🦕Welcome to Dinosaurgeek.com
A friendly yet encyclopedic guide to the some of the most incredible animals to ever walk the Earth, the Dinosaurs.
START EXPLORING THE DINOSAURS
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex was the biggest meat-eating Dinosaur that ever roamed the face of the Earth.
Explore now
Velociraptor
On each foot Velociraptor had one large, razor sharp claw roughly 8cm or 3 inches long. It is believed that Velociraptor would have used this giant claw as its primary way of hunting.
Explore now
Stegosaurus
With its beautiful and rather large plates along its back Stegosaurus is instantly recognisable all over the world.
Explore now
Deinonychus
Deinonychus was far from being one of the largest carnivorous Dinosaurs, but what it lacked in size it made up for in intelligence, terrifying looks, and hunting skills.
Explore now
Diplodocus
Diplodocus was one of the longest land animals that has ever lived. It was longer than a tennis court and weighed as much as two fully grown elephants combined.
Explore now
Triceratops
Triceratops was a Cerapod and it lived around 65-70 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period, in what today would be classed as North America.
Explore now
Imagine a Dinosaur…
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a Dinosaur? It might be large and fierce with long, sharp teeth. Or it might have stumpy legs with a long neck and tail, and a body as big as a bus. Whatever you imagine a Dinosaur to look like, one thing is for sure they’re bigger, scarier, and more beautiful than you could ever imagine.
Everything we know today about dinosaurs we have learned through the preserved fossils discovered all over the world. Each year palaeontologists and scientists make new discoveries that can shed new light on how they lived. Some recent discoveries even change the way we thought the Dinosaurs looked, thanks to the discoveries of more complete skeletons.
Some questions though will remain unanswered, like were they brightly coloured or camouflaged? How long did certain types of species live for? Could they make any sounds, and if so, what did they sound like? Palaeontologists and scientists can make good hypotheses around these types of questions, and as technology enhancements improve, hopefully one day we’ll know.
How long did the Dinosaurs live for?
The Dinosaurs lived on the earth for about 165 million years. That is an extremely long time when you realise that humans have only existed for around 3 million years. Humanity still has a long way to go before we are as successful in terms of inhabiting the earth as the dinosaurs were.
Since the earth was formed it has changed massively. The landmass, the seas and even the climate has changed dramatically, this includes the animals and plants.
The dinosaurs too evolved over time, adapting to changing environments over the long period that they lived on Earth. Many scientists believe that the first Dinosaurs (Early Jurassic) may have resembled giant lizards in terms of their features, so they would have scaly leathery skin, and would have blended in to their surroundings. It’s also hypothesized that not all were camouflaged, some like the triceratops may have had brightly coloured heads.
However, as the Dinosaurs evolved and the Earth changed, it is highly accepted that dinosaurs evolved to have feathers on their bodies, so basically turning into gigantic birds. This theory has changed the way most people think of dinosaurs particularly in the way they are portrayed in films as most may have actually had an array of feathers around their body.
Here’s some basic dinosaur facts
What does the word Dinosaur mean?
It was an English scientist called Richard Owen, in 1841, that described these beasts, as dinosaurs for the first time.
At that time, many large fossil bones were being discovered. Richard Owen hypothesized that the creatures these bones came from were not a type of lizard as many people suggested. So, Richard Owen invented a new term to describe these animals called ‘Dinosauria’, meaning ‘terrible lizards’.
What exactly were the Dinosaurs?
The Dinosaurs are animals, or rather they were since the last of them died out about a 65 million years ago. During the millions of years of Earth’s history, many kinds of animals have unfortunately come and gone, the dinosaurs were among one of the thousands of species that died in the great extinction event.
The dinosaurs were all reptiles, just as turtles, lizards and snakes are today. They had scaly or leathery skin and their babies would hatch from eggs.
Legs and hip bone structures.
Dinosaurs had different leg bone structure from most reptiles found today. Some Dinosaurs leg bones went straight down from their hips holding them up off the ground. Many Dinosaurs could probably run very well, we know this from studying modern reptiles such as lizards and crocodiles found today.
Other Dinosaurs had legs and hip structures that splayed their legs out sideways. These Dinosaurs would drag their bodies along the ground and probably could not move as well as other dinosaurs.
Not all prehistoric animals were Dinosaurs.
Not all prehistoric animals were Dinosaurs however, many other reptiles shared the earth with the Dinosaurs. Some swam in the sea, and others flew, these were called pterosaurs. However, these animals were not classed as Dinosaurs, the Dinosaurs could not swim or fly which is an important distinction.
Extraordinary animals
Start by exploring some of the key groups of Dinosaurs that ruled planet Earth for millions of years.
Pterosaurs
Pterosaurs are commonly referred to as “flying dinosaurs” as they were around during this period and many have confused some of these species with dinosaurs….
Explore nowTheropods
Theropods or to give them their Greek name which means “Wild beast foot”. Dinosaurs that would have had hollow bones and three-toed limbs are classed as Theropods.
Explore nowArmoured Dinosaurs
Covered in armour these species of dinosaurs were some of the most impressive dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth. Some had large spikes and some were covered from head to tail in boney plates.
Explore nowSauropods
With their instantly recognisable long necks Sauropods are one of the most popular dinosaurs in today’s modern culture. Sauropods were the biggest Dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth.
Explore now