Dinosaurs from A-Z
By: Quincy Livchak
Content standards Second Grade: Science Life Science: Interactions within Habitats Some kinds of individuals that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared, although they were something like others that are alive today. Living things that once lived on Earth no longer exist; their basic needs were no longer met.
A – Allosaurus AL-oh-sore-us •
The name comes from the Greek allos, meaning "strange" or "different" and sauros, meaning "lizard" or "reptile.
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The Allosaurus was a carnivore that had big, sharp teeth with edges like saws. They were active predators and they would attack dinosaurs much larger than them such as the Stegosaurus.
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Its most distinctive feature is a pair of blunt horns just above and in front of the eyes.
B- Bird Hipped •
The scientific name for bird hipped is Ornithischian.
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The bones in the hips are facing backwards.
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All dinosaurs with bird hips are herbivores.
C- Carnivore •
A carnivore is an animal that eats meat and other animals.
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They use sharp claws and saw-like teeth to eat their prey.
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Dinosaurs that were carnivores were the first type of dinosaurs to appear.
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Most meat-eating dinosaurs had bones filled with air. Though their bones were huge, they weren’t as heavy as they looked.
D- Dinosaur •
To be classified as a dinosaur, the animals must be land dwelling reptiles.
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Paleontologist Richard Owens began using the word dinosaur in 1842. In Greek it means terrible lizard, referring to the size and might of these creatures.
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The main classification of dinosaurs is based on hip structure.
E- Extinct •
To be extinct means to no longer be in existence; having died out leaving no living representatives.
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The age of dinosaurs ended more than 65 million years ago.
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A meteorite hitting the earth caused all the dinosaurs to become extinct. This is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or the K-T event.
F-Fossils •
Fossils are the preserved remains of plants or animals. In order for something to be considered fossilized scientists have decided they have to be over 10,000 years old.
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The word fossil comes from the Latin word fossilis, which means, "dug up".
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Most fossils are excavated from sedimentary rock layers. Sedimentary rock is rock that has formed from materials like sand, mud, and small pieces of rock.
G- Gasosaurus Ga-so-sore-us •
The Gasosaurus dinosaur was a carnivore with strong legs, short arms, and powerful jaws.
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It was about four feet tall, thirteen feet long, and it weighed about 600 pounds.
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The first and only postcranial (missing the skull), fossil was discovered in 1985 during the construction of a gas facility, explaining the name which means gas lizard.
H- Herbivore •
An herbivore is an animal that eats grass and other plants.
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Herbivores have blunt teeth that are good for stripping leaves and other plants. Some also have flat teeth for grinding tough plant fibers.
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Most plant eaters walked on four feet to better carry their heavy bodies. Some plant eaters could balance on two feet for a short time
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Plant-eating dinosaurs often lived together for protection, like herding animals do today.
I-Internal Body Temperature •
The internal body temperatures for some dinosaurs were warm-blooded, some were cold-blooded, and some were neither fully one nor the other.
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Smaller carnivores were warm-blooded. Herbivores that were not very active were coldblooded.
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Warm-blooded dinosaurs need 10 times more food than cold-blooded dinosaurs that are the same size.
J- Jurassic Period •
Dinosaurs lived during a period of Earth’s history called the Mesozoic (“middle life”) Era. The Jurassic Period is the second of the three divisions of this era.
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The most diverse dinosaurs lived during this time. At the beginning most of the dinosaurs were small, by the end of the period they large and heavy.
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The Jurassic Period lasted for 64 million years.
K- Kentrosaurus ken-TROH-sore-us •
Kentrosaurus means 'pointed lizard'.
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Kentrosaurs were African cousins of the North American Stegosaurus. They differed in size, in the shape of their armor plating, and in their physical flexibility.
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The Kentrosaurus was a sluggish and inactive herbivore.
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They lived during the late Jurassic Period.
L- Lizard Hipped •
The scientific name for lizard hipped is saurischian.
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The hip bones are pointed forward on these dinosaurs.
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Scientists believe that birds evolved from lizard hipped dinosaurs.
M -Mesozoic Era •
Mesozoic means middle life. During this era there were three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.
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This is the era that dinosaurs dominated the earth.
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The Mesozoic era existed in between two extinctions. After the Permian Extinction marked the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, which eliminated all of the dinosaurs, brought this era to a close.
N- Nodosaurus no-doh-SORE-us •
Nodosaurus means knobbed lizard.
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This dinosaur was an herbivorous dinosaur that moved slowly. The Nordosaurus was similar to a modern day rhinoceros.
