Mira's Science Blogs

Evolution of dinosaurs by  Woudloper and  Zureks Summary There are many factors that have contributed to dinosaur success. Dinosaur success was mainly influenced by traits shared by many other modern species, such as birds and crocodilians. These features helped dinosaurs survive and rule the world for 65 million years. Over a long period of time, many dinosaur traits have evolved to be more fit for their environment.  It is unsure at what time dinosaurs started to evolve into the dinosaurs we know and hear of today, however, it is most likely that they evolved during the late Permian period, and coexisted with therapsids, which were mammal-like reptiles at the time. However, it is very clear that dinosaur had evolved by the beginning of the Jurassic period. Dinosaurs were very successful for many reasons. One major reason is the shape and position of the dinosaur legs. Dinosaurs had their legs beneath them, making it much easier and more efficient to travel q...

Physical Features of Dinosaurs by Australian Museum Summary There are many factors that contributed to dinosaur success. Many of their physical features helped dinosaurs thrive for about 165 million years. As seen in the image above, the main characteristics shared by dinosaurs include a hole in the skull between eye socket and nostril, two holes in the skull behind the eye socket, an ankle that bends like a hinge, a hip socket with a hole in the middle, limbs held directly under the body, and three or more sacral vertebrae.  Many of these characteristics are visible in other species. For example, dinosaurs were part of a group called archosaurs. Archosaurs share a hole in the skull. According to the article, 'What Is A Dinosaur?' by Fossil Facts and Finds, "Archosaurs all have a hole, called an antorbital fenestra, between the nasal hole (the Naris) and the eye socket hole (the Orbis.)" As well as archosaurs, dinosaurs were diapsids. Diapsids had two hol...

Diagraming Evolution, or How to read a Cladogram  by  Patrick Summary Cladograms are diagrams that help us understand the relationships between organisms. At the end of a branch, we write the name of the organisms. For example, in the image above, the names of the organisms are kangaroo, koala, bat, and lion. Next, by looking for the line connected by two of the organisms, we can see what trait they have in common. In this example, we can see that the kangaroo and koala are both connected to a trait, Marsupialia. This means that kangaroo and koalas both belong to the group Marsupialia. Next, we can see that the trait that all of the organisms are connected to is Mammalia, meaning that all of the organisms on this cladogram are mammals. How does knowing how to read a cladogram help us understand the relationships between organisms? By understanding how to read a cladogram, you can learn more about which organisms are closely related to each other, and which tra...

Question #4: The eight levels of classification from general to specific are... The correct order to this question from broadest to most specific is:  domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. This is correct because the two most specific categories are genus and species. This is because the genus and species are directly related to the organism. However, the broadest classifications are domain and kingdom because they are not directly related to the organism, and affect many others as well.  Question #10: Select all the organisms that you would expect have the most characteristics in common. The correct answers to this question are: Aubrieta gracilis, Aubrieta olympica, and Aubrieta deltoidea. This is the correct answer because these three organisms have Aubrieta as the first word in their name also known as the genus, meaning that they are from the same group. Organisms are in the same genus when they have many characteristics...