PALEOWORLD: Rise of the Predators - Part 1

  1. In the Cretaceous Period @ 125 million years ago in west central Argentina in the Valley of the Moon (Ichiwasto) the first predatory dinosaurs developed. The valley is a rift @50 miles long and 900 feet thick. Dr. William Sill hunts the site for fossils. Eoraptor (Dawn Thief) the earliest dinosaur predator known.
  2. The Rhyncosaurus was similar to a pig in physical structure and the major prey of the Eoraptor.
  3. Dr. Paul Serino of the University of Chicago and Ricardo Martinez study fossils of Herarosaurus. The species was @15 feet long and weighed @500 pounds.
  4. At 210 million years ago on the supercontinent of Pangea predators were small.
  5. Dimetrodon was a sail backed species which was an ancestor of mammals. It was the dominant species of the period. Coelophysus was a small North American predator at the period. Its fossils are often found at Ghost Ranch.
  6. Carnivorous dinosaurs are of a type called Therapods. The name means “Beast Foot.”
  7. Ornithonemus and Gallimimus are examples of small bird-like carnivorous species.
  8. Dr. Jim Kirkland of Dinosaur Dynamation discovered Utahraptor in 1999 from the Cretaceous Beds in Utah. The species was @20 feet long weighing @ 1,000 pounds. It had a 12 inch killer claw on each hind foot. Dinosaurs of this type belong to a group called Dromeosaurs. Denionichus and Velociraptor are other examples.
  9. These species were pack hunters, built for speed, and intelligent. The group as a whole became smallerin size through time rather than larger.
  10. In Alberta Canada during the Jurassic Period the Trolodon was the major small carnivore.
  11. The carnosaurs were large bipedal meat eaters. Over 500 skeletons to date have been excavated from the Alberta Badlands by Dr. Philip Curry of the Royal Tyrell Museum.
  12. About 200 million years ago Pangea broke apart separating dinosaur populations. This set the stage for massive evolutionary changes. Isolation is the driving factor. During this time plant eaters became huge and the carnivores adapted to meet the challenge.
  13. Most of the Carnosaurs were @ 20 plus feet long and bipedal. Albertosaurus is a classic example. Ornithomimids were a fast agile species.
  14. At the end of the Cretaceous the giants emerged and plant eaters were armored to meet the challenge. Examples are: Triceratops and Ankylosaurus.
  15. In Argentina Dr. Jose Bonaparte discovers a horned carnosaur and named it Carnotarus. It could spread its jaws sideways as well as open. In North America Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Allosaurus were the dominant species.
  16. About 400 miles from the South Pole in 1991 the largest crested carnosaur was found. It is the Phylophosaurus.
  17. At end of the Cretaceous @ 65 million years ago an asteroid six miles across struck the earth in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and wiped out the last of the dinosaurs. Prior to this the rise of flowering plants and epidemic disease had taken their toll on dinosaur populations.