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Sources and further studyBooks: n The Complete Guide To Prehistoric Life

by Tim Haines (BBC Books)n Dinosaur Atlas by John Malam and

John Woodward (Dorling Kindersley)DVD: n Walking With Dinosaurs/ Walking With

Monsters (BBC DVD)n David Attenborough’s Lost Worlds

Vanished Lives (BBC DVD)RefeRence: n Encyclopaedia Britannican Collins Gem Dinosaurs (HarperCollins)

Series 11

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Walking With Dinosaurs — The Arena SpectacularACER ARENA: May 18–29, 2011

Tickets available from Ticketek 132 849,or visit ticketek.com.au

For more details, see dinosaurlive.com

What are dinosaurs?Dinosaur is the common name for a group of extinct reptiles that emerged between 210 million and 230 million years ago, in the late triassic period, and died out about 65 million years ago by the end of the cretaceous. The word dinosaur is from the Greek deinos meaning “terrible”, and sauros meaning “reptile” or “lizard”. It was coined in 1842 by anatomist Richard Owen to describe skeletons being uncovered in the early 19th century.

Dinosaurs may have died out 65 million years ago, but they continue to walk among us. In books, films, TV shows, in museums and even

in the live stage show Walking With Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular. We have come a long way in our understanding of these extinct animals since ancient people believed they were dragons.

First fossil findsIn ancient times, dinosaur fossils were thought to be the remains of mythical creatures such as griffins, dragons or sea monsters. But in the early 1800s scientists theorised that they were remains of extinct creatures. In 1818 Solomon Ellsworth Jr discovered what he thought were human bones. They were later identified as belonging to an anchisaurus, but only after further discoveries alerted scientists to the existence of other extinct creatures. As more remains were discovered and identified in the 1820s and 1830s, a clearer picture began to emerge. Dean William Buckland described the megalosaurus in 1824 and Gideon Mantell the iguanodon in 1825. In 1841, British anatomist and pioneer palaeontologist Richard Owen delivered a report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science describing these extinct reptiles, which were unlike any living species. He called the order Dinosauria or dinosaurs. The term was quickly adopted.

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Tyrannosaurus RexLIVeD: 65-75 million years ago

sIze: 12m long DIeT: carnivorous

The T-rex is possibly the best-known dinosaur species. A fierce predator, its name means “king of the tyrant lizards”. It had large powerful jaws,

capable of crushing bone, and large curved teeth. It could not chew food so it bit off chunks and

swallowed them whole. The first tyrannosaurus skeleton was discovered in 1902 in the US.

Did you know?n The T-rex’s powerful jaws would have been

capable of ripping the roof off a car.

TorosaurusLIVeD: 65-71 million years agosIze: 8m longDIeT: herbivorousTorosaurus means “bull reptile”, because of its horns. It was the largest ceratopsian (horn-faced) dinosaur, related to triceratops. The horns and large crest were most likely for

mating rather than defence. It had the most powerful jaw muscles of any dinosaur found so far. The jaw had about 600 teeth and a sharp beak for eating plants.

Did you know?n Torosaurus was one of the last

dinosaurs and was probably wiped out in the cretaceous extinction event 65 million years ago.

BrachiosaurusLIVeD: 112-155 million years agosIze: 23m longDIeT: herbivorousThe brachiosaurus was the tallest and heaviest of the sauropods – the four-legged herbivores with a long tail and neck. It could reach up to a height of 12m, allowing it to access the tops of trees. The first fossils were found in 1900 in Colorado, in the US.

Did you know?n At first, scientists thought the brachiosaurus lived in water to support their enormous weight and because they had nostrils high up on their head. But it was found that water pressure would have made it impossible for them to breathe.

AllosaurusLIVeD: 144-154 million years ago

sIze: 12m long DIeT: carnivorous

The largest predator of the late jurassic era. Allosaurus hunted small dinosaurs alone and brought down larger prey in packs. It did not

have jaws powerful enough to crunch through bone so it could only eat soft tissue. The first allosaurus fossil finds were in 1877

in Colorado, but in 1927 a Utah quarry yielded more than 40 skeletons.

Did you know?n The female allosaurus was larger

than the male.

StegosaurusLIVeD: 144-154 million years ago sIze: 9m long DIeT: herbivorousA distinctive dinosaur with large plates on its back and spikes on its tail. The spikes may have helped the stegosaurus defend itself, since it moved slowly. The plates were filled with blood vessels to regulate body temperature. The first fossils were found in Colorado, in the US, in 1877, and while related species have been found elsewhere, the stegosaurus has only been found in North America.

Did you know?n The stegosaurus was an ornithischian dinosaur, meaning “bird-hipped”, as distinct from the saurischians or “lizard-hipped” dinosaurs. The structure of the pelvis differed in both kinds of dinosaur.

Waking the extinctMany of the first dinosaur skeletons found were incomplete. Attempts to determine how the animals may have looked led to inaccurate guesses. Gideon Mantell’s initial rough sketch of an iguanodon showed the thumb spike as a horn on its nose. In 1854, reconstructions of the iguanodon, megalosaurus and hylaeosaurus went on display at London’s Crystal Palace. These were based on portions of skeletons found up to that time, and showed the creatures walking on four legs like most modern reptiles, with tails dragging on the ground. However, a dinosaur find by William Foulke in the US in 1858, and dubbed Hadrosaurus foulkii, showed there were some species that walked upright. It sparked debate over whether dinosaurs walked on two legs or on four. Since then we have come to understand that there were quadrupeds and bipeds and most did not drag their tails on the ground.

