Vocabulary
Find the meaning to all those long, weird words you found throughout our website.
AMMONITES: this is a class that describes any member of the extinct suborder of mollusks that have chambered, spiral shells. They thrived in the Mesozoic and the Paleozoic oceans.
AMNIOTE: a tetrapod that lays shelled eggs. (Like reptiles or birds).
ARCHOSAUR: reptiles that were mostly dominant in the Triassic period. They included a variety of carnivores and herbivores and were the ancestors of the dinosaurs.
BELEMNITES: this is a class that describes any member of the order of squid-like cephalopods that have soft bodies which surround an internal shell. They were probably fast-swimming carnivores that lived during the Mesozoic era.
CEPHALOPHOD: any mollusk of the class Cephalophoda. This includes the squids, octopi, and ammonites. They are characterized by the tentacles attached to their heads.
DINOSAUR: Mesozoic terrestrial reptiles. Many dinosaurs star in the film, Jurassic Park.
GEOCHRONOLOGY: The science of establishing times of rock formations' origins
INOCERAMID: this was a classification of large, oyster-like bivaled mollusks. They were prominent during the Jurrasic and Cretaceous periods.
ISOTOPIC DATING: this has nothing to do with mating rituals. Isotopic dating is radioactive dating that is based on the fact that a radioactive isotope of an element will change into the isotope of another element at a fixed rate, expressed as a half-life. Radioisotopes used for calculating the age of rocks have very long half-lives. For example, naturally-occurring isotope potassium-40 decays to argon-40 with a 1.25 billion year half-life. The ratio of potassium-40 to argon-40 can then help determine the age of the sample.
MOSASAURS: these are the large, (extinct), predaceous marine reptiles. They became abundant in the late Cretaceous period but went extinct at the end of that period.They are related to the modern day monitor lizards (<-- click if you're curious to know who exactly this bad boy is).
MOLLUSK: a large phylum of invertebrates that live in bodies of water. Some mollusks include the snails, slugs, and many other organisms (some of which, like the ammonites, are extinct).
NODOSAUR: the large, armoured dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period.
NOMENCLATURE: the devising/choosing of names for things, especially in science.
ORNITHOPOD: "bird footed": a name given to the herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period.
ORNITHISCHIA: "bird hipped": one of the main divisions of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. They were a division in which the two bones in the hip point backwards, like those of a bird. (See the classification of dinosaurs.)
PLESIOSAURS: these were large, marine reptiles from the Mesozoic era. They are characterized by having four flippers: some had long necks and small heads, and others had large heads and short necks.
RUDISTID CLAM: these were unusual clams that evolved during the Cretaceous period.They were asymmetrical and grew in large clusters, forming organ-like reef structures.
SAURINSCHIA: "reptile hipped": one of the main divisions of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. They were a division in which the two bones in the hip point forwards, like those of a reptile. (See the classification of dinosaurs.)
SAUROPOD: "reptile footed": a name given to the large herbivorous dinosaurs.
SAUROPODOMORPHA: a clade of long-necked, herbivorous saurinschian dinosaurs that lived from the late Triassic period to the late Cretaceous period.
TETRAPOD: vertebrates that have four legs with toes, such as amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Modifications and evolutionary losses of some limbs had already occurred or begun occurring in some groups (like the snakes).
THEROPOD: "beast footed": a carnivorous dinosaur.
AMNIOTE: a tetrapod that lays shelled eggs. (Like reptiles or birds).
ARCHOSAUR: reptiles that were mostly dominant in the Triassic period. They included a variety of carnivores and herbivores and were the ancestors of the dinosaurs.
BELEMNITES: this is a class that describes any member of the order of squid-like cephalopods that have soft bodies which surround an internal shell. They were probably fast-swimming carnivores that lived during the Mesozoic era.
CEPHALOPHOD: any mollusk of the class Cephalophoda. This includes the squids, octopi, and ammonites. They are characterized by the tentacles attached to their heads.
DINOSAUR: Mesozoic terrestrial reptiles. Many dinosaurs star in the film, Jurassic Park.
GEOCHRONOLOGY: The science of establishing times of rock formations' origins
INOCERAMID: this was a classification of large, oyster-like bivaled mollusks. They were prominent during the Jurrasic and Cretaceous periods.
ISOTOPIC DATING: this has nothing to do with mating rituals. Isotopic dating is radioactive dating that is based on the fact that a radioactive isotope of an element will change into the isotope of another element at a fixed rate, expressed as a half-life. Radioisotopes used for calculating the age of rocks have very long half-lives. For example, naturally-occurring isotope potassium-40 decays to argon-40 with a 1.25 billion year half-life. The ratio of potassium-40 to argon-40 can then help determine the age of the sample.
MOSASAURS: these are the large, (extinct), predaceous marine reptiles. They became abundant in the late Cretaceous period but went extinct at the end of that period.They are related to the modern day monitor lizards (<-- click if you're curious to know who exactly this bad boy is).
MOLLUSK: a large phylum of invertebrates that live in bodies of water. Some mollusks include the snails, slugs, and many other organisms (some of which, like the ammonites, are extinct).
NODOSAUR: the large, armoured dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period.
NOMENCLATURE: the devising/choosing of names for things, especially in science.
ORNITHOPOD: "bird footed": a name given to the herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period.
ORNITHISCHIA: "bird hipped": one of the main divisions of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. They were a division in which the two bones in the hip point backwards, like those of a bird. (See the classification of dinosaurs.)
PLESIOSAURS: these were large, marine reptiles from the Mesozoic era. They are characterized by having four flippers: some had long necks and small heads, and others had large heads and short necks.
RUDISTID CLAM: these were unusual clams that evolved during the Cretaceous period.They were asymmetrical and grew in large clusters, forming organ-like reef structures.
SAURINSCHIA: "reptile hipped": one of the main divisions of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. They were a division in which the two bones in the hip point forwards, like those of a reptile. (See the classification of dinosaurs.)
SAUROPOD: "reptile footed": a name given to the large herbivorous dinosaurs.
SAUROPODOMORPHA: a clade of long-necked, herbivorous saurinschian dinosaurs that lived from the late Triassic period to the late Cretaceous period.
TETRAPOD: vertebrates that have four legs with toes, such as amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Modifications and evolutionary losses of some limbs had already occurred or begun occurring in some groups (like the snakes).
THEROPOD: "beast footed": a carnivorous dinosaur.