Are Birds really dinosaurs?

Yes, birds are the only surviving creatures of the dinosaur ages. They are referred to as 'Avian Dinosaurs' and flourished among the flying dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. They eventually became the true rulers of the skies when such creatures as the supreme Ornithocherius became extinct. Strangely enough, they are actually scientifically considered 'reptiles' by paleontologist.

 

 

Where dinosaurs hot or cold bloodied?

The debate about whether dinosaurs were hot or cold-blooded is quite controversial. It used to be assumed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded like their reptile ancestors. Some paleontologists have recently argued that at least some dinosaurs were fast, active, competed against hot-blooded mammals, lived in cool areas, were related to birds, and therefore were endothermic (generating their own body heat, or hot-blooded).

 

What really killed off all the dinosaurs?

	It has always been a great mystery how all these amazingly large animals were totally wiped out. The biggest and most obvious theory is the impact on earth of a a massive comet. However, the environmental conditions during the late Cretaceous period where not adaptive for the dinosaurs. The movement of the earth's crust produced a surge in volcanic activity across the globe.
Years of volcanic eruptions produced massive waste landscapes and filled the atmosphere with poisonous gases and debris. Life on earth began choking to death. Some of the areas on the earth became full of geothermal springs and the air became thick with sulphurous fumes and carbon monoxide.

 

	These poisonous gases were a natural killer of most dinosaurs. The layers of gas that covered the earth killed off many dinosaurs who were unfortunate enough to stoop for prey and breath in these fumes.
The fortunate ones were the strongest and probably the tallest who could stoop below the gases for prey and survive the layers of gases. This was because the poisonous gases were heavier than air and formed this fatal layer close to the earth's surface.

As the impact of the comet hit earth, a shower of molten rock began to fall. The comet had struck the Gulf of Mexico with the force of 10 billion Hiroshima bombs. The catastrophic events that followed caused 65% of life on earth to die out. It took millions of years for the earth to recover, after such time, the dinosaurs were completely wiped out. Only one small group of dinosaurs did survive, the birds.

 

Did dinosaurs all live at the same time?

Different dinosaurs lived at different times. The Stegosaurus for instance never saw a Tyrannosaurus Rex but it would have seen an Ankylosaurus. Tyrannosaurus did not appear on the scene until 80 or so million years following the extinction of Stegosaurs.

The same goes for Apatosaurus ('Brontosaurus;) because it's bones were already well-fossilized by the time Tyrannosaurus came along.

That is why we have different eras of dinosaurs and specific periods when certain dinosaurs inhabited the earth.

 

Where all dinosaurs Archosaurs?

Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs.

Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs.

Mammoths and mastodons are mammals and did not appear until many millions of years after the close of the Cretaceous period.

Dimetrodon is neither a reptile nor a mammal, but a basal synapsid, i.e., an early relative of the ancestors of mammals.

 

Did cavemen live alongside Dinosaurs?

Although the image of human cave dwellers hunting dinosaurs is well established in fiction, it is far from accurate. People didn't evolve until about 65 million years after the dinosaurs' extinction. Except for the birds, who are the sole surviving descendants of the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs and people are well separated in terms of geologic time.

Was the Cretaceous period of extinction the only one?

No, there have been other Mass Extinctions that have affected animals besides dinosaurs. There were even some that the dinosaurs lived through and survived. Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, about 65 million years ago - loss of land animals including dinosaurs. End Triassic extinction, roughly 199 million to 214 million years ago - loss of marine animals. Permian-Triassic extinction, about 251 million years ago - loss of land species: animals, plants, insects. Late Devonian extinction, about 364 million years ago - loss of marine animals. Ordovician-Silurian extinction, about 439 million years ago - loss of marine animals.