Herbivorous dinosaurs names and photos. From tyrex to ugrunuluk: where do dinosaur names come from? What all dinosaurs look like

These giants have dominated our planet for more than 160 million years, but at the end of the Cretaceous, they completely disappeared as a species. Scientists still find dinosaur remains that have completely disappeared as a species about 66 million years ago. And even now, their size is amazing!

In total, paleontologists account for more than 1000 species of dinosaurs, but only ten of them can be distinguished by a special feature. They do not have outstanding dimensions, are not bloodthirsty, but simply very strange.

10 Amargasaurus

This species was first described in 1991, after Jose Bonaparte discovered the remains in the career of La Amarga. A distinctive feature of this dinosaur is two rows of spikes on the neck and back, about 65 centimeters long. Amargazaurus has no more outstanding qualities.

Scientists are still arguing why there were thorns on the back of this lizard. This design significantly reduced the mobility of the dinosaur, so protection from predators was in doubt. You can definitely say that the male amagasaur had longer spikes, which means it was used for mating games.

9 Conquenator

This predatory dinosaur was first discovered in 2003, and scientists are still arguing about its strange skeleton. The conquenator had a small body about 6 meters long and a strange feature - the hump between the 11th and 12th vertebra of the skeleton.

The hump did not carry any useful function, as did the bumps in the bones of the forearm of the concave. But paleontologists were able to take a fresh look at the theory of kinship between birds and dinosaurs, because before that not a single relative of this dinosaur had feather rudiments.

8 Cosmoceratops

Another strange representative of this species refers to horned dinosaurs. Perhaps this is where all his advantages ended. The name cosmoceratops did not come from the word cosmos, but means richly decorated in ancient Greek.

And he really, very richly decorated! Cosmoceratops had 15 horns, and by their number it is the most equipped dinosaur. True, there was no sense from them, except that beautiful horns came in handy during mating games.

7 Kulindadromeus Transbaikal

This miracle animal, as the name implies, was discovered in Russia, in the Kulinda valley in 2010. Since then, the minds of scientists have not ceased to digest information, because culindadronius violated all conceivable theories about dinosaurs.

It belongs to the group of poultry-dinosaurs, but has no wings (or their primordia). All previously found representatives of this group did not even have the rudiments of feathers, which caused discussion in the scientific worlds. So far, it has been possible to establish that feathers were served to this dinosaur to maintain heat and for mating games.

6 Notronic

This wonderful dinosaur belongs to the genus of therapists (predators), but is a herbivore. His remains were discovered in 1998 at a ranch in New Mexico. It had a rather impressive weight - 5.1 tons and a height of about 5 meters.

Now imagine a giant sloth standing on the ground. This is exactly what this dinosaur looked like, which greatly surprised paleontologists. Its huge claws were an absolutely unnecessary fixture, given its herbivore. Nootronich because of the claws was very, very slow ...

5 Orictodrome

This poultry-dinosaur had a very unusual property. Small, only 2.1 meters long and 22 kg in weight, he looked like a modern mole or rabbit.

Yes, the orictodrome dug minks and hid in them from predators. It looks like a pretty cute wombat, only many times more. The sight, obviously, was funny - a dinosaur that lives in a hole and digs the ground with its claws!

4 ganchosaurus

This species was discovered in the eponymous province of China in 2013. Scientifically, it is called Qianzhousaurus, and in everyday life - "Pinocchio dinosaur". In practice, he is a tyrannosaurus, only slightly modified.

The fact is that the Ganzhousaurus has a very long jaw, the structure of which cannot be explained. Their brethren, tyrannosaurs, have a very massive skull box that withstood powerful blows. Why does the Pinocchio dinosaur with the same body structure have a long jaw, unable to withstand the load - a real mystery.

3 Rinorex

This species belongs to the genus of herbivorous hadrosaurids, but differs from them in one feature in the structure of the skull. Rinorex has just a huge nasal plate, which defies any explanation.

The purpose of such a nose in this dinosaur has been discussed by scientists for many years. Like relatives, he did not have a special sense of smell, so such a growth on the nose is pointless from the point of view of convenience. The duckbill dinosaur is still being studied and explored by paleontologists.

2 stygomolokh

Oh, his name is already causing fear - in translation it is "a horned demon from a hellish river." This herbivorous dinosaur had a domed skull with horns located at the back.

The name stygimoloch came from mythology - Moloch (Semitic deity) and Styx (nymph in Hades). Scientists are still arguing why he needed such a strange skull and came to the conclusion that these are again mating games. Stygomolokh fought with rivals with a convex forehead and horns.

