Dinosaur Blackout (22 page)

garfish
(A.S. gar, “spear”):

Garfish is a name commonly given to certain fishes with long, narrow bodies and bony, sharp-toothed beaks. Primarily freshwater fish, today the largest tropical gar reach lengths of 3.7 metres. They are a primitive fish that have existed for millions of years. They have needlelike teeth, a dorsal fin that sits far back on the heavily scaled body. They are able to breathe in stagnant water, and their roe is poisonous to many animals, including humans.

hadrosaurs
(HAD-roh-SAWRS)
(“bulky lizards”):

Hadrosaurs were a family of duck-billed dinosaurs that ranged from seven to ten metres long and lived in the late Cretaceous Period. They appear to have been highly social creatures, laying eggs in nests communally. Nests with eggs have been found in both Alberta and Montana. The only known hadrosaur in Saskatchewan is the
Edmontosaurus Saskatchewanensis
(see description above).

hesperonis
(HES-per-OR-nis)
(“western bird”):

Hesperornithids
were a family of large flightless birds that swam in the oceans of the late Cretaceous and preyed on small fish. It has been found in the Upper Cretaceous of Western Kansas and Saskatchewan. It is likely that they swam and fed much like modern penguins. They were also apparently limited to the Northern Hemisphere, much like penguins are limited to the Southern Hemisphere today.

ichthyornis
(ik-thee-ORN-is)
(meaning “fish bird”):

Ichthyornis
were toothed, tern-like birds, with large beaks and heads, dating from the Cretaceous Period. Although only about 20 cm long, they were powerful flyers and the oldest-known birds to a keeled breastbone (sternum) similar to modern birds. It lived in flocks nesting on shorelines, and hunted for fish over the seas. Fossils have been found in Kansas and Texas and Alberta,.

mosasaurs
(MOES-ah-SAWRS):

Mosasaurs
were a group of giant, lizard-like marine reptiles that extended 12.5 to 17.6 metres long. They were not dinosaurs, but may be related to snakes and monitor lizards. They were powerful swimmers, adapted to living in shallow seas. These carnivores (meat-eaters) still breathed air. A short-lived line of reptiles, they became extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago.

pteranodons
(tair-AH-no-dons):

Pteranodons
were large members of the pterosaur family from the Cretaceous Period. They were flying prehistoric reptiles, not dinosaurs, toothless hunters who scooped up fish from the seas. About 1.8 m long, they had a 7.8 m wing-span.

pterodactylus
(ter-oh-DAK-til-us)
(“winged finger”):

A flying, prehistoric reptile was a member of the pterosaurs group, with a wingspan that spread up to .75 metres. The wing was made up of skin stretched along the body between the hind limb and a very long fourth digit of the forelimb. They lived during the late Jurassic period.

pterosaurs
(TER-o-SAWRS)
(“winged lizards”):

Flying reptiles that included Pteranodons and Pterodactylus, they were the largest vertebrates ever known to fly. They lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous Period.

purgatorius
(pur-go-TOR-ee-us):

A small, rodent-sized mammal from the Cretaceous Period, they may have been about ten centimetres long and probably weighed no more than 20 grams. They fed on insects. Some have suggested that this mammal may have been the earliest primate known.

“scotty”:

Scotty is the
Tyrannosaurus rex
discovered in 1991 near Eastend, Saskatchewan by a schoolteacher. Surrounded by cement-like ironstone and sandstone, it was not unearthed until 1994–95 and was found to be one of the most complete
T. rex
skeletons of only twelve such discoveries in the world. At this time, the first coprolite – or fossilized dung – that can be attributed to a
T. rex
was also found.

stegoceras
(STEG-oh-CEER-us)
(“roofed horn”):

