The dinosaurs are a large group of reptiles that lived from 230 to 65 million years ago. Some, such as the well-known Tyrannosaurus rex, were enormous meat-eating animals. Others, however, were small and timid creatures that nibbled on plants. Scientists divide the dinosaurs into two orders. One order is Saurischia, which includes the theropods (THAIR-oh-pods) that walked on their two hind legs an…
With almost nothing but fossils to study, scientists can only guess at most dinosaur behavior. For example, although T. rex is often described as a ferocious predator, scientists only know that it had a skeleton that likely supported a strong body, and it had the jaws and teeth necessary to eat large prey animals. It is possible, however, that T. rex never even attacked live animals, but instead a…
Despite the pictures in some cartoons and science fiction movies that show cave people living at the same time as the dinosaurs, scientists know that this is not true. By dating dinosaur fossils, they can definitely state that dinosaurs lived between 230 to 65 million years ago. Humans did not evolve until about one million years ago. Nonetheless, people nowadays are very interested in these repti…
The dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. Their deaths likely resulted from a huge asteroid, a rock from outer space, that slammed into the Earth, probably near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The impact from the 4 to 9 mile-wide (6 to 15 kilometer) asteroid sent up a thick plume of dust and caused a chain reaction that resulted in a severe change in the planet's climate. For year…
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments