Dinosauria
A few million years ago…
Long ago, our planet was populated by gigantic beings, until they mysteriously disappeared. Was it due to a meteorite, a change in diet or simply the passage of time? This is a question that will remain unanswered for a long time to come. Indeed, why and how could entities as impressive as dinosaurs disappear, leaving only a few clues behind them? Witnesses to this era are non-existent, and even if the traces that have been found allow us to make hypotheses, the mystery of their disappearance remains unsolved.
But first, let’s take a step back in time – some 200 million years, to be exact, to the Triassic period, during the Mesozoic era. At that time, the earth was not really as we know it today. The continents were all united in a single “supercontinent”, called Pangea. This period saw the appearance of the first mammals, but above all the first dinosaurs! It was during the next two periods, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous, that these reptiles reached their apogee.
The term dinosaurs comes from Greek and means “terrible lizard” (δεινός / deinόs “terribly large” and σαῦρος / saûros “lizard”). The latter have been classified by scientists into 2 main categories (Ornithischians and Saurischians, depending on the shape of the pelvis), themselves divided into a great many sub-categories. These include the herbivorous Sauropods (Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus) and the large carnivorous Theropods (Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus). With such behemoths, it was only natural that records should be broken. Amphicoelias, for example, is said to be the longest dinosaur at almost 60 meters long, while Sauroposeidon is the tallest at 18 meters.
Although these extraordinary beings have been extinct for millions of years, they have left their mark on our culture. Indeed, many films starring these giants are all the rage! The best-known is the “Jurassic Park” hexalogy. Begun in 1993, the latest film in the saga was released this year. Dinosaurs are the real stars of these films, but some of the ideas conveyed in them are not accurate. The biggest “mistake” is the tyrannosaurus’s race, which, according to scientists, was actually unable to run.
But the merchandising around these lizards doesn’t stop at the movies, and many derivative products have appeared over the years: toys, clothing, figurines, etc., are the talk of the town. In short, there’s nothing more contemporary than a dinosaur!
In Switzerland, many dinosaur tracks can be seen in the canton of Jura, at Courtedoux or in Engadin, in the Swiss National Park. And this summer, BCU Riponne invites you to take a trip back in time with a selection of documents on the world of dinosaurs.
