Indice dei contenuti per Understanding Dinosaurs in Understanding Dinosaurs

In an editorial excavation, we have carefully dug through the archives of How It Works and Science Uncovered magazines to unearth this compilation of fascinating dinosaur features. Throughout this book, you will discover how dinosaurs dominated the planet for millions of years. From terrifying predators like T rex to towering titans like Apatosaurus, learn how these incredible creatures survived in the Mesozoic era, before a fateful extinction event brought their reign to an end. Also inside, you’ll learn about advancements in paleontology, and how our understanding of dinosaur anatomy, physiology and behaviour has evolved over the past few decades. Disclaimer: The information in this book was correct at the time of original publication. However, new discoveries are being made all the time, so the content herein may no longer reflect…

When dinosaurs first inhabited the Earth back in the Triassic Period (250-200 million years ago), the land they existed on was considerably different to what we know today. All continents formed a single landmass called Pangaea and the climate was hot and dry, causing much of the land to be covered by deserts – which is where dinosaurs first evolved. A series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions caused Pangaea to split, and many of the dinosaurs became extinct. This led to the Jurassic period and a cooler climate, out of which dense, green jungles took shape – the habitat for different species of dinosaur. Read on to discover which types of dinosaur flourished in each of the different environments. Did you know? The extinction event that killed the dinosaurs is…

During the late Jurassic period, the Earth’s temperatures had cooled to around 30°C (86°F), declining still further later on in the period, and the Earth began to experience seasonality, with extremely hot summers and unbearably cold winters. Nevertheless, the Jurassic period is when life on Earth thrived, with large dinosaurs roaming the land, huge reptiles dominating the seas and winged reptiles ruling the skies. The oceans were teeming with new predators, including ammonites, belemnites and a range of shell-crushing fish. One of the most formidable predators of this period was the Allosaurus. With a large skull full to the back with sharp, serrated teeth and three large claws on either hand that may have been used to grip onto its prey, many believe that the Allosaurus hunted stegosaurs, ornithopods and sauropods…

Did you know? Some paleontologists estimate that around 2.5 billion T rex lived and died between 66 and 68 million years ago…

Herbivorous dinosaurs developed built-in weapons to defend against carnivores. This gave them a better chance of surviving a fight against predators. It also gave them a better chance at defending vulnerable young against predation. Some dinosaurs had sharp claws on their hands, like Iguanodons, which could have been used as a tool and as a weapon. Dinosaurs like Triceratops had horns as long as a human arm that pointed forwards so that they could tackle enemies head on. Both these defences could have been used to stab attacking predators. Other dinosaurs used their tails as weapons. The Ankylosaurus had a heavy, bony hammer at the end of its tail. They could use this to smash into an attacking dinosaur and they were strong enough to crush skulls and break bones.…

Thanks to Hollywood blockbusters, our view of the prehistoric world is certainly a loud one. From shrieking pterosaurs in the sky to a cacophony of roars, hisses and screams on land, we’ve come to accept a world rich with the sounds of dinosaur life. Of course, speculation forms a significant part of our understanding of the prehistoric world, but how many of our preconceptions are the product of dramatic licence, as well as the false assignation of modern animal characteristics to these ancient creatures? Thankfully, experts in the field of palaeontology are helping to uncover the truth behind the misconceptions - and the reality they’ve unearthed might have been a lot quieter than the movies suggest. Twin lineages The fossilised remains of dinosaurs have helped paleontologists and other scientists craft…

When the giant bones that researchers kept unearthing were properly categorised and identified as a unique group of animals by Richard Owen in 1841, their apparent similarity to modern day reptiles was reflected in the name ‘dinosaur’ – Greek for ‘terrible lizard’. For a long time they were thought of as slow, stupid animals which died out because they were unable to compete with faster, more agile creatures, such as mammals. In the 1860s, English biologist Thomas Huxley was the first to suggest that these lumbering beasts could have been the ancestors to modern birds. But birds are agile, elegant, warm-blooded animals, not clumsy, cold-blooded swamp dwellers, so the idea didn’t stick. The theory resurfaced in the 1960s when Yale University’s John Ostrom studied the Deinonychus and saw a fast,…

