Dino of the Day: Nothosaurus

This one is for my teacher, the best 6th grade teacher ever!

Nothosaurus was a sea dinosaur, that came on land every once and a while. Nothosaurus grabbed fish and squid with its peg like teeth. He could wait for his prey to come close enough, then snap his jaws shut forming a cage to trap prey in his mouth. Nothosaurus could swim very fast, so he could also dart after his prey. Nothosaurus grew up to about 10 feet long. He lived in the early Triassic period, about 240 million years ago. Nothosaurus probably came up on land to have babies like sea turtles do today, they also came up on land to rest, and eat. Nothosaurus had to surface every once and a while to breath.

Here is

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Dino of the Day: Styracosaurus

Today’s Dinosaur Of The Day is Styracosaurus.

Styracosaurus was a member of the Ceratopson family. He had six big horns coming outward from his frill, and one long horn on his nose. Styracosaurus was a relative of Triceratops. Styracosaurus is a really awesome dinosaur. Styracosaurus might have had head-butting contests. Styracosaurus means ‘‘Spiked Lizard.’’ He lived in the Late Cretaceous period. He was discovered in North America, and was about 17 feet long!

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Dino of the day: Albertosaurus…again

This one is for Brendon in my school class.

The dino of the day today is Albertosaurus.  I know I’ve done this one before, but he’s just so cool that I need to do him again.  He was a close relative to t-rex.  The name “Albertosaurus” meant “Alberta lizard” and it lived in the late Cretaceous.

Albertosaurus is the most complete fossil of a meat-eating dino ever found in North America.  It had two little ridges on its head– one on each side– that were used to scare off enemies.  It’s eyes were on the side of his head too, so he may not have been able to see as well as t-rex, but he was still very fierce.

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Dino of the Day: Plesiosaur

This one is for my little brother Dill.  He’s so cute and he smiles so sweet and he weighs 22 lbs.

This blog post is about plesiosaur.  Check out this picture of a plesiosaur.  It’s kind of like an underwater longneck with flippers.  And a shorter tail.  And it was a meat eater.

Plesiosaur was actually a type of dinosaur.  The largest of this type was Elasmosaurus.  They lived for a very long time– from the beginning of the Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous.  They were some of the first fossils ever found by science and there are a whole lot of them.

What would be awesome is if they never went extinct and SeaWorld had a few in tanks.  Then I’d want to go there every hour.  I’d camp at SeaWorld.  Of course I already wish I could camp there because I love it so much.  I’d camp by the stingrays so I could pet them whenever I want.

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Dino of the day: Longisquama

This one is for Tiff because it was her birthday.  We went over there late one night on a secret mission to decorate her car.  But don’t tell anybody it was me and West!

There is this cool thing I’ve been reading about the different types of reptile skulls and it’s very interesting, so I’ll write about it soon.  But tonight I want to tell you about this little tiny creature called longisquama.  He was one of the very first reptiles in the world. He lived during the Triassic period, about 230 million years ago.  He lived in Asia and he was only 6 inches long!

The neat thing about him is the really long scales on his back.  They were in two rows on his back and some paleontologists think he might have used them to glide through the forest.  The scales were long enough to make him be able to glide.  I believe they’re right, but I wonder if he used them the same way dimetrodon used the fan on his back– to manage his temperature.  I don’t know for sure.  Nobody knows for sure.

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Dino of the Day: Velociraptor

Check out this picture of a velociraptor.  It’s perfect!  This dino was part of the family Dromaeosauridae.  That’s hard to say.  Velociraptor lived in the deserts of Mongolia in the late Cretaceous period.

Velociraptors were bipedal.  That means they walked on two legs.  And they were carnivorous.  They had bigger heads than other dromaeosaurs and larger brains.  They were smart enough to hunt in packs.  That means they hunt in a group- like a lot of them get together and go hunt.

Some scientists believe they were covered with feathers.  I believe this is true.

[Dad’s Note: It turns out this post is huge in the Google rankings.  If you got here by Googling “velociraptor” for a school assignment or personal interest, we invite you to stick around and check out the rest of the blog.  The ‘About‘ page would be a great place to start, followed by ‘FAQ‘ and ‘Deep Thoughts.’]

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