The Debate Over Dinosaur Nostril Positioning
Where should the nostril on dinosaur models be placed? Although it seems like a rather simple question, it is a topic that has been recently researched so that scientists can feel reassured in creating anatomically correct models of dinosaurs. Amniotes (a group which in the Triassic spilt into reptiles and synapsids and which include dinosaurs), have large nasal openings, but since the nostril is made up of flesh and cartilidge, it is almost always not preserved in the fossil record (Lauren and Gauthier 1996). These were often huge in dinosaurs, such as the sauropods, hadrosaurines, and ceratopsids, so that there are several places in which the nostrils could be placed. For many years, scientists have placed the nostrils on dinosaurs in the caudal position, which is located on the top of the head. The nostrils were placed in this location because it was thought in the mid nineteenth century that sauropods lived in water (Clarke 2001). This was believed because at the time, palenotolgists thought that sauropods probably weighed several tons, and that the animals could not have supported themselves on land (Rincon 2003). It was believed that having the nostrils in this position would help the dinosaurs to breathe easily, instead of having to lift their heads completely out of the water (Clarke 2001).
This idea was reinforced when a Diplodocus (a type of sauropod that lived in the late Jurassic) skull was found in 1884 that contained a large hole in the top of the head. Scientists believed that this hole contained the entire nostril (Witmer 2001; ). This positioning of the nostrils was used for many other models of dinosaurs as well, but when it was discovered that...
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Lauren, Michel and Jacques A. Gauthier. Tree of Life Web Project: Amniota. 1996
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Miller, Greg. “Dinosaur Nostrils Get Relocated.” New Scientists 3 August 2001. 3
April 2004. < http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/dinosaurs/dinonose.jsp>
Rincon, Paul. “Gigantic Dinos ‘Floated In Water.’” BBC News 11 December 2003. 2
April 2004. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/3310531.stm>
Whitlock, Kelli. “New Study Puts Dinosaur Noses In Their Place.” EurekAlert. 2
August 2001. 2 April 2004.
< http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-08/ou-nsp072701.php>
Witmer, Lawrence M. “Nostril Position in Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates and Its
Significance for Nasal Function.” Science 293 (2001): 850-53.
The respiratory system is the system for taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide in organisms. The respiratory systems of California sea lions, king cobras, and bald eagles have a few similarities and differences, but they all allow the intake of oxygen for each organism.
Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs are closely related in their characteristics. Ceratopsians processed a saddle-shaped boney frill that extended from the skull to the neck and typically had horns over the nose and eyes. The most popular was the triceratops, which could reach over 26 feet and weigh in excess of twelve metric tons. Their frills served as two major functions. It protected the vulnerable neck from being harmed. The second major function that the frill provided was due to the fact that the frill contained a network of blood vessels on its underside, which were used as a means to get rid of excess heat. The Pachycephalosaurs were considered to be bipedal. They were also found to have thick skulls, flattened bodies, and tail that were covered in an array of body rods. Pachycephalosaurs were thought to have been more than fifteen feet long and processed a skull that was surrounded by a rounded dome of solid bone. It was thought that they used their heads in combat or mating contests, but that was disproved fairly recently, which I will discuss later in the paper. Both Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs were “bird-hipped” and both of these suborders contained a backwards pubic bone. Both were Marginocephilia, or “fringed heads”, which is one of three clads under the Orinthiscia order. They were also herbivore dinosaurs that inherited their fringe at the back of the skull from earlier ancestors.(2) Their classi...
For instance, the whale, the biggest mammal that lives in the water, was found to have had legs and used to dwell on land millions of years ago. While in Pakistan, Phil Gingrich, a geologist and paleontologist, came across a fossil that resembled that of a wolf but had a “bump” on the back of the skull which was found to part of an inner ear,
Although single parenthood is on the rise in homes today, children still often have a father role in their life. It does not matter who the part is filled by: a father, uncle, older brother, grandfather, etc...; in almost all cases, those relationships between the father (figure) and child have lasting impacts on the youth the rest of their lives. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” Jimmy Carter tells the audience no matter the situation with a father, hold onto every moment.
