Mesozoic Era: Dinosaurs Through Time

About This Visualization

This chart shows different species of dinosaurs and when they lived during the Mesozoic Era. This design integrates multiple data dimensions into a custom glyph-based system that allows to understand not only "when" dinosaurs lived, but also their physical characteristics, dietary habits, taxonomic classifications, and geographic distributions.

Visual Design Elements (Marks & Channels)

• Horizontal Position (X-axis): Temporal placement based on the midpoint of each dinosaur's existence ((max_ma + min_ma) / 2), spanning from the Triassic through Cretaceous periods (253 - 65 million years ago)
• Rectangle Width: Temporal range (max_ma - min_ma), showing how long each species existed in the fossil record - wider shapes indicate longer temporal ranges
• Rectangle Height: Physical body length in meters, directly encoding the size of each dinosaur - taller rectangles represent larger animals
• Fill Color: Dietary classification using a professional, muted palette:
  • Herbivores: Green (#7a8450)
  • Carnivores: Brown (#a0522d)
  • Omnivores: Tan (#b8956a)
• Text Labels: Species names displayed in italics
• Background Shading: Geological periods (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous) shown with subtle background colors

Interactions

• Hover: Move the cursor over any rectangle to reveal detailed information including species name, diet, type, body length, temporal range, geographic region, class, and family
• Visual Feedback: Hovered elements become highlighted with increased opacity.
• Tooltip: Information panel presenting data.
• Slider Control: Adjust the number of data points displayed using the slider above the visualization to explore different subsets of the dataset

Attributes Visualized

This visualization encodes 8 distinct attributes from the dataset:

1. name: The accepted name of the dinosaur (displayed on hover and for select dinosaurs)
2. diet: Dietary classification (herbivorous, carnivorous, omnivorous) - encoded by color
3. type: Type - shown in tooltip
4. length_m: Body length in meters - encoded by rectangle height
5. max_ma: The age in which the first fossil records of the dinosaur where found, in million years
6. min_ma: The age in which the last fossil records of the dinosaur where found, in million years
7. region: Geographic location - displayed in tooltip
8. family: Taxonomic family (if known) - determines vertical position and grouping

Custom Visualization Category: COMBINATORIAL

This visualization is classified as "COMBINATORIAL" according to Elijah Meeks' taxonomy of custom data visualization. Justification:

• Combination of Standard Elements: While the base components (rectangles, timelines, categorical axes) exist in standard visualizations, their integration here is unique. This is not a simple timeline, nor is it a standard taxonomy tree or scatter plot.
• Integrated Multi-Dimensional Encoding: The visualization simultaneously encodes temporal (timeline), quantitative (size, duration), categorical (diet, family), and spatial (geography via tooltip) dimensions in a way that creates a analytical tool.
• Custom Glyph Design: Each dinosaur is represented by a custom rectangular glyph where both dimensions carry independent meaning (width = temporal range, height = body size), a departure from standard bar charts or timelines where one dimension is purely categorical.
• Taxonomic-Temporal Integration: The vertical organization by family creates evolutionary lanes that can be read horizontally through time, allowing viewers to see how different lineages evolved in parallel - a feature not found in standard timeline.