Herbivorous dinosaurs, or sauropods, were the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. They were long necked, massive creatures with huge limbs, and a fine skeletal example greets you every time you enter the Natural History Museum in London. On average, they were around 23 metres long and weighed 20 tons. Some scientists speculate that these dinosaurs got so big because their teeth weren’t designed to chew. This means they would have had to swallow their food pretty much whole, and in order to process the ingested matter and get enough energy from it, their stomach got bigger, which led to ever larger sauropods. Interestingly, these very same teeth also reveal some different, yet surprising secrets about these animals’ behaviour. Where sauropods roam It stands to reason that one such…

The Tyrannosaurus rex was a species of Theropoda dinosaur in the Late Cretaceous period. Like other tyrannosaurids – such as the Tarbosaurus and Gorgosaurus – the T rex was a bipedal carnivore and apex predator and scavenger, preying on smaller dinosaurs directly or out-muscling them for their kills. Typical prey included Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsians. The Tyrannosaurus rex’s name translates as ‘tyrant lizard king’, something that was historically attributed due to its immense size. Indeed, the Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the largest species ever excavated by palaeontologists, with specimens averaging over 12 metres in length and four metres in height, but it wasn’t the biggest carnivorous dino. It was also incredibly heavy, with fully grown adults weighing up to nine tons; this figure was suggested in 2011 after an in-depth study that…

Maybe the most iconic genus of dinosaurs ever excavated, the Stegosaurus was a herbivorous titan, capable of consuming huge quantities of low-level foliage while protecting itself from predators with its vast armoured frame and potentially lethal spiked tail. The first example of Stegosaurus – from which its family name, Stegosauridae, derived – was unearthed in 1877 and since then four confirmed species of the dinosaur have been officially identified. Each species demonstrates a similar structure and feature set, with each animal epitomising a large quadruped, sporting a series of diamond-shaped plates along its back. These large creatures were over eight metres (26 feet) long and were heavily built at over 3,000 kilograms (6,614 pounds). Interestingly, it’s these plates that palaeontologists and academics know the least about, with a variety of arrangements,…

Velociraptors have been ingrained in public consciousness since the 1993 movie Jurassic Park showcased them as the most fearsome of apex predators. Smart, lethal and bloodthirsty, the Velociraptors of the film arguably stole the show. However, the movie was famed for its indulgence of artistic licence, with palaeontologists bemoaning the lack of historical accuracy. So what were these dinosaurs really like? Velociraptor, of which there are two verified species (V mongoliensis and V osmolskae) was a genus of dromaeosaurid (‘running lizard’) theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous period, about 75-71 million years ago. They were two metres long, just under a metre high, feathered and bipedal, running on two of their three toes per foot. They were native to modern day central Asia (notably Mongolia), where they built…

Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur that comprises two validated species – Triceratops horridus and Triceratops prorsus, both of which roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous period (68-65 MYA) before being eradicated in the K-T mass-extinction event that wiped out all dinosaurs. Triceratops were large, rhinoceros-like animals that weighed many tonnes – a fully grown adult would be expected to weigh in the region of seven tonnes. They were heavily armoured with reinforced bone horns, which could exceed 70 centimetres (28 inches) and a solid bone frill, and hugely powerful thanks to their sturdy frame. These traits, combined, made both species of Triceratops a fearsome foe to potential predators, capable of puncturing flesh and shattering bone with their sharp horns when charging. In terms of anatomy, the Triceratops genus is incredibly…

