Dinosaurs Facts for Kids
Roar-some facts about dinosaurs
Remarkably preserved Edmontosaurus mummies show that this duck-billed dinosaur had a fleshy comb on top of its head, similar to a rooster's. This soft tissue would never normally fossilise, so scientists were stunned to find it.
While the asteroid impact is the main cause of the dinosaur extinction, enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now India — the Deccan Traps — were already stressing ecosystems beforehand. The two disasters together made recovery nearly impossible.
Sauroposeidon may have been the tallest dinosaur ever, able to raise its head to about 17 metres — that's as high as a six-storey building. It was named after Poseidon, the Greek god of earthquakes, because its footsteps would have shaken the ground.
Pieces of tree resin from Myanmar, now hardened into amber, have been found containing actual dinosaur feathers and even tiny feathered dinosaur tails perfectly preserved for 99 million years. The feathers retain their original microscopic structure.
Pachyrhinosaurus had a large flat lump of bone on its nose instead of a horn. Scientists think this boss of bone may have supported a large keratin structure, possibly used for head-butting or intimidating rivals.
The smallest known Mesozoic dinosaur skull was found trapped in amber from Myanmar — the creature, named Oculudentavis, was roughly the size of a bee hummingbird. Its eyes were huge compared to its tiny skull, suggesting it was a sharp-sighted predator.
All horned dinosaurs (ceratopsians) are thought to have originated in Asia before migrating to North America via a land bridge. Triceratops, the most famous of them all, evolved entirely in North America and never lived in Asia.
T. rex had forward-facing eyes that gave it a binocular field of view wider than any modern hawk or eagle. This excellent depth perception would have helped it judge distances precisely when lunging at prey.
Crocodilians are more closely related to dinosaurs and birds than they are to lizards or snakes. Together, crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds form a group called Archosauria, the ruling reptiles.
Deinonychus, not Velociraptor, was the inspiration for the terrifying raptors in Jurassic Park. Palaeontologist John Ostrom's revolutionary research on Deinonychus in the 1960s showed dinosaurs were active, warm-blooded animals, changing everything scientists thought they knew.