Time of Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were land-living reptiles which inhabited the planet millions of years ago. As the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, we can now see their skeletons in museums. A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a palaeontologist.

The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language and means ‘terrible lizard’. The word was coined by English palaeontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and was meant to refer to the dinosaurs’ impressive size rather than their scary appearance.

Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 160 million years, from the Triassic period around 230 million years ago through the Jurassic period and until the end of the Cretaceous period around 65 million years ago. It is believed that dinosaurs lived on Earth until around 65 million years ago when a mass extinction occurred. Scientists believe that the event leading to the extinction may have been a massive asteroid impact or huge volcanic activity. Events such as these could have blocked out sunlight and significantly changed the Earth’s ecology. The dinosaurs became extinct long before the first human appeared on Earth.

According, to the research by scientists, there were more than 700 different types of dinosaur that inhabited the Earth for over 150 million years. However, they are generally classified into two major groups: carnivores (meat-eaters) and herbivores (plant-eaters).

The largest dinosaur that we know of was the Argentinosaurus Huinculensis, a monster that could reach 130 feet in length.