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Dinosaurs were amazing creatures that lived across the globe. While we may not have any living dinosaurs left with us today, they did leave behind enough fossils to tell an intriguing story. Everybody likes to know where they lived and what they did with their time.
We can determine where the dinosaurs lived by analyzing their bones and the rocks around them. Let’s see how we can tell from looking at fossils where the dinosaurs lived.
Pangea: The Giant Prehistoric Supercontinent Where Dinosaurs Lived
Before 200 million years ago, all land was part of one supercontinent called Pangea, which means “whole land” in Greek. Pangea broke up into two parts: Laurasia and Gondwana. Laurasia was the name given to the landmass that included North America and Asia. Gondwana included Africa, South America, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica. The breakup of these supercontinents caused changes in climate and wildlife across the world.
It was like a giant puzzle piece with many different pieces stuck together. The landmasses were once part of larger continents that shifted over millions of years. The most famous part of this supercontinent is Gondwana, which means “land of the giraffes” in Sanskrit. This supercontinent broke apart over time into the continents we have today. The continents drifted across the globe and changed position over millions of years.
Fossils of dinosaurs come from all over the world. Radioactive dating techniques can tell the age of rocks by measuring how certain elements decay into other elements. As this process occurs, they give off heat energy that scientists can measure to determine how long ago an event occurred.
Dinosaurs have left their fossils worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and North America. If we look at dinosaur fossils worldwide and plot them on a map, we can see that nature did not evenly distribute them around the globe.
They were most common in what is now Asia and Africa during the Cretaceous Period (145-66 million years ago). They were also common in North America during this period, but less so than in Asia. During the Jurassic Period (206-145 million years ago), dinosaurs were more common in Europe than on any other continent on Earth.
Paleontology: The Study of Fossils
Fossilization is the process by which an organism becomes a fossil. There are many different types of fossilization. They all have one thing in common: they preserve the shape and structure of an animal or plant that lived long ago.
In this case, these fossils are remains of once-living organisms found in rock, made up of minerals and formed by volcanic activity. Over millions of years, this process may turn soft tissue into stone or bone into coal. Fossils are usually found in sedimentary rock like sandstone and limestone. These rocks often form from layers of sand and mud deposited over time.
When a paleontologist finds a fossil, they must first identify what type of organism it is by looking at its shape and size. They can determine whether there are any other fossils nearby to know if it’s an isolated find or part of a larger group (called an assemblage). 
The Age of a Fossil Tells Us How Different Species Lived
Paleontologists have to determine how old the fossils are. That way, they can answer questions about how different species lived and died in the past. Have you ever wondered how paleontologists know the age of fossils?
Scientists need to know where they found the dinosaur to determine whether it lived above or below ground level. Scientists can use clues about a dinosaur’s environment when it died to estimate how long it lived, for example, land vs. water. One way paleontologists do this is by using radioactive dating.
Paleontologists use radioactive dating to determine the age of fossils. Radioactive dating measures the age of rocks or fossils by measuring how much radiation remains in them. Radiation occurs when radioactive particles from space collide with the Earth, such as when volcanoes erupt. After millions of years since the last nearby volcanic activity, the radiation ceases to decay. Scientists can use radiation levels in the Earth’s crust to determine how different old layers are.
Radioactive dating uses radioactive isotopes to measure the age of something like a rock or fossil. Isotopes are atoms that have different numbers of neutrons in their nucleus than other atoms have. For example, carbon-14 is an isotope used in radioactive dating because it has six neutrons while most other atoms have eight neutrons.
Carbon-14 decays into nitrogen-14 over time, so measuring how much carbon-14 there was when something died can tell us how long ago it died. Paleontologists have learned a lot about dinosaurs thanks to their work with fossils.
Plants Can Tell Us About Where Dinosaurs Lived
Plants and dinosaurs lived together, so it’s not surprising that we can use plant fossils to learn about dinosaurs. The most common plant fossil is pollen—tiny grains of pollen that nature caught in tree sap. Plants make pollen to help them reproduce, so when the tree dies, there’s a good chance some of its pollen will still be around.
Pollen fossils are a common find in many rock formations worldwide. They’re especially common in samples from tropical regions. Why? Because back then, tropical regions had more rain and more plants than other places on Earth.
Pollen can tell us what kinds of plants grew around when dinosaurs lived. It can tell scientists which kinds of plants were flowering at different times. Also, how long each season lasted and when it started. This information helps us understand how climate change affects plant growth. And how plants evolved in response to environmental changes.
Paleontologists use plant fossils to figure out what the climate was like in the period when dinosaurs lived. Plants that grow in different climates have different characteristics. For example, plants in dry climates have thick leaves that hold water longer than plants in wetter areas. Plants grow flowers and fruits to attract specific animals for pollination and reproduction.
When paleontologists find plant fossils near dinosaur fossils, they can learn what kind of climate the dinosaurs lived in when they lived. It means that paleontologists can use plant fossils to show how dinosaurs lived.
Fossil Evidence that Shows Dinosaurs Lived in Dry Climates
Fossilized dinosaur bones with erosion marks indicate that they lived in a dry climate. The erosion marks show that the climate was arid, meaning dry, and had little to no rainfall.
The ground will be drier in an arid climate, so water will run off faster and not remain in the soil. Plantlife would suffer without water. It would cause them to have a harder time growing and surviving, which means they would have less access to nutrients.