It’s very easy to find ourselves captivated by big, fearsome carnivores. We imagine them prowling the plains and forests of the Mesozoic Era, stalking and hunting the peaceful herbivores and roaring with vindication as they overcome their prey and claim a meal. But we often neglect to pay attention to their prey, to the herbivores that have merited an equal place in natural history. Some – such as the Iguanodons – also have a key place in our own history, marking a milestone in our fledgling efforts to study dinosaurs. When its fossils were uncovered in England in the early 19th century, the Iguanodon was only the second ever genus to be classified as a dinosaur. After recognising that the newly discovered specimen had teeth similar to an iguana’s, the…

In 1677, English naturalist Robert Plot came face-to-face with a thigh bone belonging to an animal one and a half times his height. He thought the monstrous femur must have belonged to a giant. Since then, enormous bones have shown up in rocks around the world, but the creatures that they belonged to are nowhere to be seen. From the spike-thumbed iguanodons of England to the feathered microraptors of China and the iconic tyrannosaurs of the United States, dinosaurs ruled every corner of our planet, but between 66-64 million years ago, they completely disappeared. The so-called K-T extinction marks the transition between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods of geological history. During this catastrophic period, almost three quarters of life on Earth withered away. Ammonites and belemnites disappeared from the oceans,…

“A collision with another rocky object may have sent the Chicxulub asteroid on a one-way trip to Earth”…

1 Initial collision Within 20 seconds of the impact, the asteroid smashed up to 19 miles into Earth’s crust. The collision incinerated everything within a 1,000-mile radius and ejected a plume of molten material amounting to around 25 trillion tonnes. Some of the smaller pieces of molten ejecta, known as spherules, were shot 40 miles up into the air before crashing back to the surface. 2 Release Within the first five minutes of the impact, plumes of fine-particle material entered the atmosphere. Composed of around 75 per cent dust, another 24 per cent was sulphur and one per cent soot. Several hundred billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and water vapour released by the vaporised rock were also ejected. 3 Blackouts and fires The dust and gas acted as…

How do you look for something that you aren’t yet aware existed, from a world you can only try to imagine? It might seem impossible for us to study a species that we have never coexisted with, but this is something palaeontologists and fossil hunters do every day. When humans first encountered dinosaurs, they had been extinct for over 65 million years. Everything we have come to know about dinosaurs today has been learned through our understanding of the planet’s geology and analysing the ancient remains of these creatures. For this to happen, dinosaurs needed to have a lasting impact on the world, enduring tens of millions of years held inside solid rock. Luckily the remains of many types of dinosaur were preserved in the ground until humans could uncover…

It was revealed that four dinosaur bones found in 2020 on the Isle of Wight, England, are those of an entirely new dinosaur species. Since October 2019, these bones have been held at the University of Southampton, where palaeontologists have been hard at work trying to discover what animal they belong to. They soon realised, after comparing each minute detail to a computer database, that this species had never been seen before. Named the Vectaerovenator inopinatus, it is a member of the theropod family of dinosaurs, making it a close relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex. Its given name sums up many of its discovered qualities. ‘Inopinatus’ means unexpected. What made these bones particularly interesting to palaeontologists is that they were found in the lower greensand. This is a marine sediment…

1 Forever fighting Mongolia 1971 When these dinosaurs began this fight around 80 million years ago, they probably didn’t know they were fighting to the death… of them both. This fossil of a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops was discovered in a tangled scrap within the Gobi Desert’s sandstone cliffs. The Velociraptor has its foot claw in the neck of the Proceratops, which is biting back at its opponent’s arm. It is believed that a sudden sand flow buried them mid-fight, freezing the moment. 2 Largest T rex Canada 1991  The Tyrannosaurus rex is probably the world’s most well-known dinosaur. Their towering stature contrasts comically with their dinky arms. After more than 20 years, research of Scotty brought this enormous species to a new level. At 13 metres long, his leg…

