The Dinosaur FAQ

0. READ THIS FIRST

This is a work in progress. Questions which do not yet have an answer at all are greyed out and marked with a ### sign. Even those questions which do have answers may in some cases have nothing more than fragmentary notes at this stage; all answers are subject to revision - feedback is extremely welcome. See ``How can I help?''

1. Preface

• What is this document? [answer]
• Who are you? What qualifications do you have to do this? [answer]
• What plans do you have for this document? [answer]
• How can I help? [answer]

2. Introduction

• Why study dinosaurs? [answer]
• What are the elements of dinosaur science? [answer]
• How can I make a career in palaeontology? [answer]

3. Literature

• What books will give a good introduction to dinosaur science? [answer]
• What good dinosaur books are available? [answer]
• How can I obtain out-of-print dinosaur books? [answer]
• How can I obtain technical papers? [answer]
• Are there any good dinosaur-related web sites? [answer]
• Where can I find pictures of [dinosaur name] on the web? [answer]
• As new material is discovered, how quickly are reference materials becoming obsolete? [###]

4. Classification

• What are classification, taxonomy, phylogeny, systematics and cladistics? [answer]
• What's the difference between Tyrannosauridae, Tyrannosaurinae, etc.? [answer]
• What do terms like phylum, order and family mean? [answer]
• What is meant by the non-italicised species name ``sp.''? [answer]
• When is a new dinosaur erected as a new species or genus? [answer]
• How similar are different species of a given dinosaur genus? [answer]
• What do terms like monophyletic, paraphyletic and polyphyletic mean? [answer]
• What is cladistics? How reliable is it? [answer]
• Is the PhyloCode a good thing? [###]
• How much latitude do the namers of new dinosaurs have? [###]
• Why is ``Brontosaurus'' now called Apatosaurus? [answer]
• So why hasn't Tyrannosaurus been renamed Manospondylus? [answer]
• What is a dinosaur? [answer]
• What groups of dinosaurs existed? [answer]
• What's the definition of the term ``bird''? [###]
• Is there any remaining doubt that birds are descended from dinosaurs? [###]
• So can we say that birds are dinosaurs? [answer]
• Is there really any significance to similarities between Rahonavis and Deinonychus? [###]

5. Size and Weight

• What were the longest/heaviest dinosaurs? [answer]
• What were the longest/heaviest predatory dinosaurs? [answer]
• What was the smallest dinosaur? [###]
• What was the fastest dinosaur? [answer]
• How Brachiosaurus drink without its head exploding? [###]
• Why do mass estimates vary so much? [answer]

6. Anatomy

• Old music-hall joke: I say, I say, I say! What's the difference between a centroparapophyseal lamina and a spinoprezygopophyseal lamina? [answer]

7. Dinosaurs in the Media

• Is Jurassic Park any good? [###]
• What killed the crew of the ship when the T. rex was in the hold? [###]
• Is Walking With Dinosaurs any good? [###]
• Does the WWD Allosaurus bounce too much as it runs? [###]

8. Miscellaneous

• Where can I find definitions of terms like ``pneumatic foraminatrabeculae''? [###]
• Is it really any clearer to say ``edentulous'' instead of ``toothless''? [answer]
• What's the story behind the rumours that Archaeopteryx is a hoax? [###]
• Isn't is just plain ridiculous to extrapolate an entire genus from a single bone fragment? [###]
• What's the current state of debate on dinosaur metabolism? [answer]
• What's the current state of debate on dinosaur extinction? [answer]
• Is Seismosaurus's tail kink a feature of that genus, or simply damage that afflicted the only known specimen? [answer]
• Do commercial fossil hunters help or impede the progress of science? [###]
• Could Archaeopteryx fly? [###]
• How do we know the old positions of the continents? [###]
• [New Questions] [answer]
• How Can I Interpret Technical Papers? [answer]

See also Bohdan Zograf's Belarusian translation.