Misplaced Pages

#596403

229-732: The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, inaccurate by modern standards, in the London borough of Bromley 's Crystal Palace Park . Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after its move from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park , they were unveiled in 1854 as the first dinosaur sculptures in the world. The models were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under

458-607: A gazetteer compiled by Chang Qu  ( 常璩 ) during the Western Jin Dynasty (265–316), reported the discovery of dragon bones at Wucheng in Sichuan Province. Villagers in central China have long unearthed fossilized "dragon bones" for use in traditional medicines . In Europe , dinosaur fossils were generally believed to be the remains of giants and other biblical creatures. Scholarly descriptions of what would now be recognized as dinosaur bones first appeared in

687-921: A mastodon , and Glyptodon ) were planned, and Hawkins began to build at least the mastodon before the Crystal Palace Company cut his funding in 1855. An inaccurate map of the time shows planned locations of the Dinornis and mastodon. The Palaeozoic era is represented in the park by the model rock exposure showing a succession of beds, namely the Carboniferous (including Coal Measures and limestone) and Permian . Crystal Palace's two Dicynodon models are based on incomplete Permian fossils found in South Africa , along with Owen's guess that they were similar to turtles . No evidence has been found to suggest Dicynodon had protective shells. The Mesozoic era

916-417: A polytomy with two groups, one containing Libonectes and Terminonatator , the other containing Callawayasaurus and Hydrotherosaurus . Ketchum and Benson's 2010 analysis included Elasmosaurus in the former group. Benson and Druckenmiller's 2013 analysis (below, left) further removed Terminonatator from this group and placed it as one step more derived. In Rodrigo Otero's 2016 analysis based on

1145-510: A sacrum composed of three or more fused vertebrae (three are found in some other archosaurs, but only two are found in Herrerasaurus ); and a perforate acetabulum , or hip socket, with a hole at the center of its inside surface (closed in Saturnalia tupiniquim , for example). Another difficulty of determining distinctly dinosaurian features is that early dinosaurs and other archosaurs from

1374-422: A "long neck". Yet, in an accompanying illustration Cope showed a short-necked Elasmosaurus confronting a Dryptosaurus (then Laelaps ), with a plesiosaur-like Mosasaurus and other animals in the background. According to Davidson, it is uncertain which species of Elasmosaurus is depicted, but if it is E.   orientalis , the short neck contradicts Cope's own text, and if E.   platyurus , he showed

1603-421: A "pillar-erect" configuration of the hip joint, where instead of having a projection from the femur insert on a socket on the hip, the upper pelvic bone was rotated to form an overhanging shelf. Dinosaur fossils have been known for millennia, although their true nature was not recognized. The Chinese considered them to be dragon bones and documented them as such. For example, Huayang Guo Zhi  ( 華陽國志 ),

1832-585: A 1918 review of the geographic distribution and evolution of Elasmosaurus , Pravoslavlev provisionally assigned three other previously named species to Elasmosaurus ; his taxonomic opinions have not been widely followed. One of these was E.   chilensis , based on the Chilean Plesiosaurus chilensis named from a single tail vertebra by Claude Gay in 1848. In a work published in 1889, Richard Lydekker assigned this species to Cimoliasaurus . Wilhelm Deecke moved chilensis to Pliosaurus in 1895,

2061-414: A brilliant paleontologist, it has been questioned why he would make such an obvious anatomical error. It has been suggested that, as a unique specimen in 1868, the original Elasmosaurus may have been hard to interpret based on the knowledge available at the time. Also, Cope initially thought it consisted of two specimens of different animals – in an 1868 letter to LeConte, Cope had referred to

2290-603: A classification which was acknowledged by Pravoslavlev. Edwin Colbert later assigned the type vertebra in 1949 to a pliosauroid , and also assigned other assigned remains to indeterminate elasmosauroids; the type vertebra was recognized as potentially belonging to Aristonectes parvidens by José O'Gorman and colleagues in 2013. Another was E.   haasti , originally Mauisaurus haasti , named by James Hector in 1874 based on remains found in New Zealand . Although its validity

2519-488: A controversial taxon that was recently confirmed to exist after archived photos were uncovered. Bruhathkayosaurus was a titanosaur and would have most likely weighed more than even Marrapunisaurus . Recent size estimates in 2023 have placed this sauropod reaching lengths of up to 44 m (144 ft) long and a colossal weight range of around 110 000 – 170 000  kg ( 240 000 – 370 000  lb), if these upper estimates up true, Bruhathkayosaurus would have rivaled

SECTION 10

#1732858435597

2748-451: A corrected version with a new skeletal reconstruction that placed the head on the neck (though it reversed the orientation of the individual vertebrae) and different wording in 1870. In a reply to Leidy, Cope claimed that he had been misled by the fact that Leidy had arranged the vertebrae of Cimoliasaurus in the reverse order in his 1851 description of that genus, and pointed out that his reconstruction had been corrected. Cope also rejected

2977-448: A corresponding inwardly facing distinct head on the femur. Their erect posture enabled early dinosaurs to breathe easily while moving, which likely permitted stamina and activity levels that surpassed those of "sprawling" reptiles . Erect limbs probably also helped support the evolution of large size by reducing bending stresses on limbs. Some non-dinosaurian archosaurs, including rauisuchians , also had erect limbs but achieved this by

3206-632: A dinosaur. In it he described and named a sauropod tooth , " Rutellum impicatum ", that had been found in Caswell, near Witney , Oxfordshire. Between 1815 and 1824, the Rev William Buckland , the first Reader of Geology at the University of Oxford, collected more fossilized bones of Megalosaurus and became the first person to describe a non-avian dinosaur in a scientific journal . The second non-avian dinosaur genus to be identified, Iguanodon ,

3435-531: A diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria . They first appeared during the Triassic period , between 243 and 233.23  million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout

3664-537: A femur of Tyrannosaurus preserved soft, flexible tissue within, including blood vessels , bone matrix , and connective tissue (bone fibers) that had retained their microscopic structure. This discovery suggested that original soft tissues could be preserved over geological time, with multiple mechanisms having been proposed. Later, in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues reported that a Brachylophosaurus femur preserved similar microstructures, and immunohistochemical techniques (based on antibody binding) demonstrated

3893-422: A group known as archosaurs, which also includes modern crocodilians. Within the archosaur group, dinosaurs are differentiated most noticeably by their gait. Dinosaur legs extend directly beneath the body, whereas the legs of lizards and crocodilians sprawl out to either side. Collectively, dinosaurs as a clade are divided into two primary branches, Saurischia and Ornithischia. Saurischia includes those taxa sharing

4122-430: A later date. He again made reference to a new species of Elasmosaurus , from Kansas, in 1908. Several Russian species, based on poorly preserved vertebral remains, were assigned to Elasmosaurus by N.   N. Bogolubov in 1911. One was E.   helmerseni , which was first described by W.   Kiprijanoff in 1882 from Maloje Serdoba, Saratov , as Plesiosaurus helmerseni . Some material from Scania , Sweden ,

4351-452: A long bar at the middle, a supposedly advanced feature thought to be absent from juvenile plesiosaurs. The ischia (a pair of bones that formed part of the pelvis) were joined at the middle, so that a medial bar was present along the length of the pelvis, a feature usually not found in plesiosaurs. Like other elasmosaurids (and plesiosaurs in general), Elasmosaurus would have had large, paddle-like limbs with very long digits . The paddles at

4580-521: A long neck like Elasmosaurus , he stated the image may instead represent Cimoliasaurus better. In the same 1869 publication wherein he named E. platyurus and E.   orientalis , Cope assigned an additional species, E.   constrictus , based on a partial centrum from a neck vertebra found in the Turonian -aged clay deposits at Steyning , Sussex , in the United Kingdom. It was described by

4809-538: A modification of the same dataset (below, right), Elamosaurus was the closest relative of Albertonectes , forming the Styxosaurinae with Styxosaurus and Terminonatator . Danielle Serratos, Druckenmiller, and Benson could not resolve the position of Elasmosaurus in 2017, but they noted that Styxosaurinae would be a synonym of Elasmosaurinae if Elasmosaurus did fall within the group. In 2020, O'Gorman formally synonymized Styxosaurinae with Elasmosaurinae based on

SECTION 20

#1732858435597

5038-482: A more recent common ancestor with birds than with Ornithischia, while Ornithischia includes all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with Triceratops than with Saurischia. Anatomically, these two groups can be distinguished most noticeably by their pelvic structure. Early saurischians—"lizard-hipped", from the Greek sauros ( σαῦρος ) meaning "lizard" and ischion ( ἰσχίον ) meaning "hip joint"—retained

5267-593: A mould was taken allowing cement sections to be cast. The larger sculptures are hollow with a brickwork interior. There was also a limestone cliff to illustrate different geological strata. The sculptures and the geological displays were originally called "the Geological Court", an extension of the set of exhibits made for the park that reconstructed historic art, including the Renaissance, Assyrian, and Egyptian Courts. The models were displayed on three islands acting as

5496-537: A new species of Elasmosaurus , E.   morgani . It was named from a well-preserved skeleton found in Dallas County , Texas . However, part of the specimen was accidentally thrown out during the relocation of the Southern Methodist University 's paleontological collections. Welles recognized E.   morgani ' s similarity to E.   platyurus in its shoulder girdle, but maintained it as

5725-400: A new species, E.   serpentinus , in 1877, and differentiated it by the lack of compression in the rear neck vertebrae, the presence of few sessile ribs among the first few dorsals, and the presence of "weak angles" below the front tail vertebrae. Cope had also discovered another large skeleton that bore great resemblance to the known remains of E.   orientalis from the black shale of

5954-583: A now lost partial vertebral neural arch described in 1878. Extrapolating from the illustration of this bone, the animal may have been 58 meters (190 ft) long and weighed 122 400  kg ( 269 800  lb). However, recent research have placed Amphicoelias from the long, gracile diplodocid to the shorter but much stockier rebbachisaurid. Now renamed as Maraapunisaurus , this sauropod now stands as much as 40 meters (130 ft) long and weigh as much as 120 000  kg ( 260 000  lb). Another contender of this title includes Bruhathkayosaurus ,

6183-433: A period of time, with estimates ranging from 5–10 million years to 21 million years. When dinosaurs appeared, they were not the dominant terrestrial animals. The terrestrial habitats were occupied by various types of archosauromorphs and therapsids , like cynodonts and rhynchosaurs . Their main competitors were the pseudosuchians , such as aetosaurs , ornithosuchids and rauisuchians, which were more successful than

6412-593: A photo and drawing of Waterhouse's workshop from 1869 appear to show concretions on the floor that may have been the unprepared girdles of Elasmosaurus . They also noted that conceptual sketches of the Palaeozoic Museum show that the model Elasmosaurus was originally envisioned with a long "tail", though later updated with a long neck. Davidson and Everhart concluded that the girdle fossils were most likely destroyed in Hawkins' workshop. Fossils that may have belonged to

6641-652: A potential food source, radiated in the Late Triassic. Early sauropodomorphs did not have sophisticated mechanisms for processing food in the mouth, and so must have employed other means of breaking down food farther along the digestive tract. The general homogeneity of dinosaurian faunas continued into the Middle and Late Jurassic, where most localities had predators consisting of ceratosaurians , megalosauroids , and allosauroids , and herbivores consisting of stegosaurian ornithischians and large sauropods. Examples of this include