Did you know? Leprosy is the earliest known human disease…

Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for over 160 million years, becoming the dominant vertebrates on land. Although fossilised dinosaur remains have been discovered throughout human history, they were not studied in enough detail to fully understand what creatures they belonged to. Dinosaurs were only described scientifically in the early 19th century; it was British palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen who coined the taxon Dinosauria in 1842. The word dinosaur means ‘terrible lizard’, but the term is misleading – dinosaurs are not lizards, but part of a separate group of reptiles altogether. They first evolved in the Triassic period, approximately 243 and 233 million years ago, on the super-continent of Pangaea. Over time, continental drift occurred and Pangaea broke up into smaller landmasses. This led to dinosaurs strongly diversifying as they evolved in…

The climate of the Cretaceous period consisted of global temperatures of around 10°C or 50°F higher than today and high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. It was something of a greenhouse world. The high sea levels (approximately 200-300m higher than today) meant that swamp-like plains existed on the lower latitude areas where crocodylomorphs, such as the Simosuchus and Deinosuchus, began to thrive. The Deinosuchus, a member of the alligatoridae family that includes modern day alligators, weighed up to ten tons and was one of the most ferocious predators in North America. In fact, its habitat overlapped with tyrannosaurids, such as Daspletosaurus; in these ecosystems it was the powerful alligatorid, not the tyrannosaurids, that dominated. Also during the Cretaceous period, the skies were inhabited by colossal pterosaurs, such as the Quetzalcoatlus. These beasts…

What came first – the dinosaur or the egg? We’re not entirely sure, but what we do know is that these great reptiles laid eggs just like chickens do. Inside the shell of a hen’s egg, chicks are able to grow before they’re ready to hatch. That’s just how the dinosaurs were born. We know that baby dinosaurs were made this way because we have found lots of evidence. Fossilised dinosaur eggs have been found at over 200 sites across the world. They tell a story about how the dinosaur made its nest, laid its eggs and how baby dinosaurs were born. A crew of palaeontologists exploring Mongolia in 1923 were the first to scientifically recognise fossilised dinosaur eggs for what they were. Since then many dinosaur nesting sites for…

“For smaller dinosaurs, running away was usually the best defence.” Did you know? Styracosaurus means “spiked lizard” for the large horns on its nose and frill…

The Diplodocus is, without doubt, one of the most famous dinosaurs. It belonged to the group known as the sauropodomorphs and lived during the Late Jurassic period — specifically the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian eras roughly 154-150 million years ago. It reached sizes of up to 25 metres in length and was predominantly found in what is now North America. There were four species of Diplodocus, with the largest of these being the Seismosaurus, which essentially translates as ‘ground shaker’. Part of the Diplodocid family, it shared the same characteristic of having 15 neck vertebrae, short forelimbs compared to the rest of its body and a whip-like tail. Its giant neck made up a large proportion of its body, but there is still some contention as to whether it held its…

Ankylosaurus was one of the largest Ankylosaurs, a genus of armoured dinosaurs that lived throughout North America between 75 and 65 million years ago. Famous for both its brutal tail-mounted club and its immense bone plate armour, the Ankylosaurus was a defensive titan, capable of fending off rivals many times its size. Ankylosaurus’ focus on defence was born out of its herbivorous nature, with its entire body geared towards the consumption of foliage. From its low-slung body, rows of leaf-shaped cropping teeth, short front legs, wide feet and cavernous stomach, the Ankylosaurus was the consummate browser, devouring vegetation whole with little shredding or chewing. Indeed, studies have indicated that the skull and jaw of the Ankylosaurus were structurally much tougher than many similar, contemporary dinosaurs. In fact, evidence suggests that…

A round four-times heavier than an African elephant, five-times longer than your car and almost six times the height of a full-grown human, the Apatosaurus was one of the largest dinosaurs of the Jurassic era and one of most gigantic creatures ever to walk the Earth. As is typical with large dinosaurs of this period, the Apatosaurus (once mistakenly classified as the Brontosaurus) was a herbivore, consuming vast quantities of foliage and grasses over the lands that now form modern-day North America. Interestingly, despite its size, its name is derived from the Greek ‘apate’ and ‘saurus’, which translate as ‘deception lizard’, a name bestowed by its original discoverer, American palaeontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. Prior to the 1970s, the Apatosaurus, along with many other Sauropods, were considered largely aquatic creatures that relied…