The dinosaurs living in an arid climate were more likely to die from starvation or dehydration than those in other climates (such as tropical). If you’ve ever seen a dinosaur skeleton, you might be able to guess how that dinosaur lived.
If you see a fossilized bone with erosion marks, the dinosaur likely lived in a dry climate. How do the bones decay? After many years of exposure to elements, their bones become fossilized and covered with sediment.
The sediment can be very fine, like dust or larger pieces of rock or sand eroded from nearby hillsides or cliffs. Those sediments slowly build up over time until they cover the bones completely and form layers of rock around them and above them. Scientists call this process taphonomy: it refers to how bones become fossils a long time after death. It also helps us learn more about how dinosaurs once lived on Earth thousands of years ago.
Evidence that Dinosaurs Lived in Windy Conditions
If you find a fossil buried under sedimentary rock layers, it indicates that the conditions at the time of its burial were windy.
The wind moves sand grains all over the Earth’s surface. When sandstone or mudstone layers form, they contain very small sand grains. If windy conditions blew some of these grains into the sediments, they would stay there for millions of years. It will cause more layers of sedimentary rock to form.
If you find fossilized remains of a dinosaur in layers of sandstone or mudstone, then it’s likely that winds were strong during the period in which the dinosaur lived. Winds strong enough to carry sand grains into dunes or other piles could trap them for millions of years.
Dinosaur Fossils that Proved They Lived in Flood Conditions
Dinosaurs were not just behemoths that walked the earth millions of years ago. They were animals that lived in a very specific environment and landscape. The fossils exposed on the surface were probably deposited in flood conditions. It means the dinosaur likely lived near a river or other body of water.
Fossils of dinosaurs are often found in rock layers laid down by the water. When these dinosaurs died, their bodies sank to the bottom of whatever body of water was nearby. Sediments carried by the water buried their remains. The sediments lithified into rock and preserved the bones inside.
Fossils are usually exposed to the surface because wind and rain can cause the soil around a fossil to erode and expose it to the surface. Exhumation is the erosion of rocks that occurs when exposed after fossilization or lithified. The rate at which exhumation happens varies based on climate, topography, and weathering rates. Dinosaur bones surfacing in archaeological sites are evidence of a global flood.
Footprints Show Dinosaurs Moved and Lived In Herds
Like most people, you probably think of dinosaurs as enormous creatures that lived in herds. But how do we know that? It’s thanks to their fossilized footprints. When a dinosaur walks, it leaves behind imprints of its feet. The size, shape, and depth of these imprints tell us a lot about what kind of dinosaur was walking there, whether it was walking alone or with others.
For example, some dinosaurs walked primarily on two legs and had toes that were flat against the ground as they walked (like birds). These dinosaurs left behind tracks that look very similar to human footprints: one big toe followed by three smaller ones on each foot. Other dinosaurs walked primarily on four legs, with toes bent upwards at the tips (like cats). These dinosaurs left behind more round tracks than human footprints and have four distinct toes separated by gaps.
The idea that dinosaurs were social creatures is one of the fascinating things about them. It’s hard to imagine a T-rex wandering around by itself. Dinosaurs were probably more like deer or wolves and lived in herds. Fossilized footprints in the fossil record show us that many different dinosaurs traveled together. They include large herbivores like Diplodocus and Apatosaurus and carnivores like Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex.
The evidence for this comes from a collection of footprints found in Canada’s Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. This park preserves the only known dinosaur stampede site on Earth. A place where several different species of dinosaurs were running together during some stampede event. Scientists studying the geological record found a startling discovery: fossils preserved for thousands of years.
Fossils Show if Dinosaurs Lived in Mountains or Near Rivers
If you want to know if your favorite dinosaur likes to live in mountains or near rivers, one of the best ways to find out is by looking at its fossilized remains. If you find a fossilized dinosaur skeleton, you can figure out what kind of environment it lived in by looking at the rocks around it.
We know that dinosaurs lived on land, but we also know that some species prefer certain environments. For example, sauropods usually liked to live near rivers because they needed water to drink and cool down their bodies. Sauropods were the largest animals that ever lived on Earth, so they needed a lot of food to survive. Because of this, sauropods could not live in areas where there were not a lot of plants available for them to eat.
Over time rivers tend to flood and deposit sediment in their beds. The bones of animals near rivers tend to be softer than those of other land-based creatures. If the rock surrounding your dinosaur skeleton is hard and rough like sandstone, it probably lived near a river or lake because that’s where most sediments settle.
Some dinosaurs lived in high places because they have fossilized bones that show broken ribs. The broken ribs prove that the dinosaur fell from a high place and died from injuries. Scientists find footprints of some dinosaurs in rock layers above ground level. Those dinosaurs must have lived on mountain tops or slopes because there were no oceans nearby during those times.
The bones of animals found in mountainous areas are generally harder and denser than those of animals in other regions. It is because of the exposure to extreme temperatures and pressure over time. If you find a fossilized dinosaur skeleton surrounded by mudstone instead (made from clay), your dinosaur probably didn’t live near water sources. It was probably buried under soil layers in an environment with very little rainfall or runoff from streams or rivers. 
Final Thoughts
With so many dinosaur fossils, paleontologists can piece together where they lived and fill in gaps in the fossil record. With their findings, we have a much clearer picture of what the dinosaurs may have looked like and where they lived and thrived on this planet.
We hope this article has convinced you that dinosaur fossil studies are fascinating. More fossil evidence is being discovered all the time. There’s a lot to look forward to when learning how dinosaurs lived and died.