6870-656: A presentation about fossil reptiles to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1841, but reports of the time show that Owen did not mention the word "dinosaur", nor recognize dinosaurs as a distinct group of reptiles in his address. He introduced the Dinosauria only in the revised text version of his talk published in April 1842. With the backing of Prince Albert , the husband of Queen Victoria , Owen established

7099-620: A redescription of the surviving elements was published by Sachs and Benjamin Kear in 2015. Persson assigned another species to Elasmosaurus alongside his 1959 description of "E."   helmerseni remains from Sweden, namely E.   (?)   gigas . It was based on Schröder's Pliosaurus   (?) gigas , named in 1885 from two dorsals; one was found in Prussia , the other in Scania. While they were incomplete, Persson recognized that their proportions and

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs - Misplaced Pages Continue

7328-599: A review paper by Paul Sereno in 1998, were accompanied by increases in the number of published phylogenetic trees for dinosaurs. Dinosaur fossils are not limited to bones, but also include imprints or mineralized remains of skin coverings, organs, and other tissues. Of these, skin coverings based on keratin proteins are most easily preserved because of their cross-linked , hydrophobic molecular structure. Fossils of keratin-based skin coverings or bony skin coverings are known from most major groups of dinosaurs. Dinosaur fossils with scaly skin impressions have been found since

7557-628: A rock outcrop; there were originally two more 'pterodactyls of the Oolite '. The surviving models represent Pterodactylus cuvieri (= Cimoliopterus cuvieri ), whereas the two other lost pterodactyl models represent Pterodactylus bucklandi (= Dolicorhamphus bucklandi ). The latter species was poorly known based on fossil remains and explains why their designs were more based on Pterodactylus antiquus . Owen correctly identified Teleosaurus as similar to gharials , being slender Jurassic Crocodilians with very long thin jaws and small eyes, inferring from

7786-622: A rough timeline, the first island for the Palaeozoic era, a second for the Mesozoic , and a third for the Cenozoic . The models were given more realism by making the water level in the lake rise and fall, revealing different amounts of the dinosaurs. To mark the launch of the models, Hawkins held a dinner on New Year's Eve 1853 inside the mould of one of the Iguanodon models. Hawkins benefited greatly from

8015-488: A separate species due to its shorter neck and more robust rear neck vertebrae. In 1997 Carpenter reconsidered the differences between the two species, and found them sufficient to place E.   morgani in its own genus, which he named Libonectes . Despite its reassignment and the loss of its material, L.   morgani is often considered an archetypal elasmosaurid. Data based on these lost elements were unquestionably accepted in subsequent phylogenetic analyses , until

8244-549: A series of studies that likewise argued for active lifestyles in dinosaurs based on anatomical and ecological evidence (see § Physiology ), which were subsequently summarized in his 1986 book The Dinosaur Heresies . New revelations were supported by an increase in dinosaur discoveries. Major new dinosaur discoveries have been made by paleontologists working in previously unexplored regions, including India, South America, Madagascar, Antarctica, and most significantly China. Across theropods, sauropodomorphs, and ornithischians,

8473-513: A short neck and a long tail, unlike other plesiosaurs, and Cope was also unsure whether it had hind limbs. At an ANSP meeting a year and a half later, in March 1870, the American paleontologist Joseph Leidy (Cope's mentor) noted that Cope's reconstruction of Elasmosaurus showed the skull at the wrong end of the vertebral column, at the end of the tail instead of the neck. Cope had apparently concluded that

8702-501: A single neck vertebra from Maloje Serdoba. However, the validity of all these species has been questioned. Welles considered E.   kurskensis as an indeterminate plesiosaur in 1962. Persson noted in a 1959 review of the Swedish "E."   helmerseni material that, while the species was probably closely related to Elasmosaurus proper, it was too fragmentary for this hypothesis to be assessed; he later remarked in 1963 that, regarding

8931-463: A single phalanx from a flipper in 1915 as E.   (?)   sachalinensis ; the species was named after the island of Sakhalin , where N.   N. Tikhonovich found it in 1909. However, this specimen cannot be identified more specifically than an indeterminate elasmosaurid, which was followed by Persson and Pervushov and colleagues. Storrs, Arkhangelsky, and Efimov were less specific, labelling it as an indeterminate plesiosaur; this classification

9160-603: A sister group to Dinosauria, including a large anterior trochanter, metatarsals II and IV of subequal length, reduced contact between ischium and pubis, the presence of a cnemial crest on the tibia and of an ascending process on the astragalus, and many others. A variety of other skeletal features are shared by dinosaurs. However, because they either are common to other groups of archosaurs or were not present in all early dinosaurs, these features are not considered to be synapomorphies. For example, as diapsids , dinosaurs ancestrally had two pairs of Infratemporal fenestrae (openings in

9389-566: A slender, triangular skull. The snout was rounded and almost formed a semi-circle when viewed from above, and the premaxillae (which form the front of the upper jaw) bore a low keel at the midline. It is uncertain how many teeth Elasmosaurus had, due to the fragmentary state of the fossils. It probably had six teeth in each premaxilla, and the teeth preserved there were formed like large fangs. The number of premaxillary teeth distinguished Elasmosaurus from primitive plesiosauroids and most other elasmosaurids, which usually had fewer. The two teeth at

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs - Misplaced Pages Continue

9618-431: A sloping skull, and four toes on each foot. These errors are the result of Hawkins' overreliance on camelids as an analogue for anoplotheriids. Anoplotherium is today thought to have used its robust build and long tail for bipedal browsing. Confusion between whether the A. commune sculptures were of A. gracile (= Xiphodon gracilis ) is common, resulting from 19th-century guidebooks listing both species as present on

9847-543: A small model made from the same number of polystyrene blocks. Fibreglass replacements were created for the missing sculptures, and badly damaged parts of the surviving models were recast. For example, some of the animals' legs had been modelled in lead, fixed to the bodies with iron rods; the iron had rusted, splitting the lead open. The models and other elements of Crystal Palace Park were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973. The models were extensively restored in 2001, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007. In 2018,

10076-425: A species of Thalassonomosaurus , T.   nobilis , in 1943, but it too was considered to be part of S.   snowii by Carpenter. Finally, two exceptionally large dorsal vertebrae collected by Charles Sternberg in 1895 were named E.   sternbergii by Williston, but were considered indeterminate by Storrs. Williston mentioned three additional Elasmosaurus species, which he would figure and describe at

10305-426: A streamlined body with paddle-like limbs, a short tail, a small head, and an extremely long neck. The neck alone was around 7.1 meters (23 ft) long. Along with its relative Albertonectes , it was one of the longest-necked animals to have lived, with the second largest number of neck vertebrae known, 72, 4 fewer than Albertonectes . The skull would have been slender and triangular, with large, fang-like teeth at

10534-850: A structure similar to the pygostyle of birds, it is possible this supported a tail-fin, but the shape it would have had is unknown. Following the description of the type species , E. platyurus , a number of other Elasmosaurus species were described by Cope, Williston, and other authors. However, none of these species are still definitely referable to the genus Elasmosaurus today, and most of them either have been moved to genera of their own or are considered dubious names, nomina dubia  – that is, with no distinguishing features, and therefore of questionable validity. Accompanying his 1869 description of E. platyurus , Cope named another species of Elasmosaurus , E.   orientalis , based on two back vertebrae from New Jersey. He distinguished E.   orientalis from E.   platyurus by

10763-578: A three-dimensional reconstruction of the holotype skeleton was completed and is now displayed at the ANSP. This cast was later copied by the company Triebold Paleontology Incorporated , and replicas were provided to other museums. The replica at the Fort Wallace Museum measures about 12.8 meters (42 ft) in length. Though Cope described and figured the pectoral and pelvic girdles of Elasmosaurus in 1869 and 1875, these elements were noted as missing from

10992-490: A universally agreed-upon list of their distinguishing features, nearly all dinosaurs discovered so far share certain modifications to the ancestral archosaurian skeleton, or are clearly descendants of older dinosaurs showing these modifications. Although some later groups of dinosaurs featured further modified versions of these traits, they are considered typical for Dinosauria; the earliest dinosaurs had them and passed them on to their descendants. Such modifications, originating in

11221-463: A variety of waterbirds , diversified rapidly at the beginning of the Paleogene period, entering ecological niches left vacant by the extinction of Mesozoic dinosaur groups such as the arboreal enantiornithines , aquatic hesperornithines , and even the larger terrestrial theropods (in the form of Gastornis , eogruiids , bathornithids , ratites, geranoidids , mihirungs , and " terror birds "). It

11450-480: A wide range of geological ages, and include true dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs , and plesiosaurs mainly from the Mesozoic era, and some mammals from the more recent Cenozoic era. Today, the models are notable for representing the scientific inaccuracies of early palaeontology, the result of improperly reconstructed fossils and the nascent nature of the science in the 19th century, with the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus models being particularly singled out. Following

11679-430: Is 39.7 meters (130 ft) long. There were larger dinosaurs, but knowledge of them is based entirely on a small number of fragmentary fossils. Most of the largest herbivorous specimens on record were discovered in the 1970s or later, and include the massive Argentinosaurus , which may have weighed 80 000 to 100 000 kilograms (88 to 110 short tons) and reached lengths of 30 to 40 meters (98 to 131 ft); some of

SECTION 50

#1732858435597

11908-699: Is a synapsid ). None of them had the erect hind limb posture characteristic of true dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates of the Mesozoic Era , especially the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Other groups of animals were restricted in size and niches; mammals , for example, rarely exceeded the size of a domestic cat and were generally rodent-sized carnivores of small prey. Dinosaurs have always been recognized as an extremely varied group: over 900 non-avian dinosaur genera have been confidently identified (2018) with 1124 species (2016). Estimates put

12137-465: Is an inexact art, and reconstructing the muscles and other organs of the living animal is, at best, a process of educated guesswork. The tallest and heaviest dinosaur known from good skeletons is Giraffatitan brancai (previously classified as a species of Brachiosaurus ). Its remains were discovered in Tanzania between 1907 and 1912. Bones from several similar-sized individuals were incorporated into

12366-755: Is based in part on preservation bias , as large, sturdy bones are more likely to last until they are fossilized. Many dinosaurs were quite small, some measuring about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in length. The first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the early 19th century, with the name "dinosaur" (meaning "terrible lizard") being coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to refer to these "great fossil lizards". Since then, mounted fossil dinosaur skeletons have been major attractions at museums worldwide, and dinosaurs have become an enduring part of popular culture . The large sizes of some dinosaurs, as well as their seemingly monstrous and fantastic nature, have ensured their regular appearance in best-selling books and films, such as

12595-459: Is between 1 and 10 metric tons (1.1 and 11.0 short tons). This contrasts sharply with the average size of Cenozoic mammals, estimated by the National Museum of Natural History as about 2 to 5 kg (4.4 to 11.0 lb). The sauropods were the largest and heaviest dinosaurs. For much of the dinosaur era, the smallest sauropods were larger than anything else in their habitat, and the largest

12824-617: Is derived from a variety of fossil and non-fossil records, including fossilized bones, feces , trackways , gastroliths , feathers , impressions of skin, internal organs and other soft tissues . Many fields of study contribute to our understanding of dinosaurs, including physics (especially biomechanics ), chemistry , biology , and the Earth sciences (of which paleontology is a sub-discipline). Two topics of particular interest and study have been dinosaur size and behavior. Current evidence suggests that dinosaur average size varied through

13053-399: Is emphasized by a dinosaur in the streets of London: "Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill." In H. G. Wells 's 1905 novel Kipps , Kipps and Ann visit Crystal Palace and sit "in

