Dinosaurs are a topic about which most people believe they have some expertise. After all, practically everyone has seen or heard of the blockbuster Jurassic Park, and young children are frequently the resident authorities on the names, shapes, sizes, and eating habits of these ancient reptiles in any household.
However, just because dinosaurs have been gone for more than 60 million years doesn't mean there isn't new information to learn about them. Here are ten facts about dinosaurs in our current world that you probably didn't know, but will after reading this list.
Top 10 Dinosaur Facts You Didn't Know
1. Brontosaurus and Triceratops
Some paleontologists believe that one of the dinosaur species we take for granted – the species that contains dinosaurs like the Triceratops and Brontosaurus – never existed. They believe two other living species have been confused for all these years, and there's some truth to that, given that paleontologists have yet to find a full triceratops skeleton.
2. Humans and Dinosaurs
In the United States, a surprising high percentage of people – more than four out of every ten adults, in fact – think that humans and dinosaurs coexisted on the globe. They weren't, of course, because dinosaurs existed hundreds of millions of years before humans. But isn't it fascinating to consider that Jurassic Park might have actually existed?
3. Chickenosaurus
Jack Homer, a well-known paleontologist in the United States, is credited for discovering and naming Maiasaura, the first unequivocal proof that dinosaurs cared for their offspring. He was one of the advisors for Jurassic Park, serving as a partial inspiration for one of the main characters, Dr. Alan Grant, in addition to his many paleontological discoveries.
He has been working on the building of a real-life dinosaur since the film's release. His goal is to create a chickenosaurus, which is a cross between a small prehistoric dinosaur and a modern chicken, as you might guess.
4. Sauropods (sauropods) are a type of dinosaur
Despite the fact that movies like Jurassic Park have made the Tyrannosaurus Rex famous, it was not even one of the largest dinosaurs. The Sauropods were a type of dinosaur that lived during the Mesozoic Era. The largest of these was 200 feet or longer and capable of producing sonic booms because to the speed with which they could whip their tails.
5. Clive Palmer is an Australian billionaire with a lot of wild ideas for how to spend his money
He wants to build a new Titanic, among other things, and he also wants to make a Jurassic Park movie. His, on the other hand, will consist entirely of life-sized mechanical dinosaurs, with no genetic recombination with chicken eggs.
6. There was once a belief that some dinosaurs had not one, but two brains, which has since been refuted!
The second brain was thought to be in the dinosaur's bottom at the time. That puts a whole new spin on the expression "having one's head...you know where."
7. Between 1877 and 1892, a pair of paleontologists, or dinosaur scientists, were involved in a strange event known as the 'Bone Wars.'
As a result, they've spent decades stealing, ruining, and otherwise damaging one other's work. Nonetheless, they were also responsible for the discovery of more than 140 new dinosaur species at the time. Was it all worthwhile?
8. Pterodactyl
The largest animals to ever take flight in Earth's history were not dinosaurs, but a unique clade of reptiles that existed alongside dinosaurs at the time. Other non-dinosaurs included the pterodactyl, which many children and adults are likely still familiar with. Pterosaurs were the general name for these ancient reptiles. The greatest of them had wingspans of 40 feet, which was longer than some modern airplanes!
9. Birds
Birds are classed as part of a clade, which is a supergroup that includes all dinosaurs. That's correct: birds are dinosaurs! Birds are thought to be among the few dinosaur species to have survived global extinction hundreds of millions of years ago.
Except at their yearly conferences or when reading classification guides, scientists do not refer to birds as dinosaurs to avoid confounding the general public.
10. Rapetosaurus
Finally, most people are probably unaware that there was a dinosaur named Rapetosaurus. Sure, that's an unusual name, but don't worry — it simply means "mischievous huge lizard."
The interesting thing about rapetosaurus is that it is connected to the first dinosaur bone ever discovered, which came from a large dinosaur called a megalosaurus. And the first dinosaur bone discovered was called (you'll never guess) scrotum humanum. Why? Because it looked like a certain area of a man's anatomy.