User:Abyssal/Prehistory of North America

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The Prehistory of North America Portal

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Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals that first appeared during the Triassic period, 231.4 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago), when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs and, consequently, they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs by many paleontologists. Some birds survived the extinction event and their descendants continue the dinosaur lineage to the present day.

Using fossil evidence, paleontologists have identified over 500 distinct genera of non-avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are represented on every continent. Some are herbivorous, others carnivorous. While dinosaurs were ancestrally bipedal, many extinct groups included quadrupedal species. Elaborate display structures such as horns or crests are common to all dinosaur groups, and some extinct groups developed skeletal modifications such as bony armor and spines. Evidence suggests that egg laying and nest building are additional traits shared by all dinosaurs. While modern birds are generally small due to the constraints of flight, many prehistoric dinosaurs were large-bodied—the largest sauropod dinosaurs may have achieved lengths of 58 meters (190 feet). Many dinosaurs were quite small: Xixianykus, for example, was only about 50 cm (20 in) long. (see more...)

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Edward Drinker Cope (left) and Othniel Charles Marsh (right).

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology (2005) is a graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. The book tells a slightly fictionalized account of the Bone Wars, a period of intense excavation, speculation, and rivalry which led to a greater understanding of dinosaurs in the western United States. This novel is the first semi-fictional work written by Ottaviani; previously, he had taken no creative license with the characters he depicted, portraying them strictly according to historical sources.

Bone Sharps follows the two scientists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh as they engage in an intense rivalry for prestige. Ottaviani has Cope and Marsh interact and meet many important figures of the Gilded Age, from P. T. Barnum to U.S. Grant, as the two scientists pursue their hotheaded and sometimes illegal acquisitions of fossils. Unlike in his previous books, "the scientists are the bad guys this time". Upon release, the novel received praise from critics for its exceptional historical content, although some reviewers wished more fiction had been woven into the story. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that within the United States, dinosaur fossils (example pictured) have been found in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming, but not in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, or Wisconsin?
... that Mississippian stone statuary (examples pictured), made by members of the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE), are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines?
... that oviraptorosaurs were thought to be egg-eaters after the discovery of Oviraptor on a nest of presumed Protoceratops eggs, until the nest was recognized as belonging to Oviraptor itself?

...that the Norte Chico civilization is the oldest known civilization in the Americas?
... that the extinct mason bee species Anthidium exhumatum and Anthidium scudderi are known from the Eocene Florissant Formation in Colorado?
... that paleontologist Gerta Keller theorizes that dinosaurs did not become extinct until 300,000 years after the Chicxulub meteor, though she agrees that "I'm sure the day after, they had a headache"?
...that the enigmatic Ediacaran biota (fossil pictured) have been classified into every major group of lifeforms, including their own kingdom?
...that the Stag-moose (Cervalces scotti) went extinct about 11,500 years ago, part of a mass extinction of large North American mammals toward the end of the most recent ice age?

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A mounted skeleton of a Late Cretaceous mosasaurid species belonging to the genus Plioplatecarpus, probably P. ictericus. In life the animal would have been about 5.5 m in length. The mounted skeleton is actually a composite of two individuals collected from the Niobrara Formation, of Kansas, USA and is exhibited in the Museum für Naturkunde in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Photo credit: H. Zell