200 Unbelievable Facts About Dinosaurs!

Facts About Dinosaurs: Dinosaurs are a subspecies of reptiles. He ruled the earth for about 150 million years. Dinosaur meaning large lizard in Greek. The period of dinosaurs is considered to be from the end of the Triassic period (about 25 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (about 25 million years ago). Most of them then became extinct as a result of the Cretaceous-Trilogy extinction event.

Fossil fossils indicate that the birds originated from the Thropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, and most ornithologists today consider the birds to be living descendants of dinosaurs.

Interesting Facts About Dinosaurs!

Most dinosaurs were vegetarians.
Chickens are actually dinosaurs.
The name "Velociraptor" means speedy thief.
Dinosaurs went extinct around 65 million years ago.
Dinosaurs that could run on two legs were called bipeds.
Some pterosaurs had fur on their bodies to keep them warm.
Dinosaurs lived on all the continents, including Antarctica.
Dinosaurs that lived near water often left the best fossils.
A T-rex bite was more than twice as powerful as a lion's bite.
The blue whale is bigger than any dinosaur at 108 feet (33 m).
The Pentaceratops had the biggest skull at 10 feet (3 m) long.
Indominus rex from Jurassic World was not actually a dinosaur.
Triceratops had a parrot-like beak with large teeth at the end.
Small meat eaters were most likely the smartest type of dinosaurs.
Over 70% of Earth’s animal life died when the dinosaurs went extinct.
The first ever dinosaurs were omnivores and ate both plants and animals.
Dinosaurs died nearly 65 million years before humans showed up on Earth.
Dinosaurs evolved around 250 million years ago during the Triassic period.

Amazing Facts About Dinosaurs!

The Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were once thought to be the same dinosaur.
Scientists believe that all dinosaurs laid eggs and did not give live birth.
All dinosaurs laid eggs. About 40 kinds of dinosaur eggs have been discovered.
The fastest dinosaur was the Ornithomimus. It could run up to 43½ mph (70 km/h).
The biggest plant eater was the Argentinosaurus. It was up to 98 feet (30 m) long.
The largest mounted dinosaur skeleton to be exhibited in a museum is a Brachiosaurus.
Dinosaur bones can be radioactive, but are rarely radioactive enough to be dangerous.
The K-T event was the mass extinction event that killed off the last of the dinosaurs.
The biggest hunter was the Spinosaurus (“spine lizard”). It was up to 49 feet (15 m) long.
Measuring 50 feet, Liopleurodon was the biggest aquatic reptile, half the size of the blue whale.
The largest dinosaur brain belonged to the Tyrannosaurus rex and was similar in size to a human’s.
Tyrannosaurus rex had huge back legs, but its tiny front legs were not much longer than human arms.
The longest dinosaur egg ever found was 2 feet long and belonged to the Macroelongatoolithus genus.
Many scientists believe that birds are dinosaurs and, therefore, dinosaurs are not actually extinct.

Scientific Facts About Dinosaurs!

Scientists can guess how fast a dinosaur walked or ran by looking at the gaps between its footprints.
Sauropods were the tallest animals that ever lived. Some were more than twice the height of a giraffe.
Crocodiles and dinosaurs lived together for nearly 80 million years, but crocodiles are not dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs dominated Earth for over 165 million years. Humans have been around for only 2 million years.
Dinosaurs often swallowed large rocks. These rocks stayed in the stomach and helped them grind up food.
The longest Dinosaur name is the Micropachycephalosaurus. Their name means “Little thick-headed lizard”.
The Megalodon was the biggest prehistoric fish. It looked like a shark, though it was three times bigger.
The oldest known dinosaur is Saltopus. A small carnivore, this dinosaur lived over 245 million years ago.
Dinosaurs were reptiles that lived on Earth from about 230 million years ago to about 65 million years ago.
The toothiest dinosaur was the hadrosaurs. It could have over 1,000 teeth and it continually grew new ones.
The tallest hunter was the Deinocheirus (“horrible hand”). Its head was up to 20 feet (6 m) off the ground.
Barney is a very popular purple Dinosaur from TV, but did you know that he is actually a Tyrannosaurus rex?
Snakes and lizards shed their skin when they grow. Researchers believe that dinosaurs may have done the same.
Like birds and reptiles today, dinosaurs built nests and laid eggs. Some even fed and protected their babies.
The dinosaur with the thickest skull was the Pachycephalosaurus. Its skull grew up to 8 inches (20 cm) thick.

