Jurassic Period Research Paper

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 65 million years and thankfully for the human race, they became extinct. Ultimately, only a major catastrophe could completely wipe out an entire species, let alone an entity of dinosaurs and the debacle on the causes of dinosaur extinction have flooded the minds of paleontologists for centuries. Geologist and zoologist Stephen Jay Gould published “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” to compare scientific and speculative causes of dinosaur decimation. Personally, I found this passage very informational and enjoyed reading it. Gould provides three theories that capture the reader’s curiosity, allowing room for pondering in one’s mind.

The beginning of the Jurassic brought a new climate. The weather changed from arid, dry, and seasonal to humid, hot, and stable. The weather allowed for lush jungles to flourish, and with the lush jungles, the dinosaurs. The weather change was due to the supercontinent Pangea breaking apart. Two new smaller supercontinents were formed, Gondwana and Laurasia. The supercontinents now had more area that was touching the ocean. This meant the water from the ocean made the supercontinents more humid than before. The dinosaurs thrived in this climate. New species are being discovered to this day from the Jurassic Period due to the immense diversity amongst them.

There are several hypotheses that are used to explain the causes of mass extinctions. Climate change, the warming or cooling of global environments over a short period of time, can lead to other occurrences. Shifts in climate can cause extinction by

The Cretaceous period is a period of time within the Mesozoic Era lasting from 146 million years ago to 65.5 million years ago. It is one of three periods in the Mesozoic Era along with the Triassic and Jurassic periods. The Cretaceous period is well known for the amount of dinosaurs it had, and the event that put an end to the dinosaurs reign, the K-T mass extinction. During the K-T mass extinction, a huge asteroid hit earth and caused tons of dust to infiltrate the air. Only a small portion of dinosaurs died on impact Instead, the dust blocked out sunlight which caused plants to die. Without plants, many dinosaurs did not have a food source, so the died out. Carnivore dinosaurs, such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, survived a little longer

According to Holmes, the Time of the Giants begins by looking at the geological and its ecological conditions which creates opportunities for the expansion of dinosaurs in the Middle and Late Jurrasic Epochs. It describes widespread changes to ocean and land enviroments, including worldwide climate changes that served as catalysts for the spread of the jurassic “giants”: the dinosaurs. The book explores the broad ranges of the largest and biggest of all land animalsand tells the discoveries and changing scientific images of the early so-called “giants” over the past one hundred fifty years. By the end of the Jurassic Period, several evolutionary trends were in motion that would be played out by the giant creatures, dinosaurs, in the next

The first dinosaurs were small, meat-eating animals that first arose over 200 million years ago. From such small beginnings evolved thousands of different species, including the largest animals ever to walk on Earth. At the Smithsonian, some of the most important dinosaurs known to science stand in our exhibit halls, from the ferocious Allosarus to eighty-foot Diplodocus. Learn more about our famous dinosaurs

Dinosaurs come in many different colors and sizes. The lifespan of a dinosaur is 75 to 300 years. Their daily life is hunting, mating, using the bathroom, and migrating. The defense mechanisms helped them repair their injuries 150 mya. The bone structures are the skull, jaws, neck bones, vertebrae, thigh, pelvis, tail, and rib bone. Dinosaur’s average speed is about 27 mph. Dinosaurs find their food by hunting, which is each other and some eat plants. They reproduce by hatching newborns from eggs. Some communicate by their horns or flickering the tip of their tails. Baryonyx stomach contents were found to contain fish scales, is an example of predator-prey relationship. Some animals that are related to dinosaurs are lizards, because of their skin texture.

