Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs and other large reptiles ruled the Earth’s ecosystems. Learn more about their triumphant and then tragic story.
Learning Objective: Tell the dinosaur story including evolutionary origins, structural features, major taxonomic groups, new avenues of research, and theories for their extinction.
In the past few decades, new dinosaur fossil finds have made this group of reptiles even more interesting. This section provides an overview of dinosaurs.
We’ll begin with a general look at the major groups of dinosaurs.
Watch this video; you can select the closed captioning “cc” option if you would like to see the text.
Ornithischians
“Bird-like” pelvis, these herbivores include stegosaurus, hadrosaurs, and triceratops.
Sauropod Saurischians
Herbivorous dinosaurs with a lizard-shaped pelvis. Many were massive, including Brachiosaurus.
Theropod Saurischians
Carnivorous dinosaurs with a lizard-like pelvis, including T. rex and velociraptors. This lineage gave rise to modern birds.
Stegosaurus, an ornithischian herbivore, is one of the best-known dinosaurs. The spiked tail may have been a defense against predators, and the raised plates may have been used for display or possibly cooling.
Evolutionary trees are used to organize different types of dinosaurs.
Brachiosaurus is one of the iconic sauropods, recognizable with its upright stance.
These videos were made at Prehistoric Gardens on the Oregon Coast. A lot of care has gone into the construction of these statues and it is worth a stop while driving highway 101.
Knowledge about dinosaurs continues to change. The next section explores how scientific knowledge can be both tentative and durable.
Check your knowledge – Dinosaurs
Review your notes. Can you describe and provide examples of dinosaur taxa? If so, move forward to the next page.
Learning Objective:
Tell the dinosaur story including evolutionary origins, structural features, major taxonomic groups, new avenues of research, and theories for their extinction.
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Go back to the Phanerozoic Page
Go forward to the Tentative & Durable Page
Geologic Time Contents
Complete all five of these sections before taking the quiz and submitting your media piece.
This Module
7: How long has it been here?
This Guide
7A: Geologic Time
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7A: Quiz & Media
