Fossilized dinosaur bones have been found by humans since time immemorial. That’s why similar legends about giant dragons have appeared in various parts of the Earth. Of course, no one saw them alive, because these creatures are magical and people do not see them. But after death their magic disappears and their skeletons become visible to humans.
Paleontology – how it all began and how paleontologists answered their main question.
Dragons actually walked the earth and flew through the sky millions of years ago. But people realized this fact not so long ago – at the beginning of the XIX century. The first to make this assumption was the Frenchman Georges Cuvier, and it is he who is called the father of paleontology. He found the giant bones of the aquatic reptile Mosasaurus in Holland and described it as a prehistoric animal. A little later he described the first flying lizard, the pterodactyl, whose bones were found in Bavaria.
Throughout the 19th century, scientists found more and more bones of ancient reptiles that flew through the sky, swam on the sea, walked on land on four and two legs. Chap Mei Dinosaur will allow you to get an accurate picture of these giants, as if you had seen them firsthand in miniature.
The more paleontologists found bones of prehistoric animals, the more they wondered, “What horrible thing happened in the past that made all these reptiles go extinct?”
At first, scientists decided that all the prehistoric animals went extinct as a result of one or more giant catastrophes. True, the catastrophe theory did not explain why dinosaurs went extinct because of volcanic eruptions or floods, while turtles and crocodiles, the same age as the prehistoric reptiles, still live today.
Therefore, paleontologists abandoned the theory of catastrophes and put forward a new theory – that of transformation. According to its postulates, some dinosaur species transformed over time into other species. Many of their species are represented in the Chap Mei Dino Valley collection. Very soon the theory of transformation found its continuation in Darwin’s theory.
According to this theory and geological data, paleontologists developed a geochronological scale. And already with its help they found the answer to their main question “How did life evolve from the beginning of its origin to the present day?” Today, scientists perfectly understand how some species of dinosaurs changed into other species, which species became extinct, and which species managed to survive, although there is nothing in their appearance that has anything in common with their ancient ancestors anymore.
How paleontologists study dinosaurs
To study dinosaur bones, paleontologists borrow methods from other sciences – chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathematics and even engineering. For example, geology allows paleontologists to find out the exact age of dinosaur bones and the climatic conditions in which ancient reptiles lived. Thanks to molecular biology, scientists are able to accurately recreate the lineage of dinosaurs and identify their descendants living today.
Do paleontologists know why dinosaurs went extinct?
It soon became clear to paleontologists that the dinosaurs became extinct in a very short time, using geological standards. They called the sudden disappearance of the prehistoric reptiles the Great Extinction. There have been several great extinctions in the history of life. In all, paleontologists have counted five. Dinosaurs became extinct during the last – fifth – extinction, which happened 65 million years ago. About its causes scientists still do not have a common opinion. Most paleontologists believe that the culprit was a meteorite fall, the size of which was about 10 km. After the fall, it left a crater with a diameter of 180 km and a depth of 17-20 km. The explosion from the meteorite fall was so enormous that the dust rising into the stratosphere obscured the sun’s rays, which lasted for many decades. It suddenly became very cold on Earth, which made it impossible for dinosaur eggs to develop any more cubs.
