In the Takla Makan Desert (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China), eggs of giant prehistoric lizards have long been found. And not only find. Locals, not spoiled by the bounty of their arid land, have learned to use them as a supplement to their diet.
Before being eaten, a hardened dinosaur egg undergoes a long processing process: it is soaked in a special solution, which makes the shell come off and the egg itself softens, then boiled for a long time, salted, and only then served with various seasonings. This most, probably, exotic dish on Earth is called “symajo”.
However, its exoticism is not the point. And the fact that dinosaur eggs are really quite edible. And this fact refutes the whole building - so slender and finished ... it would seem - not only modern paleontology, but also other related sciences: geology, biology, history, finally.
Why? Yes, because the dinosaurs died out, as we all know very well - according to the assurances of this very paleontology - 65 million years ago, and everything that we know about them stems from their fossilized remains extracted from the bowels of the earth. But what are these fossilized remains? These are not just bones or eggs, which, because of their antiquity, have become hard as stone; no, it's just a copy of those same bones and eggs, resulting from a process known as thessalization. Thessalization, or petrification, is the replacement of calcium contained in a living organism with silicon. There is nothing organic left in the thessalized fossils, which is what allows them to persist for such a long period of time to the present day. But ... a stone, even if it has the shape of an egg, remains a stone, and no matter how you soak it, you will not be able to soften it. This means that “symajo” is not made of fossilized, but only dried dinosaur eggs! And this is a real disaster for paleontology, undermining all its foundations, and above all, the paleontological record of the Earth!
The problem with "non-fossilized" dinosaur eggs is that for 65 million - and just a million - years, they could not be physically preserved. Because, having lost their moisture, the eggs during this period would first mummify - just like the Egyptian pharaohs - and then crumble into dust. But… they just dried up! And it turns out that ceratosaurs, diplodocus and other inhabitants of Takla-Makan laid them not 65 million years ago, but literally “yesterday”, some 10-12 thousand years ago! By the way, the remains of other extinct creatures are of the same age - mammoths, whose meat frozen in permafrost was also eaten by the population of the north quite recently.
But... dinosaurs are contemporaries of mammoths?! After all, 65 million years were not taken from the ceiling, all the paleontologists of the world unanimously assure us that such a gap in time has passed since the giants of the Cenozoic era shook the earth with their steps. And there is no reason not to believe them!
At first glance, yes. And if you look at these assurances and unbiased?
Already at a second glance, you realize with surprise that it was from the ceiling, and from nowhere else, that these most notorious million years were taken. Or rather, from the categorical statement of Charles Lyell (1797-1875), the founder of modern geology, a contemporary and colleague of another widely known Charles - Darwin. Captivated by the ideas of the latter, Lyell said: “the forces now acting both on earth's surface, and below it, may be identical in kind and degree with those that in remote epochs produced geological changes", and "geologists have so misinterpreted the signs of a sequence of events that they considered centuries where the numbers meant millennia, and millennia where the language of nature meant millions of years...” He said this in response to the attacks of opponents of the theory of evolution, who stated that the time of the existence of the Earth is simply not enough for the changes noted in this theory. And ... they believed him! Without evidence and facts, just - believed! Since then, paleontologists have followed the course indicated by him, unable to leave the paved track.
But what about all these ultra-modern methods for determining the age of fossil objects, to which the same paleontologists pray, like icons: the radiocarbon method, the potassium-argon method, the uranium method? Unfortunately, all of them not only do not differ in any acceptable accuracy - for example, the errors issued by the radiocarbon dating method are comparable to the age of the object under study - but also ... the length of time for which they can be applied. After all, all these methods are based on the half-lives of certain radioactive elements, and therefore cannot "see" an object whose age exceeds this period by more than twice. For uranium, for example - the most "long-playing" of the elements - this period is 24 million years; consequently, fossils and objects that are older than 48 million years are no longer accountable to him. And again, we return to the question we started with: where did the 65 million years since the death of the dinosaurs come from, not to mention 5.5 billion years since the beginning of the Earth? And the answer, unfortunately, also remains the same: from the ceiling! Because it is FAVORABLE for paleontologists!
True, in fairness, it is worth noting that paleontologists themselves do not seem to be too satisfied with the situation that has developed in their science and therefore are looking for other, more suitable, methods of determining age. And they even found one such - according to the rate of sedimentation. It has long been known that our Earth is "getting fat" - adding an average of one centimeter per hundred years to its diameter. This happens due to the decomposition of organic remains - animals and plants - as well as inorganic sediments: sand and clay, which "supply" mountains collapsing due to weathering. The rate of this accumulation of precipitation, of course, is uneven and depends on the terrain - tropical jungles “thicken” the fastest, and deserts the slowest. And 1 centimeter is precisely the average value of this speed, in reality it ranges from 1 millimeter to 3 centimeters per century.
Wonderful! Some certainty! But ... Ah, this is the notorious "but"! How does it ruin everything! It's so easy to believe that scientists who are engaged in their science all their lives know what they are doing and what they are talking about! Believe - and do not check their statements! And it would be worth it! And why wait? Let's do it right now, especially since it will not require much effort. For this test is available to any first-grader. So, 1mm × 650,000 centuries = 650,000 mm = 650m! Six hundred and fifty meters! That is how much precipitation should have accumulated over the 65 million years that have passed - supposedly - since the death of the dinosaurs!
Of course, under the pressure of the upper layers, the lower ones are pressed, becoming deeper, the thinner, however, this deformation can be neglected, especially if we take the lower bar for calculation - which we did. If we make a calculation based on the average value of sedimentation, then we will get a fantastic figure of 6.5 kilometers! And the sedimentary rocks that arose - allegedly - during the formation of the Earth, should generally lie at a depth ... from 55 to 550 kilometers! For comparison, an ultra-deep well on the Kola Peninsula, which remains a record to this day, barely reached 13 kilometers.
No one has ever excavated at such a depth! Yes, this was not required - the bones of dinosaurs are much closer to the surface - two or three meters; in some places, as in the same Takla Makan, they are generally barely covered with a thin layer of sand. Three meters ... 3000 millimeters ... Let's calculate the age. 3000mm × 100 years = 300,000 years. Three hundred thousand! But not 65 million! However, at such a depth, the compression and compaction of soil words is minimal, and in this case, it is possible to calculate their age using the average value. And such a calculation gives a completely "childish" figure - 30,000 years! This is the REAL age of the layers, lying at a depth of 3 meters and containing the bones of "extinct millions of years ago" dinosaurs. And, looking at these figures, I just want to scream: people! Wake up! They shamelessly, shamelessly, shamelessly deceive you! And dinosaurs are not things of bygone years at all, but practically your contemporaries! This is directly stated by the traces found by those same paleontologists around the world. Fossilized footprints of dinosaurs - and people who passed next to these "terrible" lizards!
However, if we take the time of extinction of the dinosaurs as thousands, not millions, of years, then such a neighborhood becomes quite understandable and even natural. After all, it was 30 thousand years ago that man began to settle not only in Europe, but also in America, where for the most part his "anomalously ancient" petrified traces are found, an eyesore to modern orthodoxies from paleontology.
It seems that paleontologists themselves are no longer too satisfied with the classical chronology. In any case, having found in the "fossilized" leg of a tyrannosaurus rex, dug out in 1990 in the Hell Creek familia in Montana (USA) soft tissues, flexible (!), branched blood vessels with dried, but not destroyed (!) hemoglobin, and a sinewy, but elastic bone matrix, the author of the find, Mary Higby Schweitzer, a paleontologist from the University of North Carolina, in an article in Earth magazine in 1997 g. "let slip":
"Perhaps the mysterious structures were, at best, derivatives of blood modified by millennia of geological processes." ("Perhaps the mysterious structures were, at best, derived from blood, modified over the millennia by geological processes").
“Millennia” wrote (millennia), not “millions”, and certainly not “tens millions” (tens of millions)!
