The original campaign included a dozen different dinosaurs, but it was the gentle giant, the Apatosaurus, that captured the hearts of Americans. So why do we call him an Apatosaurus now? Dinosaur fossils are rare, which makes it difficult to study and classify them. Sinclair has followed the prevailing opinions of the scientific community, which currently favors calling DINO an Apatosaurus — though new research may eventually change that.
He and the other dinosaurs traveled by barge miles down the Hudson River to the Dinoland Pavilion. Your browser does not support this video. In the Disney TV series Dinosaurs , which featured animatronic dinosaurs by Jim Henson, Sinclair is the surname of the main characters.
The single land mass, Pangaea, split into two, creating Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. Despite this separation, similarities in their fossil records show that there were some land connections between the two continents early in the Jurassic. These regions became more distinct later in the period.
Temperatures fell slightly, although it was still warmer than today due to higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Rainfall increased as a result of the large seas appearing between the land masses. These changes allowed plants such as ferns and horsetails to grow over huge areas. Some of this vegetation became the fossil fuels that we mine today. Elsewhere there were forests of tall conifer trees such as sequoias and monkey puzzles.
The large sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus lived in the Jurassic Period. Explore other dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic. The plentiful plant supply allowed the huge plant-eating sauropods - such as Apatosaurus , Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus - to evolve. These are some of the largest animals to have ever walked the Earth. By the end of the Jurassic their herds dominated the landscape.
Sauropods became even larger in the Cretaceous. During the Cretaceous the land separated further into some of the continents we recognise today, although in different positions. This meant that dinosaurs evolved independently in different parts of the world, becoming more diverse. Can you spot the dinosaur in this Cretaceous environment? See more dinosaurs that lived in the Late Cretaceous.
Other groups of organisms also diversified. The first snakes evolved during this time, as well as the first flowering plants. Various insect groups appeared, including bees, which helped increase the spread of flowering plants.
And mammals now included tree climbers, ground dwellers and even predators of small dinosaurs. Sea levels rose and fell repeatedly during the Cretaceous Period.
At the highest point there were many shallow seas separating parts of the continents we know today. For example, Europe was made up of many smaller islands. Thick layers of sediment built up at the bottom of these seas as single-celled algae died and their skeletons fell to the seabed. This is how most of the chalk we use today was first formed. So much so, that 'Cretaceous' comes from the Latin word for chalk, 'creta'. Find out what Museum scientists are revealing about how dinosaurs looked, lived and behaved.
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You must be over the age of Privacy notice. Smart cookie preferences. Change cookie preferences Accept all cookies. Skip to content. Dinosaurs first appeared in the Triassic Period, around million years ago.
Read later. You don't have any saved articles. Triassic Period to million years ago All continents during the Triassic Period were part of a single land mass called Pangaea.
Jurassic Period to million years ago At the end of the Triassic Period there was a mass extinction, the causes of which are still hotly debated.
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