The Carnotaurus was one of the Late Cretaceous period’s most feared predators. It once stalked across the land with its bright, beady eyes, box shaped head and distinctive bull-like horns. Standing around four metres tall and nine metres long, these unusual looking giant theropods were the distant South American cousins of the T rex. The Carnotaurus’ most distinctive feature, however, is its comical – and probably useless – tiny arms. While these wouldn’t have made it any less ferocious if you were confronted with one, they do pose an evolutionary puzzle for palaeontologists today (see the boxout on the right). Only one Carnotaurus fossil has ever been discovered, unearthed in Argentina by palaeontologist Jose Bonaparte in 1985. However, it is almost a full skeleton and impressively detailed – including fossilised…

“It wasn’t until 1980 that a connection between the crater and a mass-extinction event was made” Did you know? The Chicxulub meteorite travelled at 58 times the speed of sound…

The American Old West is famed for its duels and blood feuds. However, for palaeontologists, this era conjures up one image above all: the bitter rivalry between two of America’s greatest fossil hunters, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. Known as the ‘Bone Wars’, the competition between these oversized egos stretched from the 1870s well into the 1890s and led to the discovery of hundreds of dinosaurs. However, it also involved bribery, theft, the destruction of evidence, and both the figurative and literal throwing of stones. Edward Drinker Cope was born in 1840 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to wealthy Quaker parents, Alfred and Hanna. While working part-time at the state’s Academy of Natural Sciences, Cope published his first scientific paper in 1859, still only 19 years old. He also studied,…

“Sometimes it simply means being in the right place at the right time” Find your own fossil Anyone can find a fossil, but to increase your chances you need to know what you’re looking for. Many beaches are embellished with ancient marine life forms, but to seek out dinosaur bones you’ll need more luck and patience alongside your knowledge. First, you need to understand the rocks. By finding out how old the rocks are in the area you’re searching, you can tune your hunt to the kinds of species you are likely to find. Next, pick your time. You can find fossils all year round, but from November to April is usually best. This is because rough seas and winter winds create movement on the beach, and this time of increased…

How does the new theropod compare to other group members?…

Extinct behaviour Fossils can provide incredible details about dinosaurs’ anatomy and what they looked like, but what can they teach us about their lifestyles? These limited remains don’t tell us everything, often leaving scientists guessing about the colour of their scales and the sound of their roars. But when it comes to their behaviour, palaeontologists can analyse data from the fossils’ locations and shapes of their features to link them to possible behaviours. The size and shape of a dinosaur’s teeth would have adapted to suit their diet, with long, sharp teeth indicating an animal that feasted on the meat of other animals. In some of the rarest fossils the contents of the stomach have been preserved – an even clearer answer to what was eaten. When there is a…

T rex’s terminal toothache The T rex was the king of the Late Cretaceous period. It boasted a mouthful of bananasized teeth and a biting force of 3,500 kilograms – that’s like the impact of three small cars. But these champion chompers were also the apex predator’s weak spot. “Some of the world’s most famous T rex specimens have these holes in their jaws,” says Dr Steve Salisbury from the University of Queensland. “Some specimens look like Swiss cheese.” Working with a small team, Salisbury examined over 60 T rex fossils. This included Sue, one of the best preserved skeletons, which is on display at Chicago’s Field Museum. “We now believe that these holes are caused by an infectious disease called trichomonosis,” Salisbury says. This is an illness caused by…

Did you know? There are an estimated 18,000 bird species currently living on Earth…

Horner is the real palaeontologist who inspired the character of Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Since finding his first dinosaur bone at the age of eight, Horner has dug up the first dinosaur embryos, the first dinosaur eggs in the Western world and has discovered and named the dinosaur species ‘Maiasaura’. During his time as the palaeontology consultant for the Jurassic Park films, Horner advised Steven Spielberg on how to make the portrayal of dinosaurs as realistic as possible. While he deems the cloning process pure fiction, this hasn’t stopped Horner from trying to bring back the dinosaurs How would a Jurassic Park need to be changed in real life? If you really, seriously want to build a Jurassic Park and are not just making a movie, you want…