However, as I noted earlier, 2-3 meters is not at all the universal depth of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs. In most places, these bones are found almost on the surface, and in this case their age is limited to "only" a few thousand, and sometimes even several hundred years! And this is already historical period, a period in which humanity, having mastered writing, used it to the fullest, entering all the more or less significant events into its annals. Do we honor them?
According to ancient Celtic chronicles, King Moridd was killed and swallowed up in 336 BC by the giant monster Belua. The monster "swallowed the body of Morvidus (the name of Moridda in Latin transcription. Auth.), Like a large fish swallows a small one."
The early Britonian king Peredar was more fortunate - he won a fight with a similar monster in the Llyn Llyon area (Wales). British chronicles also tell of many places in what is now Wales that were inhabited by the monsters Aphank and Karrog. One of the last Afanki was killed in 1693 (!) by Edward Lloyd at Llainar Afanke on the Conway River. And in the chronicles of the Canterbury Temple (Great Britain) it is noted that on Friday, September 16, 1449, near the village of Little Conrad on the border of the counties of Suffolk and Essex, many residents observed a fight between two giant reptiles.
But why has everything changed so much? Why did dinosaurs become extinct? Well, taking into account all the above chronicles, as well as unquoted, but well-known fairy tales, epics, legends and myths, we can safely say that the last representatives of this species were destroyed, sadly, by the man himself. But dinosaurs were still - and paleontology does not lie in this - perhaps the most numerous species of living creatures on our planet, and a person simply physically could not serve as the main reason for their disappearance. So, there was another, much more significant reason, and sent the "terrible lizards" on the path of extinction. The man has just completed what she started. "The reason is the Yucatan meteorite!" - any more or less educated person will say now. And ... again he will be mistaken!
Until 1991, there were several dozen theories designed to explain the inexplicable disappearance of ancient lizards - from climate change to a supernova explosion in the vicinity of the Sun. But then the Yucatan meteorite crater was discovered, and these theories were forgotten, deciding that the answer had finally been found.
Paradoxically, but main blow according to this "clue" paleontologists themselves apply. More precisely, their finds are the very petrified traces that were mentioned a little earlier. Moreover, human footprints here can be left “behind the scenes” with a clear conscience and focus on the footprints of dinosaurs. Because if the thessalization of bone remains is still understandable, then the thessalization of traces has no reasonable explanation - neither in the light of meteorite, nor any other theory. And paleontologists, who are well aware of this, are trying once again do not draw attention to these prints: “Here are the traces of a dinosaur that passed here 65 million years ago ... And here is its skeleton! Just look how big and scary he is, how well all his bones are preserved! And what teeth he has! With such teeth, you can easily bite into a car! .. What, traces? What about traces? Footprints as footprints, what is special about them? Do not be distracted and look better at the bones!
And traces are just special, because they simply SHOULD NOT exist! Think about it - in order to preserve them for MILLIONS (!) Years, they had to (for the same millions of years): a) stop raining; b) blowing winds; c) Animals capable of trampling them will disappear. There are billions of living beings on Earth, but nowhere and never, with the exception of the "dinosaur" period, their traces have not been preserved for more than a week; usually this period is one, maximum two days. And that's it! They are erased by the elements and other animals that passed later. And there are dinosaur footprints! So what could be the reason for their persistence?
Undoubtedly, it was a catastrophe on a global scale, and the Yucatan meteorite has nothing to do with it - precisely because of the weakness of its impact on the earth's bio- and geosphere. Its influence, even according to the most daring assumptions of astronomers, geologists and paleontologists themselves, was already fading away within a radius of 2000 kilometers from the place of its fall; where did he have to influence the WHOLE Earth? And - at the same time?
So what killed the ancient lizards?
A supernova explosion can be rejected immediately: X-ray radiation - the only consequence of such an explosion that could be felt on Earth - would simply sterilize our entire planet, destroying all life, down to bacteria, so now we would not discuss this issue with you. Changing of the climate? It is now proven that dinosaurs, at least some of them, were warm-blooded, and even a sharp cold snap could not lead to their widespread death. Rather, it would have destroyed the turtles and crocodiles that were contemporaries of the dinosaurs - and calmly survived their death. What then?
In 1971, in the Gobi desert (Mongolia), paleontologists discovered the fossilized remains of a protoceratops and a velociraptor woven in a fight. Both - both the predator and its prey - died STANDING, without even opening their jaws, clenched on each other. From everything it turned out that their death was unexpected for them and simultaneous, moreover, lightning fast. Something had killed them on the spot, turning them into monuments to themselves; and after that, they not only did not collapse lifeless to the ground, but for some reason more than one scavenger did not touch them either, leaving the corpses untouched.
The only reason why the body seems to freeze in the position that preceded its death is ... no, not cold - even liquid nitrogen is not able to instantly freeze a living organism, especially one as well-fed as a protoceratops, which was very large in size and structure. looks like a modern pig - and ... fever! Burning heat, not less than 5000 degrees, leading to convulsive contraction of ligaments and tendons and instantly drying them up, as a result of which the body loses all mobility for a very long time. However, this heat should act on the body for no more than a few seconds, otherwise it will simply burn out, leaving only a bunch of charred bones. At the same time, such heat and the same duration leads to the sintering of the soil into a kind of concrete, on which the traces of those creatures that passed through this soil shortly before exposure to high temperature are perfectly preserved.
Nuclear explosion? Or, given the scale of what happened - a global nuclear war? No, although it will disappoint the adherents of the lost ancient civilizations. The fact is that a nuclear conflict, like a supernova explosion, would destroy not only dinosaurs, but in general all life, and our Earth would now be a radioactive ball covered with ashes, empty and completely lifeless. Then what?
All the heat and all the energy that we have on Earth has one and only source - the Sun. And it is to him that we must turn our attention in search of an answer.
The 11-year periods of activity of our central luminary have long been known. However, other cycles have also been identified - secular (80-90 years long) and millennial ones, lasting 1800-2000 years. Incidentally, the latter are associated with the emergence of the Sahara Desert, which some 4,000 years ago was a region full of life, water and vegetation. Surprisingly, all the "suns" of the ancient Maya, into which they divided their calendar, were approximately 4,000 years, with the exception of the last, fifth "sun", lasting 5126 years. However, the Maya is a special conversation, but for now let's get back to our, not calendar, but the real Sun itself.
So, approximately every eleven, 85 and 1900 years, something happens to our luminary, and it begins to behave “inadequately”: it flares up, bringing down on the Earth a real flurry of all kinds of radiation - X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, the consequences of which are felt by all meteorologically dependent - and not so much - people. Even the suicide of whales and dolphins, suddenly throwing themselves ashore, is now associated with these outbreaks, which disrupt the navigation of marine mammals in their native element.
We are already so accustomed to hearing about these solar storms, minimums and maximums of solar activity, that we do not think about what is hidden behind these so familiar words: that the Sun pulsates and periodically explodes like a supernova in miniature, dumping excess of its energy into the surrounding space. energy. This means that much more significant fluctuations can occur on it: explosions, whose energy is millions of times higher than the energy of flashes known to us. They CAN happen - and they did! As a result of one of these explosions, which occurred about a million years ago (oh, those millions!), Animals and birds - and people - formed the pigment melanin, which gave us black ravens, black cats - and the Negroid race. This is an indisputable fact recognized by astronomers, biologists, and paleontologists. However... the prescription of what happened for some reason makes it something insignificant in their eyes, and they dismiss the idea that this can - and should! - repeat! And that one of these explosions was the reason why the Earth suddenly turned into a red-hot steel furnace for a few seconds, killing the dinosaurs and conserving their traces!
So it’s not asteroids or aliens that are the main threat for us, but our sun, which gave us life, but can easily take it away. Not without reason, probably, the Mayans nevertheless divided their history precisely into “suns”; it seems that they, unlike us, knew perfectly well that it was the Sun that was the beginning of all things. And - its end.

Dinosaurs took part in wars in the 16th century. A lot of things do not fit into the history that is taught to us in schools and not only. We firmly believe that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago, because this is the official version, but is it really so? It turns out that there are many hypotheses that these prehistoric animals lived next to humans for many years, after the "Christmas". The painting "Suicide of Saul" by artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1562, is a direct confirmation of this. On it, among other things, the troops depict riders riding dinosaurs! (Sergey Isofatov).

Original taken from sibved Are dinosaurs the same age as humans?

This idea has long appeared (below I will try to state it). And, now, quite scientific information about the surviving organic matter in the bones of dinosaurs caught my eye. Agree, for 65 million years. any organic material will decompose into mineral substances, or petrify, acquire inorganic features as well.
But, despite this age, there are such facts:

For twenty years, researchers have been puzzled by discovering traces of DNA and radioactive carbon in the bones of dinosaurs that died out "millions of years" ago.

Many dinosaur fossils include fragments of real bones that have not had time to mineralize, in other words, become fossilized. For many researchers, the contents of these bones were a complete surprise. Since the 90s of the last century, scientists have made a number of discoveries, finding blood cells, hemoglobin, easily degradable proteins and fragments of soft tissues, in particular elastic ligaments and blood vessels, in the bones of dinosaurs. And what deserves special attention is DNA and radioactive carbon.

Evolutionists now have to solve a formidable problem to explain the supposedly 65-million-year-old age of these bones. As Dr. Mary Schweitzer, who was involved in the discovery of blood cells, said,
“If a blood sample changes beyond recognition after just a week, how could these cells have survived?”
But really, how? In an organism that died out millions of years ago, they, of course, could not have survived. They could only be preserved in remains that were quickly buried under catastrophic conditions and were under a layer of sedimentary rocks. Which is perfectly explained by the global flood.

But since the evolutionary worldview has a strong position in scientific circles, publishing the results of such a study turned out to be quite difficult. "One reviewer told me that it doesn't matter to him what the data points to, it's just not possible," says Dr. Schweitzer. “In a reply letter, I asked him: “Then what data will convince you?” - "None."

Schweitzer recalls how her attention was initially drawn to a strong, putrid odor from a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found near Hell Creek, Montana. When she mentioned this to Jack Horner, an experienced paleontologist, he replied that all the bones from Hell Creek smelled like that. The multimillion-year-old dinosaur bones belief is so deeply rooted in the minds of paleontologists that none of them has ever paid attention to the atypical “smell of death” right under their noses. Even Schweitzer herself, despite her many discoveries, apparently cannot or does not want to move away from the established worldview. Look at the chronology of discoveries over two decades - clear and consistent indications that something is rotten in the paleontological kingdom with its theories about dinosaurs that died out millions of years ago.

