Dinosaurs 101

 Dinosaurs 101
Or nith o mi mus
: a genus (the type of the family Ornithomimidae) of small slender theropod (having strong hind legs and grasping hands) dinosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous having toothless jaws and a birdlike skeleton.These guys are fast, fast, fast! 


Our friends here in the store have names, Ollie and Oren, they have been known to race around the store and ride the Dinosaur Train. We have to be a little careful because Ollie and Oren aren't too picky about what the eat (we could all learn from this) so we call them Omnivores or say that they are
om·niv·o·rous

[om-niv-er-uh s] 

adjective

1.eating both animal and plant foods.

2. eating all kinds of foods indiscriminately.

These dinosaurs were about 13-foot-long (4-meter),  had large hips, a long tail, and strong hind limbs, and closely resembled ostriches.They lived 144-165 million years ago which is the early to middle Cretaceous period, where the first flowering plants bloomed, it was also the heyday of dinosaurs which led to huge diversity in dinosaur species  , but this time period also led to the huge extinction of the dinosaurs.

Did an Ornithomimus sleep?  That's a really good queston! Yes, but how and for how long? Paleontologists place dinosaurs between crocodiles and birds. Crocodiles do sleep, not in the traditional mammalian sense, but in a way by which they tend to grab short sessions of sleep but without falling into a deep slumber. They sleep with one eye open, so to speak, and are able to be instantly awake at the slightest disturbance.

    

These short sleeping sessions usually occur after bouts of activity and especially after eating. The other thing to take into account with crocodiles is that, if they were to fall into a deep sleep, they would lose control of their body temperature which the animal regulates by moving in and out of the sun and water to adjust its body temperature. Deep sleep could be potentially fatal to any crocodile.

Birds employ a number of strategies when it comes to sleeping which are employed to lessen  the possibility of being attacked when at rest. Some birds sleep on the ground using a combination of camouflage and ground cover for protection some water birds will find refuge on predator free islands or sleep on the water itself. By far the most common strategy, which includes birds that spend the majority of their time on the ground, is to take cover in trees and shrubs. This prevents the vast majority of ground predators from reaching them and, even if they could climb, chances are that vibration and noise would warn the bird of impending danger.

So you decide. Do Ollie and Oren sleep? If they do, how? Where? I'll check Ollie and Oren in the morning!