The ultra-dry climates of the Permian era, and the subsequent destruction of the ancient coal swamps that were home to a great many Carboniferous plants, meant that the Mesozoic (or ‘middle life’) era signalled something of a recovery period in Earth’s history. Comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, the Mesozoic era was less dry but was still swathed in high global temperatures, and the now-empty ecosystems on the land were soon taken over by evolving mammals and dinosaurs. Meanwhile, beneath the oceans, new corals appeared and various sea urchins began to diversify and thrive, having been almost driven to the point of extinction at the end of the Permian era. Some estimates put some of the more tropical temperatures during the start of the Triassic period (at the beginning…

The presence of coal deposits in the high northern and southern latitudes suggests that these regions were much wetter than the desert like lower latitudes, so dense, forest-like vegetation was able to grow. These jungles were home to Rauisuchians, such as the Effigia, and Sauropodomorphs, such as the Plateosaurus, whose long neck and weight-bearing bone structure allowed it to stand upright, which in turn enabled it to feed off plants that were out of reach of other herbivorous dinosaurs. During the Triassic period, the oceans and continents were starting to change. The land mass of the supercontinent Pangaea was at its largest due to lower sea levels and it had started to move northwards and rotate anti-clockwise, ultimately breaking up to give the Earth a slightly more familiar look. Fossils…

For a long time, both experts and the public believed dinosaurs only thrived in tropical regions. But imagine everyone’s surprise if the next Jurassic Park movie had our heroes running around in thick winter coats for a change. It may seem unlikely, but our understanding of dinosaurs is changing all the time; fossil evidence has shown that dinosaurs also managed to survive in much colder environments than previously thought. One such chilly habitat was the landmass now known as Australia. Nowadays this region is far from cold, but 65-100 million years ago it was considerably further south, resting right next to the continent of Antarctica. So how did dinosaurs survive in these conditions? A previous theory suggested that they migrated to warmer climates as the coldest season descended. But this…

Dinosaurs were not a brainy bunch, but the Stenonychosaurus was thought to be unusually smart. Relative to its size, its brain was much larger than those of other dinosaurs and evidence suggests that it was ferocious predator. This bird-like dinosaur weighed about as much as a large dog, and it was very good at running, with its long legs and curved claws that would deliver the killer blow to prey. They were also clever enough to hunt in packs so they could catch much larger prey, but mostly hunted for small mammals, invertebrates and small reptiles. What’s more, Stenonychosaurus’s teeth were very sharp, and they had big eyes which likely gave them great night vision, so they weren’t limited to hunting in daylight. Stenonychosaurus Camarasaurus Did you know? The name Stenonychosaurus actually…

Most of us have been captivated by the idea of dinosaurs since childhood. Among their numbers stood veracious hunters, towering leaf-eaters, armoured warriors and soaring giants. Add to that the wonder we all felt when we learned that our planet used to belong to them, that before we inherited the (self-awarded) title of Earth’s apex animal, it was the reptilian dinosaurs that ruled supreme. In films, books and other illustrations we long envisaged dinosaurs to be clad in scales and thick skin, much like the reptiles of today – such as the terrifying yet magnificent Komodo dragon. A fearsome appearance such as this, after all, is only fitting for a world-conquering group. But would our perception of dinosaurs be altered if we were to learn that some were feathered and…

This 11-metre (36-foot)-long herbivore grazed on the plains and in the forests of North America 75 million years ago. It wasn’t outrageously fast or particularly big (for a hadrosaur), and it didn’t have an impressive club tail or spiky thagomizer with which to wallop predators. However, it did have something to boast of: a built-in trumpet. The Parasaurolophus had a distinctive, hollow crest on top of its head, which acted like a resonating chamber. Paleontologists believe that it was most likely used for communication, such as when a herd member needed to alert the others of danger, would turn its call for alarm into a loud, horn-like honk that would be impossible to ignore. This striking-looking noisemaker may also have been used for mating calls and for mothers and children to locate…