The Triassic period from 252 million to 200 million years ago, saw the rise of reptiles and the first dinosaurs, the Jurassic period , from about 200 million to 145 million years ago, ushered in birds and

According to a live science, an article written by Mary Bagley, "The Cretaceous Period was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic Era. It lasted approximately 79 million years, from the minor extinction event that closed the Jurassic Period about 145.5 million years ago to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event dated at 65.5 million years ago"(Mary Bagley, LS). In the cretaceous period, the continent of Pangea was still breaking away from itself, forming what we now know as the seven world continents. In the many eras of dinosaurs, the cretaceous era was responsible for evolving some, but not all the dinosaurs from full land dinosaurs to some who were able to live both on land and in water, semi-aquatic carnivorous dinosaurs. This era had produced some of the dinosaurs that maybe us non- paleontologist are more familiar with like the all mighty tyrannosaurus rex or the long neck. Well let me tell you, there were a lot more dinosaurs than just those two. Although the tyrannosaurs rex was an enormous dinosaur, a bigger dinosaur was discovered in 1912, the Spinosaurus. This discovery would change peoples, kids, and paleontologists view on which dinosaur was bigger than the other. This semi-aquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus, was much larger than the T-rex due to its sail like backbones that stuck out of its back. Furthermore, spinosaurus had a huge advantage that the tyrannosaurus-rex did not.

Jurassic Park is a story of how this man decides that it is a great idea to resurrect the dinosaurs. The best scientists came together and took the tiniest form of remains possible to be able to be found. The DNA hidden in the earth, was invaded by these people. they believed everything was under control and they were eliminating every single possibility for these creatures to cause destruction anywhere. They said they were going to make a theme park, enjoyable for everyone; making it possible for people to see the magnificent wonders we have missed out on in this time. They were wrong. The creation of the dinosaurs, the Lysine Contingency, and the scientific ethics all played a major role

The first dinosaur fossil was found by Reverend Plot, in 1676, at the time it was believed to belong to a “giant” but was probably from a dinosaur although a report of this find was finally published by R. Brookes almost 100 years later in 1763. Theories suggest that it was a Megalosaurus dinosaur. It was after this time that scientist more specifically, paleontologist became interested in these giants. Even with today's advances in technology, scientists are not sure about the lifespan of some dinosaurs, some scientists believe that they might have lived for 200 years, up to present time. Apart from that a lot of people think that dinosaurs only lived in some parts of the world, but that is wrong and fossils have been found that indicate, dinosaurs lived in Antarctica.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton demonstrated many dinosaur characteristics and behaviors. The dinosaurs were fictionally characterized to appeal to the readers. By examining the dinosaur’s appearance and behaviors of dinosaurs such as the duckbilled dinosaur, velociraptor, hypsilophodontids, dilophosaurs, Triceratops, apatosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurs, and maiasaurs distinguished whether the evidence existed in the field of paleontology. The behaviors and characteristics of the dinosaur are divided into three factors as behaviors that were supported, not supported, and no evidence to support or refute the behavior.

Dinosaur extinction: An analysis of events and theories that possibly led to the dinosaurs' demise.

Jurassic is a period of time with Dinosaurs, rodents and birds. There were also island seas consisting of sharks, sea monsters and blood-red planktons. The existing plants in that period were cycads, ferns and conifers. The Mesozoic era was about 245 million years ago to 65 years ago, so it almost lasted about 180 years in total. The Mesozoic era is divided into three periods of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. Mesozoic era means middle animals and it is the era, which the word’s fauna has changed from what is in the Paleozoic era and the most famous organisms of this era are dinosaurs. In the Mesozoic era, the extinction of more than 90 percent of species in the earth was observed and the reason behind it was mostly volcanic eruptions and climate changes. On the other hand, this era had massive changes that represented ecological niches and rise to new creatures such as rodent-size mammals and first dinosaurs. In Triassic, which was the first period of Mesozoic, the mammals and first dinosaurs existed. Later than that, the second period was Jurassic, which giant shaped dinosaurs and other kinds of dinosaurs were developed. Besides that the first flowering plants and primitive birds, with long teeth appeared in that era as well.

The biggest mystery surrounding the dinosaur is how did they die? For over 130 million years dinosaurs ruled the earth. Then 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, they died out.