Historical Facts About Dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs had feathers. It is thought that feathers first evolved to keep dinosaurs warm, not to help them fly.
Dinosaur fossils can be found on every continent of earth. They lived on one large supercontinent called Pangea.
The Sauroposeidon was the tallest dinosaur in the world at 60 feet. They are known for their extremely long necks!
In the original Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton wanted John Hammond, the park overseer, to be a dark "Walt Disney."
Colorado’s nickname is the Stegosaurus State. The first ever Stegosaurus skeleton was found near Morrison, Colorado.
Baby Mussaurus (“mouse lizard”) are the smallest dinosaur skeletons ever found. They would fit inside a shopping bag.
Nobody really knows what color dinosaurs were. Paleontologists think they were very brightly colored just like birds.
Dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic era. This era includes three different periods: the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
The spikey tail of a Stegosaurus is called a thagomizer. This fun name was first coined by the cartoonist Gary Larson.
The tallest plant eater was the Brachiosaurus (Giraffatitan brancai). Its head was up to 39 feet (12 m) off the ground.
The dinosaur with the longest claws was the Therizinosaurus (“reaping lizard”). Its claws were up to 3 feet (1 m) long.
In the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, the sound of the T-Rex's footsteps was the sound of cut sequoias crashing to the ground.
Struthiomimus (“ostrich mimic”), as well as other small hunters, made high-pitched, screechy noises similar to an ostrich.
Some dinosaurs lived in herds or groups. Many plant eating species were living in groups as early as 193 million years ago.
The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit the Yucatan peninsula. The massive space rock hit just below the Gulf of Mexico.
Dinosaur skulls had large holes or “windows” that made their skulls lighter. Some of the largest skulls were as long as a car.

Mysterious Facts About Dinosaurs!

Almost nothing was left alive near the asteroid impact zone. Animals near the asteroid impact zone were wiped out immediately.
In the 1993 movie, Jurassic Park, there is only 15 minutes of dinosaur footage: 6 minutes of CGI and 9 minutes of animatronics.
The oldest dinosaur fossil is 243 million years old. The Nyasasaurus parringtoni is the oldest known relative to the dinosaurs.
The Pterodactyl is the most well-known flying dinosaur. These flying reptiles actually belong to a group called the pterosaurs.
Some dinosaurs’ tails were over 45 feet long. Most dinosaurs had long tails that helped them to keep their balance when running.
In 1824 Reverend William Buckland was the first person to name a dinosaur. He named it Megalosaurus, which means "great lizard."
Triceratops had the largest skull of any dinosaur at over six feet long! This large skull helped to protect them from attackers.
No one knows exactly how long a dinosaur’s lifespan was. Some scientists speculate some dinosaurs lived for as long as 200 years.
The largest carnivorous dinosaur is the Spinosaurus. This dinosaur is estimated to be 52 to 59 feet long and weighed 7 to 9 tons.
The dinosaur with the longest name is Micropachycephalosaurus (“small thick-headed lizard”). Its fossils are usually found in China.
The largest dinosaur bone ever discovered was 5×5 feet and weighed over 1 ton. This huge bone was the backbone of an Argentinosaurus.
Some dinosaurs ran on two legs and were often fast and agile. Well-known examples include the Tyrannosaurus rex and the Velociraptor.
It is estimated that trillions of dinosaur eggs were laid during the Mesozoic era, though fossilized eggs containing embryos are rare.
Dinosaurs lived all over the earth on every continent North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and even Antarctica!
The first American dinosaur fossil was discovered by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden. The fossilized teeth were collected in 1855 in Montana.

