PREHISTORIC PLANET

Every week, a new species of dinosaur or other ancient creature is discovered, and our understanding of life on Earth grows slightly.

Normally, scientists find it difficult to communicate their discoveries to the general public, but Hollywood can help. The most recent film in the Jurassic World series, Dominion, is excellent, but it does not get everything right. All the characters are not represented and it's not scientifically flawless, but still, it's great for introducing the concept of dinosaurs to first-timers and ignorant people.

t rex could swim!

So to quench your curiosity and learn more about the Prehistoric life forms, you can look up illustrated books, articles, and documentaries,, etc

A recent documentary PREHISTORIC PLANET, hosted by Sir David Attenborough, is produced by Apple in collaboration with BBC Studios and is an epic series that takes the audience on a wild ride, if only it was available in 3D!

It has a lot of detail and accuracy which one will never expect from a sci-fi movie.

8-ton Deinocherius living in wetlands, it was a duckbilled dinosaur taller than T rex

It comes as a surprise to Geology students too, that there were so many kinds of dinosaurs that were highly variable in appearance and behavior.

BBC Studios is also working on renewing its older series on Dinosaurs.

Here’s a list of Indian dinosaurs, If you already didn't know:

Rajasaurus narmadensis

tagori

Bruhakhayalasaurus

Jainosurus

Majungasaurus

Titanosaurus indica

Indosaurus  and many more

learn more her https://iknowdino.com/moros-episode-394/

THE DAY DINOSAURS DIED

Artist depiction of the Asteroid 

Credit – Scotese Paleomap project (this map shows the position of continents when the cretaceous Paleogene mass extinction occurred )

Do you know what happened on the very day dinosaurs died?

Well, according to the latest research done by geologists, it was the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere ( Autumn in the southern hemisphere) when the dino-killing asteroid smashed into the Yucatán Peninsula, off the coast of Mexico (present-day Chixulub).

In a paper recently published in nature, scientists used fossils from a site in North America in North Dakota’s southwest region known as Tanis.

The fossils were deposited by a seiche in a river. seiche is similar to a tsunami wave, but it happens inland, perhaps due to a strong earthquake.

The fossils of the fish present here contained glass spherules that were created due to the asteroid impact, which threw a large amount of molten rock material into space. The liquid rock crystallized, & cooled in space, and fell back down all over the planet. The fish that lived here ingested these and got trapped inside them.

Further researchers were able to figure out the season using the bones of fish.

The timing of the impact was also crucial from our point of view because, during spring, mammals hibernate underground and were very lucky when the asteroid struck

The asteroid that struck the Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago, was at least the size of Mount Everest. It managed to wipe out more than 70 % of all life present on Earth during that time, including the non-avian dinosaurs & giant reptiles.

This event is officially known as the "Cretaceous Paleogene (K- Pg) mass extinction".

The initial impact itself released energy equivalent to billions of nuclear weapons all at once. Thermal radiation melted & vaporized anything within a radius of 1500 km, & the impact debris caused the atmosphere to heat up.

The remainder of the energy was transferred into the Earth's crust, resulting in magnitude 11 earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Massive wildfires raged for months across the globe, releasing aerosols and soot into the upper atmosphere, causing temperatures to plummet and the planet to enter a period of darkness comparable to a nuclear winter. Global photosynthesis was halted due to a lack of sunlight, but fungi thrived on the corpses left behind.

Some debates are still raging on this issue, as the Deccan Traps of India were erupting before the Asteroid struck, either way, it seems that the Global ecosystem was already collapsing 66 million years ago.

You can learn more about this topic on -

Palaeocast | Palaeontology podcasts

BBC One and David Attenborough to reveal the final day of the dinosaurs - Media Centre

https://youtu.be/dFCbJmgeHmA

THE AMAZING GEO-HERITAGE OF RAJASTHAN

Mines in Rajasthan such as the lead-zinc mines of Zawar, Rajpura-Dariba,& Rampura-Agucha supply India’s industrial sector with invaluable raw materials.

During Bronze Age, Gold (18000 BC) & Copper (12000 BC) were used, Carbon dating of burnt wood shows that Zinc smelting happened 3040 ± 150 years ago

There is another well known rock in Rajasthan from the time of the Dinosaurs, the yellow limestone of Jaisalmer
Quarrying has been going on for decades and it is commonly marketed as “Yellow Marble”; Yellow limestone has good demand in the markets of countries in the Middle East, Taiwan, Morocco, USA, Europe, Australia, Africa, & New Zealand.

It is mostly used in making tiles, hotel counters, statues, furniture, mausoleums etc.