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Nodosaurus was an armored dinosaurs covered in lumps, or knobs. It was one of the earliest armored dinosaurs discovered.
O- Omnivore •
An omnivore is an animal that eats both animal and plant substances.
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Dinosaurs that were omnivores were the last dinosaurs to appear.
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Dinosaurs that were omnivores had the best chance of survival because their range of food choices was the widest.
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Most omnivorous dinosaurs were medium sized because accessing both plants and animals was necessary for their survival.
P-Paleontologist •
Paleontology is the study of the history of life. Scientists who study paleontology are called paleontologists.
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Paleontologists study fossils to try to figure out three main things about the history of the animal that was once living: Identity and origin of the fossil, the fossil's environment, and what the fossil can tell us about the history of the earth.
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Paleontologists use many types of sciences to help them understand the past such as geology (study of rocks) and biology (study of life).
Q- Quaesitosaurus kwee-siet-oh-sore-us •
Quaesitosaurus means extraordinary lizard.
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This dinosaur was an herbivore that had very small soft teeth, which it may have used to eat water plants.
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Most of what scientists believe about the structure of the
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Quaesitosaurus they have taken guesses on because the full skeleton of the dinosaur has never been discovered.
R- Reptiles •
Dinosaurs were reptiles.
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Most dinosaurs had a scaly skin with no hair on their bodies.
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Dinosaurs are believed to have shed their skin and scales similarly to how other reptiles, such as snakes, shed their skin.
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Reptiles lay eggs with hard shells to have their young.
S- Stegosaurus stor-IK-uh-SAWR-us •
The name Stegosaurus means roof or plated lizard.
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The Stegosaurus had huge upright plates on its back that could grow as large as 30 inches. Scientists believe that the stegosaurus could control its body temperature by regulating blood flow through the large plates on their backs. A stegosaurus may have also been able to control its skin color this way, to either attract a mate or scare predators. Scientists call this color change “blushing."
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The Stegosaurus has the smallest brain for its body size of any known dinosaur. Its body was the size of a van, but its brain was the size of a walnut
T- Tyrannosaurus Rex tye-RAN-uh-SAWR-us •
Tyrannosaurus Rex comes from the name means "tyrant lizard king". Sometimes it is abbreviated to T-Rex.
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The Tyrannosaurus Rex had huge back legs, but its tiny front legs were not much longer than human arms.
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It had jagged teeth 6 of inches long. Even though it had such long teeth, it couldn’t chew, so it swallowed its food in large chunks.
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This dinosaur was relatively smart. The size of the brain was small compared to the size of the body, but it was larger than most other dinosaurs.
U- Udanoceratops oo-dahn-oh-serra-tops •
The Udanoceratops was a medium-sized dinosaur that had four legs and is characterized by having horns on their faces.
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The Udanoceratops most likely lived on what is now modern day Asia.
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This dinosaur is most known for its partial skull and postcranial skeleton.
V – Velociraptor veh-loss-ih-RAP-tor •
The name Velociraptor means 'swift seizer’.
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The Velociraptor was around the size of a Turkey and it is also believed to have had feathers.
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They were scavengers and hunters. They could be found eating leftover dinosaurs that larger dinosaurs did not eat or hunting small prey.
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Velociraptors would hunt in packs making them hard to escape.
W- Wannanosaurus wah-NAHN-uh-SAWR-us •
Wannanosaurus translates to Wannan Lizard.
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This dinosaur was an herbivore.
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It traveled on two feet making it bipedal.
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The Wannanosaurus may be the most primitive (earliest) flat-headed form of the boneheaded dinosaur family.
X- Xiaosaurus Zhou-SAWR-us •
Xiaosaurus means "dawn lizard" or “small lizard”.
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This dinosaur was a small herbivore. It walked on two long legs, had four-toed feet, fivefingered hands, short arms, a long, stiff, pointed tail, a flexible neck, and a small head with large eyes.
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This early dinosaur lived during the mid-Jurassic period, about 169–163 million years ago.
Y- Yucatan Peninsula •
The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is where the meteorite hit the earth that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs over 65.5 million years ago.
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The meteorite was 6 miles in diameter and it left a 112-mile-wide crater.
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The force from the shock waves was felt around the world. It was so strong that no land animal heavier than a large dog survived.
Z- Zuniceratops zoo-nee-serra-tops •
"Zuniceratops" means "Zuni horned face" - "Zuni" refers to a native American tribe that live nearby to where this dinosaur was first discovered.
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Zuniceratops was a bird hipped dinosaur.
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It was an herbivore that traveled in herds.
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This dinosaur was discovered in1996 by an 8 year old named Christopher James Wolfe.
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