The name of the dinosaurs. Photo with titles

At each stage of the conquest of the planet Earth, there were some or other animals that became a kind of "elite" of their time. These creatures were the last word of evolution, and also the most perfect, the most intelligent and energetic at that time. In this article, we'll talk about dinosaurs - reptiles dominating the Earth 200 million years ago, more precisely, about their names.

The heyday of the dynasty

The name of dinosaurs can be translated from Greek as "a terrible lizard". Ancient reptiles in their time were the real crown of creation, the top of the development of reptiles. They ruled the ball more than 100 million years, remaining the permanent rulers of the land. These creatures were numerous, diverse. None of the living souls of the time could compare with the terrible lizards.

The drama of the emergence, flowering and extinction of dinosaurs stirred the imagination of humanity since people learned about the existence of the so-called Great Age of reptiles. These animals are still carefully studied, collecting materials and finding more and more fossil remains. About the causes of the death of the dynasty of dinosaurs until recently, there was no unified opinion, and even now scientific disputes are constantly breaking out on this subject.

A bit of systematics

Dinosaurs (pictures with names are presented in the article), like modern animals, can not be considered by scientists chaotically. In order not to get confused in the variety of mice, snakes, elephants, cats, frogs, beetles, zoologists eventually distributed all the animals to certain groups, so to speak, they were "laid out". Each of these groups unites beings similar in structure and origin.

The main group of animals is their species, which combines a lot of identical individuals. Related species are combined into genera, or superfamilies. The genus, in turn, is united in families; Families - in detachments; Detachments - in classes, and classes - in types. For example, our kind with you is a reasonable person, representing the kind of people from the family of anthropoids. We belong to the order of primates, the class of mammals and we represent the subtype of vertebrates from the chordate type. This 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 the moment there are several million species of different animals on the planet: these are the amoeba, the worm, the fly, and the man. Similarly, taxonomy works with reptiles called dinosaurs. The species and names of these creatures that lived in different epochs are also different. All of them briefly reflect the essence of the behavior or livelihoods of the animal, as well as the peculiarities of its structure.

Just do not break the tongue!

As a rule, the scientific names of these or those animals sound unusual for a common man, and some of them can not be uttered at all. It is understandable: they are traditionally given in Latin or Greek languages. For example, the name of dinosaurs usually reflects the characteristics of the external structure of these reptiles or related animal connections, so that a specialist (zoologist, veterinarian, paleontologist) immediately understands what kind he is dealing with.

Fish-lizard and giant lizard

The name of dinosaurs in most cases has an integral part - zavr: allosaurus, brontosaurus, ichthyosaurus, tyrannosaurus, etc. For example, the name "Brontosaurus" translates as a giant, huge pangolin (see the picture below). In addition, Brontes was called one of the cyclops - the ancient Greek mythical giants. The name "ichthyosaurus" is translated from the ancient Greek language as a fish-lily: "ichthyos" is a fish, and "zavr" is a lizard. In this case, the name of this marine reptile indicates to us its appearance.

Sobakozub

Sometimes in the names of terrible lizards you can find the word "dont", or "don". It is translated as a 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 mammalian animals. The name of these dinosaurs reflects the essence of the structure of their dental system, and is translated as a dog-tooth: "cynos" is a dog, "dont" is a tooth.

Flying Dinosaur

The name of the dinosaurs that have ascended to the sky has an unusual constituent - dactyl. In Latin, the word "dactylos" means a finger. The most famous flying dinosaur is, of course, pterodactyl. In translation into Russian it is a finger-clip: the ancient Greek word "pteron" is a wing.

Who are the zuhis?

Often, the name of the dinosaurs includes the strange word "zuhia." In principle, here, too, there is nothing complicated. This component is often included in the names of fossil reptiles: mesozuhia, eozukhia, pseudohohiya, pastozuhia, etc. So they call ancient crocodiles or animals similar to them, because the ancient Greek word "zuhos" is a crocodile.

Tyrant of the Lizards

Of course, it is impossible to bypass the most popular dinosaur in the world - the tyrannosaurus. He and many other of his relatives are dinosaurs-predators. The names of these reptiles speak of their superiority over other animals, as if crowning these lizards. The word "tyrannosaurus" is translated from the ancient Greek language as a lizard-master: "tyranos" is the master, the lord.

Family tree of reptiles

As you have already understood, reptiles are a separate class of vertebrates, divided into different subclasses. The most ancient and most primitive group of reptiles is a subclass of anapsids. Paleontologists came to the conclusion that no representative of anapsides survived to the present day, and the last of their representatives died out 200 million years ago!

From the very root of the anapsid, a branch was separated, called the synapse. To this subclass of ancient reptiles, paleontologists refer to our ancestors - the ancestors of modern mammal animals, to which man belongs. Unfortunately, the synapsids also died out, and did not live 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 - arhosaurs and lepidosaurs. The first include crocodiles, flying and land dinosaurs, and to the second - the current hatteria, snakes and lizards. Lepidosaurs include already extinct water dinosaurs with long necks, called plesiosaurs.