Таня Васятина

Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University and the Higher School of Football Management. More than 20 years of experience in the sports business (football, hockey, Olympic and Paralympic Games, World and European Championships). The founder of the international online sports management and marketing training program, the coordinator of the Sports Talk Club educational project, together with the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine, organized the first hackathon of sports ideas and startups in the country.

Ichthyosaurus is an order of extinct marine reptiles that had a shape similar to fish and dolphins.

Ichthyosaurs are the most adapted reptiles to the aquatic lifestyle. Only one group of mammals, cetaceans, was able to achieve a similar degree of fitness. Unique characteristics associated with an aquatic lifestyle are already observed in the oldest known ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period. Such devices include an elongated muzzle, very large eyes, limbs transformed into fins and strongly concave vertebrae.

A key evolutionary feature of ichthyosaurs is live birth. They had a euryapsid structure of the skull, descended from diapsid ancestors. Teeth were replaced repeatedly during life. The limbs were used to maintain balance and control direction. The tail had two blades, the lower of which was supported by a vertebral column. A typical ichthyosaur had very large eyes protected by a bone ring, indicating that they hunted at night. In this regard, some species had huge eyes (up to 20 cm in diameter). Additionally, apparently, there were some skin receptors similar to the lateral line, as indicated by traces of nerves and vessels on the bones of the skull. The skin, devoid of scales, was probably covered with mucus for better gliding in the water. Well adapted to moving at high speed, like modern tuna, some ichthyosaurs also suggest that they were good deep-sea divers, like modern whales. The most likely color is the counter shade (dark top and light bottom) with a bluish tinge.

Some early ichthyosaurs had teeth with which they fed on shellfish - ammonites, nautiloids and squids. It is very likely that they also fed on fish, and some of the larger species had heavy jaws and teeth, which show that they fed on smaller reptiles.

The analysis of some fossil remains of ichthyosaurs showed that the inner layers of the skin passed into an insulating fat layer like in warm-blooded animals.

Ichthyosaurs existed for almost the entire Mesozoic 250-94 million years ago, they reached their greatest heyday in the Jurassic period, until they were replaced by plesiosaurs in the Cretaceous period. In the Cretaceous period, the number of ichthyosaur species decreased sharply. It is assumed that global warming, which occurred in the middle of the Cretaceous period, led to the depletion of oxygen in oceanic waters, which led to the extinction of ichthyosaurs that did not adapt to climate change.

Dimetrodon is a genus of predatory dinosaurs from the family Sphenacodontidae that lived during the Permian period (298.9-268.8 million years ago).

Dimetrodon reached a length of up to 4.0 meters and was the largest predator of its time. Unlike reptiles, it had two types of teeth (incisors and canines). The most striking feature of the dimetrodon is a sail of skin stretched over the outgrowths of the dorsal vertebrae. Similar sails developed in various prehistoric animals and served as thermoregulators. It is estimated that a 200-kilogram cold-blooded dimetrodon would warm up without a sail from 26 to 32 ° C in 205 minutes, and with a sail - in 80 minutes. According to other versions, the sail was used in mating games, served as a camouflage among the vertical stems of plants or a real sail when sailing. The "sail" developed gradually over the course of life, there are known finds of young dimetrodon individuals with low appendages. Young individuals, apparently, lived in thickets along the shores of reservoirs, adults - lived in forests and plains. Nevertheless, the image of the dimetrodon in popular books against the background of the desert seems unreal - without being a real reptile, it could not survive in a hot, dry area.

Dimetrodons fed on any animals they could overpower. Interestingly, in conditions of approximately equal ratio of biomass of predators and herbivores, the basis of nutrition in some periods could be fish. In 2008, R. Bakker's team found clear signs that dimetrodons were eating freshwater sharks. Perhaps the sharks stayed in drying ponds, where they became victims.

Ankylosaurus is a genus of extinct herbivorous reptiles from the dinosaur superorder, the Ankylosaurid family. The genus is monotypic, as it includes only one species known to science - Ankylosaurus magniventris. Ankylosaurus fossils were found in geological formations dating from the latest epoch of the Cretaceous period (66.5-66 million years ago), in the west of the North American continent.

