1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,680 Speaker 1: Imagine you're taking a walk in a meadow and you 2 00:00:02,800 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: happen across a big I mean a really really big bone. 3 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 1: But in your world, there's no known animal that could 4 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: have come from I'm Patty Steele. Wow, dinosaurs, But where 5 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: did they go? That's next on the backstory. We're back 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:24,840 Speaker 1: with the backstory. Okay, the Earth is about four and 7 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: a half billion years old. Dinosaurs ran the planet from 8 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty two million to sixty six million 9 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: years ago. Our human ancestors appeared maybe seven million years ago, 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: with modern man showing up only about three hundred thousand 11 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: years ago. So, in the scheme of all that stuff, 12 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,920 Speaker 1: two hundred years not even the blink of an eye. Right. 13 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: Despite people finding some really big bones previous to eighteen hundred, 14 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: they all thought the bones belonged to giant lizards, dragons 15 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: if you lived in Asia, or even a race of 16 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: giant humans that had disappeared. There was no such thing 17 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: as dinosaurs. Even the word didn't exist. Then. In eighteen nineteen, 18 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,760 Speaker 1: William Buckland, a fossil hunter, finds an enormous bone. He 19 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: suspects it's some kind of lizard. The thing was probably 20 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: about forty feet long in real life, which, as you 21 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: might imagine, frigs everybody out. What is it? Are there 22 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: others like it still alive somewhere. I'll keep in mind 23 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: this was when pretty much everybody believed the Bible's creation 24 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: story that everything and everybody appeared about six thousand years ago, 25 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: and all those creatures still roam the earth. By eighteen 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: twenty four, Buckland gives his creature the first dinosaur like name. 27 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: He calls it a megalosaurus. By the early eighteen forties, 28 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: it's full on dinosaur fever, after another scientist, Robert Owen, 29 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: says these things are unlike anything still inhabiting the planet. 30 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: He compares them to other fossilized remains, says they are 31 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 1: their own classification. He gives them the name dinosauria, later 32 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: changed to dinosaur based on the Greek words for terrible lizards. 33 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,520 Speaker 1: By the eighteen fifties there was full scale dinosaur mania. 34 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:19,920 Speaker 1: London's Crystal Palace had basically the world's first dinosaur park, 35 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: with life sized models of the megalosaurus and others, and 36 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: there was even a dinner throne for some big shots, 37 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: with guests seated inside the model of another dinosaur called 38 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 1: an Iguanadon. Going back previous to the dinosaur craze in 39 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: Europe and then the US in the early eighteen hundreds, 40 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: there was already a fascination with the bones of animals 41 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: that were found or no living species were discovered near it. 42 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,239 Speaker 1: In fact, one of our most vividly curious founding fathers, 43 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, was such a fan of what he called bones. 44 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: He collected the fossilized bones of a mastodon, not a dinosaur. 45 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: The mastodon was a mammal that was basically a huge 46 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:04,839 Speaker 1: prehistoric elephant. He actually displayed them in the front hall 47 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: of his home in Virginia. And here's a fascinating tidbit 48 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: about his obsession. We've all heard of the Lewis and 49 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: Clark expedition, where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were asked 50 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:20,480 Speaker 1: to go west and explore and map the vast western wilderness. Right. Well, 51 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 1: it turns out that wasn't the only reason they hit 52 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: the dirt highway. Thomas Jefferson was convinced, based on the 53 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,679 Speaker 1: Biblical theory of creation, that all animals that had ever 54 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: lived on Earth still lived here, that somewhere there was 55 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: another one out there and he wanted one word, has it. 56 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: Jefferson believed the mastadons that had once lived in Virginia 57 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: had migrated west and were still out there. He wanted 58 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark to search for one of these things 59 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: and bring it back, or at least bring back more 60 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: remnants of mastadons and other massive creatures. After the expedition 61 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: was over, Clark kept working for Jefferson and sent him 62 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: more mastodon bones that he'd found on his travels, but 63 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: clearly no live specimens. Kind of like the hunt for 64 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: King Kong. You know. Well, today we continue to uncover 65 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: new stories about dinosaurs. We know that the biggest dinosaur ever, 66 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: in fact, the biggest land animal ever, was a thing 67 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: called an Argentinosaurus. Paleontologists say it was over one hundred 68 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: and thirty feet tall and weighed about two hundred and 69 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: thirty thousand pounds. Scientists now say that today's birds actually 70 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: evolved from some dinosaurs called theropods, which included the Jurassic 71 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: Park fan favorites, the t rex and velociraptors. They say 72 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:41,920 Speaker 1: these dinosaurs were likely covered with bright colored feathers. Imagine 73 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: a bright blue or red, fuzzy t rex. What's really 74 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:49,239 Speaker 1: interesting is the thought that while dinosaurs in various forms 75 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:52,560 Speaker 1: roamed the Earth for hundreds of millions of years, they 76 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: went completely extinct in one nine month period sixty six 77 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:00,559 Speaker 1: million years ago. That's when a six mon mile wide 78 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: asteroid bigger than Mount Everest hit the Earth off the 79 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: coast of what's now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The impact from 80 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,560 Speaker 1: that collision released one hundred million megatons of energy. It 81 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: vaporized the asteroid and sent a massive cloud of ash, 82 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: dust and dirt into the atmosphere and across the globe, 83 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: blocking out the sun. That caused a global collapse of 84 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: the food chain. Meantime, molten glass rained down all over 85 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: the Earth, there were wildfires, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, the air 86 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: temperature was scalding hot and then freezing cold, and finally 87 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: there was the never ending darkness. All of that killed 88 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:47,599 Speaker 1: off all land based dinosaurs in just nine months. So 89 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: when you think about the history of the world, it's 90 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: pretty amazing that we had no sense of the existence 91 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: of dinosaurs who lived for several hundred million years until 92 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: the last two hundred years, literally no time. You kind 93 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: of realize We're only at the very dawn of the 94 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 1: exploration of where we've been and where we're going. I'm 95 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, 96 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 1: the Elvis Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer 97 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new 98 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,520 Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out 99 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram 100 00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. 101 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,599 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the 102 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.