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My Latest School Project

is....   DINOSAURS
 
What does dinosaur mean and how are dinosaurs named?

Answer: Sir Richard Owen coined the word dinosaur, meaning "fearfully great lizard," in 1842. In Greek, deinos means "fearfully great" and sauros means "lizard."

Naming Dinosaurs: Newly discovered dinosaurs are named by the discoverer or by the paleontologist who determines that it represents a new genus (or species). There are many different ways to choose a dinosaur name. Sometimes the dinosaur is given a name that describes something unusual about it's body, head, or feet. Some are named after the location where they are found, their behavior, size, or in honor of a person. The name has to be approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

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Dinosaurs ruled the earth for hundreds of millions of years. Then suddenly they Disapeared. Where did they go?

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A very interesting dinasaur is...  Ingenia

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About Ingenia
Little is known about Ingenia because very little of it has been found. This Dinosaur did not have any teeth, but instead had a sharp hard bird-like beak, which it probably used to crack open hard objects, such as eggs, nuts, shoots, and possible even dead animal bones. For this reason, it is believed that Ingenia was probably an omnivore, or an animal that eats both plants and meat.
Ingenia lived at about the same time as its closely related cousin Oviraptor.

Which dinosaur was the smallest?

Answer: The smallest dinosaurs yet discovered are:
  • A new, crow-sized theropod, Microraptor was recently found in China. It is about 16 inches (40 cm long) and may be an adult.
  • Compsognathus, a theropod (meat-eater) 2 feet (60 cm) long, from 145 million years ago. It was the size of a chicken and weighed about 6.5 pounds (3 kg).
  • Saltopus - a 2 feet (60 cm) long insectivore (insect-eater) from about 200 million years ago.
  • Lesothosaurus - a 3 feet (90 cm) long, fast running, plant-eater from Africa, 200 million years ago.
  • Wannanosaurus - a 39 inches (1 m) pachycephalosaur, a plant-eater from China, 83-73 million years ago.
Other small dinosuars include Micropachycephalosaurus, Microcephale, Nanosaurus, Gasparinisaura, Sinosauropteryx, Procompsognathus, Yandangornis, and Bambiraptor.

Mussaurus (meaning "mouse lizard") is the smallest complete dinosaur skeleton found, but it is from a hatchling (a baby). It was only 16 inches long (37 cm).

What was the biggest dinosaur?

Answer: The biggest dinosaurs were sauropods; they were gigantic, slow-moving, tiny-headed, cow-like plant-eaters from the late Jurassic period and the early Cretaceous period . They had very long necks which were useful for reaching wide (and tall) swatches of vegetation. The lengthy neck was counterbalanced by a massive tail. The following sauropods are the largest land animals ever discovered:
But blue whales are bigger than any of the dinosaurs were! 

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Its one of the ultimate questions - What was the largest creature ever to walk the earth? The answer is certainly a dinosaur, and certainly a sauropod. Depending on how accurate current estimates are, a sauropod might even be the largest creature ever to have existed, perhaps beating the Blue Whale's record of 103 feet and weight of +175 tons (although some say 110 feet).

Please understand that for the reasons detailed, this is not an exact science! Argentinasaurus is probably the biggest dinosaur truly known but there are possible challengers to the title, however Bruhathkayosaurus might be vegetable and Supersaurus has gone to pieces!
 

Bruhathkayosaurus ?44 m 144 ft TitanosaurBruhathkayosaurus

Using the humerotibial ratio of Aegyptosaurus, we can estimate Bruhath-kayosaurus' humerus was 2.34 meters long. This is 30% larger than estimatated for Argentinosaurus (1.81 m) and 39% larger than Paralititan (1.69 m). Tibia length was 29% larger than that of Argentinosaurus (1.55 m).
Based on the estimated mass Bruhathkayosaurus may have weighed 175-220 tons. There is difficulty in establishing the identity of the animal from what remains and Dinosauricon goes as far as to suggest that there is no certainty that it is even animalian.
 

Seismosaurus ?45 m 148 ft DiplodocidSeismosaurus

The remains of this animal include vertebrae, partial pelvis, chevrons, ribs and indicate it was one of the largest animals ever. Size estimates range from 40 to 50 metres.
 

Supersaurus ?40 m 131 ft Diplodocid

This diplodocid is known from fragmentary remains: one cervical vertebra, several dorsals, a few cordals and a scapulocoracoid. The cervical is 1.35m long and, compared to 0.6m Diplodocus suggests Supersaurus's neck was 2.25 times as long.
The Diplodocus has a six-meter neck, which suggests a neck of 13.5m for Supersaurus. The whole animal was not 2.25 times as long as Diplodocus because the height of its dorsal vertebrae is 1.5 times that of Diplodocus's, suggesting that the neck of Supersaurus was disproportionately long for its body, with a weight in the region of 40-50 tons.
 

Argentinasaurus 35 m Titanosaur

The sacrum, vertebrae and tibia that we have indicate that it is a member of the titanosaur family, and comparison with better-known titanosaur genera give us a good indication of its scale, suggesting a total length of 35m or longer. Given the bulkiness of titanosaurs, its likely weight was in the region of 80-100 tons.
 

Paralititan 32 m 114 ft Titanosaur

Its 1.69m humerus is smaller than that of Argentinosaurus, at 1.81m, suggesting that if the animals were simialrly proportioned, it was 93% a long as Argentinosaurus and suggesting a weight in the region of 65-80 tons.
 

Argyrosaurus - ?30 m - Titanosaur

This animal is estimated to be 45-55 tons. It is poorly known from a forelimb and some other material. Its size estimes range from 20 to 40 m long.
 

Diplodocus 27 m 92 ft

Once known as the longest dinosaur it has many times been overtaken. Now listed somewhere in the lower reaches of the top 20 longest it is, however, one of the best-known sauropods
 

Brachiosaurus 13 m high 43 ft high

The original giant, it is one of the best-known huge sauropods. For a long time it stood as the tallest known dinosaur.
 

Sauroposeidon 18 m high 59 ft

Only known from a series of four cervical vertebrae, features suggest that it was specialised towards supporting a long neck, which suggests that the rest of its body may have been proportionally somewhat smaller than in Brachiosaurus. Accordingly mass is estimated in the region of 50-60 tons.

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