THE DINOSAUR LIFE When you think of dinosaurs, you probably think of man eating animals of terror. But not all dinosaurs were as terrifying as you would imagine, even though the word dinosaur does mean “terrible lizard.” The best known dinosaur is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It grew up to 41 feet long and stood nearly 12 feet high at the hip. The T-Rex had tiny arms, yet its’ legs were huge and its teeth were 6 inches long! No wonder its name means “king of the tyrant lizards”! The Tyrannosaurus Rex mainly fed on other dinosaurs, including members of its own species. Even though we have a pretty good idea of what the T-Rex ate and what it looked like, we have no idea how they lived, and that’s why we are done talking about them. For many years, people thought dinosaurs were big, clumsy, slow moving, stupid animals that were just large versions of today’s reptiles. But recent research shows that they were as intelligent as modern mammals and birds. Take the small theropods, for example. They were small but energetic dinosaurs and much more active and intelligent than we first thought. How they lived depends on if they where cold-blooded or not. If they were cold-blooded, then they would be a lot less active than what they show in movies. Many people argue that they were, in fact, cold-blooded like modern reptiles. Some scientists say that they were warm-blooded, but most likely we will never know. Until someone invents a time machine, that’ll happen, right? The argument between scientists over whether or not dinosaurs were cold or warm-blooded has been going on since the 1970s. That’s over 40 years! What their eggs looked like is another mystery yet to be solved. We have found a few fossilized eggs, so we know that some had hard shells, like birds’ eggs. However, many people think that the dinosaur eggs had tough, leathery shells, similar to an alligators’ eggs. Some species of dinosaur lived in groups, most likely to protect themselves from predators. Dinosaurs that did not live in a group usually had features on its body to scare off a predators or an enemy. There is not much known about dinosaurs. But I’m sure that in the future, when the time machine is invented, we’ll know a whole lot more. CHAPTER TWO THE ASTEROID THEORY It was most likely a beautiful summer day, almost 6 million years ago, when it hit. You could here the Archaeopteryx screeching, the T-Rex tramping through the jungle, and the cry of the unfortunate Theropod which got in its way. Suddenly, you see a bright light, and a loud boom comes from the other side of the planet. In just two days, the earth’s atmosphere is covered in ash. The temperature drops below freezing, killing plants and animals worldwide. But what happened to the creatures in the sea? They survived! Then the reptiles in the sea went extinct. Scientists believe that since the reptiles breathed air, they slowly suffocated in the ocean. We have no idea what happened after the ash cleared, but we have several theories. Here is a good theory on what happened. The ash had just cleared, and there were seeds from some of the plants that had died scattered everywhere. In just two weeks there was rain and the plants started to grow. Now that the plants had started to grow again, the oxygen in the air was being replenished. Miraculously, the mammals, birds and small reptiles all survived. Only the dinosaurs had died out. How could that happen? Scientists are still looking for more answers. One theory is that only the small animals survived, and they evolved into bigger animals over time. Chapter three the volcano It was probably the middle of the day when the volcanoes erupted. Then there was a lot of shaking and several loud booms. Then in about two weeks the ash blocked out the sun light. In the two weeks there were a lot of forest fires and earthquakes killing many of the dinosaurs. Then when the ash did block out the sun there were barely any dinosaurs left to die which finally ended the dinosaurs’ rein of terror. The volcanoes also caused climate change. Just like the asteroid. But this time most of the earth was covered with ash, debris, and magma. So what happened to the creatures under the sea? Well during the explosions of the volcanoes above water there were earthquakes under the sea causing huge tsunamis. But they never reached shore. They probably killed the sea reptiles and several other species of sea creatures. For example, the ammonite, it thrived before the volcanoes. Then when the catastrophe happened they went extinct. But surprisingly its’ cousins’ didn’t go extinct. Some scientists say the ammonite had different features and it couldn’t survive. Most likely it was the same with the dinosaurs too. Chapter four Humans did it after the flood the dinosaur, mammal, bird, reptile, insect, fish, and human population soared. But then in the future people discovered how tasty