Q: do you think the breakup of pangaea during the jurassic led to the extinction of some dinosaures and the evolution of other dinosaurs?
from pavel b, ottawa, ontario, canada; October 31, 2001

A: Yes, it undoubtably did. The breakup of Pangaea would have caused huge climate changes. For example, when Pangaea was intact, most of the world's land was interior desert; after the breakup, the climate was more moderate and there were fewer deserts. A major climate change like this would certainly be accompanied by a reshuffling of life forms (extinctions and new forms evolving).

A: Coprolite fossilized in the same manner that other things fossilize. For a page on how fossils form, click here.

A: The word coprolite (fossilized dung) means "dung stone" in Greek.

A: Stegosaurus' genus is Stegosaurus. Known species include S. armatus, S. affinis, S. laticeps, and S. stenops. For more information on Stegosaurus, click here.

A: For information on Archaeopteryx, click here.

A: For information on the K-T extinction, which happened 65 million years ago, click here.

A: For a page on sauropod dinosaurs, click here.

A: Click here.

A: Newly-hatched dinosaurs are called hatchlings. Not fully grown ones are called juveniles.

A: For a page on the Cretaceous period, click here.

A: T. rex lived during the late Cetaceous period. For more information on T. rex, click here.

A: Most of the sauropods lived during the Jurassic period and the Cretaceous period.

A: The various dinosaurs lived for about 165 million years (from 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago).

A: Duåring the Triassic period, the Earth was quite different than it is now. All the continents were jammed together into a supercontinent (which we now call Pangaea). This made much of the land interior land, and very dry. Pangaea was located near the equator, so the land was also warmer than it is now. For more information on the Triassic, click here.

A: No, of course not; like other fossils, coprolites (fossilized dung) are composed of rock-like minerals.

A: Ornithosuchus was a meat-eating early thecodont (an early reptile) that had a long snout and many sharp teeth (used to get food and to protect itself). Fossils have been found in England (and a few other locations). It walked on two legs. For more on Ornithosuchus, click here.

A: They evolved from earlier reptiles (probably thecodonts).

A: Petrification is a process in which an organic tissue (like wood) turns to stone. The original materials are repaced by minerals.

A: The Quartenary Period (also called the "Age of Man") started 1.8 million years ago and is still in progress. This period hasn't ended yet and the evolution of people nad civilization is considered to be pivotal events during this period.

A: All fossils (including coprolites) are unusual in that unlike most dead organisms, they did not decay, but were preserved. The preservation can happen in many ways, two of which are being buried in dry sand or sinking into mud that contains very little oxygen.

A: For information on Wannanosaurus, click here.

A: Like all fossils, they're easier to find in exposed sedimentary rock (like badlands and roadcuts) - but like all fossils, they are not easy to find and are even less easy to recognize.

A: There are no photos of Megalodon, since only teeth have been found. For a page on Megalodon with a drawing, click here.

A: In addition to having different diets, they had different physiology and behavior. They have different teeth and jaws (meat-eaters generally have slicing and cutting teeth with strong jaws; plant-eaters have teeth adapted to stripping foliage and/or grinding tough plant material and weaker jaws), different senses (for example, predators often have binocular vision in order to better judge distance, but herbivores need a wider field of vision to spot lurking predators), different levels of intelligence (predators often have to devise a way to get meat while expending a minimun of energy; hebivores need to run away or grow armor), etc. For a page on dinosaur diets, click here.

A: For a page on Aegyptosaurus, click here.

A: Paleontologists.

A: Assuming you meant dinosaurs, they lived during three geologic time periods, the Triassic period, the Jurassic period, and the Cretaceous Perod (together, these three periods form the Mesozoic Era.

A: Ceratopsidae includes the plant-eating, horned dinosaurs Avaceratops, Monoclonius, Brachyceratops, Centrosaurus, Styracosaurus, etc. For a cladogram of Ceratopsidae, click here. For another cladogram of Ceratopsidae, click here.

A: For North American dinosaurs, click here.

A: Dimetrodon was a large, meat-eating reptile that had a sail on its back - it was not a dinosaur. For a page on Dimetrodon, click here.

A: Brachiosaurus lived from about 156 million to 145 million years ago (during the late Jurassic period); its fossils have been found in Colorado, USA, North America, and Tanzania, Africa. For more information on Brachiosaurus, click here.

A: For an entry on Mesosaurus, click here.

A: The dinosaurs underwent continual evolution and extinction throughout the Mesozoic Era (from about 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago). The last of the dinosaurs (except for the birds) went extinct about 65 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period (which was at the end of the Mesozoic Era).

A: The biggest coprolite from a carnivore was from a T. rex. For information on this find, click here.

A: Coprolites (fossilized dung) can tell you what an animal ate. For example, a T. rex coprolite was found containing crushed Triceratops frill, so T. rex ate Triceratops.

