Dinosaurs Facts for Kids
Roar-some facts about dinosaurs
Barosaurus could rear up on its hind legs and raise its neck almost vertically to reach leaves over 15 metres high. A mounted skeleton of this pose at the American Museum of Natural History is still the tallest mounted dinosaur display in the world.
Amargasaurus had two parallel rows of tall spines running along its neck and back, which may have supported a sail or a pair of humps. This unusual feature makes it one of the most distinctive sauropods ever discovered.
Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur ever to be formally named, in 1824 by William Buckland. The original bone fragment had been found in England and was so puzzling that early observers thought it came from a biblical giant.
The famous sickle claw of Velociraptor and its relatives was probably used to pin prey down like a hawk's talon, not to slash open the belly as shown in movies. Wear patterns on fossilised claws support this gripping, not slashing, action.
Europasaurus was a sauropod dinosaur that lived on an island in what is now Germany and shrank dramatically compared to its mainland relatives. Being stuck on an island with limited food caused a process called island dwarfism, making it only the size of a large horse.
Therizinosaurs like Alxasaurus were close relatives of the meat-eating raptors, yet switched entirely to eating plants. Their enormous curved claws, small heads, and pot-bellied bodies make them look unlike any other dinosaur group.
Scientists estimate the fossils we have found represent less than 1% of all dinosaur species that ever existed. Most dinosaurs lived in environments that were unlikely to preserve bones, meaning the vast majority of species are lost to history forever.
Stygimoloch, with its wild array of horns and spikes, may not be a separate species at all but rather a teenager-aged Pachycephalosaurus. Some scientists think the dome and spikes changed dramatically as the animal grew up.
The tall spines on Spinosaurus's back, up to 1.8 metres high, may have supported a sail, a fatty hump like a bison's, or something in between. Scientists still debate which is correct because no preserved skin has been found.
T. rex (which lived 68 million years ago) is closer in time to us than it was to Stegosaurus (which lived 155 million years ago). The dinosaur age was so vast that some famous species never even co-existed.