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• Dinosaurs include all animals belonging to the superorder Dinosauria, including several orders of extinct land-dwelling reptiles and present-day birds.Britannica Online: Dinosaur Classification Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrates for 160 million years. Their descendants are the approximately 10,000 species of birds.

• Fast Facts

  1. Dominant land life form: 185 million yearsDinosaur Facts: Dinosaur Timeline
  2. Number of extinct genera known: 500+The New York Times: Many more dinosaurs still to be found (September 12, 2006)
  3. Number of avian genera: 1,800+Western Kentucky University: The Number of species of birds - Ernst Mayr
  4. Largest known dinosaur: SauroposeidonBBC News: Biggest dinosaur discovered (November 3, 1999)
  5. Smallest known extinct dinosaur: ParvicursorLiveScience.com: What Is the Smallest Dinosaur?
  6. Non-avian dinosaurs went extinct 65,000,000 years agoDinosaur.org: DINOSAUR Extinction!
  7. An asteroid impact in the modern-day Yucatan peninsula is conjectured to lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs

• Types of Dinosaurs

  Dinosaurs are classified in two broad groups based on the orientation of their pelvic bone structure.

  1. The Saurischian pelvic bone structure features a vertically oriented pubic bone. Examples of Saurischian dinosaurs include Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Sauroposeidon, all carnivorous dinosaurs including Tyrannosaurus and all birds.Britannica Online: Saurischia
  2. The Ornithischian pelvic structure is distinguished by a more lateral pubic bone. Ornithischian dinosaurs discovered to date are all herbivorous. Examples of Ornithischian dinosaurs include Iguanodon, Parasaurolophus and Triceratops.Britannica Online: Ornithischia

• Dinosaurs in Popular Culture

  Richard Owen first applied the classification Dinosauria to three fossil specimen in 1842. The mystery and allure of the dinosaurs has been part of mass media ever since.

  Dinosaurs have appeared in movies and cartoons since the earliest days of motion pictures. D.W. Griffith's The Primitive Man featured a forty-foot long mechanized dinosaur mechanical model.Dinosaur.org: Celluloid Dinosaurs A History of Dinosaur Movies The animated Gertie the Dinosaur was the first appearance of a dinosaur in a cartoon. The 12-minute short is credited with legitimizing animation as an art form.FindArticles.net: Gertie the Dinosaur - St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Ilene S. Goldman

  Fiction featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures first received popular attention with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World.Silentmoviemonsters.tripod.com: The Lost World Novel Hundreds of novels and short stories have followed, most notably Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder, James Gurney's Dinotopia series, Harry Harrison's West of Eden series and Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park books.

  Dinosaur toys, model kits, games, and all manner of other merchandise also exist.

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Mummified Dinosaur | Biology | Jurassic Park | Geological Periods | Spinosaurus | Glyptodon | Tiny Pterodactyl | Carnotaurus | Spike the Ultra Dinosaur

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