OrnithocheirusLIVeD: 70-140 million years agosIze: wingspan of up to 12mDIeT: carnivorousThe ornithocheirus, meaning “bird-like hand”, was possibly the largest of the pterosaurs or flying reptiles. The first fossils were found in England in 1827 but it took scientists years to work out what the creature was. It lived near large bodies of water and swooped on aquatic prey. There is still some debate as to whether they were warm or cold blooded.

Did you know?n Despite the huge size of the ornithocheirus, it may have weighed less than 100kg because it had light, air-filled bones like modern birds.

UtahraptorLIVeD: 121-127 million years agosIze: 6m longDIeT: carnivorousA species of dromaeosaurid (fast-running reptiles) from the cretaceous era, it stood more than 2m tall, with long claws on its hands and feet for killing and tearing its prey. It was lightly built, swift and deadly. Its name means “Utah thief”, because the first fossil was discovered in 1993 in Utah, in the US, and dromaeosaurids are often called raptors after a name for predatory or thieving birds.

Did you know?n Some reconstructions show the utahraptor with feathers, but it is not known for certain if it actually had feathers or scales.

AnkylosaurusLIVeD: 65-71 million years ago sIze: 9m long DIeT: herbivorousWith its armoured back, thick skull and clubbed tail, the ankylosaurus, or “stiff lizard,” was well protected from predators. However, it couldn’t lift its head very high, could only graze on low vegetation and

moved slowly, but its clubbed tail could smash attackers’ legs. The first fossils were found in 1908 in Montana, in the US.

Did you know?n The ankylosaurus had a distant relative, known as the minmi, that lived in Australia. The first fossils were found in Roma, Queensland, in 1964.

LiliensternusLIVeD: 219-222 million years agosIze: 6m longDIeT: carnivorousAn ancestor of the large carnivores that evolved later, the liliensternus was one of the earliest meat-eating dinosaurs. It is named after German palaeontologist Hugo Ruhle von Lilienstern, who described the first fossil of the creature found in Germany in 1934.

Man-made dinosaursNot content with seeing fossils, people have long tried to give more dramatic representations of dinosaurs. In the 19th century this included drawings, paintings and even a dinosaur sculpture garden at the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace sculptures were first attempts to create three-dimensional representations of the extinct beasts anywhere in the world. Despite some inaccuracies they gave people an impression of what the beasts might have been like. The 20th century made it possible to represent dinosaurs in the medium of film and later computer animation.

1914 One of the earliest animated dinosaur films was Gertie The Dinosaur, which showed a large sauropod that interacted with its creator Winsor

McCay, who stood on stage working from a script.

1917 Willis O’Brien created stop-motion

animated dinosaurs in the film The Dinosaur And The Missing Link. Despite inaccuracies, such as human ancestors alongside dinosaurs, it was an impressive piece of filmmaking for its time. O’Brien would further refine his technique to depict prehistoric creatures in The Lost World (pictured above) in 1925 and King Kong in 1933.

Dino diningPaleontologists have been able to piece together an idea of the dinosaurs’ diet by a number of methods. One strong clue to what dinosaurs ate is the shape of their teeth. The teeth of meat-eating animals and plant-eating ones differ markedly. Meat eaters have teeth for ripping flesh from bones and for catching and holding prey, while herbivores have teeth for chewing vegetation. Sometimes fossils

have been found with the contents of the stomach also fossilised. This is how scientists were able to tell which animals and plants various species of dinosaurs ate. Palaeontologists have found that some swallowed stones to help grind up their food (the stones are called gastroliths).In some cases fossilised faeces, known as coprolite (pictured right), has also been found, giving important clues about dinosaur diet and digestion. The faeces can show bones from dinosaur prey as well as leaves and seeds from plants favoured by the animals.

1940 Walt Disney’s Fantasia included a segment showing the birth of the dinosaurs, incorporating some of the latest

scientific thinking on the ancient creatures.

1993 The film Jurassic Park (pictured far left) used state-of-the-art animation and animatronics to bring dinosaurs to life. It was based

on a Michael Crichton novel in which dinosaurs are cloned using DNA from dinosaur blood found in mosquitoes which fed on the beasts and were then trapped in amber, millions of years ago.

1998 T-Rex Back To The Cretaceous showed computer-animated and animatronic

dinosaurs in IMAX 3-D format.

1999 The BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs recreated the world of the dinosaurs using the latest

theories, computer animation and animatronics. The series is presented as a real-life wildlife documentary.

2006 Walking With Dinosaurs — The Live Experience used animatronic remote-

controlled animals in a live show to give a sense of what the extinct creatures looked and acted like.

Did you know?n The 1925 film The Lost World showed the destruction caused by a dinosaur let loose in London. This would become a standard plot device for many films to follow including such classics as Godzilla (1954)

11To scale with an

adult human