Recent Advances in Understanding Dinosaurs with Dr. Paul Olsen - Earth2Class 20 Feb 2021
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Recent Advances in Understanding Dinosaurs with Dr. Paul Olsen Earth2Class 20 Feb 2021
Paul Olsen • Is the current Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor • Earth and Environmental Sciences • Biology and Paleo Environment • Paul earned his B.A., M. Phil., and Ed. From Yale University • He developed an interest in Science during his childhood in Livingston, NJ • In recent years my students and I have engaged in multidisciplinary projects including: drilling and recovering more than 20, 000 feet of core from Triassic lake deposits in New Jersey to understand the influence of variations of the earth's orbit on tropical climate, detailed analysis of the great mass extinction 200 million years ago that set the stage for the dominance of the dinosaurs, excavations at major fossil vertebrate sites throughout eastern North America and Morocco, and the evolutionary processes mediating global carbon cycling. My approach is to use whatever techniques are available to understand ancient earth's biological and physical systems, and consequently, students involved in these areas have used a broad range of disciplines including structural geology, palynology, geochemistry, geophysics and paleontology.
The Earliest Dinosaurs
http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/biodiversity/loe/page_121.htm
Humans and dinosaurs did not co-exist
• Contrary to what you learned
as a child
• Sorry to destroy your
childhood dreams
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/612489618052730302/
But some children’s dreams of finding evidence of dinosaurs does come true • In 1970, two 14 year olds in Livingston NJ found footprints of Eubrontes giganteus. Tony Lessa and his friend, Paul Olsen, made this cast at what is now the Riker Hill Fossil site in Roseland, NJ, which they sent to President Richard Nixon as a “thank you” for presidential commendations they got for their work to save the site. . The site is now a National Natural Landmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riker_Hill_Fossil_Site
Of course, this also
means that you don’t
really have to
continue those
nightmares you’ve
had since 1993, or
whenever you first
saw Jurassic Park.
• https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=jurassic+park&form=HDRSC2&first=1&tsc=ImageBasicHover
Today, we recognize two main groups of dinosaurs:
saurischians and ornithischians
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinosy.htm
Earliest discoveries
• Robert Plot is credited with finding the first dinosaur bone, although
he thought it was from a giant human (1677).
• William Buckland (Geology Professor Oxford) first named
Megalosaurus bucklandi, but did not know it was a dinosaur, as the
name had not yet been invented (1815).
• Mary Ann Mantell, wife of geologist Gideon Mantell, discovered
bones that was named Iguanodon (1822).
• Sir Richard Owen named these organisms “dinosaurs” (1842).
https://www.discovery.com/science/First-Dinosaur-Fossil-Name
• Meet Hadrosaurus, the NJ State Dinosaur
• This plant-eater lived during the Cretaceous Period, probably in
NJ Dinosaurs swamps and forests.
• It was described in 1858 and was the first fully-mounted dinosaur.
NY (area) Dinosaurs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytosaur#/media/File:Smilosuchus-reconstructions-Jeff-Martz-600-px-tiny-Oct-2014- Tetrapod-Zoology.jpg
The Bone Wars (“Great Dinosaur Rush”) • In the late 19th Century, many fossils were discovered in the American West. • Rival collectors--Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale)—ruthlessly collected specimens for their institutions, sometimes robbing and murdering rivals to be first on the scene in the “Bone Wars.” • They obtained many specimens, but also destroyed many others, and their science was faulty, to say the least. Once Cope placed the head of a dinosaur on its tail. • https://www.grunge.com/304625/the-crazy-story-of-the-bone-wars- explained/
Saurischian vs. Ornothischian dinosaurs • During the Triassic, two major groups of dinosaurs separated. • The ornithischians (‘bird-hipped’) included large herbivores that probably travelled in herds, such as Triceratops. • The saurischians (‘lizard-hipped’) included predatory theropods, such as carnivorous T. rex. • At the AMNH, they are now displayed in separate halls • Hall of Ornithischian dinosaurs and • Hall of Saurischian dinosaurs
AMNH Dinosaurs • Probably every NYC area school child and many foreign visitors to NYC has visited the 4th Floor of the American Museum of Natural History.
Examples of Saurischians
Examples of Ornithischians
• In the 1920, the AMNH
dispatched an expedition under https://youtu.be/HDdqd8c_-
the leadership of Roy Chapman hY
Andrews to the Gobi desert to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkrCK7hRgiI
collect dinosaur fossils
• http://fossilhistorypaige.com/201 There are many https://www.amn
h.org/explore/scie
5/01/meet-the-naturalist-roy- other videos nce-
topics/dinosaur-
chapman-andrews/ available at discoveries
http://fossilhistorypaige.com/2015/01/meet-the-naturalist-roy-chapman-andrews/
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/amon-fde061520.phpThe Titanosaur • In 2016, the AMNH erected a replica (because the original bones would be too heavy for the floors) of a Titanosaur that is so large its head and part of the neck stick out of the room into a hallway by the 77th St. elevators. • https://youtu.be/nTIJc4j5F9c
What are not dinosaurs (but often thought of
as dinosaurs)?
• Ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs are not dinosaurs.
• https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrC5pno2ypgCW4AjgA0nIlQ?fr=yhs-trp-001&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-
001&hspart=trp&type=Y61_F1_148993_122620&p=ichthyosaurs%2C+plesiosaurs+and+mosasaurs+are+not+dinosaurs.&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asp-qrw-corr-
top&norw=1#id=6&vid=fcd7a87933c831a4e012e7aca1475391&action=view
• Pteranodon, pteranodactyls, and other ‘flying reptiles’ are not
dinosaurs
• Mammoths and mastodons
• What are “living dinosaurs”? Birds?
https://www.google.com/search?q=archeopteryx&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj3hYXwt-zuAhWxSt8KHdxICPoQ2-
cCegQIABAA&oq=archeopteryx&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADI
CCAA6BQgAELEDOggIABCxAxCDAToECAAQQzoHCAAQsQMQQ1DShQFYsKQBYI2nAWgAcAB4AIAB5gGIAbQHkgEG
MTEuMC4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=ObIqYLeFLLGV_QbckaHQDw&bih=380&biw=
877&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS887US887#imgrc=FtCJsr6lOhca0MBefore hearing about recent advances in understanding dinosaurs, we will take 5 minutes for your memories Some additional videos to view on your own: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBQmTdElva s • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIo7cG0Mt4s • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIX_Pr9ufR8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFHNHBzM MF0 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyoTwDfXZ6c • https://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris- perry/watch/new-science-shows-dinosaurs-had- feathers-463792195798 • https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/2/3105916/3 d-printing-dinosaur-fossils-drexel-lacovara • https://sites.rowan.edu/edelman-gift/fossil.html
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