Dinosaurs Facts for Kids
Roar-some facts about dinosaurs
Maiasaura means 'good mother lizard' — it was named this because fossils were found alongside nests, eggs, and juveniles of various ages, suggesting adults cared for their young. This was one of the first pieces of evidence that some dinosaurs were attentive parents.
Modern science now strongly supports the idea that most dinosaurs were warm-blooded like birds and mammals, rather than cold-blooded like lizards. Evidence includes their fast growth rates, active lifestyles, and the presence of feathers for insulation.
In 2011, a mine worker in Alberta, Canada discovered an extraordinarily preserved nodosaurid dinosaur that still had its original skin, armour, and even traces of its reddish-brown colouration. It is considered one of the best-preserved dinosaurs ever found.
Iguanodon was one of the first dinosaurs to be formally named and described by scientists, in 1825. It was named because its teeth looked similar to those of a modern iguana, but much larger.
Giganotosaurus from Argentina was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs, comparable in size to T. rex. It lived about 30 million years before T. rex but belongs to a completely different family of predators.
Pterodaustro was a pterosaur with hundreds of long, bristle-like teeth in its lower jaw that it used to filter tiny organisms from the water, similar to a flamingo. Scientists believe it may even have been pink for the same reason as flamingos — its diet.
The word 'dinosaur' was invented by the British scientist Sir Richard Owen in 1842. It comes from Greek words meaning 'terrible lizard', though we now know they were far more closely related to birds than to lizards.
The armour of ankylosaur dinosaurs consisted of bony plates, called osteoderms, embedded directly in the skin and covered in a tough keratin layer. Scientists have compared the strength of this natural armour to that of a modern military tank.
The famous 'killing claw' of Velociraptor and its relatives was held raised off the ground while the dinosaur walked, like a switchblade kept in reserve. New research suggests it was used more for gripping and climbing than for slashing.
Non-avian dinosaurs ruled the Earth for approximately 165 million years — an extraordinarily long time compared to the roughly 300,000 years that our own species, Homo sapiens, has existed. Modern humans are relative newcomers by comparison.