Dinomite! Delving into and visualizing dinosaur data

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Introduction:

One of the most important moments of any young kids life is discovering dinosaurs. I lucked out to be a kid when the first Jurassic Park movie came to theaters. I remember going to a double feature of Jurassic Park and the Flintstones movie (where I fell asleep). After watching the movie, I was hooked. I wanted to take a look at a huge dataset of dinosaurs to see where they came from, what they eat, and what types of dinosaurs existed.

Here is some key information to make sense of this dino data!

Diet

Time Period

Types of Dinosaurs

Theropod	Sauropod	Armored	Ceratopsian	Euornithopod

Overview:

• Most dinosaurs were herbivores besides the theropods, which were predominately predators

• The Cretaceous Period was associated with the highest diversity of dinosaurs

• Dinosaur location shows proof of continental drift

• Jurassic Park should not be called Jurassic Park

Data:

The data was gathered from Kaggle. The dataset was first cleaned using Excel based on values that were missing or in the incorrect column. The dataset includes a lot of different information on the dinosaurs, but the focus will be the name, diet, location, the time period, the type of dinosaur, and the length. Data visualization was done in Tableau.

Analysis:

When you think about dinosaurs it can be hard not to think about the predators with their sharp teeth and claws. By looking at the different groups of dinosaurs, the majority are herbivores. The carnivores only consist of the theropods, which includes the raptors and T. rex. Only one sauropod appears to be omnivorous and likely was an insectivore.

The next image is a tree chart showing all of the different species of dinosaurs and how large they are by length. The largest and smallest dinosaurs of each type are labelled. It is clear from the chart that the sauropods (long-necked dinosaurs) were the overall largest, while the smallest dinosaurs were grouped in the small theropod type. The T. rex is actually in the middle when it comes to size. The size differences in each group are pretty extreme with the largest being between 35-18, while the smallest species ranges from 2-0.25

One of the most important pieces of information that dinosaurs provide is a clear fossil record. With this timeline we are able to provide evidence that the continents were connected at some point. In the first map, we can see that there are similar types of dinosaurs that are near each other. This makes sense, but the next map shows something pretty amazing.

The map below takes the data points from above and applies those locations to a map of the supercontinent Pangaea. There is evidence of similar dinosaur groups being found between all the different continents. North America and Europe both show groups of armored dinosaurs. Asia and Europe show the presence of Euornithopods. Africa and South America share the presence of both Euornithopods and sauropods! Africa, South America, and Antarctica all show the presence of large theropods!

When people think of dinosaurs, they tend to think of Jurassic Park (cue theme music), but the time of the dinosaurs was not the Jurassic Period. The Mesozoic Era is associated with the dawn of the dinosaurs. The time of the dinosaurs was actually the Cretaceous Period, but that doesn't sound as cool. There are a few interesting details to look at in the data. The most important information to look at is that the largest diversity of dinosaurs takes place in the late Cretaceous where 6 distinct groups of dinosaurs are listed. Another important detail to take note of is that the majority of dinosaurs in the late cretaceous are the Euornithopods. These are the bird-hipped dinosaurs that are not the main ancestors of birds. The birds descended from the third most common group the small theropods.

The dinosaurs featured in the Jurassic Park films would not have interacted with each other. The data shows that the majority of dinosaurs lived during the cretaceous period. The "long necked dinosaurs" and stegosaurus would have never interacted with the more well known predators dinosaurs. T. rex and triceratops likely did interact with each other.

Main Takeaway:

There are a few main takeaways from all of this data. First, it is comforting to know that the majority of the dinosaurs are herbivores and would not try to eat us. Second, the dinosaur sizes vary wildly, but nothing beats the largest land animals the sauropods. Third, the fossil record shows that the continents were once connected based on dinosaur locations. Finally, Jurassic Park should actually be named Cretaceous Park based on the number and diversity of dinosaurs during that period.

What now?

The point of this data is to provide a visualization of a popular group of majestic animals. Majestic animals deserve majestic data visualizations. This analysis allows individuals to have a summary of different key facts about the dinosaurs such as diet, location, size, and when they were around. An interesting future analysis could involve creating a visualization that shows the extinction of each species throughout history. Although most of the dinosaurs did not interact, it is still important to know that you can still smack your dinosaur toys together in epic battles between the Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus rex! Luckily with Jurassic World, Camp Cretaceous was created fixing the naming sins of its father Jurassic Park.