Inexplicably, but it’s a fact: many children love dinosaurs. Perhaps because they are half-tale giant creatures and they are no longer frightening at all, since they are long extinct. So what is known about dinosaurs: what were they like, when and how long they lived, what did they eat, and why did they disappear from the face of the Earth? So, in order.
Who were dinosaurs and what did they look like?
- “Dinosaur” translates from the Greek as “creepy lizard.” They were scaly creatures that walked on two or four legs and laid eggs. Dinosaurs lived on the planet for 160 million years. They lived everywhere from Asia to Antarctica. Remains of dinosaurs were also found in Russia – in the Urals, in the Krasnoyarsk region, in Yakutia.
- Before them, more than 4 billion years ago, the Earth was inhabited by more primitive organisms: algae, mollusks, later – the fish.
- In total, scientists have studied more than a thousand species of dinosaurs. They were very different from each other: some – with sharp claws and spikes on the body, others – with horns.
- Many people mistakenly think that all dinosaurs were huge. Indeed, some reached the size of a five-story house, but there were tiny – the size of a chicken. It is customary to portray dinosaurs gray or green, but in fact, scientists do not know exactly what color these creatures were. This is because dinosaur skin is found very rarely. It is assumed that their coloring merged with the colors of the environment – so it would be easier for dinosaurs to hide from their enemies.
- Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. The fact that they once existed only became known in the 17th century. Dinosaur bones were first discovered by English scientist Robert Plot in 1677.
Why Did The Dinosaurs Go Extinct?
It is not known to science. There are several theories. The most common are that the climate was no longer suitable for dinosaurs (too cold or too hot) or that volcanic eruptions poisoned the atmosphere.
What Did The Dinosaurs Eat?
Despite their formidable appearance, many of them were not predators – they ate ferns, leaves, cones, flowers, and fruit from trees. In those days, the Earth was humid and hot and created favorable conditions for the growth of numerous plants, so herbivores did not have to starve.
But there were also carnivorous dinosaurs – which hunted animals and ate their eggs. Some of them couldn’t chew and swallowed rocks so that the food itself was grinded in their stomachs.
The main task of dinosaurs was to get food and, at the same time, to avoid predators. Herbivores protected themselves with horns and spikes, while carnivores had teeth and claws.
How Long Did Dinosaurs Live?
There is no exact answer to this question either. Scientists think that big dinosaurs lived relatively long, up to 300 years, and small dinosaurs lived about 20 years.
In any case, even the long-lived dinosaurs did not catch the appearance of humans on the planet: people began to inhabit the Earth only 64 million years after their extinction.
Who Studies Dinosaurs And How?
Paleontologists – people who specialize in studying the remains of extinct organisms – do this. They work both at excavations – in places where fossils have been found – and in laboratories. These scientists search for, retrieve from the ground, and then carefully study the bones of ancient animals.
In laboratories, paleontologists find out how the creatures to which the bones found belonged lived and hunted and determine their ages. Sometimes conclusions have to be made, having at the disposal of only a pair of bones, or even one.
In addition, experts make copies of the bones, from which skeletons are then collected and exhibited in museums.
Paleontologists also study fossilized footprints left by dinosaurs. To understand what kind of animal left the footprint, scientists learn the “age” of the rock, where this print was found, and compare the shape of the fingers and feet with the appearance of dinosaurs who lived at that time.
Paleontologists, on the other hand, come up with names for dinosaur species – often based on the name of the area where the bones were found.
What Species Of Dinosaurs Exist?
As already noted, there are more than a thousand species. Let’s take a closer look at the most famous ones.
Tyrannosaurus
One of the largest predators of all time. Walked on two legs with two clawed toes on each, had a large skull and long heavy tail, teeth the size of bananas.
Some scientists believe that Tyrannosaurus could not run and was clumsy, so it did not hunt and only ate dead animals. However, a more common view is that these dinosaurs were both predators and scavengers, taking prey from others when possible. Tyrannosaurus was capable of eating up to 150 kilograms of meat in one sitting, but then starved for days.