Despite the fact that an entire ankylosaurus skeleton has not yet been found, and despite the fact that related dinosaurs have been studied better, it is ankylosaurus that is considered to be the most typical representative of armored dinosaurs. Moreover, it is one of the most famous dinosaurs, despite such scant fossil material. Other ankylosaurids had similar features: a body covered with powerful, heavy armor, and a massive thickening on the tail. Ankylosaurus is one of the largest known ankylosaurids.Ankylosaurus by modern standards can be considered a very large animal, the size of a rhinoceros or even an adult male African elephant. According to early estimates, its length reached 7-9 or even more than 9 meters, and its mass was up to 6 tons. However, in 2004 Kenneth Carpenter revised the estimated size of the lizard in accordance with the size of the found skulls. The length of the largest known specimen, CMN 8880, was estimated at 6.25 meters, width - 1.5 meters, and hip height - 1.7 meters. The smallest specimen, AMNH 5214, from Carpenter's point of view reached about 5.4 m in length and 1.4 m in height. However, in 2017, a group of researchers compared ankylosaurus with more complete ankylosaurid fossils and calculated a length of 6.02-7.95 m for the sample AMNH 5214, 6.45—8.51 m for AMNH 5895 and 7.56—9.99 m for CMN 8880. Nevertheless, focusing on the size of the vertebrae, the authors note that the upper limit of the possible size range for CMN 8880 is most likely overstated, and the length of about 8 meters is the most plausible. Guided by the structure of the limbs, they also calculated a weight of 4.78 tons for AMNH 5214 and 7.95 tons for CMN 8880. Thus, ankylosaurus was the largest or one of the largest representatives of its family.

Ankylosaurus had a very broad, squat, stocky body. He was four-legged, the hind limbs were longer than the forelegs. Although the remains of the feet of this dinosaur have not yet been fully found, based on a comparison with other representatives of ankylosaurs, it can be assumed that representatives of this species had five toes on each foot. There was an opinion that due to the massiveness of its body, ankylosaurus was slow and unwieldy, but, according to experts, this is a misconception - on the contrary, due to the length of its stride, this reptile could move at a sufficiently high speed.

Ankylosaurus skull was low, had a triangular shape, and its width exceeded the length. Based on the analysis of the skull fossils, experts concluded that this dinosaur had a well-developed sense of smell. It is also known that there was a bone septum between the nose and mouth of ankylosaurus, which allowed it to eat and breathe at the same time, which is inherent, for example, in humans, but uncharacteristic for most modern reptiles.

Like other lizards from this group, ankylosaurus was a herbivore with teeth shaped like leaves, which were well suited for tearing vegetation. In relation to the body, the teeth of this lizard were smaller than those of its relatives. Due to the fact that it hardly needed to chew vegetation, it had no grinding devices, its teeth were located deep in the mouth and were very small and weak; the mouth had the shape of a beak, which is also characteristic of some other ankylosaurids. It is calculated that a large ankylosaur, being a warm-blooded animal, had to eat about 60 kg of vegetation per day, although most likely it could reduce this number by eating more nutritious fruits. The bones of the skull and other body parts of ankylosaurus were tightly connected to each other, which increased their strength.

One of the most striking features of the ankylosaur's appearance is its armor, consisting of massive cones and bone plates or shields, called osteoderms. They grew into the skin, and despite the fact that they were not parts of the skeleton, they played an important role in the life of the lizard. In modern times, such features are found in crocodiles, armadillos and some lizards: they perform a variety of functions.

The bone plates of ankylosaurus were probably covered with a hard, keratinized layer of keratin on top. The plates formed special horizontal rows stretching along the neck, back and thigh of the animal, even the lizard's eyelids were armored; a large number of small growths covered the unprotected space between the large plates. Smaller shields were located on the limbs and tail. Moreover, as an additional protection, there was a thickening in the form of a spike in the center of each such growth. The growths were connected to each other by long strips. In view of such an unusual dinosaur cover, it is often described as a "living tank". Previously, ankylosaur osteoderms were supposed to have mainly a protective function — only the lizard's belly remained without armor, but he could protect it by bending his legs and burrowing deep into the soil, thereby depriving the enemy of the opportunity to roll him over on his back. However, as further studies have shown, the strength of ankylosaurus osteoderms was lower than that of other ankylosaurids, and this indicates that they performed ceremonial, masking or thermoregulatory functions rather than protective. Apparently, the armor of ankylosaurs and other ankylosaurids was not an obstacle for large theropods at all, and their main method of protection from predators was camouflage.

Pteranodon is a genus of pterosaurs, including some of the largest known flying reptiles, whose wingspan was more than 7 meters. Pteranodons lived in North America on the territory of modern Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. More than 1,200 pteranodon specimens are known, many well preserved; in particular, there are almost complete skulls and articulated skeletons.