After millions of years that humans separated from their relative primate how is that humans became bipedal. So many changes have happened to the human body to decide to stay on the ground and abandoned their lives in the trees. Primates evolved different body structures according to their lifestyle and the ecosystem in which they lived. As Charles Darwin natural selection stays; it could be as a result of new environments, the need for food and shelter, which forced humans to adapt and survive. Although, most of primates’ anatomy reflects habits of movement, it could be easy to see the external differences but there are many differences that have been intensely studied and researched.
There have been many films in the horror genre that have inspired fear nature for example Jaws and The Birds. The film Jaw directed Steven Spielberg inspected people to fear sharks as written by Tim Donnelly published in New York Post, ¨The taut tension of the film, aided by Spielberg’s economical use of the actual shark on screen combined with John Williams’ iconic, haunting score, plucks fear strings so effectively, it even transfers completely off-screen”. (Why ‘Jaws’ terrifies even phobia experts). This is the truth since many people were scared of going into the water after the film came out. Furthermore, the film was saw by many people since it made $ 260,000,000 on it opening weekend. This film song is still used to this
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
The fossil found was the most complete skull of a duck billed dinosaur called “Parasaurolophus” meaning the “trombone dinosaur”. The hollow crest atop the skull is what scientist believed produced a sort of mating call or warning sound. Before computer technology there were many different views offered as to what was the purpose, if any, of this large hollow crest. Some believed it could have been a way to shed heat like an internal radiator or aid in the recognizing of those in its own pack or even just to warn others away. Others were just not sure what to think.
The world’s coral reefs are quintessential to global biodiversity, so much so that they are often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea". Although their actual space occupied by reefs is relatively small, constituting less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface, they support over 25% of all marine species on earth. They provide complex and varied marine habitats that support a wide range of other organisms including, but not limited to, fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians. Some of these animals feed directly on the corals, while others graze on algae on the reef. The reef also provides a protective habitat for many of these animals.
A group of scientists from North Carolina and Oregon used medical technology to search an iron-stained concretion inside the specimen’s chest. With the assistance of imaging equipment and software, they were able to reconstruct 3-dimensional structures through the interior of the concretion. The images reveal a heart that was more like that of a bird or a mammal than those of reptiles, significantly adding to evidence suggesting that at least some dinosaurs had high metabolic rates. In addition, the heart appears to have been four chambered with a single aorta, which is most commonly found in mammals or birds.
...d was made of thick bones and had a low cranial vault. Their face also consist of a big arching browridges just above their eyes (Stanford 302).
Oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface. The talk of climate change can often seem to focus on what is happening in our atmosphere, but there is a lot of change going on in our oceans. The oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat and 28% of the carbon pollution generated by human consumption of fossil fuels (Nuccitelli 2015). The purpose of this paper is to show how the effects of climate change effect the coral reefs in our oceans, with a focus on the coral reef systems in the Caribbean and of the Great Barrier Reef. The Caribbean coral reefs are well known to have suffered more damage between the two reef systems. That’s not to say that the Great Barrier Reef has not suffered its own damage. It has and will continue to suffer in the future.
Additionally, coral reefs are a critical environmental resource. Often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea,” reefs are some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on earth. Reefs are home to a diversity of plant life, providing a wealth of food for fish. As they do with shoreline, reefs shelter marine life from waves and storms. Due to their unique ecological properties, coral reefs “support more species per unit area than any other marine environment.” But these ecosy...
India, the second highest populated country in the world after China, with 1.27 billion people currently recorded to be living there and equates for 17.31% (India Online Pages 2014) of the world's population, but is still considered a developing country due to it’s poverty and illiteracy rates. As these nations continue to grow at rates that are too fast for resources to remain sustainable, the government’s in these areas wi...
Barthes references as, “the historical interest, the studium” (57). Dinosaurs are something that many humans are fascinated with, but only in the contextual landscape of the human experience. It is curious to think that a totally different species walked this Earth before any type of human ever touched it. This thought is provoking, piercing, but by no means wounding. Dinosaurs are far removed from human experience, and nothing about the scene bruises me.