How real dinosaurs lived. History of dinosaurs. Interesting facts about dinosaurs. And now about the real giants

Surprisingly, 120 years ago paleontologists believed that dinosaurs simply did not exist on Russian territory. American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh stated: “Russian dinosaurs, like the snakes of Ireland, are remarkable only because they are not there.” However, further excavations did not confirm the statement of Charles Marsh, and to date Russian dinosaurs Quite a large number were found.

The main reason that much fewer dinosaur bones have been found in our country than in some other countries is the peculiarity of the landscape. Most of Russia is covered with dense and impenetrable forests. Archaeologists simply do not have the opportunity to cut down part of the forest to excavate the bones of prehistoric animals. Those areas that are free from forests and cultivated fields provide extremely poor material. A hundred years ago, in Asia and America, where there are vast desert areas with no forests or cultivated fields, thousands of dinosaur bones and even entire dinosaur cemeteries were found. Compared to this, finds even in modern Russia more than meager.

Another reason why Russian archaeologists have no luck with dinosaurs is the fact that in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which were rich in dinosaur diversity, half of the territory of present-day Russia was covered by seas. According to scientists, there were no fewer dinosaurs on the land than in the territory of what is now Canada, the USA or China, but their remains ended up in the zone of demolition of sand and clay sediments, which dragged the bones into the seas and literally ground them into dust. Unlike the arid regions of the world, where most of the prehistoric dinosaurs were found, dinosaur bones in Russia suffered a rather disastrous fate. Even those bones that were well preserved in the ground were literally erased and destroyed by the glaciers that passed through Russia, and then the melt water, which were formed from melting glaciers. As a result, the bones were broken and subsequently washed away. This explains the paucity of finds on the territory of the largest country, which, it would seem, should have yielded a real “harvest” of a wide variety of dinosaurs.

However, it's not all bad. All negative factors, which influenced the fossilized remains of dinosaurs, could not completely destroy their traces, and now we know several species of dinosaurs that lived in certain regions of our country.

Often, the remains of dinosaurs are found by chance: during rock mining, during mining, unexpected finds ordinary people, erosion of bones by rivers and lakes, and so on. Unfortunately, few people pay attention to the bones that come their way, and often people simply pass by. For example, paleontologist and writer Ivan Efremov wrote about his expedition in the 1920s to the Kazakh steppes: “The whole day the horse walked over countless dinosaur bones.” The bones covered areas of tens of kilometers. However, in those days, no one needed these skeletons; the country had much more pressing issues than collecting the bones of extinct animals. Fifty years later, researchers went to the Kazakh steppes, but the cemetery was lost and a negligible amount of what Efremov described was found.

For a long time, archaeologists found only individual bones, vertebrae, and parts of skulls. A complete dinosaur skeleton was only found in the 1990s. The dinosaur was found on Far East in the hills near Kundur. turned out to be a hadrosvur, which was given the name Olorotitan arharensis. This discovery was followed by others. Luck finally smiled on the scientists. The hadrozvars of these places are considered one of the very last that existed on earth before prehistoric lizards died out.

Several large dinosaur graveyards have been discovered over the past twenty years. The main locations are located beyond the Urals - in Kundur, Blagoveshchensk, Shestakovo. Dinosaurs were also found in Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, the Republic of Tyva, Kemerovo region, Moscow region. Finds in the Krasnoyarsk Territory are considered truly unique. Turtle shells, crocodiles' teeth, and dinosaur claws that lived in the mid-Jurassic period were found here. This deposit of bones is unique in that the middle Jurassic is considered a white spot all over the world. Very few traces of him remain. Not surprisingly, new species of dinosaurs have been found here, including Stegosaurus and the Kileskus dinosaur (Kileskus aristotocus), which is considered the ancestor of tyrannosaurs.

What kind of dinosaurs lived in Russia:

Ivanthosaurus

Compsognathus

Kulindadromeus transbaikalensis

Olorotitan Arkharinsky

Target: find the answer to the question: “Where did dinosaurs live?”

Tasks:

• Select and study literature on this topic.
• See how this topic is covered on the Internet.
• Talk to adults.
• Conduct a survey of classmates.
• Visit the Local Lore Museum.

Research plan.

• Why did I choose this topic?
• Poll of classmates.
• What dinosaurs looked like.
• Where were dinosaur remains found?
• Conclusion based on the research results.