When we think of dinosaurs, our mind will probably go to titans like Brachiosaurus, or gargantuan hunters like Tyrannosaurus rex. However, one of the most successful species of the Jurassic era was also one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered. The Compsognathus was only about 70cm (2ft) long and 30cm (12in) tall. However, it made a very successful living out of hunting other small dinosaurs, reptiles, insects and other small animals around 145 to 140 million years ago. Being small may also have helped it to hide from larger predators of its time, such as the Allosaurus. While Compsognathus was around the size of a large chicken, it’s not thought to have had feathers like other theropods. No evidence of feathers has been found near Compsognathus fossils, and experts believe it probably…

With the help of the astonishing sail on its back, Spinosaurus claims the title of the largest carnivorous dinosaur. Its discovery also changed what we thought we knew about predatory dinosaurs, which were previously thought to be solely terrestrial animals. Evidence suggests that Spinosaurus could have spent a lot of time in the water. Scientists only have incomplete fossils to work from, so no one knows exactly how big Spinosaurus was, but many believe it could reach around 18 metres (60 feet) in length and weighed anything from 7-20 tons. It was larger than even the Giganotosaurus, but thinner than both the Giga and the Tyrannosaurus rex. However, it did something neither the Giga nor the T rex did: hunt in water. With its long snout, the Spinosaurus terrorised waterways,…

If you were a huge or heavily armoured herbivore living in the Late Jurassic era, not many things would worry you. The exception? A 12-metre (40‑foot) long hunter with huge, sharp claws and teeth like giant daggers ambushing you and chasing you down. That’s what daily life was like for the creatures who lived alongside the Allosaurus around 145 million years ago. Allosaurus was one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs to be discovered and studied, with initial fossils being discovered in the 1870s. The name Allosaurus means ‘strange lizard’, as its backbone fragments were distinctly different to other dinosaur spines that had been found before. It was the biggest, most dangerous predator in Earth’s history at the time, the Allosaurus and its 20-centimetre (eight-inch) claws would regularly take on…

“Archaeopteryx escaped would-be predators by doing something no other dinosaur had done before: it took to the skies” Archaeopteryx wasn’t very big, only about half a metre long and standing no taller than your shin. But when it appeared in the Late Jurassic, about 147 million years ago, it changed Earth’s history. The reason? It’s one of the first ever birds. Unlike flying Pterosaurs (which were not technically dinosaurs), the last of which all went extinct 66 million years ago and bear no relation to today’s birds, Archaeopteryx is a direct ancestor of the feathered fowls you might be looking at out of your window right now. But it was also a dinosaur, as its conical dinosaur teeth and theropod legs prove. It fed on small reptiles, mammals and insects…

Around 66 million years ago, life on Earth was thriving. The Cretaceous period culminated in land covered in lush forests rich with biodiversity, including giant dinosaurs. Casting your eyes over the Cretaceous forests, you might have seen the heads of Titanosaurs poking over the canopy, apex predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex chasing prey and the last flying reptiles, Pterosaurs, soaring in the sky. However, the dominion of the dinosaurs was brought to an abrupt end when a mountain-sized asteroid tore through Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into the ocean. In mere moments, the fireball would have appeared in the sky and burned brighter than the Sun as it hurtled towards its eventual impact site in the Gulf of Mexico, known as the Chicxulub crater. Most asteroids in our Solar System can be found…

Around 248 miles off the coast of West Africa is an underwater crater that may have been created at the same time the dino killing asteroid landed on Earth. Known as the Nadir crater, this five-mile-wide geological feature sits beneath 300 metres of seafloor sediment. The discovery was made by researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, who were surveying the geology off the coast of Guinea. “These surveys are kind of like an ultrasound of Earth. I’ve spent probably the last 20 years interpreting them, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Dr Uisdean Nicholson said at the time. After studying fossil fragments, researchers dated the impact to around 66 million years ago. Like its dino-killing cousin, this asteroid is also thought to have generated an enormous tsunami wave around…

