Dinosaurs reached their peak level of dominance in the Jurassic Period. For the next 160 million years, dinosaurs were the reigning land vertebrates on Earth.
Nature travelers know that it’s much easier to protect the diverse fauna and natural habitats that we now have than to lose them and then try to reintroduce species or re-create those once-natural environments later. But when those places and animals are long gone and we’re curious to learn more about our blue-planet home, simulation is the next best thing.
It’s a fact that more dinosaurs have been discovered in the last two decades than in the past 200 years, making their long-gone world of special interest to us now. That’s why the BBC has recently tried to reconstruct these animals and their habitats using the latest CGI equipment and cutting-edge technology for their nature series Planet Dinosaur.
Sir Richard Owen came up with the name “dinosaur” in 1841 to describe the fossils of extinct reptiles. He coined the word by combining the Greek words “deinos,” which means “terrible” and “sauros,” which means “lizard.”
Dinosaurs were the dominant animals on land for 160 million years. The name dinosaur, given to them by English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841, translates from Greek as “terrible or wondrous lizard.” Today, however, from the remains of more than a thousand different dinosaur species, we know they are more accurately related to birds—or evolved parallel to them.
Watch the following video of how Planet Dinosaur’s artists worked to re-create these extinct species—certainly not an easy task. It’s a good reminder that Nature is always the master; and we, at best, are her students.
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
