Shocking Facts About Dinosaurs


  • Dinosaurs lived on Earth for 150 million years.  We've been around for just 0.1% of that time.
  • Many scientists believe that an asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico 65.5 million years ago and caused or contributed to the extinction of dinosaurs.
  • Dinosaurs are not, technically, extinct, since birds are considered by science as a type of dinosaur.
  • The estimated number of dinosaur species that existed in the Mesozoic era is between 1,543 and 2,468 species.
  • The longest complete dinosaur is the 27 meters (89 feet) long Diplodocus, which was discovered in Wyoming, U.S.
  • The smallest known dinosaur was about four inches (10 cm) tall and weighed less than a chihuahua.
  • While dinosaurs were ancestrally bipedal, many extinct groups included quadrupedal species, and some were able to shift between these stances.
  • Most dinosaurs are known from just a single tooth or bone.
  • The word "Dinosaur" comes from the ancient Greek and means "terrible lizard".
  • If Earth's history were condensed into 24 hours, life would've appeared at 4am, land plants at 10:24pm, dinosaur extinction at 11:41pm and human history would've begun at 11:58:43pm.
  • There's a limestone cliff with over 5,000 dinosaur footprints in Bolivia, with many dating 
  • back 68 million years.
  • In 2015, a 4-year-old searching for fossils found 100 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Bones.
  • The dinosaur noises in the "Jurassic Park" movie were made from recordings of tortoise sex.
  • One of the smallest dinosaurs discovered had the size of a chicken and ate insects.
  • Mammals remained relatively small until 65 million years ago, when the demise of the dinosaurs gave them a chance to survive.
  • Dinosaurs often swallowed large rocks. These rocks stayed in the stomach and helped 
  • them grind up food.
  • 40% of Americans think that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
  • Dinosaur feathers aren't just visually apparent in fossils, but have actually been found preserved in amber.
  • The world's oldest known "toilet" was used by dinosaurs 240 million years ago.
  • Despite the title, most of the dinosaurs from "Jurassic Park" lived during the Cretaceous period.
  • Villagers in central China have long been using dinosaur bones as medicine, thinking they were from dragons.
  • In Europe before the 17th century, dinosaur fossils were generally believed to be the remains of giants and other biblical creatures.
  • Fossils demonstrate that some dinosaurs slept with their heads tucked under their arms.
  • At least 71% of dinosaur fossil records remain to be discovered, according to a 2006 study.
  • We don't actually know for certain whether the T-Rex was warm or cold blooded.
  • Dinosaurs didn't roar; they may have mumbled with their mouths shut, research suggests.
  • Velociraptors were no bigger than turkeys.
  • The first dinosaur to be named was called "Scrotum humanum" because of the found 
  • bone's resemblance to a pair of human testicles.
  • Scientists discovered a dinosaur tail perfectly preserved in amber in 2017. It's full of feathers.

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