Zoom Dinosaurs DINOSAUR QUESTIONS

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Q: Is Godzilla truly a Dinosaur?
from Marc C., Rizal, Phillipines; July 31, 1998

A: Hello again, Marc. Godzilla is entirely fictional, but it looks as though it was designed with T. rex in mind.

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Q: Where could we see a Nanotyrannus skeleton in person?
from Nathaniel T., Petaluma, CA, USA; July 31, 1998

A: The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has a complete Nanotyrannus lancensis skull. They has misnamed this skull Gorgosaurus lancensis for years and had even put inappropriate plaster horns on it.

Nanotyrannus was a small tyrannosaurid (related to a resembling a tiny T. rex) that lived during the late Cretaceous, about 68-65 million years ago. It is known from the above-mentioned skull which was found in Montana in 1942 and is only 22 inches (57.2 cm) long. Nanotyrannus was not classified until 1988. Nanotyrannus means "dwarf tyrant." Some paleontologists think that Nanotyrannus is simply a juvenile Tyrannosaurus.

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Q: 1.3 characteristics of meat eating and plant eating dinosaurs. 2.Dinosaurs have how many teeths? 3..How do dinosaurs defend and protect themselves? 4.Which dinosaur is the fastest? 5.Give two reasons why dinosaurs live in groups? 6.Name two types of teeths that different types of dinosaurs might have? 7.Give two physical description and two examples of these animals?
from Siti Khatijah, Singapore; July 29, 1998

A: 1. There is a discussion of this in the section called "Diet" in "Anatomy and Behavior."
2. See the section called "Teeth" in "Anatomy and Behavior."
3. See "Offense" and "Defense," again in "Anatomy and Behavior."
4. For the fastest, see "Extreme Dinosaurs."
5. See the section "Herds/Packs" in "Anatomy and Behavior."
6. Same as the previous tooth question.
7. See the "Dinosaur information sheets."

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Q: How many and where were the most dinosaur bones found?
from Jaime W., West Seneca, NY, USA; July 27, 1998

A: Click here for a listing of where individual dinosaur fossils have been found. Great concentrations of dinosaur fossils have been found in Montana, Colorado, Alberta, CA, and a few other locales world-wide, including Lioaning, China (where the recent discoveries of bird-like dinosaurs have been made).

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Q: are some dinosaurs still alive?
from Austen S., Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA; July 25, 1998

A: Only if you count the birds. Technically, if the birds are descendants of the dinosaurs, then birds are included in the clade of dinosaurs, so birds are dinosaurs.

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Q: Where are fossils usually found?
from Courtney. C, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia; July 23, 1998

A: Fossils are usually found in places where there is exposed sedimentary rock, for example bad lands. If you're looking for dinosaur fossils, the sedimentary rock must have formed during the Mesozoic Era, when the dinosaurs lived. Dating the rock layers can be done in many different ways, two of which are: by radio-isotope dating of the bracketing volcanic layers or by looking at index fossils in the sediment. (Index fossils are from rganisms that are common, well known and well distributed. The dates during which these organisms lived is well documented and either relatively short or having one end point known. For more information on index fossils, click here.)

Sedimentary rock is the type of rock that is formed from sediment, like sand, mud, and small rocks. This debris (along with any organisms) is compressed (squeezed) as more sediment piles on top of it.

For more information on sedimentary rocks, click here. For more information on fossils, click here. For a list of locations of fossils finds, click here.

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Q: Do you know all the dinosors names if not or you do can you tell me some.
from Jeromy, newington, ct, USA; July 21, 1998

A: We know about 330 genera (groups) of the dinosaurs - there were a lot more than that that have yet to be found. I have a list of most of the dinosaurs and where they were found - click here to go to it. Also, there are information sheets for a lot of dinosaurs (with their pictures) - just click here.

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Q: What do you think about how dinosaurs died. I think they died of a diseise because during the peiroids of dinosaurs extinction was a common thing like the stegasaures started at the bigining of the jurasic peiriod and died at the end of the jurasic. what this has to do with diseases is dinosaurs with the disease died. This desease was also spreading. How did dinosaurs from all over the world get it well the plates of the world during the time were pulling a part but still together so dinosaurs could spread the disease all over contenets.
from David D., USA; July 19, 1998

A: Your theory is well thought out. One problem is the fact that it wasn't just the dinosaurs that went extinct 65 million years ago. Many other species died out, including plants, fish, marine organisms and members of every group of life forms. It is highly unlikely that they all could get the same disease. The Alvarez asteroid theory seems the most likely of all the theories I've read.

