Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Greetings Infomaniacs,

The "terrible lizards" have fascinated people for as long as they have been digging the colossal bones out of the Earth. If you have ever seen a fossilized dinosaur skeleton assembled in a museum somewhere you can understand how the ancient Chinese thought they had discovered dragons!

Enjoy!

Questions? Comments? email the editor

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Click http://gopherarchives.gophercentral.com




***********************************************************

WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better."

HINT: (1896-1963), President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a motion picture association executive and U.S. government administrator.

***********************************************************

RANDOM TIDBITS
Although there have probably been dinosaur discoveries dating back thousands of years -- there are, for instance, references to "dragon bones" found in ancient China -- the first documented dinosaur discovery took place in 1676 when a jawbone and teeth were unearthed in Oxford, England. In 1824, famed paleontologist William Buckland (1784-1856) finally named this first dinosaur Megalosaurus. Megalosaurus was a large meat-eater that stood up to 30 feet tall and weighed about 1 ton.

***
In 1877, a paleontologist named Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) discovered a new species of dinosaur with he named Apatosaurus, meaning "deceptive lizard." Two years later, he discovered what he believed to be another species of dinosaur. He named this one Brontosaurus, meaning "thunder lizard." When later paleontologists examined the two fossils,however, they determined that both skeletons belonged to the same animal class, one being an adult and one being a juvenile.

***
Stegosaurus means "covered lizard" in Greek. This dinosaur had a double row of protective plates covering its back and tail. In addition to acting as a protective covering, these plates may have operated as a sort of cooling device -- wind flowing between the plates would have helped lower the body temperature of a Stegosaurus on hot days.

***
The Argentinosaurus, an herbivorous sauropod and quite possibly the largest animal ever to walk the earth, is believed to have reached lengths of up to 150 feet and weighed as much as 110 tons. Only fragmentary remains have been discovered, but using their knowledge of related dinosaurs, scientists have been able to estimate the size of these specimens of Argentinosaurus.

***
The Brachiosaurus, a herbivore, used its giraffe-like neck to graze in the tops of trees. It is believed to have reached heights of up to 42 feet, lengths of 82 feet, and weights in excess of 90 tons. Once considered the largest known dinosaur, it has since been surpassed by the likes of Argintinosaurus and Sauroposeidon.

***
Dinosaurs are believed to have become extinct about 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. We know of their existence today because of fossilized remains. It is impossible to know for sure what caused this sudden mass extinction, but the prevailing theory is that a massive meteor struck the earth about that time causing drastic climate changes and thus the extinction.




***********************************************************

*** Weekly Mind-Scrambler ***
With thieves I consort, With the vilest, in short, I'm quite at ease in depravity; Yet all divines use me, And savants can't lose me, For I am the center of gravity!

Submit your answer by clicking: TheDailyTease

Answer will be posted in Friday's Trivia Today. Good Luck! If your name appears in Friday's newsletter, EMAIL MICHELE your complete name and address to be shipped your prize.

Be sure to put "Winner" in the subject line.

***********************************************************

WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better."

ANSWER: Eric Johnston.