Wierd Facts About Dinosaurs for Kids

Some Dinosaurs had tails over 45 feet long. The Diplodocus was a 92 foot sauropod from the Jurassic period that had a tail 45 feet long.
The first dinosaurs were carnivores, or meat eaters. Later herbivores (plant eaters) and omnivores (both meat and plant eaters) appeared.
A newborn human baby has a bigger brain than most adult dinosaurs had. Whales and dolphins have the biggest brains of all living animals.
Corythosaurus had a big, hollow crest connected to its nose. The crest worked like an echo chamber, letting it make a loud blast of noise.
Hadrosaurs are duck-billed, toothy dinosaurs that had around 1,400 teeth. They ate bark by chewing it into a pulp with their grinding teeth.
A Tyrannosaurus rex could bite 500 pounds of meat in one bite. The large size of their skull means they would have a pretty impressive bite.
The Velociraptor’s name means “speedy thief”. They were known to reach speeds of up to 40 miles per hour when sprinting and ran on two legs.
The last dinosaur on earth was Chenanisaurus barbaricus. This dinosaur was thought to be the last surviving dinosaur after the K-T extinction.
Some of the biggest plant eaters had to eat as much as a ton of food a day. This is similar to eating a bus-sized pile of vegetation every day.
Dinosaurs did not roar. Scientists believe they likely made low pitched swooshing or cooing sounds and not the classic roar from Jurassic Park!
The name “Dinosauria” means “terrible lizard”. The name was given by Richard Owen who was a paleontologist in 1842 because of their large size.
Current dinosaur fossil “hot spots” include South America (particularly Argentina) and China, where several feathered dinosaurs have been found.
Most carnivorous dinosaurs walked on two legs. Walking on two legs allowed these meat eaters to reach impressive speeds while chasing down prey.
Triceratops had the biggest skull with a solid shield than any other dinosaur. It was up to 6½ feet (2 m) long, with a bony shield over its neck.
They had two holes in their skull behind their eye sockets. These two holes allowed for jaw muscles to attach and gave them a much stronger bite.

Unique Facts About Dinosaurs!

Most dinosaurs were herbivores and only ate plants. 65% of all dinosaurs were herbivores, but most of the iconic species like T-rex were carnivores.
The only known example of the giant sauropod Seismosaurus appears to have choked to death on a stone it was trying to swallow to use as a gastrolith.
Sauropods (“Lizard-Footed”) could travel many miles a day on their huge legs. Their fossilized “trackways” or “superhighways” can still be seen today.
Scientists do not know what dinosaurs looked like, they can only guess. They use skeletons, fossils and preserved skin to guess what they looked like.
The Stegosaurus has the smallest brain for its body size of any known dinosaur. Its body was the size of a van, but its brain was the size of a walnut.
Early species were relatively small at between 10 to 15 feet long when fully grown. They were primarily carnivores or omnivores that walked on two legs.
Mary Anning was a paleontologist in the 1800s and was one of the greatest paleontologists of all time. She discovered the first Ichthyosaurus at age 12.
Tyrannosaurus rex ate up to 22 tons of meat a year. It had jagged teeth 6 inches (15 cm) long. It couldn’t chew, so it swallowed its food in large chunks.
Baby Mussaurs could fit in a shopping bag. Their name means “mouse lizard” and they lived in Argentina during the Jurassic period and strictly ate plants.
Slim dinosaurs such as Compsognathus and Ornithomimus were among the fastest dinosaurs. However, the cheetah can run faster than any dinosaur that existed.
The rock that hit Earth was only 6 miles in diameter, but it impacted the Earth’s crust so powerfully that shockwaves would be felt across the entire world.
Dinosaurs constantly replaced their teeth every couple of months. When old teeth were broken or damaged, new ones would grow and push the broken teeth aside.
Most dinosaur fossils have been found in North America, Argentina and China. Deserts are an ideal place for finding fossils because of their sedimentary rocks.
Parasaurolophus had a crest that looked like half of a trombone. The male’s crest was up to 6 feet (1.8 m) long, which was the biggest out of all the dinosaurs.
Stegosaurs had large plates on their back called scutes. These plates were often over 30 inches long and helped the Stegosaurus regulate their body temperature.

