GIANT FACTS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT DINOSAURS

DINOSAURS LIVED DURING A TIME OF EARTH’S

HISTORY CALLED THE MESOZOIC (“MIDDLE LIFE”)

ERA. THEY LIVED DURING ALL THREE PERIODS OF

THIS ERA (ABOUT 230 MILLION TO ABOUT SIXTY-FIVE

MILLION YEARS AGO): THE TRIASSIC, JURASSIC (YEP,

THAT’S WHERE SPIELBERG GOT THE NAME),

AND CRETACEOUS

TALKING ABOUT JURASSIC PARK, SPIELBERG WANTED

SO BAD TO DELIVER THE MOST ACCURATE EVER FILM

ABOUT DINOSAURS, THAT HE HIRED PALAEONTOLOGISTS

WHO SERVED AS CONSULTANTS DURING THE FILM.

FAMED PALAEONTOLOGIST JACK HORNER WAS USED

DURING PRODUCTION TO ENSURE THE DINOSAURS

EXHIBITED SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE BEHAVIOUR

AND ROBERT T. BAKKER, ALSO A PALAEONTOLOGIST,

GAVE ANIMATORS INFORMATION ABOUT THE

DINOSAUR'S PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

THE FIRST DINOSAURS THAT APPEARED DURING THE

TRIASSIC PERIOD 230 MILLION YEARS AGO WERE

SMALL AND LIGHTWEIGHT. BIGGER DINOSAURS SUCH

AS BRACHIOSAURUS AND TRICERATOPS APPEARED

DURING THE JURASSIC AND CRETACEOUS PERIODS

THE FIRST RECORDED DESCRIPTION OF A POSSIBLE

DINOSAUR BONE DISCOVERY DATES BACK TO 3,500

YEARS AGO IN CHINA. AT THE TIME, PEOPLE DID NOT

KNOW ABOUT DINOSAURS, SO THEY THOUGHT THEIR

DISCOVERY, WHICH WAS SOME DINOSAUR TEETH,

BELONGED TO DRAGONS

DINOSAURS LIVED ON EVERY CONTINENT THERE IS,

INCLUDING ANTARCTICA.

MOST MEAT-EATING DINOSAURS HAD BONES FILLED

WITH AIR. THOUGH THEIR BONES WERE HUGE, THEY

WEREN’T AS HEAVY AS THEY LOOKED, WHICH

EXPLAINS WHY SOME OF THEM WERE SO FAST

DESPITE THEIR LARGE SIZE. BIRDS HAVE THE

SAME KIND OF HOLLOW BONES

THE BIGGEST PLANT EATER WAS THE

ARGENTINOSAURUS. IT WAS UP TO NINETY-EIGHT

FOOT (THIRTY METRES) LONG.

MEAT-EATING DINOSAURS ARE KNOWN AS THEROPODS,

WHICH MEANS “BEAST-FOOTED,” BECAUSE THEY HAD

SHARP, HOOKED CLAWS ON THEIR TOES. IN CONTRAST,

PLANT-EATING DINOSAURS TENDED TO HAVE BLUNT

HOOVES OR TOENAILS

SOME OF THE BIGGEST PLANT EATERS HAD TO EAT

AS MUCH AS A TON OF FOOD A DAY. THIS IS SIMILAR

TO EATING A BUS-SIZED PILE OF VEGETATION EVERY DAY