In 1993, Mary Schweitzer unexpectedly discovers blood cells in the bones of dinosaurs.
In 1997, hemoglobin is found, as well as distinguishable blood cells in the bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
In 2003, traces of the protein osteocalcin. In 2005, elastic ligaments and blood vessels.
In 2007, collagen (an important bone structural protein) in Tyrannosaurus rex bones.
In 2009, the easily degradable proteins elastin and laminin, and again collagen in the platypus dinosaur. (If the remains were really as old as it is customary to date, they would not have any of these proteins).
In 2012, scientists reported the discovery of bone tissue cells (osteocytes), actin and tubulin proteins, and DNA(!). (Research-calculated decay rates for these proteins, and especially DNA, indicate that they could not have been stored in dinosaur remains for what is believed to be 65 million years after their extinction.)
In 2012, scientists report the discovery of radioactive carbon. (Given how quickly carbon-14 decays, even if the remains were a hundred thousand years old, there should be no trace of carbon-14 in them!)
***

In Canada, on the territory of the Dinosaur Park, scientists were able to find a dinosaur in the bones Cretaceous structures that resemble red blood cells and collagen fibers. The finds allow us to take a fresh look at the structure of the body of ancient living beings.
In order to find traces of organics, cells and other elements of dinosaur flesh, the researchers came up with a special method for analyzing photographs that are obtained using electron and ion microscopes. The latter is used in the IT industry when looking for defects in chips.

Thus, the British made this amazing discovery not due to the discovery of fossils, but thanks to a unique method of analyzing the remains of dinosaurs, as well as exhibits from the Museum of Natural History in the British capital, forgotten for over a hundred years.
It is generally accepted that protein molecules break down quickly and remain in fossils for no longer than four million years. After that, fragments remain that cannot give special ideas about the protein structure.
Scientist Sergio Bertazo, along with colleagues, studying the poorly preserved bones of ancient reptiles, noticed rather unusual ovoid formations with a very dense core. Red blood cells immediately came to mind.

The researchers began to compare them with a drop of blood from a living ostrich - in an ion mass spectrometer, they resembled the red blood cells of an emu.
Scientists immediately jumped at the argument that speaks in favor of the warm-blooded extinct dinosaurs.
In another bone fragment, fibrous structures similar to a spiral of collagen fibers were found. Since the structure of this protein differs in different groups of animals, paleontologists have acquired the opportunity to formulate a new tool for classifying reptiles.

Experts resorted to several analytical techniques. The location and composition of soft tissues in the fossil remains were established using an electron microscope. Then the laboratory assistants dissected the samples with an ion beam and examined their structure.
“Now we need further research, as we want to find out what the structures that we see inside the bones of dinosaurs can actually be. However, we believe that they are comparable to red blood cells and collagen fibers. And if we can confirm this, then in our hands will be a new way to delve into the past of dinosaurs and comprehend how they grew and developed," Bertazo emphasized.
Paleontologists reported their discovery in the journal Nature Communications.
***

Well, now I propose to see where and how dinosaur bones are found.

dinosaur graveyards

Dinosaur graveyards in China

Hill disturbed by road builders found bones

Elsewhere in China. The skeleton does not rest at a great depth, as it should be. After all, over 60 million years, the level of soil above it should accumulate huge (dust fallout and erosion, which brings soil material)

Also shallow depth

Generally a skeleton on the surface

Dinosaur eggs found in fossilized clay in China

Archaeologists have unearthed the world's largest dinosaur cemetery in Mexico. A total of 14 skeletons were found on an area of ​​200x50:

Judging by the location of these bones, the dinosaur got into a meat grinder.

Bones in the hillside

Dinosaur Park in Alberta (Canada):

This age is also given to dinosaurs due to the fact that their bones are found in the slopes of these hills:

Geologists have data on the age of these layers. After all, they have been accumulating for millions of years... And to accept an almost instantaneous period of formation of layers, as shown here http://sibved.livejournal.com/185060.html during a cataclysm - for some reason they do not accept this. Although some scientific circles accept the same hypothesis of the death of dinosaurs during a cataclysm - from the fall of an asteroid. But she did not receive development and a slender model.

Dinosaur cemeteries are found at a certain latitude. Most likely, only this climate in these latitudes suited them. Just like elephants today, the savannas need a huge food base - dinosaurs with their size needed lush vegetation. To the north of the giants lived mammoths, woolly rhinos. And my opinion is that mammoths and dinosaurs lived at about the same time. They were destroyed by one global cataclysm with consequences in the form of a giant wave and a flood. Perhaps it was not in late historical times, but man already existed at that time.

Gobi Desert:

Bones almost on the surface

This copy seemed to have been around a couple of years ago.

And this one swam here recently in geologic time.

Dinosaur egg from Mongolia

Different types of dinosaurs died at the same time. Before the crash, everyone was the same

Do you understand my point that there is a possibility that the dinosaurs found near the surface are not 65 million years old?

And then the motives become clear

Dinosaurs are ancient creatures that appeared on the planet approximately 225 million years ago. For 160 million years, these animals dominated the planet. The extinction period took about 5 million years, and for about 65 million years they have been absent in the animal world. There are many hypotheses as to why the dinosaurs disappeared. How these animals died out and ceased to exist, we will tell in our article.

The advent of dinosaurs

Planet Earth was inhabited by different types of plants and animals 3 billion years ago. In the process of evolution, plants and animals appear and disappear, and each such process has its own time interval and period. Dinosaurs on the planet lived in the Mesozoic era - these are the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The first simplest plants were seaweeds, and the first animals were small sea mollusks. The appearance of fish occurred about 500 million years ago. Approximately 370 million years ago, the first animals came to land - amphibians. Reptiles are a new group animals that appeared about 300 million years ago. The animals had scaly skin, could lay eggs, and be permanently on land. Dinosaurs were next in the chain of evolution. An extinct animal species gave impetus to the development of such a science as paleontology.

Description of dinosaurs

One of the amazing animals that lived on the planet are dinosaurs. How these large animals died out and how they lived can only be judged by the fossilized remains. Fossils suggest that they were reptiles, like crocodiles, lizards, turtles and snakes. The size of dinosaurs varies widely - from tiny to giants. They had four limbs and a tail. Dinosaurs stood and moved on straight limbs, some on their hind legs, others on all four, and still others could move on both two and four limbs. Many dinosaurs had long necks and teeth. Their habitat was significant, but 65 thousand years ago they suddenly died out.

Dinosaurs are divided into two groups: lizards and ornithischians. The difference between the groups is in the structure of the pelvic bones. In lizard dinosaurs, the structure of the pelvis is four-rayed, and in ornithischians it is three-rayed. Some species of ornithischians had horns, spikes, shells.

