At every stage of the conquest of the planet Earth, there were certain animals that became a kind of "elite" of their time. These creatures were the last word of evolution, as well as the most perfect, most intelligent and energetic at that time. In this article, we will talk about dinosaurs - reptiles that dominated the Earth 200 million years ago, or rather, about their names.
Rise of a dynasty
The name of dinosaurs can be translated from Greek as "terrible lizard". Ancient reptiles at one time were the real crown of creation, the pinnacle of the development of reptiles. They ruled the ball for more than 100 million years, remaining the permanent rulers of the land. These creatures were numerous and varied. Not a single living soul of that time could compare with the terrible lizards.
The drama of the rise, rise, and extinction of the dinosaurs has captured the imagination of mankind ever since humans first became aware of the existence ofcalled the Great Age of Reptiles. These animals are still carefully studied, collecting materials and finding more and more fossil remains. Until recently, there was no consensus on the reasons for the death of the dinosaur dynasty, and even now scientific disputes are constantly flaring up on this topic.
A bit of taxonomy
Dinosaurs (pictures with names are presented in the article), like modern animals, cannot be considered randomly by scientists. In order not to get confused in the variety of mice, snakes, elephants, cats, frogs, beetles, zoologists eventually divided all animals into certain groups, so to speak, put them on the shelves. Each of these groups combines creatures that are similar in structure and origin.
The main group of animals is their species, which combines many identical individuals. Related species are grouped into genera, or superfamilies. The genus, in turn, is combined into families; families - in units; squads into classes, and classes into types. For example, our species is a reasonable person, representing the genus of people from the anthropoid family. We belong to the order of primates, the class of mammals, and represent a subphylum of vertebrates from the chordate phylum. Here is such a simple logic!
It is worth noting that it is simply impossible to do without systematics. Otherwise, you can get confused, because at present there are several million species of different animals on the planet: this is an amoeba, a worm, a fly, and a person. Similarly, taxonomy works withreptiles called dinosaurs. The types and names of these creatures that lived in different eras are also different. All of them briefly reflect the essence of the behavior or life of the animal, as well as the features of its structure.
Don't break your tongue
As a rule, the scientific names of certain animals sound unusual for a simple layman, and some of them are generally impossible to pronounce. It is understandable: traditionally they are given in Latin or ancient Greek. For example, the name of dinosaurs usually reflects the features of the external structure of these reptiles or the kinship of animals, so that a specialist (zoologist, veterinarian, paleontologist) immediately understands what species he is dealing with.
The lizardfish and the giant lizard
The name of dinosaurs in most cases has a component - "saur": allosaurus, brontosaurus, ichthyosaur, tyrannosaurus, etc. For example, the name "Brontosaurus" is translated as a giant, huge lizard (see the picture below). In addition, Brontes was the name of one of the Cyclopes - ancient Greek mythical giants. The name "ichthyosaur" is translated from ancient Greek as a fish lizard: "ichthyos" is a fish, and "saurus" is a lizard. In this case, the name of this marine reptile indicates its appearance.
Dogtooth
Sometimes in the names of terrible lizards you can find the word "dont", or "don". It translates as tooth. For example, one of the most famous dinosaurs of this group are cynodonts. These are animal-like lizards, which are the ancestors of modern mammals. Nameof these dinosaurs reflects the essence of the structure of their dental system, and is translated as a dog-tooth: "cynos" - a dog, "dont" - a tooth.
Flying dinosaur
The name of the dinosaurs that rose into the sky has an unusual component - dactyl. Translated from Latin, the word "dactylos" means finger. The most famous flying dinosaur is, of course, the pterodactyl. Translated into Russian, this is a finger-wing: the ancient Greek word "pteron" is a wing.
Who are the Zukhis?
It's not uncommon for dinosaurs to include the strange word zuhiya. In principle, there is nothing complicated here either. This component is quite often included in the names of fossil reptiles: mesosuchia, eosuchia, pseudosuchia, pastosuchia, etc. This is the name of the ancient crocodiles or animals similar to them, since the ancient Greek word "zuhos" is a crocodile.
A tyrant among lizards
Of course, it is impossible to ignore the world's most popular dinosaur - the Tyrannosaurus Rex. He and many of his other relatives are predatory dinosaurs. The names of these reptiles speak of their superiority over other animals, as if crowning these lizards. The word "tyrannosaurus" is translated from ancient Greek as a lizard-lord: "tyranos" - master, lord.
Reptile family tree
As you already understood, reptiles are a separate class of vertebrates, subdivided into various subclasses. The oldest and most primitive group of reptilesis a subclass of Anapsids. Paleontologists have come to the conclusion that not a single representative of the anapsids has survived to this day, and their last representatives died out 200 million years ago!
From the very root of the anapsids, a branch separated, which was called the synapsid. Paleontologists refer our ancestors to this subclass of ancient reptiles - the ancestors of modern mammals, to which humans belong. Unfortunately, the synapsids also died out, never having lived to see the heyday of their descendants.
This is another subclass of ancient reptiles, separated from the base of the ancient trunk - a subclass of anapsids. This branch was divided into two others - archosaurs and lepidosaurs. The former include crocodiles, flying and land dinosaurs, and the latter include the tuataria, snakes and lizards that are alive today. Lepidosaurs also include extinct aquatic dinosaurs with long necks, called plesiosaurs.
