When did the dinosaurs first appear on Earth?
The oldest dinosaur types appeared about 230 million years ago.
Did people and dinosaurs live at the same time?
No. After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth.
Where did dinosaurs live?
Paleontologists now have evidence that dinosaurs lived on all of the continents.
How many kinds of dinosaurs were there?
Scientists are discovering new species all the time. About 700 species have been named so far and no one is sure how many more will be found in the future.
What did dinosaurs eat?
The meat eaters (carnivores) ate other dinosaurs, turtles, lizards, eggs or small mammals. Most dinosaurs, were plant-eaters (herbivores) and ate pine needles, ferns, mosses, rushes and other plants. A few may have been omnivorous, and ate meat and plants.
What colour were the dinosaurs?
Nobody knows the real colours of dinosaurs because pigment is not preserved in fossils. Many palaeontologists believe that dinosaurs were probably earth-tone colours (greens, greys, browns) so they would be camouflaged in their environment. They may have even had irregular patterns to blend in with their environment.
How old did dinosaurs get?
It is not possible to age the dinosaurs from their fossils. Based on a comparison to modern reptiles and large mammals, it is estimated that dinosaurs may have lived for 50-150 years.
What was the largest dinosaur?
Scientists believe that the Seismosaurus, who was between 120-150 feet long, was probably the largest dinosaur. They have not yet extracted a whole fossil to confirm this belief. Until then the Brachiosaurus, who were 40 feet tall and weighed 70-80 tons is the largest fully documented dinosaur.
Which dinosaur was the smallest?
Scientists believe that the smallest dinosaur was the Compsognathus. These dinosaurs were just slightly larger than a chicken, about 3 ft long and probably weighed about 2.5 kg (6.5 lb).
Which is the smartest dinosaur?
Troodon seemed to have had the largest brain of any dinosaur in relation to its body size. This may indicate that they were the most intelligent dinosaur.
When did dinosaurs become extinct?
Dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago (at the end of the Cretaceous Period), after living on Earth for about 165 million years.
Why did the dinosaurs die out?
There are dozens of theories to explain a probable cause or causes. Throughout the Mesozoic Era, individual dinosaur species were evolving and becoming extinct for various reasons. The unusually massive extinction at the end of the Cretaceous exterminated the last of the dinosaurs, the flying reptiles, and the large swimming reptiles, as well as many other marine animals. There is now widespread evidence that a meteorite impact was at least the partial cause for this extinction.