A: A rock is a mixture of two or more naturally-occurring substances, mostly minerals; some rocks include granite, limestone, and sandstone. A mineral is an inorganic, naturally-occurring substance with an exact crystal structure, and all the molecules have the same chemical makeup (like a specimen of calcite, quartz, or hematite).

A: Yes, there were some very large crocodilians that lived during the time of the dinosaurs (like Deinosuchus, Leidysuchus, Geosaurus, and Phobosuchus) and they probably ate some dinosaurs.

A: For a page of Triassic period dinosaurs, click here.

A: Most were plant-eaters, others were meat-eaters or ate both plants and meat. For a page on dinosaur diets, click here.

A: For a page on Ornithomimus, click here.

A: A frill is a sheet of bone on the heads of ceratopsian dinosaurs, like Protoceratops and Triceratops.

A: Many animals lived before the dinosaur, including sponges, corals, worms, many fish (including some sharks), amphibians, insects and arachnids, Dimetrodon (and other pelycosaurs), etc. For a chart of geologic time time that includes when major groups of animals evolved, click here.

A: Coprolites (fossilized dung) can tell you what an animal ate. For example, a T. rex coprolite was found containing crushed Triceratops frill, so T. rex ate Triceratops.

A: For a fact sheet on Triceratops, click here.

A: I've never heard of there being one (but there may be one).

A: The blue whale is more massive than even the largest dinosaurs.

A: The dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era.

A: Megalosaurus was a large, meat-eating dinosaur. For a page on Megalosaurus, click here.

A: Spinosaurus was a real dinosaur. For information on Spinosaur, click here.

A: Denversaurus means Denver lizard." Denver refers to the Denver Museum of Natural History, where the fossil specimen was stored before it was identified . It was named by Robert Bakker in 1988.

A: The dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era.

A: No one has ever found a fossilized Brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus) heart, but it must have been very large. For information on Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus, click here.

A: Komoto dragons live on Komoto Island and nearby islands. For more information on Komoto dragonss, click here.

A: For a page on dinosaur reproduction, click here.

A: Click here for the "A" dinosaurs, then click on the other letters on that page to see all of them. Carnivores are listed in red; herbivores are listed in green.

A: They are extinct (except for the birds, which evoled from some carnivores) for the same reason that other aorganisms have gone extinct - they were unable to adapt to changes. For a page on dinosaur extinctions, click here.

A: Muttaburrasaurus was discovered in 1963 (by the Thompson River in central Queensland, Australia).

A: For a list of the dinosaurs known from the Triassic period (the beginning of the Mesozoic Era), click here.

A: An herbivore is a plant-eating animal. An omnivore eats both plants and animals. A carnivore is a meat-eater.

A: There is a small possibilty that megalodon may still exist.

A: Fossilized dung (from any source) is called coprolites.

A: See our paleontology dictionary.

A: Brachiosaurus was about 85 feet (26 m) long, and weighed about 33-88 tons (30-80 tonnes). For more information on Brachiosaurus, click here.

A: Dogfish sharks belong to the order Squaliformes and the family Family Squatinidae or Squalidae. For information on the spiny dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias), click here.

A: Dinosaurs lived during most of the Mesozoic Era, from about 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago.

A: Sauroposeidon had the longest neck. Individual vertebrae (neck bones) are up to 4 feet (1.2 m) long. Mamenchisaurus had the second longest neck. Its neck was up to 46 feet (14 m) long.

A: The last of the dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago.

A: Yes.

A: Diplodocus was a long-necked, whip-tailed, plant-eating dinosaur. For a page on Diplodocus, click here.

A: Many dinosaurs, including Styracosaurus and Maiasaura, probably lived in herds. For more information on dinosaur herds, click here.

A: The first US dinosaur was found in New Jersey.

A: The theropods were meat-eating dinosaurs.

A: No one knows. For some information on dinosaur metabolisms, click here.

A: A living fossil (an oxymoron) is an organism that lived during ancient times and still lives today, relatively unchanged, like the Coelacanth, the horseshoe crab, the gingko tree, cycads, horsetails, club mosses, and many, many other well-adapted organisms.

A: Cardiodon is known from only a single, heart-shaped tooth. No one knows how big it was or what it weighed.

A: Egyptian dinosaurs include Aegyptosaurus, Bahariasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Dicraeosaurus, Erectopus, Majungasaurus, Paralititan, and Spinosaurus (I don't know the exact locations where they were found). For other African dinosaurs, click here.

A: Click here.

A: Triceratops was a plant-eating dinosaur. For more infromatoin on Triceratops, click here.

A: Dinosaurs are commonly known by their genus name - for example, Triceratops is that dinosaur's genus. For more on dinosaur classification, click here.