13282-412: Is fragmentary and missing many elements, related elasmosaurids show it would have had a compact, streamlined body, long, paddle-like limbs, a short tail, a proportionately small head, and an extremely long neck. The neck of Elasmosaurus is estimated at 7.1 meters (23 ft) in length; thus, Elasmosaurus and its relative Albertonectes were some of the longest-necked animals ever to have lived, with

13511-445: Is much like Ankylosaurus – smallish quadrupedal herbivore with a knobbled armoured back, and spines along its sides. Hawkins's depiction is of a large Iguana-like beast with long sharp spines along its back, which Owen noted were "accurately given in the restoration [by Hawkins, to Owen's instructions, but] necessarily at present conjectural". The Ichthyosaurus models are based on Triassic or Jurassic fossils from Europe. Though

13740-536: Is not visible from the lakeside path. The three Plesiosaurus models represents three species of marine reptile, P. macrocephalus , P. dolichoderius and P. hawkinsii , from the Jurassic of England. Two of them have implausibly-flexible necks. Owen noted that the Pterodactylus fossils from the Jurassic of Germany had scales, not feathers, and while "somewhat bird-like" they had conical teeth, suggesting they were predatory. The two surviving models are perched on

13969-570: Is now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, while Marsh's is at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University . World War II caused a pause in palaeontological research; after the war, research attention was also diverted increasingly to fossil mammals rather than dinosaurs, which were seen as sluggish and cold-blooded. At the end of the 1960s, however,

SECTION 60

#1732858435597

14198-644: Is often stated that mammals out-competed the neornithines for dominance of most terrestrial niches but many of these groups co-existed with rich mammalian faunas for most of the Cenozoic Era. Terror birds and bathornithids occupied carnivorous guilds alongside predatory mammals, and ratites are still fairly successful as midsized herbivores; eogruiids similarly lasted from the Eocene to Pliocene , becoming extinct only very recently after over 20 million years of co-existence with many mammal groups. Dinosaurs belong to

14427-553: Is represented in the park by the model rock exposure showing a succession of beds, namely the Jurassic and Cretaceous , by models of dinosaurs and other animals known from mesozoic fossils, and by suitable vegetation – both living plants and models. Curiously, it is Hylaeosaurus , from the Cretaceous of England, not Iguanodon , that most resembles the giant iguana stereotype of early ideas of dinosaurs. The Hylaeosaurus in reality

14656-412: Is the only definite specimen of Elasmosaurus . It was long exhibited, but is now stored in a cabinet with other assigned fragments. The specimen consists of the premaxillae, part of the hind-section of the right maxilla, two maxilla fragments with teeth, the front part of the dentaries, three more jaw fragments, two cranial fragments of indeterminable identity, 72 cervical vertebrae of the neck, including

14885-528: The Jurassic Park franchise. Persistent public enthusiasm for the animals has resulted in significant funding for dinosaur science, and new discoveries are regularly covered by the media. Under phylogenetic nomenclature , dinosaurs are usually defined as the group consisting of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of Triceratops and modern birds (Neornithes), and all its descendants. It has also been suggested that Dinosauria be defined with respect to

15114-437: The blue whale and Perucetus colossus as one of the largest animals to have ever existed. The largest carnivorous dinosaur was Spinosaurus , reaching a length of 12.6 to 18 meters (41 to 59 ft) and weighing 7 to 20.9 metric tons (7.7 to 23.0 short tons). Other large carnivorous theropods included Giganotosaurus , Carcharodontosaurus , and Tyrannosaurus . Therizinosaurus and Deinocheirus were among

15343-666: The Anisian epoch of the Triassic, approximately 243 million years ago, which is the age of Nyasasaurus from the Manda Formation of Tanzania. However, its known fossils are too fragmentary to identify it as a dinosaur or only a close relative. The referral of the Manda Formation to the Anisian is also uncertain. Regardless, dinosaurs existed alongside non-dinosaurian ornithodirans for

15572-509: The Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 80.5   million years ago. The first specimen was discovered in 1867 near Fort Wallace , Kansas, US, and was sent to the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope , who named it E.   platyurus in 1868. The generic name means "thin-plate reptile", and the specific name means "flat-tailed". Cope originally reconstructed

15801-457: The Carnian pluvial event . Dinosaur evolution after the Triassic followed changes in vegetation and the location of continents. In the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, the continents were connected as the single landmass Pangaea , and there was a worldwide dinosaur fauna mostly composed of coelophysoid carnivores and early sauropodomorph herbivores. Gymnosperm plants (particularly conifers ),

16030-588: The Elasmosaurus specimen, and was sent more fossils during August or September 1868. The ANSP thanked Turner for his "very valuable gift" at their meeting in December 1868, and Turner visited the museum during spring, at a time when Cope was absent. Turner died unexpectedly at Fort Wallace on July   27, 1869, without seeing the completion of the work he began, but Cope continued to write him, unaware of his death until 1870. The circumstances around Turner's discovery of

16259-613: The Ischigualasto and Santa Maria Formations of Argentina and Brazil, and the Pebbly Arkose Formation of Zimbabwe. The Ischigualasto Formation ( radiometrically dated at 231–230 million years old ) has produced the early saurischian Eoraptor , originally considered a member of the Herrerasauridae but now considered to be an early sauropodomorph, along with the herrerasaurids Herrerasaurus and Sanjuansaurus , and

16488-711: The Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs , having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch , and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs —birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs , which are all dinosaurs other than birds. Dinosaurs are varied from taxonomic , morphological and ecological standpoints. Birds, at over 11,000 living species , are among

16717-484: The Late Triassic epoch are often poorly known and were similar in many ways; these animals have sometimes been misidentified in the literature. Dinosaurs stand with their hind limbs erect in a manner similar to most modern mammals , but distinct from most other reptiles, whose limbs sprawl out to either side. This posture is due to the development of a laterally facing recess in the pelvis (usually an open socket) and

16946-645: The Morrison Formation of North America and Tendaguru Beds of Tanzania. Dinosaurs in China show some differences, with specialized metriacanthosaurid theropods and unusual, long-necked sauropods like Mamenchisaurus . Ankylosaurians and ornithopods were also becoming more common, but primitive sauropodomorphs had become extinct. Conifers and pteridophytes were the most common plants. Sauropods, like earlier sauropodomorphs, were not oral processors, but ornithischians were evolving various means of dealing with food in

17175-487: The Natural History Museum, London , to display the national collection of dinosaur fossils and other biological and geological exhibits. In 1858, William Parker Foulke discovered the first known American dinosaur, in marl pits in the small town of Haddonfield, New Jersey . (Although fossils had been found before, their nature had not been correctly discerned.) The creature was named Hadrosaurus foulkii . It

17404-629: The Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld , may have belonged to Elasmosaurus . Additional parts of the same skeleton are housed at the Institute for Geology of the University of Hamburg , as well as in private collections. Combined, the specimen consists of neck, back and tail vertebrae, phalanges , a tooth, limb elements, 110 gastroliths, and unidentifiable fragments. Though the only known specimen of Elasmosaurus (holotype specimen ANSP   10081)

17633-575: The New World at the time, and the first recognized member of the long-necked family of plesiosaurs, the Elasmosauridae . In 1869 Cope scientifically described and figured Elasmosaurus , and the preprint version of the manuscript contained a reconstruction of the skeleton which he had earlier presented during his report at an ANSP meeting in September 1868. The reconstruction showed Elasmosaurus with

17862-611: The Pietraroja Plattenkalk of Italy. It preserves portions of the intestines, colon, liver, muscles, and windpipe. Concurrently, a line of work led by Mary Higby Schweitzer , Jack Horner , and colleagues reported various occurrences of preserved soft tissues and proteins within dinosaur bone fossils. Various mineralized structures that likely represented red blood cells and collagen fibres had been found by Schweitzer and others in tyrannosaurid bones as early as 1991. However, in 2005, Schweitzer and colleagues reported that

18091-659: The Plesiosauroidea and Pliosauroidea, based on neck length, head size, ischium length, and the slenderness of the humerus and femur (the propodialia). Each superfamily was further subdivided by the number of heads on the ribs, and the proportions of the epipodialia. Thus, elasmosaurids had long necks, small heads, short ischia, stocky propodialia, single-headed ribs, and short epipodialia. Pierre de   Saint-Seine in 1955 and Alfred Romer in 1956 both adopted Welles' classification. In 1962 Welles further subdivided elasmosaurids based on whether they possessed pelvic bars formed from

18320-676: The United States and displayed in Pittsburgh 's Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1907. The longest dinosaur known from good fossil material is Patagotitan : the skeleton mount in the American Museum of Natural History in New York is 37 meters (121 ft) long. The Museo Municipal Carmen Funes in Plaza Huincul , Argentina, has an Argentinosaurus reconstructed skeleton mount that

18549-427: The largest and smallest dinosaurs to have ever existed. This is because only a tiny percentage of animals were ever fossilized and most of these remain buried in the earth. Few non-avian dinosaur specimens that are recovered are complete skeletons, and impressions of skin and other soft tissues are rare. Rebuilding a complete skeleton by comparing the size and morphology of bones to those of similar, better-known species

18778-570: The sister group of the elasmosaurids based on similarities, thus implying that polycotylids and pliosauroids evolved their short necks independently. The content of Elasmosauridae also received greater scrutiny. Since its initial assignment to the Elasmosauridae, the relationships of Brancasaurus had been considered well supported, and an elasmosaurid position was recovered by O'Keefe's 2004 analysis and Franziska Großmann's 2007 analysis. However, Ketchum and Benson's analysis instead included it in

19007-509: The "Cretaceous bed No.   4"; he excavated it with the help of George B. Cledenning and Capt. Nicholas Buesen. In 1943 Welles removed E.   serpentinus from Elasmosaurus , and placed it in a new genus, Hydralmosaurus . Subsequently, all Hydralmosaurus specimens were moved to Styxosaurus in 2016, rendering the former a nomen dubium . Williston published a figure of another E. serpentinus specimen in 1914; Elmer Riggs formally described it in 1939. Welles moved this specimen to

19236-530: The "lizard-hipped" dinosaurs—birds evolved from earlier dinosaurs with "lizard hips". The following is a simplified classification of dinosaur groups based on their evolutionary relationships, and those of the main dinosaur groups Theropoda, Sauropodomorpha and Ornithischia, compiled by Justin Tweet. Further details and other hypotheses of classification may be found on individual articles. Timeline of major dinosaur groups per Holtz (2007) . Knowledge about dinosaurs

19465-437: The 14th vertebra. Here, the pre-zygapophyses also reached over the level of the centra for most of their length, while the post-zygapophyses reached over this level by half their length. The lower part of the centra were rounded from the first to the third tail vertebrae, but concave from the fourth to the 18th. The usual number of tail vertebrae in elasmosaurids is 30. Since the last tail-vertebrae of elasmosaurids were fused into

19694-677: The 1970s , however, has indicated that dinosaurs were active animals with elevated metabolisms and numerous adaptations for social interaction. Some were herbivorous , others carnivorous . Evidence suggests that all dinosaurs were egg-laying , and that nest -building was a trait shared by many dinosaurs, both avian and non-avian. While dinosaurs were ancestrally bipedal , many extinct groups included quadrupedal species, and some were able to shift between these stances. Elaborate display structures such as horns or crests are common to all dinosaur groups, and some extinct groups developed skeletal modifications such as bony armor and spines . While

