Apparently in Africa there was NOT a large number of carnivores, but we lucked out with our Afrovenator. The name itself means African Hunter and hunt it did. Its likeness to other dinosaurs apparently had helped with the debate over the position of the continents at that time. Found in the EARLY Cretaceous period I actually found some excellent links and a few videos even with its anonymity in the grand scheme of dinosaurs on tv and popular culture! So let’s get started! First a video:
We started with The Dinosaur of the Week site and their terrific series of entries on our dinosaur HERE. In fact, our second video is down the page on this site. But to simplify things here it is:
Age of Dinosaurs has a great map etc HERE. I love the image on the Wikia Cool Dino Facts page HERE. Science Kids has a short write up HERE. Dinosaur.about.com has a nice discussion about the movement of the continents HERE. And another link HERE. Dinosaurking has a nice size chart of our dinosaur vs. humans HERE. EnchantedLearning has their fact page HERE. And Wiki has a great article HERE. Our print out is actually on the Dinosaur of the Week page! Be sure to scroll down!
There seems to be a bit of a distinction with the Sauroposeidon… it is the TALLEST but NOT the Longest as is evidenced by the following YouTube video. I still say a long tail is NOT as cool as the extreme giraffe neck!
This amazing dinosaur is actually VERY rare, they have only found the vertebrae from its neck to date. In fact, they were so BIG that they were mistaken for petrified tree trunks for YEARS! This giant could have eaten food from a 6th story window! It had (they propose) front legs longer than the back, again giraffe like. It ate vegetation of course, and probably HUGE amounts. But enough from me… here are the links!
We started with the Color2Learn page and their images of the World’s Largest Dinosaur HERE. I especially liked how they had the picture with the man and the dinosaur. EnchantedLearning had lots of information HERE with some links to other items of interest. KidsDinos.com has their usual awesome map and this time their chart of humans to dinosaur ratio shows how absolutely HUGE the Sauroposeidon was HERE. BBC has the original finding article they posted HERE from 1999. There is a great picture of the vertebrae found on dinosaurs wikia HERE. Age of dinosaurs has a great point by point on the stats for this massive creature HERE. The dinosaurs.about.com site is a good one, it also clued me into something that I found a fact sheet about later… our videos that we were looking at for previous dinos out of the Clash of the Dinosaurs (Discovery) has some BIG factual issues with this specific dinosaur… more about that later but HERE is the first article. ScienceKids has a great quick write up HERE. And as usual, the dry article by Wiki is right HERE. Lots of facts, little drama.
Talk about a LONG neck!
Ok, now that teaser about the Clash of the Dinosaurs fact hunt. Well, I will include below the video that holds the most of the considered factual points they got right. That is, the statements that the majority of other paleontologists felt were correct or could be inferred from the information that we have about the other dinosaurs of the same family. BUT it IS agreed that the Sauroposeidon was the last of this type when the body shape etc was simply becoming obsolete. OH and at the very end of the video they state the stomach acid could have melted iron… that is not agreed upon it seems. You can check out the issues with the series HERE.
This dinosaur was actually VERY timely for yours truly as apparently in one of it incarnations (the without feathers version) it was the inspiration for the famous Velociraptor on the movie Jurassic Park! (HERE) Which we watch the second half of the night before Emanuel covered the Deinonychus. This dinosaur, first found in 1964 walked on TWO legs and they figure worked in packs. It was definitely carnivorous and was lightly built and had long grasping claws (thus the name). And, amazingly enough – were alive during the… wait for it… Cretaceous period??? I know, Jurassic Park… but… well facts are facts!
Our video was originally of a History channel show I think… and it shows, in rather great detail, a pack of these dinosaurs hunting. It is a little graphic though the kids were fine with it.
What I found interesting is that it is because of THESE dinosaurs that Paleontolologists moved to consider dinosaurs as a possible link to birds (thus the feathers have been hypothesized). This carnivore seemed to be one of the most organized in its hunting techniques and actually used its limbs much more to fight, some sites have compared it to karate fighting with its long legs! Definitely NOT a friendly dinosaur!
Now for our links… we had quite a few of course as there is LOTS of info out there! BUT here is what we narrowed it down to: Wiki has their fact heavy article HERE. We printed out THIS fact sheet from Dinosaurdays! EnchantedLearning comes through as usual (seriously I look forward to renewing this subscription come budget time) HERE. Emanuel especially liked the high kicking dinosaur picture HERE. And he was quick with the right answer on KidsDigDinos HERE. We chose the first of THESE colouring pages to colour (gotta love the feathers!). I loved the technique discussion on their fighting with the discovery link HERE. Emanuel loved the VERY birdlike look of the illustration on THIS site. There is a great illustration/chart on THIS site for size of the dinosaur (bigger than a human but smaller than an elephant!). And don’t forget a handy fact sheet HERE.
I am sure there are MANY more links about the Deinonychus dinosaur but we stopped at those links and video. I don’t think I will be showing Emanuel Jurassic Park quite yet… Oh and Emanuel’s favourite thing he learned about this dinosaur – that he fought using his claws and feet!!!! What a boy!