Mold The rock of a mold fossil details the outside of the organism. After the sediment around it hardens, the buried plant or animal is dissolved by water, leaving an empty mold for a fossil. True form These fossils are created when the body of an organism is replaced with rock. It displays the organism’s true form in great detail, rather than just being an impression. Trace Trace fossils aren’t necessarily physical remains of an organism, but their formation displays traces of their existence. Examples include footprints, tooth marks and nests. Carbonised Created when a dead organism is buried on flat rock. Over time a thin carbon film is deposited onto the rock’s surface. As the body decays, the carbon layer remains. Cast Cast fossils are more advanced mold fossils.…

What brought you to the Isle of Wight? RW: I have been to the Isle of Wight a few times, but it was my daughter who chose to go there this time, as it was her tenth birthday. When we arrived we were too early to check into the hotel, so we decided to go fossil hunting on Shanklin Beach while we waited. JL: I have been fossil hunting for the last 10 to 15 years and went to the Isle of Wight because it is an area with rapid erosion of the cliffs. Because of that, it’s a good place to find fossils. How did you come across the bones? RW: As I searched the rocky area, I knew a find was possible because there had just been a…

We all know the Tyrannosaurus rex terrorised Triceratops on land. Many of us can picture Pterosaurs diving down from the skies to snatch smaller prey. A few might even know the Mosasaurus, the leviathan that ruled the ancient oceans. But while these mighty carnivores loom large in how we imagine the age of dinosaurs, there was a far greater threat that we forget – an invisible foe that would strike without warning and killed millions more creatures in the Mesozoic era than any other: illness. It’s no surprise that dinosaurs got sick. They were living, breathing creatures just like us. But we know very little about what actual diseases made these ancient creatures ill. This is because you can identify signs of injuries like broken limbs and battle scars in…

“A piece of space rock fell from the sky, changing the course of history forever” Did you know? Fossil evidence of has been found of a giant prehistoric penguin measuring 1.7 metres tallW With lush green jungles and the sweet scent of the first flowering plants filling the air, the Cretaceous period saw the planet at its prehistoric prime. Giants dominated the land, sea and skies up until around 66 million years ago, thriving in the abundance of life occupying Earth. That was of course until a huge piece of space rock fell from the sky, obliterating the dinosaurs and changing the course of history forever. But, some species managed to cling on to life and avoid extinction. Defining the dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that evolved from…

Staring at the screen in the darkened theatre of the visitor centre, Dr Ellie Sattler shakes her head and whispers, “Palaeo-DNA, from what source? Where do you get 100-million-year-old dinosaur blood?” We all know the scene. It’s ‘the science bit’ in Jurassic Park – the part apparently so convincing that it’s led science-fiction fans the world over to wonder why we can’t just patch together a dinosaur via the miracle of cloning. And wonder we might because, as it turns out, 100-million-year-old dinosaur blood may not be impossible to come by. Since before Jurassic Park, Mary Schweitzer, a palaeontologist at North Carolina State University, has been finding traces of blood in the fossilised bones of dinosaurs. Textbooks tell us that blood and bone cells decay too readily to be found…

“With great diversity between species, the thrill of this park cannot be denied” Did you know? Dinosaurs survived on Earth for over 150 million years, while great apes have lived for 6 million years so far Living with dinosaurs If dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct, humans are unlikely to have been able to evolve. During the 150 million years that dinosaurs existed, mammals lived alongside them, but these animals were nocturnal and lived in burrows. This suggests that this was the only way for mammals to thrive alongside dinosaurs, emerging mainly at night to hunt. Because our lives are completely separate to that of dinosaurs, there’s no way of knowing what would happen if dinosaurs were to live on the same land as us. By observing human behaviour with today’s large predators,…