19923-409: The 19th century. Samuel Beckles discovered a sauropod forelimb with preserved skin in 1852 that was incorrectly attributed to a crocodile; it was correctly attributed by Marsh in 1888 and subject to further study by Reginald Hooley in 1917. Among ornithischians, in 1884 Jacob Wortman found skin impressions on the first known specimen of Edmontosaurus annectens , which were largely destroyed during

20152-586: The American army surgeon Theophilus Hunt Turner and the army scout William Comstock explored the rocks around Fort Wallace , Kansas , where they were stationed during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad . Approximately 23 kilometers (14 mi) northeast of Fort Wallace, near McAllaster , Turner discovered the bones of a large fossil reptile in a ravine in the Pierre Shale formation, and though he had no paleontological experience, he recognized

20381-458: The British paleontologist Richard Owen as Plesiosaurus constrictus in 1850; Owen named the species after the extremely narrow breadth of the vertebra between the pleurapophyses, or the processes that articulate between the ribs. He considered this to be partially an artifact of preservation, but could not understand how the compression affected only the central portion and not the articular ends of

20610-527: The Crystal Palace dinosaurs and becomes fascinated by prehistoric creatures. George Baxter , a pioneer of colour printing, made a well-known engraving which imagines Crystal Palace, set in its landscaped grounds with tall fountains and the dinosaurs in the foreground, before the 1854 opening. In 2023, Historic England created three-dimensional photogrammetric models of the 29 sculptures. The models can be viewed online. Dinosaurs Dinosaurs are

20839-413: The Elasmosauridae also noted the moderate length of the skull (i.e., a mesocephalic skull); the neck ribs having one or two heads; the scapula and coracoid contacting at the midline; the blunted rear outer angle of the coracoid; and the pair of openings (fenestrae) in the scapula–coracoid complex being separated by a narrower bar of bone compared to pliosaurids. The cited variability in the number of heads on

21068-418: The Elasmosauridae, Elasmosaurus itself has been considered a "wildcard taxon" with highly variable relationships. Carpenter's 1999 analysis suggested that Elasmosaurus was more basal (i.e. less specialized) than other elasmosaurids with the exception of Libonectes . In 2005 Sachs suggested that Elasmosaurus was closely related to Styxosaurus , and in 2008 Druckenmiller and Russell placed it as part of

21297-501: The English paleontologist Sir Richard Owen coined the term "dinosaur", using it to refer to the "distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" that were then being recognized in England and around the world. The term is derived from Ancient Greek δεινός (deinos)  'terrible, potent or fearfully great' and σαῦρος (sauros)  'lizard or reptile'. Though

21526-614: The Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs ran a crowd funding campaign, endorsed by the guitarist Slash , to build a permanent bridge to Dinosaur Island. The bridge was designed by Tonkin Liu with engineering by Arup. The bridge swings on a pivot so it can be parked when not in use, to prevent unauthorised access. It was installed in January 2021. In May 2021, the nose and mouth of the Megalosaurus sculpture

21755-577: The Greek ornitheios (ὀρνίθειος) meaning "of a bird" and ischion (ἰσχίον) meaning "hip joint"—had a pelvis that superficially resembled a bird's pelvis: the pubic bone was oriented caudally (rear-pointing). Unlike birds, the ornithischian pubis also usually had an additional forward-pointing process. Ornithischia includes a variety of species that were primarily herbivores. Despite the terms "bird hip" (Ornithischia) and "lizard hip" (Saurischia), birds are not part of Ornithischia. Birds instead belong to Saurischia,

21984-691: The Jurassic and Cretaceous of Europe. Gideon Mantell sketched the original fossil, found in Sussex in 1822 by his wife, Mary Ann Mantell, as like a long slender lizard climbing a branch (on four legs), balancing with a whiplike tail; lacking a skull, he conjectured that the thumb bone was a nose horn. The nose horn in particular is used repeatedly in popular textbooks and documentaries about dinosaurs to make fun of Victorian inaccuracies; actually, even in 1854, Owen commented "the horn [is] more than doubtful". Three Labyrinthodon models were made for Crystal Palace, based on Owen's guess that, being amphibian in lifestyle,

22213-501: The Late Cretaceous, was the evolution of flowering plants . At the same time, several groups of dinosaurian herbivores evolved more sophisticated ways to orally process food. Ceratopsians developed a method of slicing with teeth stacked on each other in batteries, and iguanodontians refined a method of grinding with dental batteries , taken to its extreme in hadrosaurids. Some sauropods also evolved tooth batteries, best exemplified by

22442-679: The Leptocleidia, and its inclusion in that group has remained consistent in subsequent analyses. Their analysis also moved Muraenosaurus to the Cryptoclididae, and Microcleidus and Occitanosaurus to the Plesiosauridae; Benson and Druckenmiller isolated the latter two in the group Microcleididae in 2014, and considered Occitanosaurus a species of Microcleidus . These genera had all previously been considered to be elasmosaurids by Carpenter, Großmann, and other researchers. Within

22671-781: The MRCA of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon , because these were two of the three genera cited by Richard Owen when he recognized the Dinosauria. Both definitions cover the same known genera: Dinosauria = Ornithischia + Saurischia . This includes major groups such as ankylosaurians (armored herbivorous quadrupeds), stegosaurians (plated herbivorous quadrupeds), ceratopsians (bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores with neck frills ), pachycephalosaurians (bipedal herbivores with thick skulls), ornithopods (bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores including " duck-bills "), theropods (mostly bipedal carnivores and birds), and sauropodomorphs (mostly large herbivorous quadrupeds with long necks and tails). Birds are

22900-468: The March ANSP meeting, during which he named it Elasmosaurus platyurus . The generic name Elasmosaurus means "thin-plate reptile", in reference to the "plate" bones of the sternal and pelvic regions, and the specific name platyurus means "flat-tailed", in reference to the compressed "tail" (actually the neck) and laminae of the vertebrae there. Cope requested that Turner search for more parts of

23129-401: The Middle to Late Triassic epochs, roughly 20 million years after the devastating Permian–Triassic extinction event wiped out an estimated 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species approximately 252 million years ago. The oldest dinosaur fossils known from substantial remains date to the Carnian epoch of the Triassic period and have been found primarily in

23358-645: The Pierre Shale formation – were found by John H. Charles. Cope, upon receiving the bones at the Academy of Natural Sciences, considered them yet another species of Elasmosaurus . The vertebrae were, according to Cope, the shortest among members of the genus (approaching Cimoliasaurus in this condition), but he still considered them as belonging to Elasmosaurus due to their compressed form. He named it E.   intermedius in 1894. However, in his 1906 revision of North American plesiosaurs, Williston regarded

23587-619: The Sunday newspaper, The Observer . Hawkins later worked on a " Palaeozoic Museum " in New York's Central Park , an American equivalent to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. In May 1871 many of the exhibits in Hawkins' workshop were destroyed by vandals and their fragments buried, possibly including elements of the original Elasmosaurus skeleton, which the American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope had loaned to Hawkins for preparation at

23816-512: The Tertiary Island. A. gracile was another fossil species studied by Cuvier; it was later determined to be of a distinct genus Xiphodon . Today, the sculptures of the three animals are confirmed to be of A. commune , but the " Megaloceros " fawn has been identified as a misplaced statue of A. gracile . An 1854 illustration reveals that there were once four A. gracile sculptures, three of which were lost and one of which remains. The body of

24045-411: The Triassic animals might have resembled frogs; he named them Batrachia, from the Greek 'Batrachios', frog. One is smooth skinned and is based on the species " Labyrinthodon salamandroides " ( Mastodonsaurus jaegeri ); the other two were based on " Labyrinthodon pachygnathus " ( Cyclotosaurus pachygnathus ). Casts of Chirotherium footprints that Owen thought were made by the animals were included in

24274-519: The Triassic, Early Jurassic, Late Jurassic and Cretaceous. Predatory theropod dinosaurs, which occupied most terrestrial carnivore niches during the Mesozoic, most often fall into the 100-to-1,000 kg (220-to-2,200 lb) category when sorted by estimated weight into categories based on order of magnitude , whereas recent predatory carnivoran mammals peak in the 10-to-100 kg (22-to-220 lb) category. The mode of Mesozoic dinosaur body masses

24503-583: The United States, known as dinosaur mania. Dinosaur mania was exemplified by the fierce rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh , both of whom raced to be the first to find new dinosaurs in what came to be known as the Bone Wars . This fight between the two scientists lasted for over 30 years, ending in 1897 when Cope died after spending his entire fortune on the dinosaur hunt. Many valuable dinosaur specimens were damaged or destroyed due to

24732-468: The animal with a short neck after acknowledging this was incorrect. Davidson has suggested that even though Leidy had pointed out Cope's error in 1868, Cope may not have accepted this. In an 1870 reply to Leidy, Cope himself stated that the generic placement of E.   orientalis was in doubt, and that he had illustrated it with a short neck due to believing this was the condition of Cimoliasaurus . If more remains showed E.   orientalis to have had

24961-543: The atlas and axis, 3   pectoral vertebrae, 6   back vertebrae , 4   sacral vertebrae, 18 tail vertebrae, as well as rib fragments. In 2013 an incomplete neck vertebra centrum of the holotype that had been mentioned by Cope but thought to have been lost was rediscovered in storage by Sachs, and the neck vertebra count was revised from 71 to 72. The neck vertebrae have been taphonomically distorted (changes occurring during decay and fossilization ), with some parts being unnaturally compressed or displaced. In 1986

25190-666: The best-known genera are remarkable for their large size, many Mesozoic dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller, and modern birds are generally small in size. Dinosaurs today inhabit every continent, and fossils show that they had achieved global distribution by the Early Jurassic epoch at latest. Modern birds inhabit most available habitats, from terrestrial to marine, and there is evidence that some non-avian dinosaurs (such as Microraptor ) could fly or at least glide, and others, such as spinosaurids , had semiaquatic habits. While recent discoveries have made it more difficult to present

25419-455: The body . Other prehistoric animals, including pterosaurs , mosasaurs , ichthyosaurs , plesiosaurs , and Dimetrodon , while often popularly conceived of as dinosaurs, are not taxonomically classified as dinosaurs. Pterosaurs are distantly related to dinosaurs, being members of the clade Ornithodira . The other groups mentioned are, like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, members of Sauropsida (the reptile and bird clade), except Dimetrodon (which

25648-429: The bone as the lower extremity of the femur of a large animal, and recognized that it was too large to belong to any known species. He therefore concluded it to be the femur of a huge human, perhaps a Titan or another type of giant featured in legends. Edward Lhuyd , a friend of Sir Isaac Newton , published Lithophylacii Britannici ichnographia (1699), the first scientific treatment of what would now be recognized as

25877-409: The centrum of the atlas. The neural arches were also more robust there than in the axis, and the neural canal was higher. The neural spine was low and directed upwards and back. The centra of the atlas and axis were of equal length, and had a quadratic shape in side view. The surface (or facet) where the axis articulated with the next vertebra had an oval outline, and an excavation for the neural canal in

26106-553: The centrum. Cope recognized this as a natural condition, and considered constrictus to be "a species of Elasmosaurus or an ally". In 1962 Welles considered P.   constrictus to be a nomen dubium , given its fragmentary nature. Per Ove Persson retained it as valid in 1963, noting the longitudinal ridge on the sides of the centra as an elasmosaurid trait. In 1995 Nathalie Bardet and Pascal Godefroit also recognized it as an elasmosaurid, albeit indeterminate. Cope discovered another elasmosaurid skeleton in 1876. He named it as

