Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals There is one thing which is kind of strange concerning dinosaurs and that is kids love them. When you really think about it, you have to say to yourself why? Maybe it is because they are pictured in books and stories for children, but for whatever reason they have become beloved among the younger set. Even many adults are intrigued by them and discoveries which are made concerning them. I try and keep up with the discoveries myself, even though I only write about them infrequently. A fossil was recently found in Argentina which has shaken up the scientists. The reason paleontologists can’t believe their eyes is the fact this animal was so huge, it would be the biggest creature to ever have walked the earth, but that is a relative term. It should be said this way, it was the biggest known creature to ever have walked the earth, because who knows what we might find in the future. It was found in Argentina’s Museo de La Plata. The creature would have been bigger than 122 feet long and 77 tons, the measurements for a Patagotitan dinosaur. This is not a boat we are talking about but a creature which lived and breathed. I would imagine the ground shook when this creature walked by. Some scientists are saying it would have been heavier than a Argentionaurus, a dinosaur which could weigh up to 110 tons. When we think of worms today, we don’t think of giant worms, but evidence has been found of prehistoric worms which were as long as a human is tall and they were predators. They would stick their heads out of a hole in the ground and grab their food as it walked or swam by. I say swam because it lived in the ocean. The worm was said to have lived about 20 million years ago. The evidence of its existence was found in Taiwan. People might not realize this but there is a type of worm which exists in the sea which has jaws so strong in can snap a small fish in half. It is called the Bobbit worm. It ranges in size from about 4 inches to as large as 10 feet. There is a period in time which we haven’t gotten a lot of dinosaur footprints from and that is the Middle Jurassic period. This is the reason why paleontologists were so excited about what they found on the Scottish Island, the Isle of Skye. Hundreds of sauropod tracks were found on the island. The footprints were very large and were found at Brothers’ Point and are about 170 million years old. Back then the island had many beaches, lagoons and rivers. Some of the footprints were described as being as big as a car. It is believed Theropods made the footprint. This group of dinosaurs includes the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex. It is believed this dinosaur was an early relative to the T. rex, perhaps one of the most famous dinosaurs. It is hard to believe how a perfectly preserved dinosaur egg from 130 million years ago can exist, but a discovery was made in China of 30 of them. The eggs were found in the city of Ganzhou by construction workers. Interestingly the city is known as the “hometown of dinosaurs.” A middle school was being built when construction was halted because of the find. Black debris was also found which turned out to be fossilized egg shells. While construction was going on in Thornton, Colorado, a fossil was discovered. It was of a dinosaur. The fossil was said to be 66 million years old and was discovered in the parking lot of the structure being built. It was initially believed to be a Triceratops, but was later found out to be a Torosaurus a cousin to the Triceratops. In 2017 scientists found something they couldn’t believe. It was an ancient shark which dates back 80 million years. There is more to this story however, because the shark was alive. This shark was alive when the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops roamed the earth. It was found in Suruga Bay in Japan. One of the reasons for not knowing about its existence is it lives deep in the ocean somewhere between 390 to 4200 feet deep. Scientists have said it is unchanged from what it looked like those 80 million years ago. Evolution seems to have not had any effect on it. Scientists in Spain were surprised when they found parts of a fossil, not only because it was the fossil of a dinosaur, but it was found in an unexpected area. It was discovered in Morella in the eastern province of Castellon. It is incomplete, but is believed to be a sauropod and a Brachiosaurus. It is believed Brachiosaurus existed in the area about 125 million years ago. One of the femurs which was found measured 5 feet 3 inches. This means the dinosaur could have been as much as about 66 feet long and 33 feet tall. Amber has captured many insects and preserved them for study. Also, small animals are found from time to time encased in amber. In 2017 scientists became very excited when a piece of amber was found with a bird in it. The bird was estimated to be 99 million years old. It was a baby bird found in a 3 inch piece of amber. The bird was very young when the amber captured it, perhaps only a few days old. The bird was part of a group of birds known as enantiornithes which became extinct about 65 million years ago. This bird existed during the time of the dinosaurs. One of the major differences with this bird from birds of today is it already had feathers at such a young age. The discovery of a dinosaur in Canada was not so surprising, but what was surprising was its state of preservation. We are not talking about a skeleton fossil. It is about 110 million years old and was found in an oil sands mine. It is a nodosaur. It has been described as looking like a sleeping giant. How often does one get a chance to see a dinosaur with its skin intact? I guess the answer to that is almost never and usually the best one can hope for is a small piece of skin is preserved such as one dinosaur in the Natural History Museum in New York City. The exhibit is the gem of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada.
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