All Information About Dinosaurs!

Baby dinosaurs often had larger eyes than adults. The facial features of juveniles were very different from adults as younger species had much bigger eye sockets.
Most meat-eating dinosaurs had bones filled with air. Though their bones were huge, they weren’t as heavy as they looked. Birds have the same kind of hollow bones.
The price of a dinosaur fossil can range from a few dollars to a few million. A complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton named Stan was recently sold for $31.8 million!
Almost all carnivorous dinosaurs had hollow bones to make them lighter and more agile. As the only living descendant of the dinosaurs, birds also have hollow bones!
Scientists believe that dinosaurs lived for 70 to 100 years. Earlier estimates guessed that sauropods could reach up to 300 years old, but this was later corrected.
People have only been on Earth about 2.5 million years. Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 160 million years, which is about 64 times longer than people been around.
Some dinosaurs swallowed large rocks to help them grind up their food. These large stomach stones are called gastroliths and can be found in some bird species today.
While many people think dinosaurs were massive, dinosaurs were usually human sized or smaller. Scientists believe that the larger bones were just easier to be fossilized.
Ichthyosaur babies were born tail-first. Th they had been born head first, they would have drowned before they could reach the water's surface to take their first breath.
Dinosaurs evolved from other reptiles. The early ancestors of crocodiles and dinosaurs were called archosaurs and emerged in the Permian era around 300 million years ago.
Plant-eating dinosaurs often lived together for protection, like herding animals today do. The herds ranged from just a few adults and their young to thousands of animals.
The Stegosaurus has a brain no bigger than a walnut. Their brain was measured to be 3 centimeters and weighed in at just 75 grams which is about the weight of two pennies.

Random Facts About Dinosaurs!

The smartest dinosaur was probably the Troodon (“tooth that wounds”). It had a brain the size of a mammal or bird today. It also had grasping hands and stereoscopic vision.
Some scientists believe that Tyrannosaurus rex may have been able to run as fast as 18 mph (28 km/h). Other scientists believe it could not run at all because it was so big.
The Corythosaurus was able to create booming noises through the large crest on its head. This crest acted like an echo chamber to amplify sound and produce loud mating calls.
The Ornithomimids was the fastest dinosaur and could reach speeds of 50 miles per hour. These speedy dinosaurs ran on two legs and looked very similar to modern day ostriches.
Paleontologists think there are at least 700 species of extinct dinosaurs. They are sure that the fossil record is not complete and we have many more species left to discover!
The smallest dinosaur species was about the size of a hummingbird. It was originally thought to be an avian dinosaur, but it was actually a small reptile that looked like a bird.
The Nigersaurus had over 500 teeth that were adapted for eating plants growing near the ground. These 30-foot-long plant-eating animals lived in the Sahara 110 million years ago.
The first dinosaur fossil ever discovered was thought to be a dragon. 3,500 years ago in China the first dinosaur bones were discovered, but they were thought to be dragon teeth!
Some dinosaurs may have had colorful skin, but scientists don’t know for sure. It’s likely that most dinosaurs had green and brown scales to help them hide among trees and plants.
Dinosaurs had different self-defense mechanisms. Some, like meat eaters, had sharp teeth. Plant eaters had long horns or sharp spikes. Other dinosaurs were covered in bony plates.
The smallest fully grown dinosaur fossil is Lesothosaurus (“Lizard from Lesotho”). It is only the size of chicken. Smaller fossils have been found, but they are of baby dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs lived during a period of Earth’s history called the Mesozoic (“middle life”) Era. They lived during all three periods of this era: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.
Humans’ eyes face forward so that they can see in 3D. Plant-eating dinosaurs, like the Triceratops, had eyes looking out to each side, so they could watch for danger while they fed.
Not all dinosaurs that died became fossils. Fossils are almost only found in sedimentary rocks. Paleontologists use geologic maps to find sedimentary rock layers to search for them.
Resurrecting dinosaurs from the dead is not possible. The Jurassic Park movies made bringing back the dinosaurs seem easy, but unfortunately at this point in time it is not possible.