26335-499: The character Lord Peter Wimsey mention the "antediluvian monsters" of the Crystal Palace. Ann Coates's 1970 children's book Dinosaurs Don't Die , illustrated by John Vernon Lord , tells the story of a young boy who lives near Crystal Palace Park and discovers that Hawkins' models come to life; he befriends one of the Iguanodon and names it 'Rock' and they visit the Natural History Museum . The travel writer Paul Theroux mentions

26564-480: The closure of the Great Exhibition in October 1851, Joseph Paxton 's Crystal Palace was bought and moved to Penge Place atop Sydenham Hill , South London, by the newly formed Crystal Palace Company. The grounds that surrounded it were then extensively renovated and turned into a public park with ornamental gardens, replicas of statues and two new man-made lakes. As part of this renovation, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins

26793-518: The collection by the American paleontologist Samuel Wendell Williston in 1906. Cope had loaned these elements to the English sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins to help prepare them out of their surrounding concretions. At the time, Hawkins was working on a " Paleozoic Museum " in New York's Central Park , where a reconstruction of Elasmosaurus was to appear, an American equivalent to his life-sized Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in London. In May 1871 much of

27022-467: The common theropods, and ankylosaurids and early ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus became important herbivores. Meanwhile, Australia was home to a fauna of basal ankylosaurians, hypsilophodonts , and iguanodontians. The stegosaurians appear to have gone extinct at some point in the late Early Cretaceous or early Late Cretaceous . A major change in the Early Cretaceous, which would be amplified in

27251-713: The dinosaur subgroup Maniraptora , which are coelurosaurs , which are theropods, which are saurischians. Research by Matthew G. Baron, David B. Norman , and Paul M. Barrett in 2017 suggested a radical revision of dinosaurian systematics. Phylogenetic analysis by Baron et al. recovered the Ornithischia as being closer to the Theropoda than the Sauropodomorpha, as opposed to the traditional union of theropods with sauropodomorphs. This would cause sauropods and kin to fall outside traditional dinosaurs, so they re-defined Dinosauria as

27480-534: The dinosaurs in his 1989 novel My Secret History . The novel's narrator, Andre Parent, accidentally learns of his wife's infidelity when his young son, Jack, reveals that he has visited the dinosaurs in the company of his mother's 'friend' during Andre's prolonged absence gathering material for a travel book. The title story in Penelope Lively 's 1991 novel Fanny and the Monsters is about a Victorian girl who visits

27709-427: The dinosaurs' modern-day surviving avian lineage (birds) are generally small due to the constraints of flight, many prehistoric dinosaurs (non-avian and avian) were large-bodied—the largest sauropod dinosaurs are estimated to have reached lengths of 39.7 meters (130 feet) and heights of 18 m (59 ft) and were the largest land animals of all time. The misconception that non-avian dinosaurs were uniformly gigantic

27938-686: The dinosaurs. Most of these other animals became extinct in the Triassic, in one of two events. First, at about 215 million years ago, a variety of basal archosauromorphs, including the protorosaurs , became extinct. This was followed by the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event (about 201 million years ago), that saw the end of most of the other groups of early archosaurs, like aetosaurs, ornithosuchids, phytosaurs , and rauisuchians. Rhynchosaurs and dicynodonts survived (at least in some areas) at least as late as early –mid Norian and late Norian or earliest Rhaetian stages , respectively, and

28167-574: The early saurischian Alwalkeria , are known from the Upper Maleri and Lower Maleri Formations of India. The Carnian-aged Chañares Formation of Argentina preserves primitive, dinosaur-like ornithodirans such as Lagosuchus and Lagerpeton in Argentina , making it another important site for understanding dinosaur evolution. These ornithodirans support the model of early dinosaurs as small, bipedal predators. Dinosaurs may have appeared as early as

28396-403: The end of the Cretaceous, caused the extinction of all dinosaur groups except for the neornithine birds. Some other diapsid groups, including crocodilians , dyrosaurs , sebecosuchians , turtles, lizards , snakes , sphenodontians , and choristoderans , also survived the event. The surviving lineages of neornithine birds, including the ancestors of modern ratites , ducks and chickens , and

28625-451: The exact date of their extinction is uncertain. These losses left behind a land fauna of crocodylomorphs , dinosaurs, mammals, pterosaurians, and turtles . The first few lines of early dinosaurs diversified through the Carnian and Norian stages of the Triassic, possibly by occupying the niches of the groups that became extinct. Also notably, there was a heightened rate of extinction during

28854-421: The exhibit material in Hawkins' workshop was destroyed by vandals for unclear reasons and their fragments buried; it is possible that the girdle elements of Elasmosaurus were at the workshop and were likewise destroyed. Nothing was subsequently mentioned about their loss by Hawkins or Cope. In 2018, Davidson and Everhart documented the events leading up to the disappearance of these fossils, and suggested that

29083-433: The field of dinosaur research experienced a surge in activity that remains ongoing. Several seminal studies led to this activity. First, John Ostrom discovered the bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod Deinonychus and described it in 1969. Its anatomy indicated that it was an active predator that was likely warm-blooded, in marked contrast to the then-prevailing image of dinosaurs. Concurrently, Robert T. Bakker published

29312-809: The former to be distinguished by a longer neck with compressed vertebrae, and the latter by a shorter neck with square, depressed vertebrae. In subsequent years, Elasmosauridae came to be one of three groups in which plesiosaurs were classified, the others being the Pliosauridae and Plesiosauridae (sometimes merged into one group). Charles Andrews elaborated on differences between elasmosaurids and pliosaurids in 1910 and 1913. He characterized elasmosaurids by their long necks and small heads, as well as by their rigid and well-developed scapulae (but atrophied or absent clavicles and interclavicles) for forelimb-driven locomotion. Meanwhile, pliosaurids had short necks but large heads, and used hindlimb-driven locomotion. Although

29541-443: The fourth vertebra and onwards. The centra became more elongated at the middle of the neck, but became shorter again at the back of the neck, with the length and breadth being about equal at the 61st vertebra, and those of the hindmost vertebrae being broader than long. The articular surfaces of the vertebrae in the front of the neck were broad oval, and moderately deepened, with rounded, thickened edges, with an excavation (or cavity) at

29770-503: The front (the pectoral paddles) were longer than those at the back (the pelvic paddles). Unlike those of many other long-necked animals, the individual neck vertebrae were not particularly elongated; rather, the extreme neck length was achieved by a much increased number of vertebrae. Elasmosaurus differed from all other plesiosaurs by having 72 neck vertebrae; more may have been present but were later lost to erosion or after excavation. Only Albertonectes had more neck vertebrae, 76, and

29999-470: The front were smaller than the succeeding ones, and were located between the first two teeth in the dentaries of the lower jaws. The known teeth of the front part of the lower jaw were large fangs, and the teeth at the back of the jaws appear to have been smaller. The dentition of elasmosaurids was generally heterodont (irregular throughout the jaws), with the teeth becoming progressively smaller from front to back. The maxillae (largest tooth bearing bone of

30228-623: The front, and smaller teeth towards the back. It had six teeth in each premaxilla of the upper jaw, and may have had 14 teeth in the maxilla and 19 in the dentary of the lower jaw. Most of the neck vertebrae were compressed sideways, and bore a longitudinal crest or keel along the sides. The family Elasmosauridae was based on the genus Elasmosaurus , the first recognized member of this group of long-necked plesiosaurs. Elasmosaurids were well adapted for aquatic life, and used their flippers for swimming. Contrary to earlier depictions, their necks were not very flexible, and could not be held high above

30457-456: The fusion of the ischia, with Elasmosaurus and Brancasaurus being united in the subfamily Elasmosaurinae by their sharing of completely closed pelvic bars. Carpenter's 1997 phylogenetic analysis of plesiosaurs challenged the traditional subdivision of plesiosaurs based on neck length. While polycotylids had previously been part of the Pliosauroidea, Carpenter moved polycotylids to become

30686-515: The genus level. Elasmosaurus had four sacral vertebrae (the fused vertebrae that form the sacrum connected to the pelvis), a number typical of elasmosaurids. The transverse processes here were very short, and the rib facets increased in size from the first to the fourth sacral vertebra. A ridge ran along the top of these vertebrae, and the lower sides of the centra were rounded, and bore pairs of nutritive foramina, separated by low ridges. The first tail (or caudal) vertebra could be distinguished by

30915-485: The genus, and he recognized that it possibly pertained to another genus. In 1943 Welles moved E.   (?)   marshii to a genus of its own, Thalassonomosaurus ; however, Carpenter sunk T.   marshii into Styxosaurus snowii in 1999. Another species, E.   nobilis , was named by Williston from very large remains discovered by Mudge in 1874 in Jewell County, Kansas . Welles named E.   nobilis as

31144-703: The ground around the models. Gigantic and visually impressive, the Megalosaurus became one of the park's three 'mascot dinosaurs' along with the Iguanodon and (less so) the Ichthyosaurs. Working from fragmentary evidence from Jurassic fossils found in England, consisting mainly of a hip and femur (thigh bone), with a rib and a few vertebrae, Owen conjectured the animal was quadrupedal; palaeontologists now believe it to have been bipedal (standing like Tyrannosaurus rex ). The first suggestion that some dinosaurs might have been bipedal came in 1858, just too late to influence

31373-507: The group Streptosauria, or "reversed lizards", due to the orientation of their individual vertebrae supposedly being reversed compared to what is seen in other vertebrate animals. He subsequently abandoned this idea in his 1869 description of Elasmosaurus , where he stated he had based it on Leidy's erroneous interpretation of Cimoliasaurus . In this paper, he also named the new family Elasmosauridae, containing Elasmosaurus and Cimoliasaurus , without comment. Within this family, he considered

31602-486: The hip structure of their ancestors, with a pubis bone directed cranially , or forward. This basic form was modified by rotating the pubis backward to varying degrees in several groups ( Herrerasaurus , therizinosauroids, dromaeosaurids, and birds ). Saurischia includes the theropods (exclusively bipedal and with a wide variety of diets) and sauropodomorphs (long-necked herbivores which include advanced, quadrupedal groups). By contrast, ornithischians—"bird-hipped", from

31831-538: The holotype may have been lost to weathering or simply not collected, and that parts may have been lost or damaged during transportation or preparation. Gastroliths may also not have been recognized as such during collection, since such stones were not reported from a plesiosaur until ten years after. In 2017 Sachs and Joachim Ladwig suggested that a fragmentary elasmosaurid skeleton from the upper Campanian of Kronsmoor in Schleswig-Holstein , Germany, and housed in

32060-428: The holotype specimen were noted as missing by 1906, but observations about these elements were since made based on the original descriptions and figures from the late 19th   century. The shoulder blades (scapulae) were fused and met at the midline, bearing no trace of a median bar. The upper processes of the shoulder blades were very broad, and the "necks" of the shoulder blades were long. The pectoral girdle had

32289-511: The holotype were found by the American geologist Benjamin Franklin Mudge in 1871, but have probably been lost since. Additional plesiosaur fossils were recovered near the original locality in 1954, 1991, 1994, and 1998, including back vertebrae, ribs, gastralia (belly ribs), and gastroliths . As none of these elements overlap with those of the holotype specimen, in 2005 the American paleontologist Michael J. Everhart concluded they belonged to

