Dinosaurs Facts for Kids
Roar-some facts about dinosaurs
Triceratops and T. rex lived at the same time and place — in western North America about 68 million years ago. Fossil evidence shows they sometimes fought!
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates (animals with backbones) to achieve powered flight, evolving the ability millions of years before birds.
Some dinosaur fossils glow under ultraviolet light because minerals that replaced the original bone fluoresce. Palaeontologists sometimes use UV torches in the field to spot hidden fossils.
Edmontosaurus had over 1,000 tiny teeth packed together in its jaw, forming a grinding surface perfect for crushing tough plants.
In 2021, a spectacularly preserved armoured dinosaur (a nodosaur) was found in a Canadian mine. Its skin, armour plates, and even some stomach contents were still intact after 110 million years.
Many theropod dinosaurs had wishbones (furculae), just like modern birds. This is one of the many clues that helped scientists confirm birds are living dinosaurs.
Some baby sauropods hatched from eggs the size of a football but grew to weigh over 30 tonnes in just 15–20 years — one of the fastest growth rates of any animal ever.
Carnotaurus had arms even tinier than T. rex! Its stubby little limbs were so small that scientists are still debating what they were used for.
Some dinosaurs swallowed smooth stones called gastroliths to help grind food in their stomachs, similar to what modern chickens and crocodiles do.
By slicing dinosaur bones into thin sections and examining them under a microscope, palaeontologists can count growth rings — similar to tree rings — to estimate how old the animal was when it died.