11facts about dinosaurs
Information about dinosaurs
1. The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language and means “terrifying lizard.” The word was coined by paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and was intended to refer to the dinosaurs’ large size rather than their fearsome appearance.
2. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 160 million years, from the Triassic period about 230 million years ago during the Jurassic period until the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago.
3. Scientists believe that the dinosaurs became extinct due to a huge asteroid colliding with the Earth and heavy volcanic eruptions that occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago. Such events send huge amounts of dust into the atmosphere, blocking the sun's rays from the earth for many years.
4. The biggest dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus were actually herbivores, not carnivores.
5. To get rid of predators, many herbivorous dinosaurs developed weapons in their bodies, and one of the most famous examples is the tail of the dinosaur called Stegosaurus, which had spines 70 cm long!
6. Pterosaurs weren't dinosaurs, they were flying reptiles that lived during the time that dinosaurs lived. The same applies to marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs.
7. Birds evolved from a type of dinosaur known as theropods. The most famous dinosaur from this family is the T-rex.
8. The first to find dinosaur bones were the ancient Chinese. They thought they were the bones of giant dragons.
9. Some of the terrifying dinosaur sounds in the “Jurassic Park” movies are turtles mating.
10. Not all dinosaurs were giants. The smallest known dinosaur was 10 cm long and weighed less than a Chihuahua.
11. In 2015, a 4-year-old boy found a 100-million-year-old dinosaur fossil while he was searching for dinosaur fossils.
Source: websites