The fossil remains of pteranodon are extremely well represented in the paleontological chronicle, which makes it possible to describe their anatomy in detail and analyze their life history. More than 1,200 specimens have been identified, although less than half are complete enough to provide researchers with good anatomical information. However, this material is more complete than that of any other pterosaur, and it includes both male and female individuals of different age groups and possibly species.

Adult specimens of pteranodons of the two main species can be divided into two different sizes. The type of smaller specimens has small crests with rounded heads and very wide pelvic canals, even wider than those of a much larger size class. The size of the pelvic canal probably allowed eggs to be laid, indicating that these specimens belong to small-sized adult females. The type of large specimens representing males has narrow hips and very large crests, which were probably intended for demonstration.

Adult male pteranodons were among the largest pterosaurs and were the largest flying animals known until the end of the 20th century, when giant azhdarchid pterosaurs were discovered. The wingspan of the average adult male pteranodon was 5.6 m. Adult females were much smaller, on average their wingspan was 3.8 m. The largest specimen of a Pteranodon has a length of 6.25 m from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. While most of the specimens were found fragmented, enough fossils were found to form a detailed description of the animal.

The methods used to estimate the mass of large male pteranodon specimens (with a wingspan of about 7 m) were notoriously unreliable, which allowed us to obtain a wide range of estimates - from 20 kg to 93 kg. In a review of pterosaur size estimates published in 2010, researchers Mark Whitton and Mike Habib demonstrated that the last, largest estimates are almost certainly incorrect, given the total body volume of a pteranodon, and can only be correct if the animal "would mainly consist of aluminum." Whitton and Habib considered the methods used by researchers who received smaller mass estimates to be equally erroneous. Most of them were obtained by scaling modern animals, such as bats and birds, to the size of a pteranodon, despite the fact that pterosaurs have completely different body proportions and soft tissue anatomy from any modern animal.

The basis of the lizard's diet was fish and small crustaceans. He caught them in flight with a long beak.

Allosaurus is a genus of predatory dinosaurs from the Allosaurid family of the theropod suborder. They lived in the Jurassic period about 155-145 million years ago. Allosaurs were predators, moving on powerful hind legs, while the forelimbs were relatively small. Fossils of allosaurs have been found in North America, Southern Europe and East Africa.

The first fossils were studied in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Along with Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus is the most popular predatory dinosaur. He appeared in many feature films, for example, "The Lost World" of 1925, as well as in "Jurassic World 2". The allosaurs were most vividly and plausibly presented in the BBC series "Walking with Dinosaurs" and the film "The Ballad of the Big Al".

Allosaurus was a large bipedal predator with a large skull equipped with dozens of large sharp teeth. Representatives of the type species, Allosaurus fragilis, reached an average of 8.5 meters in length, 3.5 meters in height and weighed more than 1.5 tons, although based on fragmentary remains of a larger size, it can be assumed that large individuals could reach 11 meters in length and weigh more than 4 tons. Allosaurus moved on large and powerful hind legs, while its forelimbs were relatively small, they had three large curved claws. The massive skull was balanced by a long, heavy tail.

Spinosaurus is a member of the spinosaurid family that lived on the territory of modern North Africa in the Cretaceous period (112-93.5 million years ago).

For the first time this type of dinosaur was discovered in Egypt by the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915, who brought the skeleton in Munich. However, during the Second World War, during the bombing, the bones of the Spinosaurus were destroyed. Only drawings and rare photographs of Sttromer have survived to this day.

Spinosaurus is well known from destroyed fossils, not counting recently discovered teeth and skull elements. Recently discovered in Morocco, the fossils of the lower limbs of spinosaurus probably belonged to a young individual, as they reached a small size. The jaw and skull elements presented in 2005 show that he possessed one of the longest skulls among all carnivorous dinosaurs, reaching more than 1.5 meters in length. The skull had a narrow muzzle with jaws filled with straight cone-shaped teeth. The largest of the spinosaurus specimens, known only from skull fragments, according to various reconstruction options could have a length of 12.57 to 16 meters and a mass of 7 to 12 tons, and under certain assumptions in the reconstruction - up to 20 tons. However, other known fossils of adult and almost adult spinosaurs make it difficult to identify it as the largest theropod in history, since these individuals are noticeably inferior in size even to young baryonyx and suchomimus.

One of the distinguishing features of Spinosaurus is its spine. The processes of the dorsal and caudal vertebrae form a kind of "sail" with their size and shape. Other dinosaurs had similar formations. The purpose of the "sail" is the subject of numerous discussions. One of the latest hypotheses is its role as a hydrostabilizer.