Dinosaur FAQ's
Kids always have questions and those with an interest in a specific area seem to be even more inquisitive and constantly want to know more. Some of the commonest questions have been collated in this area. Some of the questions may surprise you.
Q1 Why is Brontosaurus not listed?
The reason that Brontosaurus is not listed in our A-Z is because the first Brontosaurus bones found by Marsh in 1879 were later discovered to actually be the bones of the Apatosaurus which he had discovered and named two years previously.
Q2 Did humans live alongside dinosaurs?
No: The last dinosaurs, other than birds, died out about 65 million years ago. while the fossils of our earliest human ancestors are only about 6 million years old. Dinosaurs and people coexist only in books, movies.
Q3 Were mammals around when dinosaurs roamed the earth?
Yes: The ancestors of mammals, called synapsids, and the actually appeared before Dinosaurs. Tiny mammals lived alongside dinosaurs for more than 150 million years, occupying ecological niches as small, nocturnal animals weighing as little as 2 grams. Mammals remained relatively small until 65 million years ago, when the demise of the dinosaurs left a mass of niches for larger mammals to fill. Most of the types of mammals we know today evolved after this time. The picture of Archaeothyris was a very early mammal-like reptile, which lived in the late Carboniferous period. Dated to 306 million years ago, it is the oldest undisputed synapsid known.
Q4 Did all dinosaurs die out 65 million years ago?
No: Birds evolved about 150 million years ago and experts believe they evolved from small predatory dinosaurs. Today they would be classified as dinosaurs according to modern methods of grouping animals.
Q5 Were flying reptiles were dinosaurs?
No: Flying reptiles called pterosaurs first appeared just after the dinosaurs, and then died out at the same time as the dinosaurs. The largest grew to the size of a small aeroplane. However, while they were close relatives, they were not true dinosaurs.
Q6 Did an asteroid impact alone kill the dinosaurs?
Yes & No: A layer of iridium-rich rock marks the impact 65 million years ago of a 10-kilometre asteroid in shallow water covering what is now Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. That impact formed the 180 kilometre-wide Chicxulub crater. There is no convincing evidence that any non-avian dinosaurs survived the aftermath of the impact. Yet we are still not totally sure how the dinosaurs died.
The impact itself could only have killed the dinosaurs in the immediate vicinity of the crater. But it also produced devastating after-effects including giant tsunamis, rain that may have been as acidic as battery acid, and clouds of dust that darkened and cooled the globe for months or even decades.
Another theory suggests that before the impact, dinosaurs were already dwindling as falling sea levels and volcanic eruptions took their toll. A combination of those effects probably wiped out the dinosaurs.
Q7 Did mammals eat dinosaurs eggs?
No: Dinosaurs coexisted with mammals for 150 million years. Although dinosaur nests were undoubtedly vulnerable, the most dangerous predators were probably smaller dinosaurs. Most mammals of the time were probably too small to eat the eggs of large dinosaurs.
Q8 Were dinosaurs slow?
No & Yes: It is believed that dinosaurs were not slow and most studies show that they were probably as fast as lions. Meat eating dinosaurs would have to be fast and active to catch their prey. On the other hand Plant eater would not need speed so they would probably be slow compared to the carnivores.
Q9 Did dinosaurs die out because they did not evolve.
No: It is believed that dinosaurs died out because of an asteroid impact. Dinosaurs lived for more than 150 million years, we (Homo Sapiens) have only been around for 200,000 years. This means that we still have another 149,800,00 years to go before we have been around as long as dinosaurs.
Q10 Were marine reptiles - for example, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs dinosaurs?
No: Several types of marine reptiles evolved during the dinosaur age, but all true dinosaurs were terrestrial animals. Marine crocodiles, like other crocodiles, were closely related to the dinosaurs. So were large, extinct marine reptiles called plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs.
Q11 What color were dinosaurs?
We don't really know as a fossil does not contain any pigments (skin color). The scientists base the Color's on today's reptiles and animals. The colors that are shown on dinosaur pictures are the scientists best guess.
There may come a time when science will be able to determine the dinosaurs Color's, but for now we can not be sure.