1 Utirannus

This dinosaur species was related to the tyrannosaurus rex, although the difference is immediately apparent. It was covered with short, like chicken feathers, about 15 centimeters long. He was a predator, although at first glance, he looked in these feathers not at all frightening.

At the same time, he had a considerable weight of about two tons. The finds of such dinosaurs are increasingly prompting scientists to think that all representatives of this species first had feathers, and then lost them during evolution.

Humanity is fortunate that these powerful creatures became extinct many millions of years ago. Even the strangest and most ridiculous of them could destroy a person with one blow.

It is no secret that during the existence of our planet the world of flora and fauna has changed several times. Dinosaurs did not survive to our times, but their existence is confirmed by numerous excavations.

This article is for people over 18 years old.

Have you turned 18 yet?

  Types of dinosaurs, their classification

Paleontologists claim that dinosaurs have inhabited our planet for more than a hundred million years. Scientists came to such conclusions after many years of excavation, which allowed them to invade the bowels of the earth and find numerous remains of giant birds and animals there. What reality was in those days, one can only guess.

Today we will examine in more detail what types of dinosaurs are, and what information about them is available today. In general, when you become interested in these animals, it strikes how much is known to paleontologists, and after all, no one has ever seen these animals with their own eyes. Now they are the heroes of horror films, fairy tales for children and so on, it is thanks to the artists that we have a clear idea of \u200b\u200bhow such unusual creatures actually looked. Very often, different dinosaurs are compared with dragons.

Scientists, unfortunately, have not been able to come to a single conclusion why dinosaurs suddenly became extinct on our planet. Although in that era not only dinosaurs disappeared, but also many inhabitants of the underwater world. One of the theories says that climatic conditions did not change dramatically on Earth, and dinosaurs could not live in a new environment, so they began to die one by one. The second theory (more realistic) suggests that 65 million years ago a huge asteroid crashed onto our planet, which destroyed many terrestrial creatures.

We will not go into details about why huge creatures disappeared from the face of the Earth, it will be much more interesting to talk about what paleontologists know today. And they know a lot, from the remains it was possible to establish what kind of dinosaurs existed, to report approximately how many species were, and also give them certain names.

For the first time, the English biologist Richard Owen spoke about dinosaurs, it was he who called the animals this term (by the way, the “dinosaur” from Greek translates as a terrible lizard). Until 1843, scientists did not put forward theories about the existence of dinosaurs. Their remains were attributed to either dragons or other giant mythical animals.

Now the list of species is simply huge and each genus has its own name. For example, you will be interested to know which are the two largest and most ancient groups of these animals. The names may seem ridiculous to some, but these are lizards and poultry creatures. Next, we list the most famous and in our opinion the main types or types of dinosaurs. Do not be surprised that representatives of the most famous breeds could swim, fly, and not just move on land. A lot of information was studied by scientists before they could draw conclusions that dinosaurs can be divided into such groups:

• predatory;
• herbivores;
• flying;
• water.

Paleontologists knew exactly how to distinguish one type from another, they conducted more and more research, as a result of which the world learned about trinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, tyrannosaurs, ornithoheruses, and so on.

The exact number of species of existing dinosaurs cannot be established, and it is unlikely that this will ever be known. There are a lot of nuances in studying fossils. It is said that the number of varieties ranges from 250 to 550 and these numbers are constantly changing. For example, some species were identified only by excavating one tooth or vertebra. Over time, scientists realize that some species that were previously considered different can actually be attributed to the same thing. So no one is taken to draw accurate conclusions. Perhaps most types of dinosaurs exist only in the imagination of paleontologists and other lovers of sensations. But since these huge creatures disappeared from our planet, it means that it was necessary. Nothing happens by chance, and especially the extinction of real giant predators.

  Floating dinosaur: myth or reality?

Paleontologists claim that aquatic dinosaurs did exist. Honestly, the population of the seas and oceans in those days was not so harmless. Aquatic dinosaurs would love to eat everyone in a row. And they can’t even compare with the most dangerous sharks today. The size of the monsters exceeded the size of modern whales. Huge animals could happily have a bite, for example, with another dinosaur, which, by chance, was in the wrong place at that time. Some fish grew up to 25 m (for comparison, the standard nine-story building is 30 m).

