Dinosaurs are fascinating creatures. It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to see such large creatures walking around. Most of what we know about them comes from studying fossils and soil layers to try and estimate what life was like on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Here are some facts about dinosaurs that you may find interesting.
The biggest dinosaur
The biggest dinosaur that we know of, is the Argentinosaurus. It is also the largest animal to ever walk on land. It is a four-legged beast with a long neck and tail, similar to a brontosaurus only much bigger. The Argentinosaurus is estimated to have been 115 feet tall and weighed from 88 to 110 tons.
Researchers can only estimate the exact size because, while there are remains to be studied, there is still insufficient data to certain. There has not been enough scrutiny of the current data, the femur bone of the dinosaur has never been referred to in a peer-reviewed journal, for example.
Regardless of whether it is 88 or 110 tons, that is freaking huge! We can only imagine what it must have been like to see such a colossal beast roaming the earth.
The fastest dinosaur
There has been much debate over which dinosaur was the fastest of all time. Many people thought the Velociraptor was one of the fastest after seeing them in Jurassic Park, but they were relatively slow compared to other dinosaurs of similar size.
Another contender is the T-rex. No one is sure how fast these massive beasts were, but some researchers think that they are somewhere in the top five of fast dinosaurs.
The species that researchers think is the fastest is a lesser-known dinosaur called the Nanotyrannus. This dinosaur has similar characteristics to a T-rex, but Its legs are proportionately longer and its tail is proportionately shorter, while its body stands at only 17 feet tall. It appears to be built for bursts of speed with its center of balance adjusted for sprinting.
Some researchers argue that the Nanotyrannus isn’t a real species. They say it is a juvenile T-rex. But, whether or not this is true, based on the study of its body structure, the Nanotyrannus is thought to be the fastest dinosaur and one you would never want to be chased by.
Largest flying dinosaur
Most people think of the pterodactyl when they think of flying dinosaurs. However, there have been many species of pterosaurs. The largest pterosaur that we know about is Quetzalcoatlus.
While not technically a dinosaur, the Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying animal to have ever lived. It was the size of a giraffe and had a wingspan of somewhere between 36 and 50 feet.
Because of its large size, it was most likely that the Quetzalcoatlus would fly mainly by gliding, something like an albatross. Researchers believe that it could take off under its own power and flap its wings, but to conserve its energy, it most likely spent as little time flapping as possible.
While researchers first believed that this beast fed on fish and other sea creatures, it was later discovered that it most likely fed on corpses and whatever else it could scavenge. It may have been something like a massive vulture.
It wasn’t a predator, but this is once beast you would never want to see flying near you. The thought of such a massive creature that could actually fly is mind-boggling and frightening.
The last living dinosaur
Everyone knows that the dinosaurs lived a long time ago, but do you know which dinosaur was the most recent one to walk the earth?
Researchers believe that Triceratops was the most recent dinosaur to have lived. The last one lived 65 million years ago.
The Triceratops is something like a rhinoceros, but with three horns and an armored frill around its neck. They could be from 25-30 feet in length and just under 10 feet tall. They were herbivores and were thought to feed on mostly low lying vegetation.
The most recent fossil of a Triceratops from 65 million years ago is close to the period when all non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out. It lends credibility to the theory that the dinosaurs died suddenly in a mass-extinction event, rather than dying out slowly, as some people thought.
There is evidence that a meteorite hit the earth and caused massive disruption to the weather and climate conditions, which in turn, killed off the bulk of the dinosaurs.
Regardless of what really happened, we can only wonder what kind of life forms we would have now if the extinction never occurred.
The first dinosaurs
There are all kinds of definitions of what classifies something as a dinosaur, but for simplicity, dinosaurs were lizards that began to stand upright. The stood on either two legs of four legs.
They evolved from archosaurs, the lizards who were the dominant species before dinosaurs. It is unknown exactly when dinosaurs first appeared, but it is thought to be around 240 million years ago. The earliest fossils found came from South America, and it is believed that this the region where dinosaurs first began to appear.
Dinosaurs today
Many people wonder what it would be like to meet a real dinosaur. There have been theories about growing dinosaurs from DNA samples and cloning technology, like the movie Jurassic Park. But if this is possible, it is a long way in the future.
Another way that people have tried to recreate dinosaurs is with animatronic models. Basically, robots that move in a manner that we believe dinosaurs must have moved. There are also realistic dinosaur costumes that can be operated by a puppeteer combined with animatronics. These may be the best way to see what a real dinosaur was like.
There are various theme parks around the world that incorporate animatronic dinosaurs to some degree. You may be able to take a safari tour and see robot dinosaurs in their natural habitat just like you were looking at real dinosaurs.
People everywhere are fascinated by dinosaurs. No doubt we will continue to learn more about them and come up with ever new ways to experience them.