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My 1st part to Dinosaurs Unearthed featured the T-rex, feathered T-rex, and a bunch of fossils. If you’d like to know how fossils are made as well as find out more about other fossils, pay close attention. (Note: Again, various pieces of information have been taken from the signs and displays.)

The word “fossil” literally means “dug up”. Fossils are very rare as it takes special circumstances for fossils to be in the state they become. They only form in sedimentary rock, so when a dino dies, it has to be quickly covered by mud, sand, or silt to keep air away and to slow down decay.

Most tissues disappear over time, so what are left are bones and teeth to be covered by more layers of sediment. Water that goes through to the bones carry rock minerals that replace calcium and other minerals in the bones. Soon enough, all of the original bones disappear and what’s left are exact copies made of stone. There are also times when mudstone sediments save impressions of dinosaurs’ skin, feathers, fur, and footprints.

This claw is from the Plateosaurus (PLAY-tee-uh-SOAR-US), or a flat lizard. They were discovered in 1834. Plateosaurus’ hand bones were very big and had five digits, the large ones probably used for feeding and defence.

Another cute sign.

These are ferns and tree fossils found right here in BC. As you can see, they don’t look much different than today’s plants. As a matter of fact, some specimens like sequoia and ginko trees are still alive today.

This scapula comes from the Omeisaurus (oh-MY-ee-SOR-us), a Mount Emei Lizard. What’s a scapula, you ask? Well, it forms part of the shoulder girdle in both humans and animals. In other words, it’s the shoulder blade.

This is yet another scapula, this one clearly larger, from the Supersaurus (super-SOAR-us). The entire scapulacoracoid (fused scapula and coracoids portion of the shoulder blade) of an adult Supersaurus could be as big as 8 feet in length. The Supersaurus could have stood 18 feet tall at the shoulder.

This is the horn of a Triceratops (try-SER-uh-TOPS). The horns were probably used for mating rather than for defence. Triceratops were herbivores and may have traveled in big herds. As much as Triceratopses look like modern rhinoceroses, they’re not related.

Remember that 24 foot tall T-rex? Here are some additional facts to give you some more insight into them.

• Scientists used to think that T-rexes had an upright posture like a kangaroo. Now, it is known that its posture was almost parallel to the ground with the tail extended behind the body to balance the weight of the head.
• T-rexes were once thought to be cold-blooded, but based on evidence of growth rates in young T-rexes, we know that they were warm-blooded because their metabolism was comparable to mammals and birds.
• T-rexes are actually more closely related to birds rather than lizards. Tissue that has been found in fossils has been previously found only in ovulating birds.
• As evident from the little T-rex, it is thought that T-rexes actually didn’t have scales throughout their lives. Instead, they had a downy covering of feathers that were lost as they grew.

This dig site represents a small portion of the discoveries at Dashanpu Quarry Zigong in China. Right now, scientists are working there, an area that could contain the single greatest concentration of dinosaur fossils ever found. Plant-eating dinos like the Sunosaurus and Omeisaurus have been discovered there as well as predators like Yangchuanosaurus and reptiles, mammals, and prehistoric fish. Nice.

Well, that’s all for dinos, folks. Hope you found it interesting to learn about the T-rex, fossils, how they’re made, and everything else I talked about. I sure found everything entertaining and blog-worthy.

Oh, and someone wants to say hi.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Photos, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.