What are the holes in dinosaur skulls called?  What are their supposed purposes?
410596
Temporal Fenestrae\n\nThese holes have to do w/ attachment of temporal muscles in the head. The ones responsible for pulling the jaw shut. I believe it also has something to do w/ jaw strength but I am not completely sure on that part.\n\nAnapsids didn't have the t.f. Turtles are the only living anapsids.\n\nSynapsids have one tf at the back of the head. This covers all the mammal-like reptiles. Precursors to mammals.\n\nEuryapsids also had one tf located high on the skull. Marine reptiles/plesiosaurs/etc.\n\nDiapsids had two tf. This category covers lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds, etc.\n\nWhile there was a function for these "holes" paleontologists use them more or less to help classify reptiles into categories.
62476
It's called the occipital protuberance.  Its a normal part of every human skull
12704
Glenn, I appologize if this comes off pretentious, but I would like to address part of your question. Unfortunately, it's not the part you probably want answered, but I feel it's the most important part of your question.\n\nWhen it comes to biology/evolution, to ask the question "why" is unanswerable. It's not the way things work when it comes to evolution. Things are the way the are now because of millions of years of selective pressures dictated all current living things into their current constructions.\n\nIn fact, the question "why" is nearly impossible to even consider when it comes to biology. Things are the way they are not for any particular reason. Maybe there were organisms that had developed a large "blowhole" like structure that was at the end of their nasal cavity. But for whatever reason, which may or may not had anything to do with the having two small nares or a bigger blowhole, environmental pressures allowed one organism to succeed and pass along their traits (including the nairs) and the other became extinct.\n\nWe can talk about structure's function that it provides, but that structure was in no way "designed" that way to provide that function. In fact that function may or may not have been essential to that organism surviving and passing along that trait. Some traits are simply along for the ride. In those cases it's other structures that provide increased fitness which allows certain organisms to outcompete and prosper through evolutionary time. \n\nIn the case of having two nares at the opening of the nasal cavity, I have no idea if this was a critical structure for the propogation of organisms on earth. I can make the guess, however, based on the fact that many animals do have similar structures, that this feature was present early on in evolutionary time. The fact that this trait has been maintained suggests one of two possibilites: either these stuctures do have some level of importance for organisms' fitness or 2) there is no real pressure otherwise that has forced a change from this trait that developed early on.\n\nIf there have been some insight gained which is true, I'm not aware. Hopefully someone who has that expertise will find your question and answer. In the meantime, I hope you will consider why the word "why" is not an appropriate place to start the path to finding out.
965181
You should go to an university to check that out. Ask for the geology department and ask for a paleontologist, he(she) will help you out.\nI am no expert on this but it looks more like a type of crab, trilobites the head tend to be preserved more easily than the tail. It seems that you can carve the fossil out that will help, but ask a paleontologist first.
194652
Actually, there's a very simple explanation.\n\nDinosaur fossils have been around for tens of millions of years.  They include fossilized bones and teeth, but also fossilized impressions of skin and footprints.  \n\nThousands of years ago, our ancestors stumbled uppon such fossils just as we do today.  They knew nothing about bones turning to rock and they certainly had no idea about the age of these things.  The fossils could have been a month old or a decade.  Still, they never saw any living dinosaurs.\n\nThey made the best assumption that they could - there were huge lizard beasts that used to be common but now were rare.  All of them - some with feet, some without, some with wings, some without - got lumped together, thrown into the blender of folklore and came out as dragons.\n\nAnd since dinosaur fossils are everywhere on earth, dragon myths are everywhere as well.\n\nNow, doesn't that make sense?
1068175
can't figure the connection, but yes, maybe that's how dinosaurs grew
1071385
I think they were killed in the flood, but have you ever read (I think) in Job about the leviathan?  Sounds so much like a brontesaurus or dipladucas doesn't it?  People try to say it's a croc, but it's  nothing like a crocodile.  Also Psalms 74 says He lopped off the heads (plural) of leviathan, and made mincemeat of the dragon.  I'm not trying to make people believe anything, it's just one of the things I wonder.
323602
In many cases I would imagine the bodies are 'donated ' to scientific institutions, Universities and museum collections. I remember reading somewhere about a zoo rhino that died and was then buried in the university grounds to decay, so that their bones could be used for the university zoological museum. When they first dug him up he wasn't quite 'ready' so they had to rebury him!
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These are additional news releases  which may have tidbits of related information. \n\nhttp://www.nbc17.com/news/10205521/detail.html\nhttp://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/4389/44/\nhttp://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/11/21/dinofind_din.html?category=dinosaurs
391536
It is unlikely that a 65 million year old bone will have any real tissue inside.  If you are thinking of Jurassic Park type exploits, the 'real tissue' was dinosaur blood from inside a mosquito that got preserved in amber.  Preservation in this manner is known as unaltered preservation meaning that the fossil was encased at death in a substance that isolated it from any form of decay hence the fossil is exactly as it was the day it died.  Larger animals may get preserved this way in features such as tar pits or by freezing.  Most fossils are not preserved this way and so do not have any real tissue left at all and most unaltered preservation of large animals has lasted not much more than hundreds of thousands of years, not millions.
605110
The stapes is the oldest of the three ear bones in mammals.  Birds and reptiles only have a stapes (called a columella).  The malleus and incus are both part of the jaw.  The stapes also used to be long and thin instead of stirrup shaped.  This is still true for monotremes, marsupials, and xenarthrans (armadillos, anteaters, and sloths).  The stirrup shape is caused by the passage of an artery through the hole in the middle.\n\nThe role of the stapes is the same in epitherian placentals as it has been in reptiles.  It transmits vibration to the fenestra ovalis in the cochlea.  It's in the cochlea where differential vibration of the various hairs allows for precision of sound interpretation.  \n\nIn mammals the vibration of the stapes is transmitted from the incus.  In nonmammalian vertebrates, these vibrations are transmitted directly from the ear drum.