32518-415: The idea that Elasmosaurus and Discosaurus were identical, and noted that the latter and Cimoliasaurus did not have any distinguishing features. Though Cope had tried to destroy the preprints, one copy came to the attention of the American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh , who made light of the mistake. This led to antagonism between Cope, who was embarrassed by the mistake, and Marsh, who brought up

32747-457: The largest number of neck vertebrae of any known vertebrate animals. In spite of their many neck vertebrae, the necks of elasmosaurids were less than half as long as those of the longest-necked sauropod dinosaurs . Initially, in his 1869 description of Elasmosaurus , Cope estimated the length of the animal by summing up vertebral lengths and estimations of missing parts, resulting in a total length of 13.1 meters (43 ft); he believed that

32976-432: The last common ancestor of Triceratops horridus , Passer domesticus and Diplodocus carnegii , and all of its descendants, to ensure that sauropods and kin remain included as dinosaurs. They also resurrected the clade Ornithoscelida to refer to the group containing Ornithischia and Theropoda. Using one of the above definitions, dinosaurs can be generally described as archosaurs with hind limbs held erect beneath

33205-506: The late 17th century in England. Part of a bone, now known to have been the femur of a Megalosaurus , was recovered from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton , Oxfordshire, in 1676. The fragment was sent to Robert Plot , Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and first curator of the Ashmolean Museum , who published a description in his The Natural History of Oxford-shire (1677). He correctly identified

33434-646: The latter three species, "their generic and specific definition is questionable", although he declined to specifically label them as invalid on account of not having seen the fossil material. Similarly, in 1999, Evgeniy Pervushov, Maxim Arkhangelsky, and A.   V. Ivanov considered E.   helmerseni to be an indeterminate elasmosaurid. In 2000 Storrs, Archangelsky, and Vladimir Efimov concurred with Welles on E.   kurskensis , and labelled E.   orskensis and E.   serdobensis as indeterminate elasmosaurids. Two additional Russian species were described by subsequent authors. A.   N. Riabinin described

33663-582: The level of the centrum whereas the latter reached only with their back half. The neural spines of the neck vertebrae appear to have been low, and almost semi-circular by the 20th vertebra. The facets where the neck ribs articulated with the neck vertebrae were placed on the lower sides of the centra, but were only placed higher in the last three vertebrae, reaching around the middle of the sides. The neck ribs were semicircular to quadratic in side view, and were directed rather straight down. The bottom of each neck vertebrae had pairs of nutritive foramina (openings) at

33892-411: The living animal would have been slightly larger due to cartilage present between the vertebral bodies, and was estimated at roughly 13.7 meters (45 ft). However, in 1952, the American paleontologist Samuel Welles estimated the body length to have been 10.3 meters (34 ft), a number that was repeated by José Patricio O'Gorman in 2016. Like other elasmosaurids, Elasmosaurus would have had

34121-478: The longest were the 33.5-meter (110 ft) long Diplodocus hallorum (formerly Seismosaurus ), the 33-to-34-meter (108 to 112 ft) long Supersaurus , and 37-meter (121 ft) long Patagotitan ; and the tallest, the 18-meter (59 ft) tall Sauroposeidon , which could have reached a sixth-floor window. There were a few dinosaurs that was considered either the heaviest and longest. The most famous one include Amphicoelias fragillimus , known only from

34350-402: The middle of its upper edge. A distinct keel ran along the lower middle of the atlas and axis vertebrae. Most of the neck vertebrae were compressed sideways, especially at the middle of the neck. A crest (also termed ridge or keel) ran longitudinally along the side of the neck vertebrae (a feature typical of elasmosaurids), visible from the third to the fifty-fifth vertebrae, at the hind part of

34579-427: The middle, separated by a ridge, which became progressively more prominent and thickened towards the back of the neck. The vertebrae that transitioned between the neck and back vertebrae in the pectoral region of plesiosaurs, close to the front margin of the forelimb girdle , are often termed pectoral vertebrae. Elasmosaurus had three pectoral vertebrae, which is a common number for elasmosaurids. The rib facets of

34808-463: The mistake repeatedly for decades. Marsh returned to the issue during their controversy in the New York Herald in the 1890s (Marsh claimed he had pointed out the error to Cope immediately), when their dispute gained widespread public attention. The argument was part of the " Bone Wars " rivalry between the two, and is well known in the history of paleontology. Because of Cope's reputation as

35037-460: The model. When the models were built, only skulls of the Cretaceous fossil Mosasaurus had been discovered in the Netherlands, so Hawkins only built the head and back of the animal. He submerged the model deep in the lake, leaving the body unseen and undefined. The Mosasaurus at Crystal Palace is positioned in an odd place near the secondary island that was originally a waterfall, and much of it

35266-553: The models became obscured by overgrown foliage. A full restoration of the animals was carried out in 1952 by Victor H.C. Martin, at which time the mammals on the third island were moved to less well-protected locations in the park, where they were exposed to wear and tear. The limestone cliff was blown up in the 1960s. In 2001, the display was totally renovated. The destroyed limestone cliff was completely replaced using 130 large blocks of Derbyshire limestone, many weighing over 1 tonne (0.98 long tons; 1.1 short tons), rebuilt according to

35495-458: The models' eyes have exposed bony sclerotic plates , Owen conjecturing that with such large eyes they had "great powers of vision, especially in the dusk". They became one of the three mascots of Crystal Palace Park, along with the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus (although ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs). Coincidentally, the models more closely resemble more basic ichthyosaurs such as Cymbospondylus . The Iguanodon models represent fossils from

35724-423: The more strongly developed processes known as parapophyses on the vertebrae, in which he considered it to approach closer to Cimoliasaurus ; however, he still assigned it to Elasmosaurus on account of its large size and angled sides. The first of these vertebrae was used as a doorstop in a tailor 's shop, whereas the other was found in a pit by Samuel Lockwood, a superintendent . Cope gave the name orientalis to

35953-479: The most complete theropod specimens, while North American localities have produced the most complete sauropodomorph specimens. Prior to the dinosaur renaissance, dinosaurs were mostly classified using the traditional rank-based system of Linnaean taxonomy . The renaissance was also accompanied by the increasingly widespread application of cladistics , a more objective method of classification based on ancestry and shared traits, which has proved tremendously useful in

36182-495: The most diverse groups of vertebrates. Using fossil evidence, paleontologists have identified over 900 distinct genera and more than 1,000 different species of non-avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are represented on every continent by both extant species (birds) and fossil remains. Through the first half of the 20th century, before birds were recognized as dinosaurs, most of the scientific community believed dinosaurs to have been sluggish and cold-blooded . Most research conducted since

36411-509: The most important advantage was dietary. Large animals are more efficient at digestion than small animals, because food spends more time in their digestive systems. This also permits them to subsist on food with lower nutritive value than smaller animals. Sauropod remains are mostly found in rock formations interpreted as dry or seasonally dry, and the ability to eat large quantities of low-nutrient browse would have been advantageous in such environments. Scientists will probably never be certain of

36640-478: The most recent common ancestor of a certain taxonomic group, are called the synapomorphies of such a group. A detailed assessment of archosaur interrelations by Sterling Nesbitt confirmed or found the following twelve unambiguous synapomorphies, some previously known: Nesbitt found a number of further potential synapomorphies and discounted a number of synapomorphies previously suggested. Some of these are also present in silesaurids , which Nesbitt recovered as

36869-458: The mouth, including potential cheek -like organs to keep food in the mouth, and jaw motions to grind food. Another notable evolutionary event of the Jurassic was the appearance of true birds, descended from maniraptoran coelurosaurians. By the Early Cretaceous and the ongoing breakup of Pangaea, dinosaurs were becoming strongly differentiated by landmass. The earliest part of this time saw

37098-573: The neck ribs arises from his inclusion of Simolestes to the Elasmosauridae, since the characteristics of "both the skull and shoulder girdle compare more favorably with Elasmosaurus than with Pliosaurus or Peloneustes ." He considered Simolestes a possible ancestor of Elasmosaurus . Oskar Kuhn adopted a similar classification in 1961. Welles took issue with White's classification in his 1943 revision of plesiosaurs, noting that White's characteristics are influenced by both preservation and ontogeny . He divided plesiosaurs into two superfamilies,

37327-422: The neck vertebrae were well fused to the centra, leaving no visible sutures, and the neural canal was narrow in the front vertebrae, becoming more prominently developed in the hind vertebrae, where it was as broad as high, and almost circular. The pre-and post- zygapophyses of the neck vertebrae, processes that articulated adjacent vertebrae so they fit together, were of equal length; the former reached entirely over

37556-420: The neck. This crest was positioned at the middle of the centrum in the front vertebrae, and at the upper half of the centrum from the 19th vertebra and onwards. The crest would have served to anchor the musculature of the neck. The centra differed in shape depending on the position of the vertebrae in the neck; that of the third vertebra was about as long as it was broad, but the centra became longer than broad from

37785-461: The new genus and species Alzadasaurus kansasensis in 1952. Glenn Storrs considered both to be indeterminate elasmosaurids in 1999; in the same year, Carpenter assigned both to Styxosaurus snowii . An elasmosaurid specimen was found by Handel Martin in Logan County, Kansas in 1889. Williston named this as a new species, E.   (?)   marshii . He bore reservations about its referral to

38014-540: The new genus and species Alzadasaurus riggsi in 1943. Kenneth Carpenter reassigned it to Thalassomedon haningtoni in 1999; Sachs, Johan Lindgren, and Benjamin Kear noted that the remains represented a juvenile and were significantly distorted, and preferred to retain it as a nomen dubium in 2016. Subsequently, a series of 19 neck and back vertebrae from the Big Bend region of the Missouri ;– part of

38243-519: The new genus and species Embaphias circulosus , were also considered by Welles to be a nomen dubium in 1962. Williston named a number of other new Elasmosaurus species in his 1906 revision. In 1874 he and Mudge discovered a specimen in Plum Creek, Kansas. While he initially assigned it in 1890 to a new species of Cimoliasaurus , C.   snowii , he subsequently recognized the elasmosaurid nature of its humerus and coracoids . Thus, he renamed

38472-449: The new species, on account of it possibly having a more easterly distribution than E.   platyurus . Leidy subsequently moved E.   orientalis to the now dubious genus Discosaurus in the following year. In 1952 Welles considered the species a nomen dubium , given how fragmentary it was. In 1869 Cope also published an article about the fossil reptiles of New Jersey, wherein he described E.   orientalis as an animal with

38701-764: The now-splitting supercontinent Gondwana , abelisaurids were the common theropods, and titanosaurian sauropods the common herbivores. Finally, in Europe, dromaeosaurids, rhabdodontid iguanodontians, nodosaurid ankylosaurians, and titanosaurian sauropods were prevalent. Flowering plants were greatly radiating, with the first grasses appearing by the end of the Cretaceous. Grinding hadrosaurids and shearing ceratopsians became very diverse across North America and Asia. Theropods were also radiating as herbivores or omnivores , with therizinosaurians and ornithomimosaurians becoming common. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago at

38930-756: The number of named genera began to increase exponentially in the 1990s. As of 2008, over 30 new species of dinosaurs were named each year. At least sauropodomorphs experienced a further increase in the number of named species in the 2010s, with an average of 9.3 new species having been named each year between 2009 and 2020. As a consequence, more sauropodomorphs were named between 1990 and 2020 than in all previous years combined. These new localities also led to improvements in overall specimen quality, with new species being increasingly named not on scrappy fossils but on more complete skeletons, sometimes from multiple individuals. Better specimens also led to new species being invalidated less frequently. Asian localities have produced

