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GERTIE
Gertie was the first animated dinosaur. Gertie was drawn by the newspaper
cartoonist Winsor McCay, beginning in 1913. McCay drew Gertie because
his fellow cartoonist, George McManus, bet him that he couldn't. Gertie
was based on the sauropod Brontosaurus (now known as Apatosaurus). McCay's
short animated film, called Winsor McCay America's Greatest Cartoonist
and Gertie, was released in 1914 and was a great success. In the movie,
Gertie eats a tree, drinks a lake, dances on two legs, plays, and gives
McCay a ride. The film consists of 10,00 drawings.
GERTIE the CHINDESAURUS
Gertie is the nickname of a Chindesaurus found in 1984 in the Petrified
Forest National Park, Arizona. Gertie was a meat-eating dinosaur (a theropod)
about 6.5 feet (2 m) long, and dates from the late Triassic Period, roughly
220 million years ago.
GHOST LINEAGE
A ghost lineage is groups of organisms that are thought to exist because
of a cladistic analysis, but for which there is as yet no fossil evidence
of their existence.
Ghost Ranch
This fossil location was discovered by Edwin Colbert in 1947 and is the
site of a mass death during the Late Triassic period. It contained hundreds
of skeletons of Coelophysis and other animals of the time including fish,
molluscs, phytosaurs and crayfish.
GIANT GROUND SLOTH
Megatherium (pronounced MEG-ah-THEER-ee-um) was the largest giant ground
sloth; its name means "great beast." Megatherium was a huge,
bulky, slow-moving herbivore (plant-eater) with peg-like teeth, powerful
jaws, and a thick, short tail. This ice-age mammal had three hook-like
claws on each hand. It was primarily a quadruped (walked on four legs).
It may have eaten leaves from the tops of trees while standing upright
on its hind legs, using its tail to balance. Megatherium was the size
of an elephant. It lived during the Pleistocene epoch in what is now South
America, going extinct about 11,000 years ago. It was about 20 feet (6
m) long and weighed roughly 3-4 tons. Megatherium was named by R. Owen
in 1856; the first Megatherium fossil was found in Brazil in 1789. (Cohort
(many grouped orders) Edentata, Family Megatheriidae, Genus Megatherium)
GIANT SQUID
The giant squid (Architeuthis) is the largest squid and the largest invertebrate
(animal without a backbone). It has not been seen alive since it lives
very deep in the oceans. The largest-known Architeuthis was 57 feet (17.5
m) long. It has eight arms plus two longer feeding tentacles, a beak,
a large head, and two eyes larger than basketballs! These soft-bodied
cephalopods are fast-moving carnivores that catch prey with their tentacles,
then poison it with a bite from beak-like jaws. They move by squirting
water through a siphon, a type of jet propulsion. Only dead examples of
Architeuthis have been found. Its only enemy is the sperm whale who hunts
it deep in the ocean.
GIGANOTOSAURUS
(pronounced JIG-ah-NOT-oh-SAWR-us) Giganotosaurus (meaning: "giant
southern reptile") was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs.
This theropod was slightly longer than Tyrannosaurus rex. It was about
43 ft (13 m) long and weighed roughly 8 tons. It lived during the mid-cretaceous
period, about 100-95 million years ago. Its fossil was unEarthed in the
Patagonia region of Argentina (in southern Argentina) in 1994.
GIGANTOPITHECUS
Gigantopithecus (meaning: "gigantic ape") was the biggest primate
that ever lived. Gigantopithecus was a gorilla-like land-dwelling ape
that weighed roughly 650 pounds (300 kg) and was about 10 feet (3 m) tall.
It was an omnivore, probably eating eating plants and small animals. This
intelligent mammal lived during from the late Miocene until the middle
Pleistocene, roughly a million years ago. Some people think that some
surviving specimens of Gigantopithecus are the Yeti of the Himalayas.
Fossils (mostly jaws and teeth) have been found in China, India, and Pakistan.
Gigantopithecus was named by the German paleoanthropologist Ralph von
Koenigswald; in the 1930's, he had spotted huge fossilized teeth being
sold in Hong Kong for medicinal purposes. The type species is Gigantopithecus
blacki (named to honor Koenigswald's colleague Davidson Black).
GIGANTOTHERMY
(pronounced jie-GANT-oh-therm-ee) Gigantothermy is the maintenance of
a constant, relatively high body temperature by having a large body and
insulation. Large animals have a relatively low surface area: volume ratio,
so they retain heat better than smaller animals.
GIGANTSPINOSAURUS
Gigantspinosaurus (meaning: "giant-spined lizard") was a stegosaurid
dinosaur, a large plant-eater with bony plates running along its back
and tail. This ornithischian dinosaur lived during the Jurassic period.
Fossils of a nearly-complete Gigantspinosaurus skeleton were found in
Zigong , China. Gigantspinosaurus was excavated in 1985 and named in 1993,
but the author is uncertain, and Gigantspinosaurus is considered a nomen
nudem (newly named with little available information). The type species
is G. sichuanensis.
GILMORE, CHARLES W.