A bipedal, herbivorous, dome-headed, plant-eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period about 76 to 65 million years ago. The
Stegoceras
was about two metres long and lived in what is now Alberta. Its large head housed a thick skull, a relatively large brain, and large eyes. Its skull was about 8 centimetres thick. Males had thicker domes than females, and older Stegoceras had thicker domes than younger ones. Stegoceras had a fringe of horny knobs along the rear of its skull. It had short forelimbs and a large, stiff tail. Stegoceras grew to be about 2.1 metres long and 1.2 metres tall. This plant-eater weighed roughly 78 kilograms.
(Not to be confused with a Stegosaurus [pronounced STEG-oh-SAWR-us], meaning “roof lizard,” a plant-eating dinosaur with armoured plates along its back and tall spikes that lived during the Jurassic Period, about 156 to 150 million years ago.)

stygimoloch
(STIJ-eh-MOLL-uk)
(“thorny devil” or “demon from the River Styx”):

This unusual-looking plant-eating dinosaur lived in the woodlands. It had a domed head with bumps on its skull, which was rimmed with many bony spikes up to 100 mm long. It was about 3 metres long, and weighed about 50–75 kg. This pachycphalosaurid dinosaur lived during the very late Cretaceous period, about 68 million–65 million years ago. Only parts of
Stygimoloch’s
skull have been found in Montana and Wyoming and in Alberta. The
Stygimoloch
was named after the River Styx of Greek mythology and because it was found near Hell Creek.

thescelosaurus
(THES-ke-loh-SAWR-us)
(“Marvellous lizard”):

This plant-eating dinosaur had a small head, a bulky body that was 3­–4 metres long, and less than one metre tall at the hips. A member of the ceratopsian group, it also had a long, pointed tail and shorter arms and could probably run at about 50 km/hr for an extended time. Two partial skeletons have been found in Saskatchewan.

torosaurus
(TOR-oh-SAW-rus)
(“pierced lizard”):

Torosaurus
had a strong toothless beak that was able to handle the toughest vegetation including small branches. A member of the ceratopsian group, it had a fierce appearance due to the two brow horns on its enormous 2.5 metre skull, a short nose horn, and a long-frilled crest. Its powerful legs were shorter at the front and longer at the back, which gave it a very stable posture.
Torosaurus
could chew well with its cheek teeth. They lived about 70–65 million years ago, and fossils have been found in the United States in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and in Canada in Saskatchewan.

triceratops
(tri-SER-uh-tops):

Triceratops
was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur with a bony neck frill that lived about 72 to 65 million years ago. From the ceratopsian group, this plant-eater was about 8 metres long, 3 metres tall, and weighed from 6–12 tonnes. A
relatively slow dinosaur, it had had three horns on its head and its parrot-like beak held many cheek teeth and a set of powerful jaws. It had a short, pointed tail, a bulky body, column-like legs with hoof-like claws. Many
Triceratops
fossils have been found, mostly in the western United States an in western Canada, including Saskatchewan.

troodon
(TROH-oh-don):

A very smart, human-sized, meat-eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period. Fossils of
Troodon
have been
found in Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
It may have been one of the smartest dinosaurs, because it had a large brain compared to its body size.

tyrannosaurus rex
(tye-RAN-oh-SAWR-us recks or Tie-ran-owe-saw-rus-recks)
(“tyrant lizard king”):

A huge, meat-eating theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period. The largest meat-eater that has ever been, it stood 5–7 metres tall on its great clawed feet and had terrible, dagger-like teeth, 15 centimetres long.
Tyrannosaurus rex
was roughly 5–7 tons in weight. The enormous skull was about 1.5 metres long. The eye sockets in the skull are 10.2 centimetres across; the eyeballs would have been about 7.6 centimetres in diameter.

zapsalis
(ZAP-sa-lis)
(“through shears”):

A meat-eating dinosaur (a theropod) that lived during the Cretaceous Period. This theropod was found in the Judith River Formation, Montana in 1876. It is only known through its teeth and is currently classified as a troodontid.

