Dinosaurs!

Ever since I've been a kid in the third grade, I've had a fascination with dinosaurs. It still continues today. Yeah, I've always wanted to be a paleontologist. Well, somewhere down the line I thought it would be cooler if I became a rock star. Neither became a reality, now I work in a factory...Oh well...

Anyways, my fascination for dinosaurs has led me deep into it's world. I still like to keep up with the latest discoveries, findings and new theories. It's hard to do sometimes! As of this point, there have been over 800 species that have been discovered and more are waiting to be discovered. That's a lot! Dinosaurs fossils have been discovered in all corners of the globe including Antarctica. Places like China and Argentina are the new hot beds for discoveries. Along with new findings, come with new theories.

I could go on about new discoveries, but somehow I'll try to keep this post short and sweet. Let's just say that some discoveries have been absolutely fascinating! Like a recent finding a mummified Edmontosaurus. A specimen complete contents in it's stomach!

Some theories that came of about dinosaur behavior are quite amazing! Take for instance, the famed T-Rex. The so called "king of the dinosaurs" may have been just a scavenger. It makes sense too. The T-Rex has the biggest olfactory nerve in the animal kingdom quite similar to the modern day vulture! Yeah, the biggest bird of prey in world eats only carrion. These birds could see and smell decaying flesh for miles away. It would make sense the T-Rex would do the same. The gigantic carnivore has some tiny two fingered fore arms that were practically useless. How could it use the to hunt? With size of the beast, it could easily scare off other predators from their kill.

Let me take the time clear some myths out there. There are so many out there! First of all, dinosaurs are not slow, stupid and live in swamps. As a matter of fact, many were quite fast, had complex social lives and were scattered among all climates and regions across the globe. Secondly, the dinosaurs' time line stretched over a course of 150 million years. So, I don't know why people think stegosaurs were munched on by T-Rexes when they were extinct long before the tyannosaurs arrived. Thirdly, the velociraptors in the movie "Jurassic Park" were actually Utahraptors. Velociraptors are actually about turkey sized with long snouts. Utahraptors, the largest raptor ever found, were about six feet tall.

Whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or hot blooded is still much in debate...



Anyways, I'm curious to know what kind of stuff you were into when were a kid...