Increasing interest in dinosaurs

In the 30s of the XIX century, the fossilized remains of dinosaurs were first discovered. Then archaeologists did not attach much importance to them, and only after some time it became clear that these fossils belong to ancient animals. The very concept of "dinosaur" was introduced by the English zoologist Richard Owen in the middle of the 19th century. FROM Latin"dinosaur" is translated as "terrible", "dangerous", "terrible", and from the ancient Greek language - "lizard", "lizard". Since then, interest in these animals has been constantly growing. How many years ago did dinosaurs become extinct? The answer to this question is given by the science of paleontology. Ancient animals are studied by scientists, filmed in films, they become heroes of books. And despite such interest, there is no exact answer to the question of why dinosaurs died out.

Age of Dinosaurs

At the end of the Permian period, a single continent, Pangea, was formed. characteristic feature this time there was global volcanic activity and the disappearance of about 90% of animals. Reptiles have adapted best to the new conditions. At the beginning of the Triassic, a group of reptiles called "Pelicosaurs" appeared. By the middle of the Triassic period, they were replaced by a group of reptiles called "therapsids". In parallel with the therapsids, a new group of reptiles, the archosaurs, developed. This group of reptiles is the ancestor of all dinosaurs, pliosaurs, crocodylomorphs, ichthyosaurs, placodonts, and pterosaurs. The next type of reptile was called thecodonts and was adapted to life on land. And dinosaurs have already developed from them. Extinct animals have adapted well and have taken dominant positions on land, in water and in the air.

During the Triassic period, the following Coelophysis, Mussaurus, and Procompsognatus existed. Plant dinosaurs developed and evolved.

The largest animals lived in the Jurassic period. In the late Jurassic period, land animals began to appear - brachiosaurus, diplodocus, etc.

In the Cretaceous period, predatory reptiles began to predominate in the seas and oceans. New types of dinosaurs appear.

End of an era

The Cretaceous period is the heyday of giant lizards, air pterodactels and marine reptiles. At the end of the Cretaceous, a split into Gondwana and Laurasia occurs. The climate on Earth becomes much colder, ice caps form at the poles. Insects appear and increase.

All this led to the extinction of many species of plants and animals, including dinosaurs. They did not die out overnight, but given that their dominance lasted 160 million years, their disappearance happened quite quickly. The causes of the catastrophe that occurred in the Cretaceous period are still not clear.

But are all dinosaurs extinct? The descendants of ancient reptiles are the crocodiles, lizards and birds that exist today. The first birds appeared in the Cretaceous, and by the end of the era they already had developed plumage. When the dinosaurs became extinct, birds took over the baton of evolution.

Astrophysical Extinction Hypotheses

The fall of an asteroid is one of the most common versions. The time of its fall coincides with the formation of the Chicxulub crater (Mexico, These events occurred about 65 million years ago, during the period when the dinosaurs died out. Perhaps the fall of the asteroid caused destructive actions, as a result of which there was a mass extinction of all life.

The multiple fall hypothesis states that the fall of the asteroid occurred several times. In addition to the Chicxulub crater, there is the Shiva crater in the Indian Ocean, which formed around the same time. This hypothesis explains why the extinction occurred gradually.

There is also a version of the explosion of a supernova and the collision of a comet with the Earth.

Geological and climatic extinction hypotheses

Significant changes took place on the planet during the period when the dinosaurs began to disappear. How animals died out is suggested by the theory of changes in average annual and seasonal temperatures. Large individuals need a warm and even climate. Volcanic activity could lead to a change in the composition of the atmosphere and cause a greenhouse effect. A large emission of volcanic ash could provoke a volcanic winter, thereby changing the illumination of the Earth. Significant sea level drop, ocean cooling, composition change sea ​​water and sudden jump magnetic field The lands also may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Evolutionary-biological hypotheses of extinction

One of the hypotheses of this group adheres to the situation of the emergence of a mass epidemic. It is possible that dinosaurs could not adapt to the changed vegetation, which led to poisoning. The probability of destruction of eggs and cubs by the first predatory mammals is high. There is also a version that females disappeared during the Ice Age. Scientists have proposed another version of the death of dinosaurs - suffocation: there was a sharp decrease in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Why did the dinosaurs disappear?

Why did the dinosaurs disappear? How these questions died out Answers to these questions give a variety of theories and hypotheses, but none of them fully answers all questions. It is known that the extinction of species began long before the moment of the catastrophe, and the astronomical hypothesis in this case is doubtful. Many theories lack factual data, such as the hypothesis of the regression of the World Ocean or changes in the magnetic field. Also, the lack of completeness of paleontological data can give a distorted picture.

Combining hypotheses forms a more illustrative picture. Hypotheses, complementing each other, provide answers to more questions, and the picture of that time looks more drawn and detailed.

The process of evolution - the extinction of the old and the formation of the new - is consistent. And the process of evolution of dinosaurs until the end of the Cretaceous period occurred naturally. But for some reason, at the end of the Cretaceous period, the old species died out, and the new ones did not appear, and, as a result, there was a complete extinction of this species.

From a paleontological point of view

The great extinction version is based on the following facts:

1. The emergence of flowering plants.
2. Gradual climate change caused by continental drift.

According to the scientific world, the following picture was observed. The developed root system of flowering plants, their better adaptability to soil quickly replaced other types of vegetation. Insects that fed on flowering plants began to appear, and insects that had previously appeared began to disappear.

The root system of flowering plants began to grow and interfere with the process. The surface of the land ceased to erode, and nutrient material ceased to flow into the oceans. This led to the impoverishment of the ocean and the death of algae, which, in turn, are producers of biomass in the ocean. In the water there was a violation of the ecosystem, which caused a mass extinction. It is believed that they are closely connected with the sea, so the chain of extinction has spread to them. On land, they tried to adapt to the green mass. Small mammals and small predators began to appear. This was a threat to the offspring of dinosaurs, since the eggs and cubs of dinosaurs became food for the appeared predators. As a result, conditions were created that were negative for the emergence of new species.

It ended, and with it, active tectonic, climatic and evolutionary activity also ended.