OTHER REFERENCES & NOTES

bees:

Over the past few years, Stephen Hasiotic, a Colorado University doctoral student and geology lab instructor, has found nests, almost identical to modern honeybee nests, that date back 207 to 220 million years, or about twice as far back as the oldest fossils of flowering plants. This means bees have been around longer than previously thought. The ancient bees could have found sugars and
nutrients – which they find today in the nectar of flowers –
in coniferous plants or even in animal carcasses.

coprolite:

Coprolite – or fossilized dung – has been found in many areas, but the specimens found in 1994–95 with “Scotty” in the Frenchman River Valley was the first that could be officially be attributed to a
T. rex
. This was an important discovery as it provides insights into its environment and eating habits.

dragonflies:

Dragonflies, primitive flying insects that can hover in the air, evolved during the Mississippian Period, about 360 to 325 million years ago. Huge dragonflies with wingspans up to 70 centimetres existed during the Mesozoic Era (when the dinosaurs lived).

environmental scientists:

Environmental scientists and hydrologists use their knowledge of the physical makeup and history of the Earth to protect the environment, study the properties of underground and surface waters, locate water and energy resources, predict water-related geologic hazards, and offer environmental site assessments and advice on indoor air quality and hazardous-waste-site remediation.
(Taken from: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos050.htm)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bakker, Robert T.,
Dinosaur Heresies
, Morrow, New York, 1986.

Gross, Renie,
Dinosaur Country: Unearthing the Badlands’ Prehistoric Past
, Western Producer Prairie Books, 1985. isbn: 0-88833-121-5

Lauber, Patricia & Henderson, Douglas,
Living with
Dinosaurs
, Bradbury Press, New York, 1991. isbn: 0-02-754521-0

MacMillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals,
Cox, Dr. Barry, Harrison, Dr. Colin, Savage, Dr. R.J.G., Gardiner, Dr. Brian, editors: MacMillan London Ltd., 1988.

McIver, Elisabeth E., “The Paleoenvironment of Tyrannosaurus rex from Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada,”
NRC Research Press Web site at http://cjes
.
nrc.ca, 20 February, 2001.
Reference:
Can. J. Earth Sci.
39 (2002), Pages: 207–221

Norman, David, & Milner, Angela,
Dinosaur,
Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 1989. isbn 0-7894-5808-x

Parker, Steve,
Dinosaurs and How They Live
d, Macmillan of Canada, 1988. isbn: 0-7715-96832-4 (Window on the World series)

Reid, Monty,
The Last Great Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Guide to Alberta’s Dinosaurs,
Red Deer College Press, Red Deer, Alberta, 1990. isbn: 0-88995-055-5

Relf, Pat,
A Dinosaur Named Sue,
Scholastic Inc., 2002. isbn: 0-439-09985-4

Simpson, George Gaylord,
The Dechronization of Sam Magruder
, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, 1996. isbn: 0-312-15514-x

Smith, Alan,
Saskatchewan Birds
, Lone Pine Publishing, 2001. isbn: 1-55105-304-7

Stewart, Janet,
The Dinosaurs: A New Discovery,
Hayes Publishing Ltd., Burlington, Ontario, 1989. ISBN: 0-88625-235-0.

Storer, Dr. John,
Geological History of Saskatchewan,
Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, Government of Saskatchewan, 1989.

Tokaryk, Tim T., “Archaeology: Puzzles of the Past,”
Blue Jay,
52 (2), June, 1994.

Tokaryk, Tim T., “Palaeontology: Treasures on the Shelves,”
Blue Jay,
52 (3), September 1994.

Tokaryk, Tim T., & Bryant, Harold N.,
The Fauna from the
Tyrannosaurus rex
Excavation, Frenchman Formation (Late Maastrichtian),
Saskatchewan, 2004.
http://www. ir.gov.sk.ca then search “Tokaryk”.

Tokaryk, Tim T., “Palaeontology News: Encounters with Monsters,”
Saskatchewan Archaeological Society Newsletter
, February, 1991, Vol 12, Number 1.