DINOSAURS

Who likes Dinosaurs anyhow?		(photo at left was taken by the Kindergarten at Holy Trinity United Methodist Church. The teacher asked Julien to request that Terry bring the dinosaur leg bone for Julien's contribution to "Show and Tell" for the day.
ANSWER: Well KIDS (and adults as well)	Shown with a *Tyrannosaurus rex* tibia are PMNS Curator, Terry Proctor, J.D. and grandson, Julien Vinluan, at Holy Trinity United Methodist Church Day School	Dinosaurs were one of the most successful life forms to ever exist. They lived from about 245 MYA until about 66.4 MYA during the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary extinction.

What are dinosaurs? Where did dinosaurs come from? What happened to dinosaurs?
Who discovered dinosaurs? Who were the scientists who excavated dinosaurs? When did dinosaurs live?

There are many questions about this group of creatures, which to humans, are probably the most interesting of all living things.

Kids love them. Movie goers love to be scared of them. Vertebrate Paleontologist (especially ones who hunt dinosaurs) love them.

We all love and would fear dinosaurs if any were alive today.

But dinosaurs are alive today!!! At least that is the prevalent theory among Paleontologists.

The accepted theory is that theropods
(which group included probably the most fearsome and
best known dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex)
was the branch of dinosaurs which evolved into birds,
while all other dinosaurs became extinct.

DARTH VADER?

One of the strangest appearing dinosaurs we have seen is this one called the 'Darth Vader' dinosaur by famous Paleontologist Paul Sereno, PhD. It may have been an aquatic plant eating dinosaur. It has hundreds of teeth across the face, making it look a little like Darth Vader's helmet. It has the largest eye orbit sockets comparatively, of any dinosaur we have seen.

Photo by PMNS Curator Terry Proctor on March 21, 2006 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science where Dr. Sereno gave a talk on dinosaurs and identified one dinosaur bone for the Proctor Museum of Natural Science.
Click here for more on Dr. Paul Sereno

We hope you will enjoy learning more about dinosaurs in the PMNS Section on Dinosaurs.

In order to get into the subject of dinosaurs, we need some orderly form. Therefore, in the table below, you can click on subjects which will take you to other pages which touch on dinosaurs, the epochs they lived in, information and biographies on well-known dinosaur hunters (i.e. scientists who hunt dinosaur remains, not hunting with a gun) and other pertinent information on dinosaurs.

Origins of Dinosaurs	Theories about Dinosaurs	Dinosaur Hunters	Dinosaurs today-Birds?
Triassic epoch	Jurassic epoch	Cretaceous epoch	Demise of Dinosaurs
Dinosaur Museums	Paleontology Links	Houston Museum of Natural Science	PMNS Dinosaur items
Bibliography of Dinosaur Books in the PMNS Library	Fossil, Gem & Mineral Clubs	Dr. Robert Bakker, PhD	a Dinosaur named "Sue"
Edward Drinker Cope	Othniel Charles Marsh	Lone Star Dinosaurs	Can you hunt dinosaurs?
Montana Dinosaurs Hell Creek formation	Darth Vader Dinosaur	Pete Larson and the Black Hills Institute Hill City, South Dakota

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT DINOSAURS

There probably isn't a kid in America who hasn't heard about dinosaurs. Kids both love and love to be scared believing there are still dinosaurs around. Kids play with toy dinosaurs about as much as any other toy. Dinosaurs are a fascination for Kids and Adults alike. One of my grandsons refers to dinosaurs as "Sharp Tooth" which term I understand comes from a movie. At age four, It was and remains his very favorite thing.

(This is such a vast subject, that it will be under construction for some time with additional material being added over a prolonged period. Please be patient with us and we believe it will be worthwhile)