Children and dinosaurs

Interest in ancient animals is not only among adults, but also among children. Today the project "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" included in the kindergarten curriculum primary school. The uniqueness of such activities lies in the fact that the child independently develops, looking for answers to questions and gaining new knowledge. The question of why dinosaurs became extinct is as curious for children as it is for scientists. Interest is primarily due to the fact that these animals are not on earth today and the exact answer to the question of the reasons for their disappearance has not yet been received.

Usually the answer to this question sounds short and unequivocal: 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, at the end of the Mesozoic era. For 150 million years, constantly changing dinosaur species reigned supreme on our planet, and then suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth in a short period of time. No traces have been found in the Tertiary deposits.

True, not all species and groups of dinosaurs generally survived until the end of the Cretaceous period. Already 120 million years earlier, in the middle of the dinosaur era, for example, the last ancestors of giant dinosaurs disappeared. And spiny dinosaurs died out 60 million years before other groups. But others took their place - fat-headed and horned dinosaurs.

New species constantly appeared, while a significant part of the former ones disappeared. Most types of dinosaurs existed "only" for about two, a maximum of ten million years.

Since the dinosaurs were discovered, researchers have always wondered why they disappeared so completely at the end of the Cretaceous period. More than a hundred hypotheses were put forward on this score, but almost all of them turned out to be untenable.

It has often been overlooked that, unlike the dinosaurs, other groups of animals - crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles, birds and mammals - survived this critical time. Why were they the exception?

On the other hand, sea pangolins, ammonites and small marine animals, as well as land plants, disappeared simultaneously with land dinosaurs. So, they were affected by the same reasons! Hypotheses about the global flood are untenable - after all, marine animals also died out, and many terrestrial ones did not suffer at all. The hypotheses about the extermination of dinosaurs by primitive man, who, as has already been proven, appeared only after 60 million years, have no basis.
Internal causes related to the dinosaurs themselves, such as their huge growth

t and sluggishness cannot be considered sufficient, since both the smallest and fastest dinosaurs died out. Do not stand up to criticism and assumptions that carnivorous dinosaurs destroyed the herbivores, and then they themselves died of starvation, or that all dinosaurs were eaten by small mammals. But then why did they not touch the reptiles that have survived to this day? One of the newest hypotheses puts forward as the main reason a catastrophe that suddenly occurred on Earth - a collision with a huge meteorite. According to this hypothesis, the Earth fell heavenly body ten kilometers in diameter. From the impact, such a quantity of dust rose up that the sky over the entire Earth darkened for many months. Plants that needed sunlight died, followed by herbivorous animals, and then predators. There was a cooling, as the sun's rays no longer reached the earth's surface. Then warming came again, when the upper layers of the air warmed up again. And even if some species managed to survive the catastrophe, they still died later as a result of its consequences, stretching for years and centuries. If this catastrophe, the likelihood of which can be judged by a number of signs, was really so devastating, then the suddenness of all dinosaurs is quite understandable. But it is completely incomprehensible how such sensitive representatives of the animal world as birds could survive!

More convincing and justified is the point of view that the extinction of dinosaurs did not happen suddenly, but continued for a rather long crisis period. Gradually, the living conditions for those animals that were adapted to the uniform warm and humid climate that had previously existed everywhere, to the rich flora and fauna, gradually deteriorated. The constant movement of continents and seas has led to significant climatic changes. Due to the displacement of the earth's crust and the expansion of the ocean floor, more and more shallow areas turned into land areas with more sparse vegetation. Warm conditions without any temperature fluctuations gave way to colder nights and harsher winters.

Many dinosaurs lost their usual feeding conditions, when there was an abundance of food everywhere. Cold nights and winters adversely affected breeding. The babies grew more slowly certain types dinosaurs became increasingly rare and gradually began to die out, in some regions earlier, in others later. The crisis period lasted on land for at least five million years. There was a process of extinction of dinosaurs and flying lizards. Along with them, entire species of plants and mammals also disappeared, but they were already replaced by new ones.

A meteorite strike or some other sudden catastrophe could only significantly disrupt the living conditions of animals and plants and cause the process of gradual extinction of many of their species, but not destroy them immediately. This view provides a more logical explanation for the mysterious extinction of the dinosaurs.

Introduction

Life on Earth arose about 3 billion years ago; it began with tiny single-celled creatures, and about 225 million years ago, dinosaurs appeared on Earth in the process of evolution. They inhabited the Earth for about 160 million years, i.e. over a period 50 times longer than the period from the appearance of man to the present day. Not all types of dinosaurs existed at the same time: some species died out, others arose.

Dinosaurs were well adapted to their environment. Some of them were herbivores, others were carnivores, so there was enough food for everyone. Dinosaurs had very strong skin, some species had huge massive bodies and long necks, while others were no larger than a turkey. Dinosaurs reproduced by laying eggs with a hard shell that protected the embryo well during development.

How did it happen that the dinosaurs that dominated the Earth for so long, suddenly disappeared 65 million years ago? Many people are interested in the answer to this question, therefore there are many hypotheses about the causes of the mass extinction of dinosaurs. We will look at some of them.

Searching for traces of the past

The first dinosaur bone was found by the English naturalist Robert Plot in 1677. At that time, no one had any idea that animals that differed from modern ones once existed on Earth. The discovery of the Raft was considered the bone of an old elephant or even some giant. The first documented traces of dinosaurs were discovered in 1802 in Connecticut (USA) by the peasant Plinyo Moody. On a stone slab found in his field, there were prints of three fingers, which were attributed to ... "the claws of a raven released from Noah's ark after the Flood."

The word "dinosaurs" was first used by Richard Owen on August 2, 1841. This term is derived from the Greek deinos - terrible and sauria - lizard, so dinosaur means "terrible lizard." After studying many fossil remains, Owen came to the conclusion that these animals had much in common with each other and had the largest sizes among all reptiles. Immediately, the first images of ancient monsters appeared, made on the basis of found fragments, and life-size sculptures of dinosaurs began to entertain visitors to large exhibitions.

From the middle of the XIX century. amateurs and professionals alike have searched for dinosaur remains all over the world. Violent passions flared up in the Far West of the USA between 1870 and 1890. Expeditions of two prominent American paleontologists Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh discovered huge cemeteries of dinosaurs in the Rocky Mountains (Canada). The most expensive expedition was organized by the Berlin Academy of Sciences to Tendaguru (Africa) in 1907. It cost 200 thousand German marks. Over one and a half thousand people discovered more than 250 tons of fossil remains in 3 years of work. In the course of their study, scientists came to the conclusion that among the lizards there were small, medium, large and simply huge lizards. The body length of dinosaurs ranged from 20 cm to 30 m. In total, there are currently about 1 thousand species of dinosaurs.