the dinosaur meat was. And so humans hunted dinosaurs for food. So the dino population dropped dramatically over the next century but as humans found better tasting food they started leaving dinosaurs alone, but dinosaur meat was still a delicacy. So they were still hunted, but very rarely. After throwing spears were invented life for dinosaurs became more and more difficult. this theory explains a lot why other species are still around and dinosaurs are extinct. But how did dinosaurs in the ocean die out? Well As the dinosaurs came to shallow waters to mate, the humans took small fishing boats to catch the dinosaurs like whales. They would spot one when it came up to breathe, then they would throw spears at the dinosaur until it was too weak to fight. Then they would drag it to shore. They would usually go for the young small ones. This was a very dangerous sport. Because the baby would usually call her mother for help, the mother would come to her aid. Then over turn the boat and kill every one on board. Catching only the babies would make the species slowly die out. Let me explain. The ocean dinosaurs they hunted died out because there were only old ones left and then the dinosaur that fed on that will dinosaur starve and die out and so on. But the extinction of the ammonite is still a mystery. Humans probably used nets and caught them by the boat load ate them for dinner then threw the remains back in the sea. Chapter five Climate change we all think that the climate has been changing since the beginning of time but it started to change after the flood, but it changed so dramatically that the dinosaurs couldn’t adapt well enough with there small lungs and died out slowly. Before the flood it never rained after and during the flood it rained alot more than before the flood. So dinosaurs just couldn’t survive. And specie after specie died out until there were no more dinosaurs left on the planet. But again what happened to the dinosaurs in the sea? After the flood it, again, rained a lot more and when the dinosaurs surfaced for air they took in a lot of water and drowned. And again, we have know idea how the ammonite went extinct. But if they were shallow swimmers storms could have killed them off by ripping them to shreds, killing them instantly. We have gone through four of the most popular theories on how dinosaurs went extinct. But the answer is still a mystery. But we will know the truth when someone invents a time machine. But for now pick one of the four and stick with it till then.
He had me right up to chapter 4. LOL "then in the future people discovered how tasty the dinosaur meat was. And so humans hunted dinosaurs for food." No way dude. The humans and the dinosaurs were millions of years apart. Also you are mixing extinction events. There was one extinction that was fast. That was the first one. Old Mr. T. Rex wasn't around yet. In that one basically anything larger than an amoeba living in the bottom of a deep ocean trench died. The cause is believed to have been a stellar event. Which star no one knows. Could have even been our own. Other extinction level events were much less quick. Some took thousands of years. The phrase nuclear winter comes to mind. It may have been like that. Years of winter. Or like Venus, years of burning hot. Dunno. No one was there. What we do know is T Rex wasn't alive on Tuesday but extinct on Friday. He died hard, he died slow. Like a thousand years before he and his ilk were all gone. Something progressive. Of course our atmosphere also changed, so did our gravity (the earth increases in size 1/4 inch every year due to a constant fall of space dust. Their is a biological rule called the cube roots law. Double an animals size, he is now 4 times as strong, but he is now 8 times as heavy. Under the cube root law with today's metabolisms, Mr. T Rex and Mr. Stegosaur can barely move, much less run. Yet they did. How. Muscle strength comes from metabolism. Metabolism comes from Oxygen reactions. Back in their day the air of the earth had almost 3 times as much Oxygen. There were some serious fires from those asteroid strikes. Much of the Oxygen became CO2. So your dinosaur's metabolisms became more and more inefficient. Hard to move. Difficult to generate body heat. As the fires burned each successive generation had a harder and harder time. Essentially the big guys smothered. One thing we have learned. Mammals are really old. Many mice-like things lived in and through the dinosaur era. Timid burrowing critters. As the big guys began to die off, the mice like critters came forth. Being mammals the temperatures didn't effect them as much. Being smaller, and with a more efficient metabolism they needed less Oxygen. Tens of millions of years later, here we are, wondering if we should care about fossil fuels and global warming. The cycle begins anew. At least the dinosaurs didn't do it themselves.
