Tyrannosaurus rex

The big dinosaur t-rex was about 30 feet to 40 feet long and 20 feet tall but can get to 30 feet tall. It lived in the cretaceous period 72 million years ago. It was a carnivore and that means it eats meat it eats more in a week than us eating in 4 months. T-rex is the most powerful with the jaw that can break throw bone.

Dentition analysis also supports the theory of prey selection by examining teeth form and function. Examination of G. vogtlensis teeth reveals their robust size, large roots, and sharp cutting edges were capable of consuming large vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Carnassial-like morphology of four posterior teeth with large wear facets, implies prey were often too large to be swallowed and had to be processed into smaller pieces (Hulbert et al., 1996).

The basilosaurus is a whale species that existed over 40 million years ago in the Paleogene period. These 90-feet-long whales swam in the warm, shallow tropical seas. This species is especially common in the state of Alabama, as that the continental coast line once existed in the modern black belt region. Similarly, the mosasaur was very common in Alabama. The mosasaur most closely relates to the snake or the lizard, with an average length of 60 feet. The mosasaur had the ability to unhinge its jaw when it ate, as well as having teeth in the back of its throat in order to prevent prey from climbing back out its mouth. The museum has one of the biggest collection of mosasaur remains.

The Stegosaurus is said to be twenty-six to thirty feet long and about nine feet tall! the stegosaurs weighed six thousand-eight hundred pounds, can you believe that? but it had a very small brain, about the size of a nut. they are herbivores, meaning they only eat low plants and crops. they have seventeen bone plates that grew out of its back! some think that their plates helped them look bigger maybe to scare off the meat eaters or maybe just to show off. they also have spikes on their tail, the stegosaurus tail is four feet long as their tail is also very flexible and they can use to protect themselves from large predators or scare those carnivores. Its name also means covered lizard, they could not walk very fast and some paleontologists believe that if that if they had blood veales running through their plates that its plates could change color, pretty interesting right?

The mastodon slaughter site on Emanuel Manis' property was found when he was burrowing through six feet of peat to make a little lake. Manis discovered two fossilized tusks that he thought had a place with

The Tyrannosaurus rex has a bone-crushing force skull, massive and long legs, and a brain that has a strong sense of smell. These characteristics were beneficial to the T-rex. First, the jaw of the T-rex was able to crush their prey's bones and drag the meat further which is also known as puncture and pull strategy. Next, the T-rex legs were massive and long especially in the juvenile stage because it had the strength of an adult legs which they were able to fast walk. Lastly, the T-rex had a strong sense of smell and binocular vision which can easily capture their prey. On the other hand, their arms were shortened relative to the size of T-rex body. There was no evidence that the T-rex used their arms for predation or scavenging.

Another species worth mentioning are the clown snakes. They are huge herbivore snakes that are up to twenty feet long. They have extremely hard scales that need a tremendous amount of force to be broken, and they also have large flat teeth. The teeth usually so large that the snakes look like they’re smiling, and their scales are very bright with a variety of colors.The snake seem very harmless with their large grin and rainbow scales,

Because dinosaurs are animals that lived millions of years ago, we are entirely dependent on the fossils that they have left behind for any understanding that we hope to gain. As any paleontologist will tell you, fossil hunting is difficult. There are no certainties, no guarantees. A certain amount of luck is as valuable as any scientific knowledge.

A dinosaur has an antorbital fenestra with an open hole hip socket. The definition differs from the term used informally because it helped understand how the dinosaur moved and how they were categorized as species. There are four general characteristics that dinosaurs have as a result of their synapomorphies which are permeated acetabulum, ball-shaped head on proximal femur, the Cnemial crest on the proximial tibia, and an ascending process on astragalus. These four dinosaur synapomorphies are related to vertical limb support.

Because warm blooded animals don’t have to rely on their environment for body temperature, they are able to hunt at any time of the day or in any season, which is a great advantage over cold-blooded animals.  Therefore this “type of intense activity needs a fast metabolism which is much too high for a cold-blooded animal.  Secondly, cold-blooded animals have a hard time living in cold climates and dinosaur fossils have been found in the colder environments” (Eschberger).  However, scientists believe warm blooded animals would have suffered from the heat in warmer climates, where many fossils have been discovered.  Beverly Eschberger discusses how dinosaurs must have been only warm blooded animals due to the factors of, bone structure, and histology, growth rates, predator to prey ratios, speed and agility, rate of evolution, similarities with birds, and insulation.  She also explains the disadvantages of being a warm blooded animal: “a much larger expenditure of energy to maintain elevated metabolism and a commensurate increase in food requirements” (Eschberger).  Just as the conclusion that dinosaurs were truly warm blooded becomes clearer, factors from the cold blooded side switch everything around.  Gigantothermy, rate of food supply, respiratory turbinates and lung structure all cause scientists to believe dinosaurs were in fact cold-blooded.  There have been many attempts to find the real resolution of whether or not dinosaurs were warm or cold

First, Crichton noted that duckbilled dinosaurs were herbivores which are supported by a trace fossil found in the coal beds of the western North America that indicated footprints with plant fossils (Martin 2006). Furthermore, duckbilled dinosaurs lived in a vegetated environment that they had to consume enough food relative to their body size. Duckbilled dinosaurs had lengthened their skull and smoothed snout to obtain and process more food. The Dilophosaurus was described as two curved crests that extended from the eyes to the nose. The crest created a V shape on the head with red and black stripes on the crests (Crichton, 1990). Based on fossil evidence, the Dilophosaurus had two crests on the head, but there was no indication of the pigment of the crest. Next, the book stated that the T. rex does not bite the prey, instead, it twisted and tore the

The robust australopithecines or paranthropines had a curved face with a arch for the cheek bones that are formed by connecting the zygomatic and the temporal bones together. The robust australopithecines had a bone ridge on top of their skull called a sagittal crest, which is also attached to the jaw muscles. They had a flexable base just above were their jaw bone connected to their cheek bone. With their really large back teeth (below the cheek bone) the robust australopithecines fossils were known to the researchers as the “nutcracker man”. They used these really large back teeth to eat tough foods and nuts. And their teeth in the front were smaller.

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

When, where and how did dinosaurs live? Dinosaurs arose around 200 million years ago and lived and evolved for about 185 million years. There were 5 eras in which dinosaurs were alive; the Archezoic Era, Proterozoic Era, Palezoic Era, Mesozoic Era and the Cenozoic Era (“Dinosaurs”). Dinosaurs roamed the entire Earth when all continents were

The Jurassic Period is a time period were new dinosaurs were being discovered and found. It was about 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago. Some of the species that were found in the Jurassic Period are the Stegosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Allosaurus. Each dinosaur had their own characteristics for survival.