Fun Facts About Dinosaurs!

The most dangerous dinosaur was the Tyrannosaurus rex. They were intelligent, had a bite force that rivals that of a Great White shark are thought to have been the ultimate carnivore.
Though the Jurassic Park movies show Velociraptors being nearly human sized, that is not accurate. They were about as tall as a turkey, but could easily reach over six feet in length.
The smartest dinosaur only had a brain the size of an avocado pit. The Troodon had the largest brain relative to its body size and was one of the smartest animals of the Mesozoic era.
One of the weirdest dinosaurs is the Suzhousaurus. Looking like a giant rat, this odd dinosaur also had a furry body, which suggests it is a distant ancestor of the giant ground sloth.
Deinosuchus was a huge prehistoric crocodile. It most likely had the strongest bite out of any dinosaur, including Tyrannosaurus rex. It weighed eight times as much as today’s crocodile.
The largest claws of any dinosaur were 3.2 feet long and belonged to the Therizinosaurus. These claws may seem daunting, but the Therizinosaurs were likely herbivores so ate only plants.
Birds are actually considered the only living dinosaur! Not only do their skeletons look very similar, but scientists believe Dinosaurs’ nested and brooded their eggs just like birds do.
The smallest dinosaur egg was only around three centimeters long and was roughly the size of a quail egg. It was likely laid over 110 million years ago and is thought to belong to a theropod.
The largest dinosaur eggs were as large as basketballs. The bigger the egg, the thicker the shell. So if the eggs had been larger, dinosaur babies probably would not have been able to get out.
The heaviest dinosaurs weighed over 77 tons which is about as much as 17 elephants. Within the sauropods there exists a subgroup known as Titanosauria which were the largest land animals ever!
Dinosaurs are believed to have shed their skin, just like modern lizards. Fossilized dandruff fragments were recently analyzed and revealed that dinosaurs likely shed their skin in small pieces.
Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews found the first dinosaur nest known to science in 1923 in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Before he found the nest, scientists were unsure how dinosaur babies were born.

Some Important Facts About Dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs were thought to reproduce a lot like birds. Like all reptiles they had one body opening for excreting urine and waste. This opening is called a cloaca and is also used for reproduction.
A dinosaur called the Pegomastax is one of the weirdest dinosaurs known. Described as a cross between a parrot and porcupine, it had a beak with teeth that sharpened themselves against each other.
30 million years before the T. rex there was a large carnivore called the Giganotosaurus. The Giganotosaurus was thought to be the largest carnivorous dinosaur until the Spinosaurus stole its crown.
Meat-eating dinosaurs are known as theropods, which means “beast-footed,” because they had sharp, hooked claws on their toes. In contrast, plant-eating dinosaurs tended to have blunt hooves or toenails.
The first known American dinosaur was discovered in 1858 in the marl pits in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Although other fossils were previously found, they were not correctly identified as dinosaur fossils.
The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs does not exist anymore. When the giant asteroid struck Earth it was almost entirely destroyed. Nothing remains except the 112-mile-wide crater where the asteroid hit.
There is a national dinosaur monument in the United States on the border between Colorado and Utah. This monument is on over 210,000 acres and is one of the best places in the world to see dinosaur fossils!
There are some ancient species of reptiles that are not dinosaurs! One of the best examples are crocodiles. Dinosaurs had legs directly under their bodies, while crocodiles have legs that are out to the side.
The Sauroposeidon was the tallest dinosaur at 60 feet. It belonged to the sauropod clade of dinosaurs which were known for their extremely long necks! The Brachiosaurus is the most well-known of the sauropods.
Dinosaurs are reptiles that lived in what we call the “Age of Dinosaurs”. These prehistoric creatures dominated for over 140 million years because they had a wide range of adaptations that allowed them to survive.
The first dinosaurs that appeared during the Triassic Period 230 million years ago were small and lightweight. Bigger dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus and Triceratops appeared during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
There were reptiles that roamed the earth before the dinosaurs during the Carboniferous period about 320 million years ago. Pelycosaurs and anapsids are both examples of large reptiles that existed before the dinosaurs.
Scientists estimate that there were over 1,000 different species of non-avian dinosaurs and over 500 distinct genera. They speculate there are many still undiscovered dinosaurs and that there may be as many as 1,850 genera.