957141
T-rex sized clown.  Because a Tyrannosaur is about the size of a small *house*, meaning it wouldn't fully *fit* in the room.  :)  Meaning a) the big honking clown couldn't move enough to keep me from kicking him repeatedly in the gonads until he shuts up, and b) that assumes anything else--including myself--could even fit in the room with him, meaning the odds of my being trapped in there with him (and still alive) are fairly slim (and at that point, if he crushes me dead, then it's *his turn* to be scared of my flattened carcass).\n\nBy comparison, a clown-sized dinosaur would be like having a crocodile in the house, only faster.  :(  No thanks, I think being crushed like a cockroach under a huge clown shoe would be the quicker, more merciful death.  :)\n\nJust saying.
274690
The holes your are describing are normal anatomic structures in your tonsils called crypts. Your tonsils atrophy and become smaller as you age. The little stones that people are describing are tonsiliths and are mostly bacteria. You shouldn't be worried about your tonsils unless you are having signs of infection such as fever, sore throat, and such for extended periods of time or if they cause your to have trouble breathing. Otherwise those holes are normal
1064624
Good point!\nAs for them being veggi beforehand...LMAO! (I wonder what that fossilized *meat* was, found in a dino's stomach? T-Rex, anyone?)\nIt's not just animals either, it goes right down to the microscopic level. I could point out the fact(scary word for xtians!)that there's more prey than predators too...but I won't. \nNature is cruel to be kind.\n\n:)
999176
Even if evolutionists are unsuccessful in finding scientific evidence to shore up their theories, they are very successful at one thing: propaganda. The most important elements of this propaganda are the false drawings and designs known as "reconstructions."\nReconstruction can be explained as drawing a picture or constructing a model of a living thing based on a single bone that has been unearthed. The "ape-men" we see in newspapers, magazines, or films are all reconstructions.\nThe important thing here is how scientific these drawings are. Since fossils are usually disordered and incomplete, any conjecture based on them is likely to be totally imaginative. As a matter of fact, the reconstructions made by evolutionists based on the fossil remains are prepared precisely to suit the purposes of the evolutionary thesis. At this point, we have to highlight a particular point: studies based on bone remains cannot reveal the "soft tissues" of a creature. The hair, skin, nose, ears, lips, or other facial features of a living thing cannot be determined from its bone remains. It is very easy for someone committed to evolution to devise an imaginary creature by shaping these soft tissues as he wishes.
581145
Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally "having been dug up") are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. The totality of fossils and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils is called paleontology.\n\nFossilization is actually a rare occurrence because most components of formerly-living things tend to decompose relatively quickly following death. In order for an organism to be fossilized, the remains normally need to be covered by sediment as soon as possible. However there are exceptions to this, such as if an organism becomes petrified or comes to rest in an anoxic (oxygen-free) environment such as at the bottom of a lake. There are several different types of fossils and fossilization processes.\n\nFossils usually consist of traces of the remains of the organism itself. However, fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as the footprint or feces of a dinosaur or reptile. These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils. Finally, past life leaves some evidences that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of chemical signals; these are known as chemical fossils (for lack of a better term).\n\n\nThe oldest known structured fossils are most likely stromatolites. Now understood to be formed by the entrapment of minerals by mucous-like sheets of cyanobacteria, the oldest of these formations dates from 3.5 billion years ago. Even older deposits (3.8 billion years old) of heavy carbon that are indicative of even earlier life are currently proposed as the remains of the earliest known life on Earth.\n\nRarity of fossils\n\nBecause fossilization requires the relatively quick preservation of bodily remains, fossils are relatively rare. Due to the combined effect of taphonomic processes and simple mathematical chance, fossilization tends to favor organisms with hard body parts, those that were widespread, and those that lived for a long time. On the other hand, it is very unusual to find fossils of small, soft bodied, geographically restricted and geologically ephemeral organisms, because of their relative rarity and low likelihood of preservation.\n[edit]\n\nPermineralization\nA permineralized trilobite, Asaphus kowalewskii\nEnlarge\nA permineralized trilobite, Asaphus kowalewskii\n\nPermineralization consists of organic remains being to some degree impregnated by minerals derived from the surrounding sediments or waters. For permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decaying process. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil. Some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth; other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. Once covered with sediment, these layers slowly become compacted and cemented into rock, and the organic remains are slowly replaced with hard minerals. This is a form of diagenesis.\n[edit]\n\nReplacement and compression fossils\n\nIn some cases the original remains of the organism have been completely dissolved or otherwise destroyed. When all that is left is an organism-shaped hole in the rock, it is called a mould fossil or typolite. If this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is called a cast fossil and is considered a replacement fossil since the original materials have been completely replaced by new, unrelated ones. In some cases replacement occurs so gradually and at such fine scales that no "hole" in the rock can ever be discerned and microstructural features are preserved despite the total loss of original material.\n\nCompression fossils such as those of fossil ferns are the result of chemical reduction of the complex organic molecules composing the org
40882
well actually I've been pondering this for a while. God say's He created them. I dont think they were 'pets'. the fossil soil beneath us is four miles thick all around the earth. that translates into one hell of a lot of dinosaurs. then they died . God begins creating again calling forth 'every living creature'. life begins to grow and mulitply on its own without God's help. so it is my feeling that the dinosaurs served one absolute and essential purpose. God created them specifically to be used as fertilizer for the earth. to provide fossil fuel. the earth would not be in existence today if not for the dinosaurs. life as we know it would not be the same. they were used to prepare the earth for human habitation.