The earliest dinosaurs were land predators, then herbivores appeared. Some of them have gone to life in the water. Ancient dinosaurs were bisexual, but scientists still do not know for certain how males differed from females. It is assumed that in horned dinosaurs, males had longer and more massive horns that could be used as tournament weapons. Male duck-billed dinosaurs had a longer crest on their heads than females. It is even assumed that some forms, differing in morphological features and sizes and described as different types and genera, are males and females belonging to the same species.

Dinosaur groups

By type of food, dinosaurs are divided into predators moving on two legs, herbivores and scavengers. They lived singly or in groups in both warm and cold climates. Some hunted, which required not only muscular, but also intellectual efforts. The anatomical features (massive hind limbs, huge body and rudimentary forelimbs) of giant carnivorous dinosaurs created a serious problem: in the event of a fall, they were not able to get back on their feet, because. they could neither lean on their weak forelimbs, nor slip their hind legs under their heavy bodies.

The distribution of dinosaurs into groups does not depend on their size, mode of movement and food.

According to the structure of the pelvic bones, dinosaurs are divided into two groups: lizards (Saurischia) and ornithischian (ornitischia). The differences between them are as follows. The composition of the pelvis in four-legged animals includes three pairs of bones: pubic, iliac and ischial. In lizard dinosaurs, the ilium points upward where it joins the sacrum, the ischium points downward and backward, and the pubis points forward and downward. In ornithischian dinosaurs, the ischial and ilium bones are arranged in the same way, and the pubic bones have two branches directed in different directions: one forward and the other back, parallel to the ischial bones. The significance of these differences is not clear.

Differences between groups of dinosaurs in the structure of the jaws and teeth and related differences in nutrition are more easily explained. In lizard dinosaurs, the teeth were located along the edge of the jaw in one row, which reached the end of the muzzle. Each tooth of a conical or chisel shape sat in a separate cell. In ornithischian dinosaurs, a toothless predentary bone was located in the anterior part of the lower jaw, and the front teeth were often absent in the upper jaw. Many ornithischians had a horny beak, like turtles. In addition, the lateral teeth were pushed inward from the edge of the jaw, and their arrangement was multi-row. Such a displacement of the teeth is due to the fact that the cheeks were located outside the jaws. This made it possible to keep food in the mouth while chewing. Lizard dinosaurs did not chew.

All ornithischians were herbivorous and moved either on two or four legs. Among the lizards were both herbivores and predators, which, for the most part, were bipedal.

Like all archosaurs, dinosaurs had a diapsid type of skull with two, and not one, as in other reptiles, temporal cavities behind the eye sockets. This made the skull lighter, freed up space for the development of powerful jaw muscles, contributed to a more perfect action of the jaws when eating, and also contributed to the improvement of the auditory apparatus.

Another feature characteristic of dinosaurs was the structure of the pelvic girdle and the positioning of the limbs, which ensured greater mobility of animals. Unlike other archosaurs and most reptiles, the dinosaurs' hind legs were straight and moved in a vertical plane when walking, like birds and mammals. Most other reptiles (for example, crocodiles, lizards, turtles) have paws widely spaced to the sides. In the pelvic girdle, dinosaurs had a complex sacrum of five fused vertebrae and a perforated acetabulum, which included the head of the femur. These anatomical features made dinosaurs the most mobile of the Mesozoic land inhabitants.

A - a four-beam pelvis with free space below;
B - three-beam pelvis with pubic bones directed forward

One of the amazing features of some large herbivorous dinosaurs, both lizards (diplodocus, brachiosaurs) and ornithischians (stegosaurus, ankylosaurs), which was not available in any other animals, was the presence of a second brain (this was reflected in the generic name of one of them: "Diplodocus" in Greek means "dvudum"). The volume of the brain inside the fused sacral vertebrae of the pelvic girdle was 10–100 times the volume of the brain. The question arises, which brain, posterior or anterior, was the main one? It is believed that the hindbrain coordinated the work of the limbs, the anterior - food activity and sensory organs. This "decentralization" of brain functions, according to some researchers, was one of the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs.

Hypotheses about the causes of the mass extinction of dinosaurs

From the Triassic to the Late Cretaceous, dinosaur diversity increased. It seemed that nothing foreshadowed their disappearance without a trace. But at the end of the Cretaceous period, the entire prosperous group of planetary hosts died out. Species extinction is a natural evolutionary process. It usually happens slowly, unevenly. But the speed with which the largest group of reptiles disappeared is amazing.

The hypotheses about how this happened can be divided into two groups:

– hypotheses explaining the extinction by external, including extraterrestrial, causes;
- hypotheses linking extinction with internal, biological factors.

Hypothesis 1

The first group includes the hypothesis that in the territory of India, in the Deccan region, lava oozed abundantly from a giant fault 400 km long, and there was unbearable heat. Volcanoes emitted huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the hot air. It was almost impossible to breathe such air. Clouds of ash and sulfur, escaping from the vents of volcanoes, rose high into the sky and enveloped the entire Earth. The atmosphere was poisoned by poisonous volcanic gases, and the soil by endless acid rain. Plants died from lack of light, followed by herbivorous animals, and then predators. The earth is getting colder. Then the ashes settled, and the cold was again replaced by heat. Carbon dioxide (at that time there was 10 times more of it in the atmosphere than today) created a "greenhouse effect". Heat was kept at the surface of the Earth, and the air began to heat up, rains became rare, lakes and swamps dried up, and many wet forests were replaced by deserts. The drying up of coastal shallow waters with their richest fauna and the increase in the overall salinity of the Ocean led to the extinction of 95% of marine animal species. And then a new ash plume darkened the sky again, and the cold returned to the planet. Such sharp changes in climate continued for more than 600 thousand years. As a result, only less specialized species than dinosaurs survived, such as mammals.