39159-434: The original site and, prior to the 2002 restoration, they were in such bad shape that they were removed and put into store. Some sources state that these models were added at a later date, but an Illustrated London News illustration of Hawkins's workshop shows them in the background. A replica of P. magnum was commissioned by the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and built by palaeoartist Bob Nicholls , and unveiled to

39388-438: The pair's rough methods: for example, their diggers often used dynamite to unearth bones. Modern paleontologists would find such methods crude and unacceptable, since blasting easily destroys fossil and stratigraphic evidence. Despite their unrefined methods, the contributions of Cope and Marsh to paleontology were vast: Marsh unearthed 86 new species of dinosaur and Cope discovered 56, a total of 142 new species. Cope's collection

39617-411: The pectoral vertebrae were triangular in shape and situated on transverse processes, and the centra bore pairs of nutritive foramina in the middle of the lower sides. The back vertebrae had rib facets level with the neural canal, and the front and back part of the transverse processes here had distinct ridges on their margins. Here the rib facets where placed higher than the transverse processes, separating

39846-573: The placement of Elasmosaurus in the Elasmosauridae remained uncontroversial, opinions on the relationships of the family became variable over subsequent decades. Williston created a revised taxonomy of plesiosaurs in 1925. In 1940 Theodore White published a hypothesis on the interrelationships between different plesiosaurian families. He considered Elasmosauridae to be closest to the Pliosauridae, noting their relatively narrow coracoids as well as their lack of interclavicles or clavicles. His diagnosis of

40075-425: The preceding sacral vertebra by having smaller rib facets, and by being positioned in the lower half of the centrum. These vertebrae were almost circular in shape, and the first two bore a narrow keel in the middle of the upper side. The rib facets of the tail vertebrae were located on the lower side of the centra, and their oval shape became larger and broader from the third vertebra and onwards, but became smaller from

40304-408: The presence of proteins such as collagen, elastin , and laminin . Both specimens yielded collagen protein sequences that were viable for molecular phylogenetic analyses , which grouped them with birds as would be expected. The extraction of fragmentary DNA has also been reported for both of these fossils, along with a specimen of Hypacrosaurus . In 2015, Sergio Bertazzo and colleagues reported

40533-438: The presence of the green and gold Labyrinthodon that looms so splendidly above the lake" to discuss their future. There is a brief description of the dinosaurs and their surroundings and the impact they have on the characters. Several of E. Nesbit's children's books feature the Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures coming to life, including The Enchanted Castle (1907). The 1932 novel Have His Carcase , by Dorothy L. Sayers , has

40762-458: The preservation of collagen fibres and red blood cells in eight Cretaceous dinosaur specimens that did not show any signs of exceptional preservation, indicating that soft tissue may be preserved more commonly than previously thought. Suggestions that these structures represent bacterial biofilms have been rejected, but cross-contamination remains a possibility that is difficult to detect. Dinosaurs diverged from their archosaur ancestors during

40991-464: The public on 2 July 2023. Models of the "fearfully great bird" Dinornis of New Zealand (extinct by 1500 AD), and of the extinct elephant-like Mastodon (or Deinotherium of the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa), were planned for the 'Tertiary Islands' but not completed. Charles Dickens 's 1853 novel, Bleak House , begins with a description of muddy streets, whose primordial character

41220-422: The public's reaction to the dinosaurs, which was so strong it allowed for the sale of sets of small versions of the dinosaur models, priced at £30 for educational use. But the building of the models was costly (having cost around £13,729) and in 1855, the Crystal Palace Company cut Hawkins's funding. Several planned models were never made, while those half finished were scrapped, despite protest from sources including

41449-422: The rebbachisaurid Nigersaurus . There were three general dinosaur faunas in the Late Cretaceous. In the northern continents of North America and Asia, the major theropods were tyrannosaurids and various types of smaller maniraptoran theropods, with a predominantly ornithischian herbivore assemblage of hadrosaurids, ceratopsians, ankylosaurids, and pachycephalosaurians. In the southern continents that had made up

41678-470: The relatively soft shale with picks and shovels, loaded on a horse-drawn wagon, and transported back to Fort Wallace. Cope sent instructions on how to pack the bones, which were thereafter sent in hay-padded crates on a military wagon east to the railroad, which had not yet reached the fort. The specimen arrived in Philadelphia by rail in March 1868, whereafter Cope examined it hurriedly; he reported on it at

41907-513: The remains as belonging to an "extinct monster". In June, Turner gave three fossil vertebrae to the American scientist John LeConte , a member of the railway survey, to take back east to be identified. In December, LeConte delivered some of the vertebrae to the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP, known since 2011 as the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University). Recognizing them as

42136-439: The remains of a plesiosaur , larger than any he had seen in Europe, Cope wrote to Turner asking him to deliver the rest of the specimen, at the ANSP's expense. In December 1867 Turner and others from Fort Wallace returned to the site and recovered much of the vertebral column, as well as concretions that contained other bones; the material had a combined weight of 360 kilograms (800 lb). The fossils were dug or pried out of

42365-1404: The rocks that produced the Jehol (Early Cretaceous) and Yanliao (Mid-to-Late Jurassic) biotas of northeastern China, from which hundreds of dinosaur specimens bearing impressions of feather-like structures (both closely related to birds and otherwise, see § Origin of birds ) have been described by Xing Xu and colleagues. In living reptiles and mammals, pigment-storing cellular structures known as melanosomes are partially responsible for producing colouration. Both chemical traces of melanin and characteristically shaped melanosomes have been reported from feathers and scales of Jehol and Yanliao dinosaurs, including both theropods and ornithischians. This has enabled multiple full-body reconstructions of dinosaur colouration , such as for Sinosauropteryx and Psittacosaurus by Jakob Vinther and colleagues, and similar techniques have also been extended to dinosaur fossils from other localities. (However, some researchers have also suggested that fossilized melanosomes represent bacterial remains. ) Stomach contents in some Jehol and Yanliao dinosaurs closely related to birds have also provided indirect indications of diet and digestive system anatomy (e.g., crops ). More concrete evidence of internal anatomy has been reported in Scipionyx from

42594-544: The same individual, and that the parts had been separated before burial of the carcass. He also noted that a small stone wedged in the neural canal of one of the tail vertebrae of the holotype may be a gastrolith, based on its polished appearance. In 2007 the Colombian paleontologists Leslie Noè and Marcela Gómez-Pérez expressed doubt that the additional elements belonged to the type specimen, or even to Elasmosaurus , due to lack of evidence. They explained that elements missing from

42823-450: The sauropodomorphs Bagualosaurus , Buriolestes , Guaibasaurus , Macrocollum , Nhandumirim , Pampadromaeus , Saturnalia , and Unaysaurus . The Pebbly Arkose Formation, which is of uncertain age but was likely comparable to the other two, has produced the sauropodomorph Mbiresaurus , along with an unnamed herrerasaurid. Less well-preserved remains of the sauropodomorphs Jaklapallisaurus and Nambalia , along with

43052-416: The sauropodomorphs Chromogisaurus , Eodromaeus , and Panphagia . Eoraptor 's likely resemblance to the common ancestor of all dinosaurs suggests that the first dinosaurs would have been small, bipedal predators . The Santa Maria Formation (radiometrically dated to be older, at 233.23 million years old ) has produced the herrerasaurids Gnathovorax and Staurikosaurus , along with

43281-467: The scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen , representing the latest scientific knowledge at the time. The models, also known as the Geological Court or Dinosaur Court , were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007. The models represent 15 genera of extinct animals, only three of which are true dinosaurs. They are from

43510-548: The sculpture appears more heavily inspired by camelids than A. commune with a gracile muscle build. Megaloceros giganteus or Irish Elk is a species from the Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs in Eurasia . Hawkins built four Megaloceros sculptures, two male and two female. One sculpture of a doe was lost, leaving just three sculptures today. The adult male's antlers were made from actual fossil antlers, long since replaced. Moved from

43739-726: The sediment in which they were found that they were "more strictly marine than the crocodile of the Ganges [the gharial ]." Anoplotherium commune is an extinct mammal species from the late Eocene to earliest Oligocene epochs, first found near Paris. Hawkins's models draw on Owen's speculation about its camel -like appearance. Three models were made, forming a small herd. Hawkins seemingly closely followed George Cuvier 's reconstructions of A. commune , giving it short or naked hair following Cuvier's view that its anatomy implied an aquatic lifestyle. Hawkins deviated from Cuvier by making it look more camel-like with small lips, small and rounded ears,

43968-483: The shape of their articular ends differed greatly from pliosauroids, and instead agreed well with elasmosaurids. Given that, at the time of Persson's writing, "there [was] nothing to contradict that they are nearest akin to Elasmosaurus ", he assigned them to Elasmosaurus "with hesitation". Theodor Wagner had previously assigned gigas to Plesiosaurus in 1914. As of 2013, this questionable attribution remains unchanged. Another species from Russia, E.   antiquus ,

44197-571: The skeleton now mounted and on display at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin ; this mount is 12 meters (39 ft) tall and 21.8 to 22.5 meters (72 to 74 ft) long, and would have belonged to an animal that weighed between 30 000 and 60 000  kilograms ( 70 000 and 130 000  lb). The longest complete dinosaur is the 27 meters (89 ft) long Diplodocus , which was discovered in Wyoming in

44426-546: The skeleton of Elasmosaurus with the skull at the end of the tail, an error which was made light of by the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh , and became part of their " Bone Wars " rivalry. Only one incomplete Elasmosaurus skeleton is definitely known, consisting of a fragmentary skull, the spine, and the pectoral and pelvic girdles , and a single species is recognized today; other species are now considered invalid or have been moved to other genera. Measuring 10.3 meters (34 ft) in length, Elasmosaurus would have had

44655-406: The skull behind the eyes), and as members of the diapsid group Archosauria, had additional openings in the snout and lower jaw. Additionally, several characteristics once thought to be synapomorphies are now known to have appeared before dinosaurs, or were absent in the earliest dinosaurs and independently evolved by different dinosaur groups. These include an elongated scapula , or shoulder blade;

44884-406: The small-size P. minor (= Plagiolophus minor ), the medium-size P. medium , and the largest and most robust-appearing P. magnum , all of which were studied by Cuvier. They have suffered the most wear and tear of all of the models, and the standing model no longer looked much like the original made by Hawkins. During the 1960s these models were lying discarded in the bushes about fifty yards from

45113-434: The sole surviving dinosaurs. In traditional taxonomy , birds were considered a separate class that had evolved from dinosaurs, a distinct superorder . However, most contemporary paleontologists reject the traditional style of classification based on anatomical similarity, in favor of phylogenetic taxonomy based on deduced ancestry, in which each group is defined as all descendants of a given founding genus. Birds belong to

45342-411: The species E.   ischiadicus from the genus Polycotylus , where he had initially placed it when he named it in 1903. The type remains were discovered by him in the same 1874 expedition with Mudge. Williston assigned another specimen discovered by Mudge and H.   A. Brous in 1876. In 1943 both specimens were assigned to the new genus Thalassiosaurus by Welles, who then assigned the latter to

45571-472: The species E.   snowii . A second specimen, discovered by Elias West in 1890, was also assigned by him to E.   snowii . In 1943 Welles moved E.   snowii to its own genus, Styxosaurus , where the species has remained. However, the West specimen was assigned to Thalassiosaurus ischiadicus (see below) by Welles in 1952; Carpenter returned it to S.   snowii in 1999. Williston also reassigned