Strange Facts About Dinosaurs!

The word “dinosaur” was coined by British paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842. It is Greek, meaning “terrible lizard.” Rather than implying that dinosaurs were fearsome, Owen used the term to refer to their majesty and size.
The Ankylosaurus had a set of bony body armor that could easily be compared to a tank. Their name is from the Greek translation of “fused lizard” and they are best known for the massive club at the end of their tail used for combat.
One tribe of Native Americans—the Peigan people of Alberta, Canada—thought dinosaur skeletons belonged to “the fathers of buffaloes.” Englishmen 300 hundred years ago believed dinosaur bones came from an elephant or even giant humans.
Scientists can tell what a dinosaur ate by looking at its teeth. Wide and flat teeth mean they ate plants and used their teeth to grind down their food. Carnivores had sharp teeth and muscular jaws that they used to tear up their prey.
In 2015, scientist discovered a new dinosaur species. They nicknamed it "Hellboy" because the stubby horns above its eyes looked like the comic book character of the same name. They also had a "hellish" time excavating it from hard rock.
There are two different groups of dinosaurs. The saurischian or “lizard hipped” and the ornithischian or “bird hipped”. The long-necked Brachiosaurus is an example of the lizard hipped, while the Triceratops is a member of the bird hipped.
Most meat eaters walked on two feet. This made them faster and left their hands free to grab their prey. Most plant eaters walked on four feet to better carry their heavy bodies. Some plant eaters could balance on two feet for a short time.
While dinosaurs had the same set of leg bones, some had feet like a rhinoceros, elephant, bird, or a pig. The biggest footprints ever found were 3 feet (1 m) across and 4 feet long. Millipedes have more legs than any other animal—up to 750.
Archaeopteryx were thought to be the first flying dinosaur. They lived 150 million years ago in the Jurassic Period and had flight and tail feathers just like modern birds. This species is believed to be the link between dinosaurs and birds.
Mary Anning (1799-1847) was one of the most famous of all fossil hunters. However, she was never taken as seriously as she should have been because she was a woman from a poor background whereas most scientists were men from wealthy families.
The first recorded description of a possible dinosaur bone discovery dates back to 3,500 years ago in China. At the time, people did not know about dinosaurs, so they thought their discovery, which was some dinosaur teeth, belonged to dragons.
The largest flying reptile is the Quetzalcoatlus. This type of pterosaur is thought to have had a wingspan of over 40 feet and probably weighed as much as 500 pounds! They had the ability to jump 8 feet vertically to launch themselves into flight.
The heaviest dinosaurs weighed as much as 17 elephants. Though there are some pretty massive dinosaurs, the biggest animal to ever exist is the Blue Whale. One female blue whale was measured at 110 feet long and they can reach weights up to 190 tonnes.

Mind-Blowing Facts About Dinosaurs!