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Q: Can you give me some information regarding the duck billed dinosaur, I believe is a hadrosaur, such as when lived, size and weight, carnivorous or herbivor or anything you can tell me.
from Leslie, USA; July 17, 1998

A: There were a lot of hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs), including Maiasaura, Lambeosaurus, etc. For a page of information on the hadrosaurs, click here. There you will also find links to information sheets on individual genera of hadrosaurids.

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Q: what are two sauropod dinosaurs have been claimed to have been seen in africa this century? what giant creature has attacked people in the amazon basin?
from angela m., Centerville, OH, USA; July 13, 1998

A: There's an article on the supposed African sightings (which I think are pretty farfetched) here.

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Q: where are the paleontologist universities in Australia?
from Andrew W., New South Wales, Australia; June 25, 1998

A: There's a paleontology department at Monash University - click here for their web site. The links from that web site might help you find more information.

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Q: Is there any progress so far on the studies of the bird-like dinosaur found in China and what is it's name?
from Vanessa W., Tulsa, OK, USA; July 7, 1998

A: In the last few years, many fossils of feathered dinosaurs have been found near Yianxin, in Liaoning Province, China. Two new Chinese feathered dinosaurs dating from between 145 and 125 million years ago (during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods) have been found, Protarchaeopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui. Their features are more dinosaur-like than bird-like, and they are considered to be theropod dinosaurs. Their feathers were symmetrical, which indicate that they could not fly (flightless birds have symmetrical feathers while those that fly have asymmetrical ones).

These finds, along with the feathered dinosaur Sinosauropteryx, found a few years ago, reinforce the theory that birds are descended from dinosaurs. For more information on Sinosauropteryx, click here.

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Q: What was the Diplocaulus? How long ago did it live? What were its habit's?
from Tollevin W., LA, CA, USA; July 7, 1998

A: Diplocaulus was not a dinosaur but an old, extinct amphibian. It had a boomerang-shaped head, four short legs, and a long tail. It was 3 feet (1 m) long and lived during the late Carboniferous to the early Permian period (about 270 million years ago). Its fossils have been found in North America. Like all amphibians, it had to live near the water since amphibian eggs have no shells and must be laid in the water (or in very damp areas) or they will dry out and die.

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Q: what was the first Dinosaur fossil found?
from Danielle, USA; July 7, 1998

A: Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur fossil discovered (in England in 1676). It was also the first dinosaur given a scientific name - by William Buckland in 1824. Megalosaurus trackways have been found in limestone in southern England.

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Q: What dinosaurs lived in Spain?
from Bobby B., ???; July 2, 1998

A: Aragosaurus (a 60 foot (18 m) long sauropod), Hypselosaurus (a 27 foot (8 m) long sauropod), and Hypsilophodon (a 7.5 foot (2.3 m) long hypsilophodontid, a bipedal plant-eater) have been found in Spain. For a chart of the locations of dinosaur fossil finds, click here.

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Q: I have recently read the book 'Meg' does anyone know if there are any drawing's from artists as to what a 'Carcharodon Megalodon' might have looked like?
from Kevin V., Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; July 1, 1998

A: Megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) was an ancient shark, living between 5-1.6 million years ago; it is extinct. It was up to 40 feet (12 m) long, but this is only an estimate from fossilized teeth that have been found. No other parts of this ancient shark have been found, so we can only guess what it looked like. It may have looked like a huge version of the great white shark. (Shark fossils are extremely rare because sharks have no bones, only cartilage, which does not fossilize well.)

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Q: What dinosaurs have been found in Connecticut?
from Julie, CT, USA; July 1, 1998

A: Ammosaurus, Anchisaurus, Anchisauripus, Anomoepus, Eubrontes, Gigandipus, Sauropus, and Yaleosaurus have been found n Connecticut. For a chart of the locations of dinosaur fossil finds, click here.

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