The skeleton of the largest Tyrannosaurus was found in 1991 in a province of Canada. The skeleton was 13 meters long and weighed almost 9 tons.
Ichthyosaurus
These are aquatic dinosaurs, similar in appearance to dolphins: head fused to body, very large eyes, fins. The mouth has many teeth. Ichthyosaurs mainly weighed up to 2 tons and reached several meters in length. Although there are known species that were up to 24 meters long and weighed 40 tons.
The first Ichthyosaurus was found in Russia in 1821, with the largest concentration of dinosaur bones of this species found in Germany.
Ichthyosaurs were carnivores: they ate fish and shellfish and hunted in packs. Their offspring were born in water and could swim right away. Ichthyosaurs never went on land.
Stegosaurus
This dinosaur was marked by the bony plates and spines on its back and tail (for protection from attack). These dinosaurs walked on four legs. They ate only tender leaves, because they had poorly developed jaws. Stegosaurus’ teeth were almost unfit for chewing. To digest even delicate plant foods, Stegosaurus was forced to swallow rocks – they grinded plants in his stomach.
Stegosaurus reached 9 meters in length and weighed up to 9 tons – about the same as an elephant. The bones of these dinosaurs were first found in the United States in 1877.
Triceratops
Distinguished by three horns (one at the tip of the nose, two above the eyes), bone “collars” on the head and a beak on the snout. The “collars” served to protect the head and shoulders, the horns scared off enemies and fought, including for females in the mating season, and the beak ripped branches off bushes and ferns.
Externally, triceratops are similar to rhinoceroses, only larger – up to 3 meters in height and 9 in length, weighing an average of about 12 tons. Only the head reached 2 meters in length. The mouths of these dinosaurs had several hundred teeth.
They fed on plants, moved on four thick legs, and lived in small groups.
Triceratops is one of the last dinosaurs on Earth. And their bones were first found in the United States in 1899.
Diplodocus
The most tailed dinosaur – it fended off predators with its 11-foot long, thin tail. It also had a long neck, a small head with big eyes and long teeth, and four paws. It was up to 30 meters long.
Diplodocs ate plant food. They stood on their hind legs to rip down tall trees. And swallow rocks, too.
They were herd animals, swimmers and preferred to swim in marshes, coming ashore only to eat and lay eggs.
Diplodocus lived in what is now North America. Fossilized dinosaur vertebrae of this species were first found in the United States (Colorado) in 1877.
Velociraptor
These tiny by dinosaur standards animals, a bit like turkeys, were as long as the average man – about 1 meter 80 centimeters, and weighed as much as a child – only 20 kilograms. Velociraptor bones were first found in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) in 1924.
It is not known exactly what these dinosaurs looked like: they used to be depicted as lizard-like, with green scaly skin, now it is believed that they had plumage, like birds. Some even suggest that the feathers were multicolored. Scientists probably know that Velociraptor had three fingers with sharp claws on the front limbs and four on the hind limbs.
Despite their very modest size, velociraptors were dangerous and agile predators. They jumped on their prey, grabbing it with their teeth and sinking their claws into it, inflicting fatal wounds.
Velociraptors became “fashionable” after the 1993 movie Jurassic Park. By the way, there they look huge and hunt in packs. Both are fiction.
Pterodactyl
Many people refer to pterodactyls as dinosaurs – and they are wrong. Pterodactyls are pterosaurs, or winged lizards, relatives of dinosaurs. Unlike dinosaurs, pterodactyls could fly. Of modern animals, they were similar in appearance and behavior to birds and bats.
The forelimbs of the pterodactyls turned into wings (the wingspan reached 8 meters), the body was covered with hair. Some had a tail, not all had teeth. Pterodactyls were characterized by long, clawed limbs.
These pterodactyls lived like modern birds: in flocks, flying and searching for food during the day and sleeping upside down at night, clinging to tree branches.
