Dinosaurs Facts for Kids
Roar-some facts about dinosaurs
Microraptor was a crow-sized dinosaur with four feathered wings — two on its arms and two on its legs. Scientists believe it could glide between trees, making it one of the most bird-like non-bird dinosaurs ever found.
Argentinosaurus is thought to be the heaviest dinosaur ever discovered, possibly weighing up to 80 tonnes — that's as heavy as 12 African elephants. A single vertebra from its backbone was taller than a grown adult.
Giganotosaurus from South America was slightly longer than T. rex, stretching up to about 13 metres. However, T. rex had a stronger bite force and a bigger brain, making it arguably the deadlier predator.
Hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs, had up to 1,000 teeth packed tightly together in their jaws. As old teeth wore down, new ones grew in to replace them — they could go through thousands of teeth in a lifetime.
Ankylosaurus had a surprisingly complex network of passages inside its snout that may have helped cool its blood or amplify the sounds it made. The passages were so long and winding they look like a maze.
Iguanodon was one of the first dinosaurs to be scientifically described, back in 1825. Scientists initially thought the spike found with it was a horn on its nose — it was actually a thumb spike used for defence.
Fossilised dinosaur footprints, called trace fossils, can tell scientists how fast a dinosaur moved, whether it lived in herds, and even if it stopped to take a drink. Some trackways stretch for hundreds of metres.
Therizinosaurus had the longest claws of any known animal in history, measuring up to 91 cm — about the length of your whole arm. Despite these fearsome claws, it was a plant-eater that likely used them to pull down branches.
The mass extinction that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago was caused by an asteroid about 10 km wide that struck what is now Mexico. The impact released energy equivalent to billions of nuclear bombs and triggered a global winter.
Many dinosaurs had feathers even though they could not fly. Feathers were likely used for insulation, camouflage, and attracting mates long before any dinosaur evolved the ability to take to the skies.