Though mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, and Dimetrodon are commonly believed to be dinosaurs, they are not technically dinosaurs. The term “dinosaur” refers to just land-dwelling reptiles that have a specific hip structure, among other traits.
The smallest dinosaur egg ever found was only 3 centimeters long and weighed 75 grams. It is not known what kind of species it came from. The largest dinosaur eggs ever found belong to a meat eater in Asia called segnosaurus (“slow lizard”). The eggs are around 19 inches long.
Crocodiles were able to survive mass extinction when dinosaurs could not. Crocodiles and alligators have changed very little over hundreds of millions of years. They can live on land and water, move at surprisingly fast speeds, use very little energy and can go long periods of time without eating.
There was such fierce rivalry between paleontologists Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh to find new dinosaurs fossils that they spawned what became known as the Bone Wars. The fight lasted for over 30 years. Marsh is said to have “won” the wars, in part because he found more fossils and he was better funded.
Dinosaurs did not actually have two brains. This was a myth that started in the 1880s when scientists found a hollow space near the hip region and the idea of the dinosaur “butt brain” was founded. Scientists still do not know the exact purpose of this hollow space, but they think it was used to store energy rich glycogen.
Scientists believe that some dinosaurs were cold blooded, others warm blooded, and still others not fully one or the other. Small meat eaters may have been warm blooded. Plant eaters who were not as active were probably cold blooded. A warm-blooded animal needs about 10 times more food than a cold-blooded animal the same size.
Dinosaurs are divided into two groups by the structure of their hipbones. In the hips of saurischian, or lizard hipped, dinosaurs, one of the bones pointed forward. In the hips of ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs, all the bones pointed backward. Ironically, scientists believe that birds evolved from lizard-hipped dinosaurs, not bird-hipped dinosaurs.
Paleontologists are not perfect. For example, Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) put Iguanodon’s thumb claw on top of its nose. It stayed that way for 40 years. Edward Cope (1840-1897) reconstructed Elasmosaurus (“thin plate”) with its head on the end of its tail. Until recently, Apatosaurus (or Brontosaurus) appeared in museums with the head of Camarasaurus (“chambered lizard”).
The earliest named dinosaur found so far is the Eoraptor (“dawn stealer”). It was so named because it lived at the dawn of the Dinosaur Age. It was a meat eater about the size of a German shepherd. The first Eoraptor skeleton was discovered in Argentina in 1991. However, another dinosaur has recently been found in Madagascar that dates as being 230 million years old. It has not been named yet.
It was not just an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were already in decline around 66 million years ago. What caused their eventual extinction was likely the asteroid impact, super volcanoes, acid rain and food shortages. Dinosaurs went extinct because they were so big. They were unable to use burrows, escape into the oceans or shield themselves from deadly atmospheric conditions.
Dinosaur names are not always static. For example, when paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh first discovered the bones of a giant sauropod, he named it Apatosaurus. When he discovered similar but larger bones a little later, he named it Brontosaurus. However, what Marsh thought were Brontosaurus bones were actually adult Apatosaurus bones, so later scientists decided to change “Brontosaurus” back to “Apatosaurus.”
Stegosaurus had huge upright plates on its back that could grow as large as 30 inches. While scientists do not fully understand the function of these massive plates, they speculate that the stegosaurus could control its body temperature by regulating blood flow through them. A stegosaurus may have also been able to control its skin color this way, to either attract a mate or scare predators. Scientists call this color change “blushing.”
Modern birds and reptiles have a single body opening for urination, defecation, and reproduction: a cloaca (Latin for “sewer”). Paleontologists believe that dinosaurs were similarly designed and reproduced by pressing their cloacas together in a “cloacal kiss.” Additionally, some dinosaurs may have had a penis like some birds do or other “intromittent organs” like crocodiles. Paleontologists believe a Tyrannosaurus rex male reproductive organ might have been up to 12 feet in length.
The mass extinction of the dinosaurs and other animals that took place 65.5 million years ago is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or the K-T event. Scientists have several theories for this extensive die-off. One theory proposes that small mammals ate dinosaur eggs until the population became unsustainable. Other scientists believe the cause was dinosaurs’ bodies becoming too big for their small brains, a great plaque decimating the population, starvation, or climate change.
Many scientists believe that a massive meteorite hit the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico 65.5 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs as well as the pterosaurs and plesiosaurs. The 112-mile-wide crater was caused by a rock 6 miles in diameter. It would have hit Earth’s crust with immense force, sending shockwaves around the world. No land animal heavier than a large dog survived. However, animals such as sharks, jellyfish, fish, scorpions, birds, insects, snakes, turtles, lizards, and crocodiles survived.

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