I was given a book about dinosaurs for my birthday. I really liked her. I still couldn’t read well then. I enjoyed leafing through this book and looking at
illustrations. I memorized the name of each dinosaur. My younger brother Gosha came up to me and asked: “Where did the dinosaurs live?”
I didn’t yet know the answer to this question. I myself began to wonder, where did dinosaurs live?
From books I already learned that dinosaurs were herbivores and predators. At first I assumed that dinosaurs lived in tropical forests, because there is a lot of greenery, which the herbivores fed on, and the herbivores fed on the predators.
But I decided to check if my assumption was correct. To do this, I talked with my parents, studied the books that I have at home, went to the library, looked at how this topic was covered on the Internet, went to the dinosaur exhibition at the Vyatka Regional History Museum and surveyed my classmates.

To the question: “Where did dinosaurs live?” classmates gave the following answers:

• Dinosaurs lived in Africa because... they are heat-loving animals.
• They lived in the forests, because... It's humid and green there.
• There were a lot of them, so they inhabited the whole Earth.
• Their body was not covered with hair, so they lived in warm regions.
• Dinosaurs lived in the Kirov region, because... Their remains were found here...

As you can see, there are a lot of assumptions. And which of them is right?

As a result of the research, I learned a lot of interesting things about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs are the most mysterious reptiles that lived on Earth. They reigned over
The planet is almost 150 million years old. The remains of dinosaurs are found on all continents.
Like modern reptiles, dinosaur skin had scales and eggs had shells. Some dinosaurs were the size of a chicken, others were the size of a modern airplane.

The smallest dinosaur has been found in North America.
The dinosaur weighed less than 1 kg and reached 70 cm in length.

The largest dinosaur was found in 2007 in Argentina. He was a 32-meter herbivore (about the size of a 9-story building). Its weight was 70-80 tons.

About 225 million years ago, in the late Triassic period, when dinosaurs first appeared on the planet, the world looked completely different than it does today. Initially, there was only one huge continent on Earth, which scientists call Pangea, which means “the whole Earth.” Pangea was surrounded on all sides by an ocean called Pantallas.

After many millions of years, this supercontinent split into two main parts, which modern science calls Laurasia and Gondwana.

By the onset of the late Jurassic period (approximately 145 million years ago), many new species of dinosaurs arose in the process of evolution.

It was only during the Late Cretaceous that the continents formed and began to drift to the position they occupy today.

The remains of dinosaurs of the same species can sometimes be found in very distant parts of the world. This happens because at different stages
stories globe, when the continents had not yet separated, dinosaurs could migrate over vast distances.

There could also be land bridges between the continents, thanks to which dinosaurs moved from one continent to another - for example, from Asia to North America or in the opposite direction.

But some species of dinosaurs that lived in later times were discovered only in certain parts of the world.

No doubt this happens because they were cut off deep seas from other landmasses and could not move from one continent to another.

Not long ago, scientists discovered a plot of land covering more than a hectare, covered with thousands of dinosaur tracks. It is believed that this place served as a watering hole for animals about 190 million years ago. A unique discovery was made on the territory of the American National Forest Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona.

Black Canyon in Colorado. This place is home to many fossilized skeletons of dinosaurs that roamed here millions of years ago.

The same species of dinosaurs could be found in very distant parts of the world. For example, a huge herbivore iguanodon was discovered both in England and on the territory of the mainland of modern Europe.

The city of Kotelnich, located 120 km from the regional center, is known in Russia and in a number of foreign countries due to the location of ancient fossils located in its vicinity - pareiosaurs. These large lizards, up to 3 meters long, lived in Europe, South Africa, and Asia 250-260 million years ago.

Employees of the Vyatka Paleontological Museum made a unique discovery - for the first time, the remains of a dinosaur that lived here more than 200 million years ago were found on the Fileysky outcrop in the city of Kirov. During recent excavations, museum staff found about 50 bones of pareiasaurus - ribs, collarbone, phalanges,
skin ossifications. During the examination, it was found that all the remains belonged to one individual. Now there is one more location for Permian reptiles in the region. Excavations here will continue in the future.

Brachiosaurus – one of the largest and heaviest dinosaurs (up to 23 m in length, weight - 50 tons) was discovered in 1900 in the USA.

And the most complete skeleton of a brachiosaurus found to date was discovered in Tanzania (Africa), which indicates that the brachiosaurus lived here too. Now scientists know that he lived in Europe.

For the first time the remains ceratosaurus were discovered in 1883 in Colorado.

It has now been established that the habitat of ceratosaur-like lizards was Tanzania (Central Africa), as well as the western part of North America.

Carnivorous lizard Baryonyx was opened in England in 1983. Similar remains found in West Africa indicate that Baryonyx could have lived both in this part of the world and in continental Europe at a time when all these parts of the land were one.

Such ferocious predators as allosaurus, Usually associated with North America (the first skeleton was found in 1883 in Utah), they also lived in Australia.

Thus, it turned out that dinosaurs were found everywhere.

