Fossilized Friends

One thing I am obsessing these days are those extinct creatures of thousand years ago. They may not have existed now but their bones do. Some of them are really nasty and some of them are nice. I consider them as friends because without them we may never know how to survive planet Earth. Humans survived because these creatures taught them how to live. Without them there would be no paleontologists, archaeologists, botanists, zoologists and other branches of science to study how they existed, how they survived,  how they instantly wiped and out not one of them left. In that case I listed my top 5 of my favorite dinosaurs commemorating their existence as fossils of today.


5. Tyrannosaurus Rex or T-Rex 
From the etymology of their name it means "king of the lizards." They are considered to be the most vicious, massive, largest and strongest carnivores. They are bipedal, yes they walk in two feet. They have these two small  forelimbs or hands that I always laugh myself out. These hands look small but they use them to hang on their preys. Inspite how big they are it looks awkward to see them having small forelimbs.  Their large long tail gives them their sense of balance. Their massive jaws contains 50 to 60 blade like teeth and 9 inches long.The teeth was made to tear up meat. They have  a good sense of smell. When they run they could go 20 miles per hour. They could cover 15 feet in just one step. Their popularity gained when the movie Jurassic Park cloned them. They existed and killed everyone who comes their way. 


4. Brachiosaurus
My favorite among the herbivore dinosaurs. The first time I've seen them was from the animated film "Land Before Time." The etymology of the name referred to as "arm lizard." Distinct features are their extremely long neck, which they use to get food to extremely high trees. Their necks are about 30 feet. Their head is tiny. Their front legs are longer than their hind legs. The height of these vegetarian creatures were 50 feet if they're fully grown. They may not even notice that they've stepped on something or other dinosaurs. Branchiosaurus were not really preyed on due to their gigantic appearance. Could they really put them down? I think not. Some paleontologists theorized that these dinosaurs spends most of their time in the water but then this was ruled out due to the analysis showing that water pressure can suffocate them. 


3. Velociraptor
Once again Jurassic Park had cloned these fast, little fellows, but that wasn't the real appearance of the Velociraptos.In the movie they look big but the fact they're 6.8 ft long and 1.6 ft at the hip. They're nicknamed Raptors which was used by US basketball team. Velociraptor means "swift thief."  They look like a big chicken. Speaking of chicken, these creatures had feathers, which was not depicted in the film. Researchers found quill knobs on the forearm of a Velociraptor found in Mongolia. These bumps on bird wing bones show where the feathers anchor and their presence on them indicate they had feathers. They ran with their sickle shaped toes and pointed back, ready to tear apart any prey it gets hold of. The toes are pointed back because so that it would stay in shape and not get dull. It's possible that they stab its prey in sudden, surprise attacks then withdrew to a safe distance as its victim bled to death. Raptors lived in Asia, where they've found their fossils. They're warm-blooded and of course meat eater. 


2. Triceratops

The name means "three horned face." They are plant eater, Ceratopsian (horned face) dinosaurs. They're 7 feet at the hips. Triceratops was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur. They walk on four sturdy legs, had three horns on their face, along with a large bony plate projecting from the back of its skull or a frill. One short horn was above its parrot-like beak and two longer horns. That's over 3 feet or 1m long above its eyes probably provided protection from predators. The horns were possibly used in mating rivalry and rituals. They had large skulls, up to 10 feet or 3m long, one of the largest skulls of any land animal ever discovered. One Triceratops skull was found and it weighed 3.3 tons. They're head was nearly one-third as long as its body. Triceratops hatched from eggs. On some adults the eye horns grow up to 3 feet. They're about 30 feet long and 10 feet in height. Triceratops must have been herding animals. This theory was supported by finding bone bed, large deposits of bones of the same species in an area. When they are threatened by predators, they probably charged into enemy like the modern-day rhinoceros does. This is an effective defense. I just love how they look and the fact that they look like rhinoceros. Most of all they're herbivore though they look big and strong. 


1. Ankylosaurus 
And of course my favorite dinosaur of all time. They may not that famous or not recognized by others. I just love the armory appearance of their body. Their name refers to "fused lizard." They had to eat huge amount of low-lying plant material to sustain itself so their gut must have been very large. They were tank-like dinosaur. They're entire top side was heavily protected from carnivores with thick, oval plates embedded or fused in its leathery skin.There are two rows of spikes along its body,large horns that projected from the back of the head and club-like tail. They even had bony plates as protection for their eyes.It's only under their belly was unprotected. They are well protected from the predators. Similar armor body is find in crocodiles and armadillos. They are slow moving herbivore and they needed protection from their armored plates. They are 33 feet long and weighed 4 tons. They are like the perfect armor for a great war. One more thing that I liked about them was that they were one of the last dinosaurs to exist before the large extinction occurred. If extinction wasn't occurred then they are still here roaming earth.


Well they may not have existed now but their legacy lives on. More and more discovery on them has yet to reveal. There are still hundreds of them waiting to be discovered and be known by mankind. They once ruled the earth and wanted to survive, but I guess that was their fate. The fate of discovery and a learning from them about how life started and how life should be lived. Appreciate life!