Facts About Dinosaurs – 25 Fun Dinosaur Facts To WOW You!

Are you curious to learn some weird and wonderful facts about dinosaurs?

If so, excellent! You are in exactly the right place my friend…

It’s time to chat about dinosaur facts.

Let’s dive right in…

Facts about Dinosaurs

1 – The term “dinosaur” was coined by the British palaeontologist Richard Owen in 1842.  The word dinosaur is derived from the Greek words “deinos” and “sauros,” which mean terrible lizard.

2 – There are more than 700 types of dinosaurs on record. Some dinosaurs could grow up to 100 feet tall and weigh 80 tons.

3 – Dinosaurs were first discovered in England and Wales during the early 1800s, but they have been found all over the world since then.

4 – Scientists estimate that there were between 10 to 100 million dinosaur species living at one time.

5 – Most scientists agree that it is likely that dinosaurs were on Earth for 165 million years and became extinct around 65 million years ago.

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6 – Dinosaurs are classified as reptiles, and were cold-blooded like modern reptiles except their larger size would have help stabilise their body temperatures.

7 – In 2001, scientists discovered a new type of dinosaur called Rapetosaurus that lived around 150 million years ago. It is believed that Rapetosaurus had a nose horn on its head like a modern-day rhino or buffalo.

8 – The name Rapetosaurus comes from the Latin words rapae meaning “of cows” and sauros meaning “lizard” because it is thought that this animal fed on plants similar to those eaten by cows today.

9. In 2017, scientists found fossils belonging to an unknown species of bird which existed alongside some of the earliest known birds about 120 million years ago in China’s northeastern Hebei province – now named Confuciusornis after Confucius who lived 2,500 years ago and wrote extensively about nature and animals.

10 – Scientists have found fossils in many different places including North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Antarctica. Some of the most popular dinosaurs are the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Diplodocus and Triceratops.

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11 – The first fossilized dinosaur bones were discovered in 1824 by Mary Ann Mantell.

12 – It is believed that they became extinct because a comet hit the Earth and changed our climate.

13 – Dinosaurs were divided into two groups – the herbivores and the carnivores.

14 – The largest dinosaur ever discovered is a Argentinosaurus – it was estimated to be 30 to 40 metres long (100 to 130 ft) and have a weight of 50 to 100 tonnes.

15 – The fastest speed estimated for a dinosaur (as indicated from dinosaur tracks) is 27 miles per hour. These dinosaurs were called Ostrich Mimic Ornithomimids. The slowest dinosaurs were from the Thyrephora group (such as a Stegosaurus).

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16 – The smartest dinosaur was the Troodon.

17 – The first dinosaurs appeared on Earth about 230 million years ago, which is 20 million years before the end of the Triassic Period.

18 – All known types of dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago in what is called the K-T event or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

19 – Paleontologists estimate that there could be as many as 100 million un-discovered dinosaur bones in the world. Dinosaur fossils have been found on all seven continents.

20 – People have inhabited planet Earth for over 2 million years while dinosaurs inhabited the Earth for 160 million years.

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21 – In addition to the super large dinosaurs, there were also numerous smaller dinosaurs. For example, the dilong weighed only 25 pounds, the aquilops weighed 3 pounds, the bernissartia weighed 10 pounds and the microraptor weighed two pounds.

22 – A tyrannosaurus rex had a bite that was twice as powerful than a lion’s bite.

23 – The Mesozoic Era is also known as The Age Of Dinosaurs – this consisted of three different periods – the Triassic, Jurassic and Creaceous period.

24 – Different dinosaurs existed during different periods. Indeed, Stegosauruses were already extinct before the Tyrannosauruses existed.

25 – Descendants of dinosaurs include: lizards, turtles, crocodiles and snakes.

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