Sea monsters are classified as follows:

• plesiosaurus (a long-necked creature that lived under water all the time, sometimes floated to the surface to breathe air or grab a flying bird);
• the elasmosaurus weighed about 500 kg, had a small but moving head on a huge (8 m) neck;
• mosasaurs lived in the seas and oceans, but moved a little snake-like;
• ichthyosaurs are very warlike and bloodthirsty animals that lived and hunted in packs. There were practically no insurmountable obstacles for them;
• notosaurus led a double lifestyle (on land and in water), ate small creatures and fish;
• lyopleurodons lived exclusively in the aquatic environment, could hold their breath for several hours, dive to the depths and hunt there;
• shonizaur is a completely harmless reptile, which was an excellent hunter and ate shellfish, octopuses, squids.

Very little is known about the existence of double-headed creatures, many species of dinosaurs had long claws that helped them move faster. Some types of large marine inhabitants were:

• with a collar on the neck;
• with a hood;
• with a crest on the back (sometimes with two crests);
• with spikes;
• with a crest on the head;
• with a mace on the tail.

  Herbivorous dinosaurs: their classification

This is most likely the most peaceful species of huge creatures. They quietly chewed weed, were happy and entered the battle solely for the purpose of self-defense. It is rare that herbivores attacked first. At the same time, dinosaurs of this type were not weak defenseless animals at all. A powerful skeleton, huge horns, a tail with a mace, unrealistically huge sizes, strong limbs that could immediately defeat on the spot - all these are characteristics of quite peaceful animals.

There were several types of herbivore creatures:

• stegosaurs - they had peculiar crests on the body, chewed grass, from time to time swallowed stones to improve digestion;
• euplocephalus, which was covered with spikes, bone carapace and had a mace tail. This is a truly scary monster;
• brachiosaurus - could eat about a ton of greenery in just a day;
• triceratops had beaks, horns, lived in herds, easily defended themselves from enemies;
• the hadrosaurs were large enough, but very vulnerable, still a mystery how they survived.

This is not a complete list of species of grass dinosaurs.

  Predatory dinosaurs

Still, most dinosaurs were predators by nature. They had a powerful body structure, huge teeth, horns, shells. All this allowed the animals to rise above the rest of the living creatures, often dinosaurs fought with their relatives. The strongest always won, there was no talk of any kindred ties. The tyrannosaurus was considered the most popular predator; you can find a lot of interesting information about it, watch a video. Tirex is the hero of many horror films, because this born hunter really was a scary, disgusting, ruthless, bloodthirsty.

  Dinosaur with a long neck (name and species)

Among herbivorous, marine and predatory species, there were breeds that differed in unrealistically long necks. For example, diplodocus is a herbivore creature whose neck consisted of 15 vertebrae. He could easily get branches from the tallest trees.

Flying species or dinosaur birds really were with wings, scales, sometimes even feathers. The peculiarity of these creatures was huge very sharp teeth, which can not be said about modern birds. These are pterodactyls, pterosaurs, archeopteryx. Ornithoheyrus in size was like a small plane, had a light skeleton, a crest on its beak. Such "birds" lived near large bodies of water.

Pretty informative, and also interesting to read about the inhabitants of the Jurassic period, is not it? At that time, the population of the Earth was completely different, terrible and incomprehensible to us, its modern inhabitants.

Species of dinosaurs of this group lived in the late Jurassic period in the territory of modern North America about 150 million years ago. Paleontologists consider diplodocus one of the most easily recognizable dinosaurs. Moreover, this species is the largest of all dinosaurs known for its found complete skeletons. Diplodocus were herbivores, and their enormous size was a deterrent to predatory dinosaurs of those times - ceratosaurs and allosaurs.

Allosaurus is a thunderstorm of diplodocus!

In the framework of this article, we will not be able to consider all types of dinosaurs with names, so we turn only to the most striking and famous representatives of these legendary giants. One of them is the allosaurus. This is a representative of the genus of carnivorous dinosaurs from the theropod group. Like diplodocus, allosaurus existed in the Jurassic period about 155 million years ago.

These creatures moved on their hind legs and had very small forelimbs. On average, these lizards reached a length of 9 meters and a height of 4 meters. Allosaurus were considered large bipedal predators of the time. The remains of these insidious creatures were found on the territory of modern Southern Europe, East Africa and North America.

Ichthyosaurs - legendary fish hunters

They represent an extinct squad of large marine reptiles, reaching a length of 20 meters. Outwardly, these lizards resembled modern fish and dolphins. Their distinguishing feature was large eyes, protected by a bone ring. In general, at a short distance, ichthyosaurs could well be mistaken for fish or dolphins.

The origin of these creatures is still in question. Some paleontologists believe that they are natives of diapsids. This version is confirmed only by conjectures: apparently, the escape of ichthyosaurs somehow branched off from the main stem of the diapside even before this subclass was divided into archosaurs and lepidosaurs. Nevertheless, the ancestors of these fish farmers are still not known. Ichthyosaurs became extinct about 90 million years ago.

