Paleontology comes from the French paléontologie,
from palé- pale- + Greek onta existing things (from neuter plural of ont-,
On, present participle of einai to be) + French -logie -logy. The word
dinosaur comes from the Greek words "deinos" meaning terrible and
"sauros" meaning lizard. The dinosaurs first appeared in the
Triassic Period about 220 million years ago. They disappeared during the
Cretaceous period about 66.4 million years ago.