Hypothesis 2

Another common version of the death of the Cretaceous giants is the fall of a huge meteorite near the village of Chicxulub (Mexican island of Yucatan). A meteorite that weighed thousands of billions of tons left behind a crater 200 km across! The power of the strike was comparable to the explosion of such a number of atomic bombs, which is 10 thousand times greater than the modern world stock. An air wave of monstrous force destroyed most of the terrestrial species of plants and animals, earthquakes swept across the planet, and giant tsunami waves circled the Earth several times.

This hypothesis appeared in 1970. Its actual justification is the evidence of the geological record: in many parts of the world, a small layer of clays with an unusually high content of elements of the platinum group, in particular iridium, rare in the earth's crust, but widespread in element meteorites. Such a layer is thought to have formed only if the deposits were "diluted" with large amounts of meteoric material. Assessing how much such a meteorite could weigh, scientists drew attention to the ancient crater near the village of Chicxulub. The time level of the layer coincides exactly with the time when the last dinosaurs disappeared, as well as other groups of terrestrial and marine animals and plants.

The dust that rose as a result of the explosion made the atmosphere almost opaque to sunlight for several years. The photosynthetic activity of green plants, which are the initial link in the food pyramid, has sharply decreased. Further, as in a chain, there was an extinction of various groups of marine and terrestrial organisms.

Hypothesis 3

It is believed that rapid climate change, which led to the mass extinction of species, could be caused by the drift of the continents and a change in the direction of winds and sea currents. On the continents, the change of seasons was sharply marked: the hot summer began to change cold winter when herbivorous dinosaurs were deprived of green fodder. Dinosaurs were unable to adapt to seasonal temperature changes. However, there are no facts confirming such a catastrophic acceleration of continental plate drift.

Location and directions of continental drift during the Cretaceous period

Hypothesis 4

In the middle of the Cretaceous period, the largest restructuring of the planet's vegetation cover in the history of the Earth took place: angiosperms (flowering) plants, grass appeared, and cereals became more widespread. For herbivorous animals that ate more primitive plants, when switching to a different diet, a significant restructuring of the entire enzymatic digestive system was required. It is possible, though highly doubtful, that they were unable to overcome this physiological conflict.

Hypothesis 5

Scientists have recently put forward new hypothesis extinction of dinosaurs - at least, some carnivorous species. Prehistoric lizards fell victim to a discrepancy between the energy needs of their gigantic organism and the objective possibilities of satisfying them. Specialists of the British Zoological Society link this version with the answer to the question why nature did not create, say, a lion or a tiger the size of an elephant. Such a huge carnivorous creature would not be able to hunt fast enough to replenish its energy needs in time, they say. According to scientists, evolution should eventually lead to the fact that carnivores weighing more than 1 ton, living on the surface of the Earth, will lose their right to exist due to energy deficiency. However, it is doubtful that this shortage occurred suddenly and led to the extinction of all dinosaurs in a historically short time.

Hypothesis 6

Perhaps the dinosaurs lost the fight for survival with new, rapidly emerging species of mammals and birds. However, this hypothesis lacks factual material to substantiate.

Hypothesis 7

As a result of any catastrophe on a planetary scale, the destruction of the ozone layer could occur, and ultraviolet rays could cause a sharp increase in the rate of mutations in organisms. It is possible that common parts of dinosaur genomes were unstable to such mutations, which led to the rapid extinction of all their species. Species with resistant genomes survived.

Conclusion

A meteorite near the village of Chicxulub and a powerful eruption in the Deccan are the main "suspects" in the case of the death of dinosaurs, which happened at the turn of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago. But for more than 20 years, scientists have not made a final "verdict". With renewed vigor, disputes broke out in March 2004, when Hertha Keller from Princeton University (USA) stated that she had evidence of the "innocence" of the meteorite. She claims that the Chicxulub stone crashed to Earth long before the death of the lizards.

In the sediments at the site of the famous crater, the fossilized remains of tiny marine animals that died out along with the dinosaurs were found. This layer appeared after the cosmic catastrophe, and it took about 300,000 years to form. According to G. Keller, one Deccan eruption would be quite enough to destroy the dinosaurs, and the meteorite - Chicxulub or otherwise - could only be the last straw that overflowed the cup.

A supporter of the "meteorite" hypothesis, the Dutchman Ian Smith believes that Hertha Keller misinterpreted the results of samples taken in the crater. In his opinion, after the impact of the meteorite, the impact site was covered by a powerful tidal wave - a tsunami - and went under water, and it took only a few weeks for the formation of such a layer of sediments.

According to the geologist Vincent Courtillo, the death of the ancient lizards was not as catastrophic and fleeting as it is usually imagined. The latest fossils from that time show that the giant reptiles died out gradually - over hundreds of thousands of years. And this is difficult to explain with the help of the "meteorite" hypothesis. Over the past 260 million years, four mass extinctions of animals have occurred on Earth, and each time they were preceded by an unprecedented force of volcanic eruptions.

Not everyone agrees with this opinion. Geologist Eric Byufto believes that for each case of extinction of animals, you can quite pick up a suitable meteorite crater. Well, then, why should all such catastrophes on Earth have the same cause? Byufto does not argue with the fact that numerous species of animals died out regularly, and these dramas were not necessarily associated with abrupt catastrophic changes. However, the extinction of animals 65 million years ago was so massive that it is more correct to assume that

that it was caused by some powerful and fleeting impact, for example, the fall of a large meteorite. Well, besides, according to Byufto, it is hard to imagine that the dinosaurs that inhabited the entire Earth from the equator to the poles fell victim to sharp fluctuations in climate, but, for example, crocodiles calmly survived the turn of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods.

So, the time for the final verdict is delayed. Scientists have yet to examine meteorite craters again and again, carefully study the fossils and, finally, find out why the crocodiles survived the dinosaurs after all ...

Literature

1. Laura Camburnac. Dinosaurs and other extinct animals. - M.: Makhaon, 2006. - 123 p.

3. Illustrative encyclopedia: dinosaurs / D. Burney; Artistic D. Sibbik; Per. from English. I.N. Alcheeva, N.N. Nepomniachtchi. - M .: AST Publishing House LLC: Astrel Publishing House LLC, 2002. - 222 p.: ill.

4. Relatives of dinosaurs / Per. from English. S. Freiberg. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2002. - 56 p.: ill. - (Secrets of wildlife).

5. Dinosaurs. The Complete Encyclopedia / Per. from English. M. Avdoni-noy. - M.: Publishing House of EKSMO-Press, 2000. - 256 p.