Dinosaurs rise in the sky

At the end of the Triassic period, the first flying dinosaur species appeared on the planet, which unexpectedly appeared in the fossil record. It is curious that they were already fully formed. Their direct ancestors, from whom they developed all this time, are unknown.

All Triassic pterosaurs belong to the group of rumphorinchs: these creatures had huge heads, jagged mouths, long and narrow wings, a long and thin tail. The size of these "leather birds" varied. Pterosaurs - as they were called - possessed mainly the size of both gulls and hawks. Of course, among them were 5-meter giants. Pterosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago.

Tyrannosaurs are the most famous dinosaur species.

The list of ancient dinosaurs would be incomplete if we did not mention the most magnificent dinosaur of all time and time - the tyrannosaurus. This insidious and dangerous creature fully justifies its name. This creature represents a genus from the group of coelurosaurs and theropod suborder. It includes one single species - the tyrannosaurus rex (from the Latin language “rex” is the king). Tyrannosaurs, like allosaurs, were two-legged predators with massive skulls and sharp teeth. The limbs of a tyrannosaurus represented a continuous physiological contradiction: massive hind legs and tiny hook-shaped forelegs.

The tyrannosaurus is the largest species within its own family, as well as one of the largest land predatory dinosaurs in the history of our planet. The remains of this animal were found in the west of modern North America. According to scientists, they lived about 65 million years ago, that is, it was precisely their century that the death of the entire dynasty of ancient dinosaurs occurred. It was tyrannosaurs that crowned the whole great era of dinosaurs, which ended during the Cretaceous period.

Feathered heritage

For many people, it is no secret that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs. Paleontologists saw a lot in common in the external and internal structure of birds and dinosaurs. It should be remembered that birds are descendants of land dinosaurs - dinosaurs, and not flying dinosaurs - pterosaurs! Currently, two subclasses of ancient reptiles are "hanging in the air" because their ancestors and their exact origin have not been established by paleontologists. The first subclass is ichthyosaurs, and the second is turtles. If we have already dealt with ichthyosaurs above, then nothing is clear with turtles!

Are turtles amphibians?

And therefore it is clear that, considering a topic such as "Types of dinosaurs", one cannot fail to mention these animals. The origin of the subclass of turtles is still shrouded in mystery. True, some zoologists still believe that they came from anapsids. However, they are opposed by other pundits who are sure that turtles are the descendants of some ancient amphibians. And do not depend on other reptiles. If this theory is confirmed, then a major breakthrough will take place in the science of zoology: it may happen that turtles do not have the slightest relation to reptiles, because then they will become ... amphibians!

Can you imagine what dinosaurs looked like when they ruled this land many years ago? Let me answer this question. Some dinosaur species, once the largest creatures on the planet, were four-story buildings tall and weighed more than the combined weight of hundreds of cars.

Interested in? A lot of interesting facts are known about dinosaurs. As you may have guessed, it is precisely about these prehistoric reptiles that we will speak today on the site about the animal site. We will tell you what groups dinosaurs are divided into, their evolution, and also about the hypotheses why dinosaurs became extinct.

These giant creatures got their name from the Greek and Latin languages. In simple words dinosaur means "terrible lizard".

They are usually named according to their characteristics of the body, the place where they were found, or in honor of the person participating in their discovery. The name, as a rule, consists of two Greek or Latin words or their combination.

Dinosaur species. All dinosaurs were not alike. Their eating habits were different, they were of different sizes, the walking style of some was different from the others, there were many more features.

Dinosaur groups

Sauropods  - a group of herbivorous dinosaurs, which differed in the most impressive sizes among the rest - a large body, a long tail and a neck, which, like a giraffe, helped to get tree foliage for food.

Theropods  - carnivorous dinosaurs. This group of predators had excellent eyesight, sharp teeth and no less sharp claws, which helped a lot when hunting.

Large herbivorous dinosaurs with huge bone plates located along a long spine. It is believed that these spikes served not only as a deterrent for predators, visually increasing the size of the dinosaur, but also participated in the processes of thermoregulation due to the huge number of blood vessels located in them.

Brachiosaurus  - huge dinosaurs that lived in herds. Their sizes can be compared with two double-decker buses, stacked on top of each other. Like all sauropods, they had a long neck, helping them to extract succulent foliage from tall trees.

Some dinosaurs preferred to move exclusively on two legs, so they were called bipedal, while others walked only on four. But there were species that could freely move on both two and four legs.