45800-515: The specimen's excavation. Owen and Hooley subsequently described skin impressions of Hypsilophodon and Iguanodon in 1885 and 1917. Since then, scale impressions have been most frequently found among hadrosaurids, where the impressions are known from nearly the entire body across multiple specimens. Starting from the 1990s, major discoveries of exceptionally preserved fossils in deposits known as conservation Lagerstätten contributed to research on dinosaur soft tissues. Chiefly among these were

46029-527: The spread of ankylosaurians, iguanodontians , and brachiosaurids through Europe, North America, and northern Africa . These were later supplemented or replaced in Africa by large spinosaurid and carcharodontosaurid theropods, and rebbachisaurid and titanosaurian sauropods, also found in South America . In Asia , maniraptoran coelurosaurians like dromaeosaurids, troodontids , and oviraptorosaurians became

46258-468: The study of dinosaur systematics and evolution. Cladistic analysis, among other techniques, helps to compensate for an often incomplete and fragmentary fossil record. Reference books summarizing the state of dinosaur research, such as David B. Weishampel and colleagues' The Dinosauria , made knowledge more accessible and spurred further interest in dinosaur research. The release of the first and second editions of The Dinosauria in 1990 and 2004, and of

46487-421: The supposed "smaller specimen" as Discosaurus carinatus . Cope was only in his late twenties and not formally trained in paleontology, and may have been influenced by Leidy's mistake of reversing the vertebral column of Cimoliasaurus . In 2002 the American art historian Jane P. Davidson noted that the fact that other scientists early on had pointed out Leidy's error argues against this explanation, adding that Cope

46716-405: The tail vertebrae belonged to the neck, since the jaws had been found at that end of the skeleton, even though the opposite end terminated in the axis and atlas bones that are found in the neck. Leidy also concluded that Elasmosaurus was identical to Discosaurus , a plesiosaur he had named in 1851. To hide his mistake, Cope attempted to recall all copies of the preprint article, and printed

46945-476: The tallest of the theropods. The largest ornithischian dinosaur was probably the hadrosaurid Shantungosaurus giganteus which measured 16.6 meters (54 ft). The largest individuals may have weighed as much as 16 metric tons (18 short tons). Elasmosaurus Elasmosaurus ( / ɪ ˌ l æ z m ə ˈ s ɔːr ə s , - m oʊ -/ ) is a genus of plesiosaur that lived in North America during

47174-459: The taxonomic name has often been interpreted as a reference to dinosaurs' teeth, claws, and other fearsome characteristics, Owen intended it also to evoke their size and majesty. Owen recognized that the remains that had been found so far, Iguanodon , Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus , shared distinctive features, and so decided to present them as a distinct taxonomic group. As clarified by British geologist and historian Hugh Torrens, Owen had given

47403-692: The third island, they had fallen into disrepair as they were easily reached by vandals. With their original but fragile antlers, the Irish Elks were the most accurate of the Cenozoic models; since they are of recent geological age (dying out 11,000 years ago), Hawkins was able to model them on living deer . The giant ground sloth Megatherium is from the Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs in South America, where Charles Darwin had excavated some fossils in 1835. The model

47632-403: The three ichthyosaurs are partly in water, they are implausibly shown basking on land like seals . Owen supposed they resembled crocodiles or plesiosaurs. Better fossil evidence shows that they have more in common with sharks and dolphins , having a dorsal fin and fish-like tail, whereas in Hawkins's models the tail is a flat protuberance from a straight backbone. A further discrepancy is that

47861-402: The time. With progress in palaeontology, the reputation of the Crystal Palace models declined. In 1895, the American fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh scorned the dinosaurs' friends as doing them a great injustice, and spoke angrily of the models. The models and the park fell into disrepair as the years went by, a process aided by the fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace itself in 1936, and

48090-849: The total number of dinosaur genera preserved in the fossil record at 1850, nearly 75% still undiscovered, and the number that ever existed (in or out of the fossil record) at 3,400. A 2016 estimate put the number of dinosaur species living in the Mesozoic at 1,543–2,468, compared to the number of modern-day birds (avian dinosaurs) at 10,806 species. Extinct dinosaurs, as well as modern birds, include genera that are herbivorous and others carnivorous, including seed-eaters, fish-eaters, insectivores, and omnivores. While dinosaurs were ancestrally bipedal (as are all modern birds), some evolved into quadrupeds, and others, such as Anchisaurus and Iguanodon , could walk as easily on two or four legs. Cranial modifications like horns and crests are common dinosaurian traits, and some extinct species had bony armor. Although

48319-427: The two are the only plesiosaurs with a count higher than 70; more than 60 vertebrae is very derived (or "advanced") for plesiosaurs. The atlas and axis bone complex, consisting of the first two neck vertebrae and articulated with the back of the skull, was long, low, and horizontally rectangular in side-view. The centra, or "bodies", of these vertebrae were co-ossified in the holotype specimen, which indicates it

48548-422: The two, and were oval to rectangular in outline. The pre-zygapophyses here were shorter than those in the neck and pectoral vertebrae, and only reached above the level of the centrum with the front third of their length. The post-zygapophyses reached over the level of the centrum with the back half of their length. Back vertebrae are not useful for distinguishing between elasmosaurids, since they are not diagnostic at

48777-425: The type specimen were not covered in Cope's report, and remained unknown until Turner's letters were published in 1987. Elasmosaurus was the first major fossil discovery in Kansas (and the largest from there at the time), and marked the beginning of a fossil collecting rush that sent thousands of fossils from Kansas to prominent museums on the American east coast. Elasmosaurus was one of few plesiosaurs known from

49006-400: The upper and lower sides. Further back in the front part of the neck, around the 25th vertebra, the lower edge of the articular facets became more concave, and the facet shaped like a quadrate with rounded edges. By the 63rd vertebra, the articular facet was also quadratic in shape with rounded edges, whereas the centra of the hindmost vertebrae had a broad oval outline. The neural arches of

49235-404: The upper jaw) of elasmosaurids usually contained 14   teeth, whereas the dentaries (the main part of the lower jaws) usually contained 17 to 19. The teeth interlocked, and their tooth crowns were slender and rounded in cross-section. The mandibular symphysis (where the two halves of the lower jaw connected) was well ossified , with no visible suture . The pectoral and pelvic girdles of

49464-414: The vertebrae as "all more or less mutilated", and found no distinct differences between the remains of E.   intermedius and E.   platyurus . In 1952 Welles opined that, if E.   intermedius was valid, "it must be referred to a pliosaurian genus"; however, he proceeded to label it a nomen dubium in 1962. Three shorter vertebrae found alongside E.   intermedius , assigned by Cope to

49693-437: The water surface. It is unknown what their long necks were used for, but they may have had a function in feeding. Elasmosaurids probably ate small fish and marine invertebrates , seizing them with their long teeth, and may have used gastroliths (stomach stones) to help digest their food. Elasmosaurus is known from the Pierre Shale formation, which represents marine deposits from the Western Interior Seaway . In early 1867,

49922-405: Was an adult. The neural arches of these vertebrae were very thin and rather high, which gave the neural canal (the opening through the middle of the vertebrae) a triangular outline when seen from the back. The lower part of the neural canal was narrow towards the back by the axis, where it was half the breadth of the centrum. It became broader towards the front, where it was almost the same breadth as

50151-401: Was an extremely important find: Hadrosaurus was one of the first nearly complete dinosaur skeletons found ( the first was in 1834, in Maidstone, England ), and it was clearly a bipedal creature. This was a revolutionary discovery as, until that point, most scientists had believed dinosaurs walked on four feet, like other lizards. Foulke's discoveries sparked a wave of interests in dinosaurs in

50380-437: Was an order of magnitude more massive than anything else that has since walked the Earth. Giant prehistoric mammals such as Paraceratherium (the largest land mammal ever) were dwarfed by the giant sauropods, and only modern whales approach or surpass them in size. There are several proposed advantages for the large size of sauropods, including protection from predation, reduction of energy use, and longevity, but it may be that

50609-470: Was assigned to P. helmerseni in 1885 by H.   Schröder. Vertebral and limb remains from Kursk initially assigned by Kiprijanoff to P.   helmerseni were also moved by Bogolubov to the new species E.   kurskensis , which he considered to be "identical with Elasmosaurus or related to it". He also named E.   orskensis , based on "very large" neck and tail vertebra remains from Konopljanka, Orenburg ; and E.   serdobensis , based on

50838-482: Was built hugging a live tree which subsequently grew and broke the model's arm. The arm was replaced and later the tree died. The model depicts the sloth as having a short trunk like a tapir , something the real animal never had. This model used to be in the children's zoo which has now been demolished. The models of Palaeotherium represent an extinct Eocene mammal thought by Georges Cuvier to be tapir-like. Three species were represented by each individual sculpture:

51067-432: Was commissioned to build the first-ever life-sized models of extinct animals. He had originally planned to just re-create extinct mammals before deciding on building dinosaurs as well, which he did with advice from Sir Richard Owen , a celebrated anatomist and palaeontologist of the time. Hawkins set up a workshop on site at the park and built the models there. The dinosaurs were built full-size in clay, from which

51296-477: Was followed by Alexander Averianov and V.   K. Popov in 2005. Then, in 1916, Pavel A. Pravoslavlev named E.   amalitskii from the Don River region, based on a specimen containing vertebrae, limb girdles, and limb bones. Persson considered it a valid species, and a relatively large member of the elasmosaurids; however, like E.   (?)   sachalinensis , Pervushov and colleagues considered E.   amalitskii an indeterminate elasmosaurid. In

51525-412: Was given an emergency renovation, after it had fallen off the previous year. Twenty-two new teeth and a 'prosthetic jaw' were installed on the sculpture. The renovation was funded by a grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund and fundraising from Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Fifteen genera of extinct animals, not all dinosaurs, are represented in the park. At least three other genera ( Dinornis ,

51754-422: Was named by Dubeikovskii and Ochev in 1967 from the Kamsko-Vyatsky phosphorite quarry, but Pervushov and colleagues in 1999, followed by Storrs and colleagues in 2000, reinterpreted it as an indeterminate elasmosaurid. Though Cope had originally recognized Elasmosaurus as a plesiosaur, in an 1869 paper he placed it, with Cimoliasaurus and Crymocetus , in a new order of sauropterygian reptiles. He named

51983-435: Was not convinced he had made a mistake. Plesiosaur anatomy was sufficiently well known at the time that Cope should not have made the mistake, according to Davidson. Cope did little work on the specimen since his 1870 description, and it was kept in storage for nearly 30 years. It was only redescribed in detail in 2005 by the German paleontologist Sven Sachs. Today, the incomplete holotype specimen , cataloged as ANSP 10081,

52212-450: Was purportedly discovered in 1822 by Mary Ann Mantell , the wife of English geologist Gideon Mantell , though this is disputed and some historians say Gideon had acquired remains years earlier. Gideon Mantell recognized similarities between his fossils and the bones of modern iguanas and published his findings in 1825. The study of these "great fossil lizards" soon became of great interest to European and American scientists, and in 1842

52441-418: Was supported for a considerable time, M.   haasti is regarded as a nomen dubium as of 2017. Pravoslavlev recognized another species from New Zealand, E.   hoodii , named by Owen in 1870 as Plesiosaurus hoodii based on a neck vertebra. Welles recognized it as a nomen dubium in 1962; Joan Wiffen and William Moisley concurred in a 1986 review of New Zealand plesiosaurs. In 1949 Welles named

#596403