Giant nests and giant dinosaur bones have been found in the Asian Gobi Desert. Scientists have discovered a fossilized dinosaur egg, shaped like a potato, from which a dinosaur “chick” almost hatched.

Even in Antarctica, remains of both carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs have been found. How did this happen? But it turns out that Antarctica was not always a frozen continent. Antarctica was once part of a supercontinent Gondwana. The climate there was more reminiscent of the climate of modern Great Britain. So perhaps paleontologists were not particularly surprised to find dinosaur bones in Antarctica. Scientists have managed to find the remains of two previously unknown species of dinosaurs that roamed the continent back when it had forests and rivers. The creatures were found in December at a distance of 3,000 km from each other.

The first was an agile bipedal carnivore 2-2.5 meters tall, tearing apart prey with curved, serrated fangs.

The second find is an 11-meter herbivorous dinosaur that fed on grass on the banks of ancient rivers. This is the ancestor of long-necked and long-tailed sauropods, whose heavy footsteps shook the earth. This is the largest dinosaur ever found in Antarctica.

Thus, my assumption that dinosaurs lived in tropical forests was not confirmed. As a result of the research, I found out that millions of years ago dinosaurs inhabited all parts of the world, because... Fossils related to dinosaurs have been found on every continent, including North America and Antarctica.

My research does not end here. I want to know everything about these wonderful animals. My next research topic will be: “Why did dinosaurs become extinct?”

Bibliography:

• Dinosaurs [text]: encyclopedia for children. – M.: Egmont, 2000
• Dinosaurs. Complete encyclopedia. [ Text]. – M., Esmo, 2003
• Traveling the world [ electronic resource]/ – access mode: http://koloson.ru/gde-zhili-dinozavry/
• Vyatka dinosaurs – Point of view – Privolzhsky federal district[electronic resource]/ – access mode: Interfax – Russia.ru
• Illustrations of dinosaurs are taken from the Internet.
  • http://www.dinozavr.com/ – vernis.com/muzei.html
.

Are dinosaurs as scary as they are described? The word "dinosaur" means "terrible lizard." However, many of these animals did not look like lizards, and did not look at all like terrible ones. In the article we will talk about who dinosaurs are, what era they lived in, how many years they roamed the earth and what is the life expectancy of these lizards.

Who are dinosaurs

Before we touch on the question of how many years ago dinosaurs lived, let’s clarify who they are in general. Dinosaurs are extinct land vertebrates. Today, scientists count about 500 different genera and more than 1000 different species.

Why were these vertebrates called dinosaurs? This happened in 1842. The term was introduced by English biologist Richard Owen. This was done for the convenience of describing these species of extinct animals. The fact is that archaeologists found in different places planetary bones of large vertebrates were of gigantic size. This amazed scientists. It was obvious that the creatures that lived on the planet many thousands of years ago were not just large, but huge. From the ancient Greek "dinosaur" - "terrible, terrible."

Who was the first?

How long did dinosaurs live? We'll find out a little later. In the meantime, it's time to find out whose remains were discovered first. This is a stavrikosaurus. A predator whose size resembles a large dog. It weighed about 30 kg, with a height of 80 cm. The only difference from a dog is that the staurikosaurus moved only on its hind legs.

Second place goes to Herrerasaurus, or Herrerasaurus. This is a two-legged “terrible lizard” that is an order of magnitude larger than the Staurikosaurus. Is a predator.

Habitat

How long did dinosaurs live and where? Their habitat was vast - the entire planet. The remains of lizards were discovered in both South America, so on the territory of modern Egypt.

Classification

These vertebrates are conventionally divided into two types:

1. Lizard-pelvic.
2. Ornithischians.

Why “conditionally”, how do they differ? The direction of the bones. Saurischian dinosaurs had pubic bones pointing forward. Ornithischians were distinguished by bones that were initially directed backwards.

When did dinosaurs live?

We have almost reached the main question of this article: how long did the dinosaur period last? These animals lived safely on the planet in the Mesozoic, namely from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous. This is from approximately 225 million years ago to 66 million years.

How long did dinosaurs live?

The differences are not only in types

All the “terrible lizards” were completely different: predators and herbivores, small and large, bipeds and quadrupeds. The average lifespan of dinosaurs of various species also varies. Small representatives lived very short, 20-30 years. Large individuals lived for 2-3 centuries. It is known that large ones reached sexual maturity only at 40-50 years of age.

How many years ago did dinosaurs live? They appeared about 225 million years ago.

Causes of extinction

Scientists are still arguing about this topic. It is very strange why so many fairly large and well-adapted creatures became extinct. There are quite a few hypotheses about this, the most common are the following:

1. A giant meteorite falls to earth.
2. The split of continents.
3. Changing of the climate.
4. Extermination by predatory species first of herbivores, and then of their own kind.

