DINOSAURS. Giants of the Past.

 

DINOSAURS. Giants of the Past.

               The word 'dinosaur' means 'terrible lizard'. This name is given to lizard like creatures that lived long, long ago. Several of the dinosaurs were the biggest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. All of them, giant and tiny, were a part of the biological group called 'reptiles'. The dinosaurs were the traditional cousins of today's crocodiles, snakes, and lizards.

You may be conversant with the sauropod dinosaur, or 'thunder lizard'. What you may not know is that this dinosaur is now called Apatosaurus, meaning 'dishonest lizard'. A mix-up in fossil bones gave scientists the incorrect plan of what it seemed like. The Apatosaurus was still fairly impressive: it was as much as 21 meters long. No matter what you call it, this creature actually should have gave the look of like thunder when it walked.

The Apatosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur.

Others, including the tyrannosaur, were carnivores, or meat-eaters. Tyrannosaurus rex was the 'king of the lizards' and was as long as a fireplace engine. For several years the tyrannosaur was thought to be the biggest carnivore ever to possess walked on Earth. But the giganotosaurus was an even larger carnivore!

 

DINOSAURS. Giants of the Past.

The anatosaur is termed the 'duck lizard' as a result of it had a bill like a duck - although there have been many un-duck-like teeth in its cheeks!

The triceratops was the 'three-horned lizard'. Several of those dinosaurs once lived within the western United States.  

There were several different kinds of dinosaurs - over 1,000 different species. And that they once lived almost all over within the world.