Dinosaur evolution

Dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago, their ancestors are reptiles that inhabited the vast expanses of the Earth. In the process of evolution, terrestrial dinosaur species arose. Their appearance was very different from the more primitive reptiles. Even now, no one can say exactly why such changes occurred. But one thing is clear - as a result of evolution, the fittest survive. And only a small percentage falls by chance.

The first dinosaurs were small (about 10-15 feet in length) and were distinguished by a fragile physique. They moved quickly on two legs. For the first time, their remains were discovered in the last century in Madagascar, off the coast of southern Africa.

The eoraptor is one of the very first dinosaurs that appeared about 228 million years ago. It is no bigger than a dog in size, but, nevertheless, it was a predator, quickly moving on two legs.

Not all prehistoric animals were dinosaurs. In addition to them, there were many other representatives of the fauna.

Dinosaurs populated exclusively land. None of them lived in the sea or flew. True, in some carnivorous species feathers appeared over time, and they evolved into birds.

Not all dinosaurs were huge. Among them there were also small specimens. The smallest was the size of a chicken, so it was named compsognat.

Birds are the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs. Humans themselves, as most experts suggest, have never coexisted with dinosaurs.

The number of teeth for each dinosaur species was completely different. Some did not have them at all, others had 50-60 thick teeth resembling a cone in shape. But hadrosaurs had the most teeth - about 960. An interesting fact is that if a tooth fell out or broke a tooth, then a new one always grew in its place.

Life expectancy in different species of dinosaurs was significantly different. Large species could survive up to 100 years, while in smaller dinosaurs it was significantly shorter.

Why did dinosaurs die out?

Extinction is the process of extinction of whole species of animals. This happens when the death rate exceeds the birth rate and is considered a natural result of evolution. That is, if organisms cannot adapt to the conditions of existence in the environment, they disappear.

Dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago as a result of abrupt climatic changes that occurred after the collision of a large asteroid with the Earth. This is the most popular theory explaining the death of dinosaurs.

It is believed that a large asteroid crashed into the Earth at great speed. Its dimensions were about 10 km in diameter. Because of which there was a wave of earthquakes, raising clouds of dust, which was the reason for the death of dinosaurs.

According to another theory, there was a strong cooling on Earth, and animals, without feathers or fur, could not survive in such climatic conditions.

To date, it is believed that only birds retained some of the characteristic features inherent in the distant past of dinosaurs.

Bones of fossil animals were found on every continent without exception. It is possible, it may even be somewhere near you.

The beginning of history was the climatic changes that occurred on Earth 300 million years ago. There was a significant increase in average temperature, which contributed to the extinction of some species and the spread of others. In particular, the heyday of reptiles began.

Both the number of individuals and the number of species increased. From them came the ancestors of the dinosaurs - archosaurs. Modern representatives of this group of reptiles are crocodiles. Archosaurs of the Permian period were distinguished by the specific structure of their teeth, as well as a specific protective coating of the skin - scales. Like modern crocodiles, they are eggs.

Carnivorous dinosaurs fed mainly on small mammals. There were also herbivorous dinosaurs with plant diets.

After the Mass Permian, only 5% of previously existing species, and the ancestors of the dinosaurs managed to survive this ecological upheaval. Dinosaurs themselves arose 230 million years ago. The earliest dinosaur species known to scientists is the stavricosaurus. It was about 2 m long, and its weight reached 30 kg. The stavricosaurus was a predator and moved on its hind legs.

The era of dinosaurs and their decline

Gradually, dinosaurs became an increasingly diverse group of creatures, capturing ever new habitats. Dinosaurs could live in the water, competing with large predatory fish. Gradually flying dinosaurs appeared. Also, over time, the sizes of reptiles became more diverse - their weight could reach 200 kg or more.

The heyday of the dinosaurs came in the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods, when the species of dinosaurs accounted for more than half of all species of fauna of the Earth. In total, the remains of about 500 species of dinosaurs were found, but scientists believe that there were significantly more - up to 2000 for the entire existence of this squad.

The largest dinosaurs were herbivores or lived in water.

The exact cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs remains unknown. One theory suggests that dinosaurs died due to a meteorite falling and the resulting tsunami and other cataclysms. Other scientists believe that the reason was a gradual climate change, which led to the extinction of not only dinosaurs, but also a number of other species - up to 20% of the species of flora and fauna disappeared. It is only known for certain that dinosaurs disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous - about 65 million years ago. The dominance of reptiles has been replaced by widespread mammals.