How long did dinosaurs live? We found this out. Now let's go over some very interesting facts about the "terrible lizards":

1. The largest of them was Seismasaurus. This giant was distinguished by its calm disposition and the fact that it ate plant foods.
2. Titanosaurus is the heaviest of all its “brothers”. Its weight, according to scientists, reached 80 tons.
3. Our world is inhabited by the closest relative of vertebrates that became extinct many thousands of years ago - the crocodile.
4. Compsognathus is the smallest representative of the dinosaurs. His weight was about 2.5 kg.
5. Tyrannosaurus is the most scary predator of all the dinosaurs that once inhabited our planet.
6. Brachiosaurs are the longest representatives of all dinosaur genera. The body length of the brachiosaurus could easily reach 50 meters.
7. Huge and scary dinosaurs had very small brains. The brain size of some individuals was no larger than Walnut.
8. Tyrannosaurus's teeth reached 30 cm.
9. Young tyrannosaurs gained several kilograms daily as they grew.
10. The most protected was the ankylosaur. On the tail there was a bone mace with sharp spikes. And on the body there was armor made of spikes.

Let's summarize

The article examined questions about who dinosaurs were, how many years ago they lived, in what period, what was the life expectancy of this or that representative of the genus. Let's remember the main aspects.

Dinosaurs are vertebrates that went extinct many years ago. They appeared on the planet about 225 million years ago. How long did dinosaurs live? They lived on earth for about 160 million years. Life spans fell on the most large dinosaurs lived safely until the age of 200-300 years. As for small individuals, their age barely reached 30 years.

Conclusion

The life of dinosaurs is a mystery that scientists are still trying to discover. Perhaps someday they will be able to do this.

They might still be alive... somewhere. On another planet, in a distant galaxy. Or on our planet, but with a planet identical to ours - only your neighbor is a triceratops, not a police officer. It's fun.

It's worth noting that there are most likely no secret Spielbergian places on Earth where dinosaurs roam in secret (at least there is no convincing evidence of this). But this does not mean that there are no creatures around us - if not dinosaurs themselves - whose ancient relatives were these extinct animals. Before we get to the living fossils around us, let's discuss latest rumors that dinosaurs were seen somewhere in nature.

The first will be Megalodon, a huge monster that lives in the seas. It is related to the modern and very living mako shark, but can grow up to 15 meters with a bite force greater than that of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In 2014, everyone was very happy when they showed it on TV documentary about the existence of megalodon in the ocean. And everyone was happy because, with the exception of paleontologists or scientists, almost no one doubts that megalodons are extinct. Megalodon tooth remains have been discovered, but none were younger than 1.5 million years old.

However, there are real dinosaurs in our backyard. Don't forget that birds either share a common ancestor with dinosaurs or evolved with them - some managed to survive mass extinction about 66 million years ago. The fossilized remains of an anteater, 55 million years old, were found, and it also remained almost unchanged. And if you really want to find an ancient swimming animal in the ocean and you're not sold on the mythical megalodon, turn to the elephant shark. It is the slowest evolving mammal we know: the elephant shark has remained unchanged for 420 million years - 200 million years before the first dinosaurs even appeared.

Studying the structure of the skeleton of dinosaurs, scientists divided them into two orders: lizards had a pelvis like modern lizards, among these dinosaurs there were both herbivores and carnivores; ornithischian dinosaurs had a pelvis like a pelvis modern birds, and among them only herbivores are known.

The Earth existed for several billion years before the first dinosaurs appeared on it. And yet it was a very long time ago - about 225 million years. The continents had not yet been divided and were one whole. The ancestors of dinosaurs are considered to be archosaurs, which were very similar in appearance to modern crocodiles. Dinosaurs had especially strong hind legs and a long tail. In total, dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 160 million years and went extinct 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Life in the Earth

Scientists believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, but the first forms of life began to appear 3 billion years ago.

origin of name

The name "dinosaur" comes from Greek words deinos - "terrible" and sauro - "lizard".

Archosaurs and crocodiles

Crocodiles are the only animals from the group of archosaurs that survived. But, unlike the archosaurs known to us, their nostrils are located at the edges of the muzzle, and not at the eyes.

Dinosaurs and reptiles

Dinosaurs differed from other reptiles in the position of their hind limbs - not at the side, like crocodiles and lizards (which is why they have a “wobbly gait”), but directly under the body: this allowed them to walk and run in an upright position.

History of the earth

The history of the Earth is divided by scientists into eras and periods.

• IN Paleozoic era many living organisms appeared.
• Mesozoic era- the time of the heyday and extinction of dinosaurs. It is divided into three periods: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
• IN Cenozoic era human evolution took place.