Charles Whitney Gilmore (1874-1945) was a scientist who studied North
American and Asian dinosaurs (including those in the Gobi Desert), and
fossil lizards. He named Alamosaurus (1922), Alectrosaurus (1933), Archaeornithomimus
(1920), Bactrosaurus (1933), Brachyceratops (1914), Chirostenotes (1924),
Mongolosaurus (1933), Parrosaurus (1945), Pinacosaurus (1933), Thescelosaurus
(1913), and the family Troodontidae (1924). Gilmoreosaurus (Brett-Surman,
1979) was named to honor Gilmore.
GILMOREOSAURUS
Gilmoreosaurus was an duck-billed dinosaur that lived during the late
Cretaceous period (roughly 99-65 million years ago). This plant-eating
dinosaur was about 26 feet (8 m) long. Incomplete fossils of this ornithischian
hadrosaur have been found in China. The type species is G. mongoliensis
(it was originally called Mandschurosaurus, named by C. W. Gilmore in
1933). Gilmoreosaurus was named by Brett-Surman in 1979 (to honor C. W.
Gilmore).
Ginkgo
Ginkgos, or maiden-hair trees, were deciduous trees that evolved in the
Carboniferous period. They have a tree-like shape with a narrow trunk
and soft foliage that is low in resin but has a high content of toxins.
Only a single species remains today, in China.
GIRAFFATITAN
(pronounced ji-RAFF-ah-TIE-tan) Giraffatitan, 75-100? feet (23-30 m) long,
was a huge, lightly-built, quadrupedal, long-necked, whip-tailed, plant-eating
dinosaur from the late Jurassic Period. It was a brachiosaurid sauropod
from Tendaguru, Tanzania, Africa. Giraffatitan, meaning: "gigantic
giraffe," was named by paleontologist Gregory S. Paul in 1988. G.
brancai is the type species.
GIZZARD
The gizzard (also called the gastric mill) is the part of the stomach
that grinds up food (usually tough plant material), often aided by gizzard
rocks. Many birds have a gizzard, as did some dinosaurs.
GLOSSOPTERIS
Glossopteris (from the Greek glossa, meaning: tongue, because the leaves
were tongue shaped) is a genus of extinct seed fern (a Pteriosperm) whose
fossils are found throughout India, South America, southern Africa, Australia,
and Antarctica. Glossopteris was about 12 ft (3.6 m) tall. The distribution
of this fossil plant throughout the southern hemisphere led the Austrian
geologist Eduard Suess to deduce that there had once been a land bridge
between these areas. He named this large land mass Gondwanaland (named
after a district in India where the plant Glossopteris was found). This
was the southern supercontinent formed after Pangaea broke up during the
Jurassic Period. It included what are now the continents South America,
Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica. These deciduous (losing their
leaves in the cool season) gymnosperms arose during the late Permian period
and became dominant, but went extinct by the end of the Triassic Period.
GLYPTODON
Glyptodon (pronounced GLIP-toh-don) was the one of the biggest ancient
armadillos (the family Glyptodontidae). This car-sized herbivore (plant-eater)
was well-armored, having dome-shaped body armor, helmet-like head armor,
and rings of bony armor on its short tail. This mammal had four short,
thick legs; the front feet each had five clawed toes and the rear feet
were more hoof-like. It had a short snout and powerful jaws, with no teeth
in the front and grinding teeth farther back in the jaws. It was about
10 feet (3.3 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. Fossils have been found
in Argentina, South America. It lived during the Pleistocene (between
2 million and 15,000 years ago). Glyptodon (meaning: "carved tooth")
was named by paleontologist R. Owen in 1839.
GLYPTODONTID
The family Glyptodontidae were ancient armadillos (about 50 genera) that
lived during the Pliocene through the Pleistocene. These extinct, armored
mammals had four short legs, powerful jaws, with no teeth in the front
and grinding teeth farther back in the jaws. The glyptodontids ranged
from to 10 feet (3.3 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. Fossils have been
found in North America and South America. These herbivores (plant-eaters)
may have been preyed upon by saber-toothed cats. Some glyptodontids included:
Glyptodon (the biggest) and Doedicurus (pictured above).
GOJIRASAURUS
(pronounced go-JEER-a-SAWR-us) Gojirasaurus (meaning: "Godzilla lizard")
was a meat-eating dinosaur over 18.3 ft (5.5 m) long (it is the biggest-known
theropod of its time). This biped lived during the late Triassic Period.
Fragmentary fossils of this ceratosaur were found in New Mexico, USA.
Gojirasaurus was named by paleontologist Carpenter in 1997. The type species
is G. quayi.
GOMPHOTHERIUM
Gomphotherium was a 4-tusked, primitive mastodont that was about 10 ft
(3 m) tall. This plant-eater mammal lived during the early Miocene until
the early Pliocene (roughlty 24 to 5 million years ago). This elephant-like
mammal had a long trunk, relatively small ears, a short tail, and four
column-like legs. It had a long lower jaw with two parallel tusks. Fossils
have been found in Kenya (Africa), France (Europe), Pakistan (Asia), and
Kansas, USA (North America). Classification: Class Mammalia, Order Proboscidea,
Suborder Elephantoidea, Genus Gomphotherium.