The mode of subsistence depended on the size of the pterodactyl. Smaller ones, as big as a crow, ate insects, while larger ones ate fish and lizards. Some of these pterodactyls were two meters long and one and a half meters tall and weighed over 75 kilograms.
Pterodactyls are thought to have had a working brain and excellent eyesight. They lived in the United States, East Africa, Western Europe, Australia and Russia. Their bones were first found in Bavaria, Germany, in 1784.
Other Outstanding Dinosaurs
The biggest: the seismosaurus. It weighed over 50 tons and reached 36 meters in length. Found in what is now the United States.
Heaviest: titanosaurus (up to 80 tons!)
The smallest: a Compsognathus. Its average length was only 60-100 cm and weight was about 2 kg, but this little guy had more than 60 sharp teeth. Discovered in what is now Germany.
The earliest known to date is either a Hererosaurus or an Eoraptor. Both were bipedal and lived about 230-225 million years ago.
The longest-necked: According to modern data, it is Mamenchisaurus. Its neck was up to 14 meters long.
Fastest: Ornithommosaurus. It could run at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.
The most eye-catching: Dromiceiomimus. It had eyes on the sides of its head. That gave this dinosaur great visibility – and an advantage over its enemies.
The most toothy: Hadrosaurus. It had 980 teeth!
The “longest-named”: the micropachycephalosaurus (which means “little fat-headed lizard”). Its bones are most often found in China.
Perhaps the smartest: the troodon. Its brain was the size of a bird’s – relatively large. Most dinosaurs had a small brain – the size of a walnut.
Interesting Facts About Dinosaurs
The closest modern relative of dinosaurs is the crocodile. Birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.
The first dinosaurs were small. Larger ones came much later. In addition, the first dinosaurs were predators.
Dinosaurs are thought to have had excellent eyesight and a good sense of smell. They had large eye sockets and nostrils and large parts of the brain responsible for seeing and smelling.
Some dinosaurs built nests. But not for living, of course, but for laying eggs. Scientists do not rule out that small dinosaurs could sometimes hide in caves.
Experts still don’t understand how dinosaurs slept. Perhaps herbivores were standing up, and predators, for which the structure of the skeleton allowed, were lying down.
Dinosaurs lived in an era when there were about 22 hours in a day. As we know, the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down.
In ancient China, they knew nothing about dinosaurs. And their bones were thought to be the bones of dragons and were used in medicine! One Indian tribe thought they were the remains of larger buffalo ancestors, and the British didn’t even rule out that they were the bones of giant humans. Well, or elephants after all.
Dinosaurs didn’t have to wash: the dried mud fell off the scales by itself or was thrown off with them.
Dinosaurs could migrate great distances, across entire continents, in search of food and places to live.
The huge bones of the dinosaurs were not as heavy as we think. That’s because most had hollow bones inside, like modern birds.
Many dinosaurs went out hunting at night.
The largest dinosaur eggs were the size of a basketball. A dinosaur could lay one to four dozen eggs at a time.
The name “dinosaur” itself was born in the 19th century. In 1824, the president of the Royal Geological Society mentioned the huge bones found in 1815 in Great Britain. Subsequently, specialists found other huge animal bones, and in 1842 biologist Richard Owen identified a suborder of “horrible lizards” (dinosaurs).
A relatively new species of dinosaur was discovered in 2015. Because of the short horns above the eyes, this species was called “Hellboy” (as a comic book character).
Most likely, the dinosaur is not the largest creature on Earth. The blue whale can weigh up to 170 tons, which is more than the weight of even the largest dinosaur.
There is a Dinosaur City in Colorado, USA. The streets there are named after different species of these ancient creatures.
What dinosaurs didn’t do:
- Didn’t Fly;
- Didn’t Live In The Sea;
- Didn’t Hibernate;
- Didn’t Sweat;
- Didn’t Pair Up For Life;
- Did Not Drop Their Tails Like Lizards;
- Were Not Viviparous (At Least Scientists Don’t Know Anything About That).
On the other hand, scientists are still excavating and researching. It is possible that we still have a lot to learn about dinosaurs.