What do you call a blind dinosaur?
A Do-you-think-he-saurus.
Sorry not sorry, that was kind of lame, but
it got us talking about dinosaurs!
The prehistoric reptiles fascinate almost
all of us at some point.
I bet you know a lot about dinosaurs.
But let’s run down a few of the things you
might not know about them.
Let’s just get this one out of the way first…
humans and dinosaurs never coexisted.
Nope.
Never.
Sorry Flintstones fans..
The earliest human fossil we know of dates
around 2.8 million years ago.
whereas the dinosaurs went exist like 65 million
years ago.
So yeah.
That never happened.
But there were little proto-mammals running
around with dinosaurs for nearly 150 million
years.
Some little guys looked like mice and weighed
as little as 2 grams.
Others actually ate dinosaurs, yeah.
Some of the small species ate dino eggs.
(Not it didn’t cause their extinction) But
one study published in the journal Nature
described two species, that dined on dinosaurs.
Repenomamus giganticus and Repenomamus robustus,
lived in China about 130 million years ago.
Like its name suggests, R. Giganticus, was
pretty big for an early mammal, at about 3
feet long.
Speaking of big things, some giant Pterosaurs
have wingspans over 30 feet long!
And they aren’t dinosaurs!
Dinosaurs are terrestrial reptiles, so by
definition, pterosaurs, a flying reptile,
don’t make the cut.
They did co-exist, but they are separate groups
descended from a common ancestor.
According to Smithsonian magazine, “pterosaur
is no more a dinosaur than a goldfish is a
shark.”
Oops.
And one study published in the journal PLOS
One found that they didn’t use their legs
to push off the ground, they used their wings!
They would run down hill, into a head wind
and launch themselves, like a pole vaulter,
into the air.
So yeah.. don’t call them dinosaurs.
We know A LOT about dinosaurs, but there are
some really enigmatic mysteries that remain.
Like, what did dinosaurs sound like?
Unfortunately soft tissue doesn’t fossilize
all that well, so we don’t have an exact
idea of what kind of noises dinosaurs.
Although a recent discovery shed some light
on dino sounds.
A new species of “terror bird” describe
in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
was found with a nearly complete skeleton…
including voice box!
The researchers think that it used a narrow,
low vocalization frequency range, to possibly
communicate or find prey.
Sounds pretty cool and could be the topic
of a whole ‘nother episode ...and maybe
if you were a subscriber you wouldn’t miss
that episode!
Last but not least..we still don’t know
what killed the dinosaurs.
I mean yeah, we’ve narrowed it down pretty
close.
The KT event happened 65 million years ago,
when an asteroid struck what is now the Yucatan
region of Mexico.
But my favorite hypothesis is that a global
firestorm flash fried the dinosaurs.
I mean a lot of species were already on their
way out when the asteroid hit.
One study published in the journal Nature
suggests that a series of crazy volcanic eruptions
that started started 250,000 before the asteroid
hit, might have killed a lot of them off.
As for that asteroid…
A few years ago, a study published in the
Journal of Geophysical Research found that
when the asteroid hit it kicked up a lot dirt
into the Earth’s atmosphere.
With as much force as 100 trillion tons of
TNT.
As the debris rained back down it could have
heated the upper atmosphere to 2,700 degrees
Fahrenheit (1,482 degrees Celsius).
It might have also caused a devastating winter
like planet where nothing green could grow
so all the dinosaurs starved over months or
years.
OOORRRR this theory suggests that it kicked
off a world wide fire storm and the dinosaurs
baked to death in a matter of HOURS.
Wiping out 80% of all life on Earth.
Which is a really cool idea.
It’s so .. Apocalyptical.
But versions of this story are over ten years
old, one first appeared in the Bulletin of
the Geological Society of America in 2004.
Since then, some holes have been poked in
it, like one study published in Journal of
the Geological Society found that fire storms
weren’t worldwide.
The heat pulses from the impact wouldn’t
have set nearby plants on fire, but could
have done some damage to those further away
from the impact site.
Obviously more research is needed.
Personally, I kind of like the idea that what
killed the dinosaurs still remains a mystery.
It’s one of the most enduring, and frankly
fun mysteries in science.
It keeps us curious.
Scientists learn new stuff all the time about
dinosaurs.. sometimes they even re-learn old
things!
Check out Crystal as she explains why the
name “brontosaurus” could be making a
comeback 
in 
this episode here.
