Glossary
- adaptation
- physical structures, characteristics, or behaviors that allow an organism to survive and reproduce in its particular environment.
- carnivore
- an animal that feeds on the flesh of other animals.
- carnosaur
- a group of lizard-hipped, flesh-eating dinosaurs.
- carrion
- dead and decaying flesh.
- cast
- a natural or artificial fossil that is created by filling in an impression.
- coprolite
- fossilized fecal matter.
- Cretaceous Period
- the last and final period of the Mesozoic Era, 144 to 65 million years ago.
- femur
- the thigh, or upper leg bone.
- fossil
- the preserved remains or shape of an organism that once lived.
- gastrolith
- a stone swallowed to aid digestion.
- herbivore
- an animal that feeds on plants.
- hypothesis
- an assumption based on evidence.
- Jurassic Period
- the middle time period of the Mesozoic Era, 206 to 144 million years ago.
- jury
- a group of people sworn to determine the facts concerning an issue and render a verdict.
- matrix
- the rock surrounding fossils.
- Mesozoic Era
- the era of Earth's history dominated by the dinosaurs, 248 to 65 million years ago.
- opportunist
- someone that takes advantage of opportunities.
- Ornithischia
- a science word that means "bird-hip." It refers to the group of dinosaurs that includes the ankylosaurs, ornithopods, stegosaurs, and ceratopsians.
- paleontologist
- a person who studies fossils.
- petrified
- turned to stone through a process that replaces organic molecules with inorganic minerals.
- predator
- an animal that hunts and eats other animals (prey).
- Saurischia
- science word that means "lizard-hip." It refers to the group of dinosaurs that includes the theropods and the sauropodomorphs.
- scavenger
- an animal that feeds on the flesh of a dead animals.
- theropod
- group of lizard-hipped, carnivorous dinosaurs.
- tibia
- shin bone: the inner, thicker of the two bones of the lower leg.
- Triassic Period
- the first (earliest) period of the Mesozoic Era, 248 to 206 million years ago.
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