. O'Connor, P.M. and Claessens, L.P.A.M. (2005). Basic avian pulmonary design and flow-through ventilation in non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Nature 436:253.
5. Xu, X. and Norell, M.A. (2004). A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture. Nature 431:838-841.See commentary on the article.
6. Fassett, J, R.A. Zielinski, & J.R. Budahn. (2002). Dinosaurs that did not die; evidence for Paleocene dinosaurs in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, San Juan Basin, New Mexico. In: Catastrophic events and mass extinctions; impacts and beyond. (Eds. Koeberl, C. & K. MacLeod): Special Paper - Geological Society of America 356: 307-336.
7. Wang, H., Yan, Z. and Jin, D. (1997). Reanalysis of published DNA sequence amplified from Cretaceous dinosaur egg fossil. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 14:589-591. See commentary on the article.
8. Chang, B.S.W., Jönsson, K., Kazmi, M.A., Donoghue, M.J. and Sakmar, T.P. (2002). Recreating a Functional Ancestral Archosaur Visual Pigment. Molecular Biology and Evolution 19:1483-1489. See commentary on the article.
9. Cite error: The named reference softtissue was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. Schweitzer, M.H., Wittmeyer, J.L. and Horner, J.R. (2005). Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex. Science 307:1952-1955. Also covers the Reproduction Biology paragraph in the Feathered dinosaurs and the bird connection section. See commentary on the article
11. ^ (Nov 2000). Earthwatch :6-13.
12. Koeberl, C. and MacLeod, K.G. (2002). Catastrophic Events and Mass Extinctions. Geological Society of America. ISBN 0-8137-2356-6.
13. The Campanian diversity explosion The effect climate change may have had on the extinction of the Dinosaurs
14. Dino-Era Earth Had Polar Ice, Low Sea Level, Study Says Sea levels during the dinosaur era; National Geographic; November 29, 2005
15. Dong Zhiming (1992). Dinosaurian Faunas of China. China Ocean Press, Beijing. ISBN 3-540-52084-8.
16. Williams, P. (1997). The Battle of the Bones. Dinosaur Cards. Orbis Publishing Ltd. D36040607.

General references

• Kevin Padian, and Philip J. Currie. (1997). Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-226810-5. (Articles are written by experts in the field).
• Paul, Gregory S. (2000). The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-26226-4.
• Paul, Gregory S. (2002). Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of flight in Dinosaurs and Birds. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6763-0.
• Weishampel, David B. (2004). The Dinosauria. University of California Press; 2nd edition. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.

External links

2. Part 2

For children

• Dinosaur Time Machine from MantyWeb Educational Software From MantyWeb Educational Software. Kid's site, facts, games.
• Dinopedia From Yahooligans! Science. Glossaries, dino cards and indexes.
• Zoom Dinosaurs From Enchanted Learning. Kid's site, info pages, theories, history.
• 30 Dinosaur pictures for painting so the dinos get into your fingers, also for adults.
• Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette Award-winning online children's science magazine.

Popular

• Dinosaurs & other extinct creatures From the Natural History Museum. London popular site, well illustrated dino directory.
• Dinosaurs: They Certainly Were Big Humorous educational video about the dinosaur basics.
• Dinosaurnews The Dino-headlines from around the world. Recent news on dinosaurs, including finds and discoveries, lots of links.
• The Dinosaur Lady The Discoveries of Dr. Joan Wiffen, New Zealand's Dinosaur Lady
• History of Dinosaur discovery Timeline of the discovery of Dinosaurs.
• Dinosaurs: Facts and Fiction From the United States Geological Survey. Popular overview.
• Dinosaurs From the BBC. Popular site, very well illustrated.
• Discussions From DinoData. Summaries of modern debates about dinosaurs.
• Dinosauria From UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Detailed information - scroll down for menu.
• OPUS: Dinosaur by Daniel Bensen A gallery of dino-paintings.
• Fossilized dinosaurs in mid-battle
• #dinosaurs is an IRC channel on EFnet devoted to the discussion of dinosaurs.

Technical

• Putting Dinosaurs' Noses Back Where They Really Were
• Prehistoric Planet From PaleoClones. Current dino news.
• A Fiery Death for Dinosaurs? by Amit Asaravala From Wired. Article on the rapid extinction of dinosaurs.
• The Rex Files From the New Scientist. Articles, latest news but out of date.
• Palaeontologia Electronica From Coquina Press. Online technical journal.
• TeV scale gravity, mirror universe, and ... dinosaurs Article from Acta Physica Polonica B by Z.K. Silagadze.

Very technical

• DinoData Technical site, essays, classification, anatomy.
• Dinosauria On-Line Technical site, essays, pronunciation, dictionary.
• The Dinosauricon By T. Michael Keesey. Technical site, cladogram, illustrations and animations.
• Thescelosaurus! By Justin Tweet. Includes a cladogram and small essays on each relevant genera and species.
• Dinosauromorpha Cladogram From Palaeos. A detailed and wonderful amateur site about all things paleo.
• Dinobase A dinosaur database with dinosaur lists, classification, pictures, and more.
• Planet Dinosaur A very extensive site regarding dinosaur information.

Bird-dinosaur and dinosaur warm-bloodedness discussion

• DinoBuzz Are birds Dinosaurs?
• Dinosauria Site focusing on the dinosaur-bird relationship.
• Feathered dinosaurs
• Fossilized dinosaur heart
• Fossilized dinosaur eggs and nests
• Dinosaur eggs inside pregnant dinosaur

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