Herbivorous dinosaurs names and photos. What were the dinosaurs All dinosaurs of the world from a to z

How many species of dinosaurs do you know? Check out our list, which includes the most famous dinosaur species.

Here you will be provided with material about all aspects of life and the appearance of dinosaurs. The Mesozoic era will be described in great detail. Our information is collected very carefully and does not miss even a single small detail. The sources of our articles are modern domestic studies and foreign paleontological developments. Our information will be interesting to both children and adults. It will be useful not only to an ordinary amateur, but also to a scientific worker.

The majestic era in the life of our planet is that multimillion-dollar segment of history when mysterious dinosaurs lived on Earth. So let's try to solve their secrets!

Dinosaurs, who are they? Let's start by defining the view.

If we translate the Latin word "Dinosauria" from the ancient Greek language, we get the phrase "terrible pangolin." In 1842, the Englishman Richard Owen (a famous zoologist and paleontologist) introduced this term into science.

So, according to the scientific classification, dinosaurs are a superorder (in the rank definition) or a wide group of land reptiles that lived on Earth in the Mesozoic era, namely 231.4 - 66.2 million years ago. These animals had a number of similar symptoms. The main one was the constitution of the body, especially the pelvic bones. Further on the site you will see a comparative diagram of the hip department of different types of land dinosaurs. Consider the left model - it demonstrates the constitution of the pelvic bones of amphibians and a large detachment of reptiles. In this model, the legs are clearly spaced on the sides and quite curved. The center model refers to dinosaurs and mammals. The model on the right refers to the Ravizukhs who became extinct in the Triassic period.

In turn, the representatives of the dinosaurs are divided into 8 orders:

ornithopods (Ornithopoda), pachycephalosaurs (Pachycephalosauria), ceratopsi (Ceratopsia), ankylosaurs (Ankylosauria), stegosaurs (Stegosauria), sauropods (Theropoda), theropods (Theropoda) and terizinosa.

The illustration shows the model of each skeleton reconstruction team created by paleontologist Scott Hartman.

We want to draw your attention to this fact: winged and marine dinosaurs do not belong to dinosaurs, they are assigned to separate orders of reptiles.

From ferocious theropods such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Spinosaurus to huge sauropods such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.

In 1888, a man named Harry Seeley proposed classifying dinosaurs into two groups, looking at their structure of the hip joints, these groups are called Saurischia (lizard hipped) and Ornithischia (bird hipped). These two groups can be divided into subgroups, such as families, subfamilies, etc. Let's look at some of the interesting subgroups and examples of dinosaurs that are part of them.

Theropods

Theropods - Theropod name means “beast foot” which literally translates to “best foot”. This group includes all predatory (meat-eating) dinosaurs. An interesting fact is that the birds really evolved from theropods, and not from ornithish (bird) dinosaurs. Theropods moved on two legs and included some eerily looking but popular dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor.

Sauropods

Sauropods - have evolved and learned to walk on four limbs. They usually grew to huge sizes. These were herbivores (eating plants). This species included classic dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.

Poultry Dinosaurs

Ornithischia - the name Tireofora means "carriers of the shield." This group includes armored dinosaurs such as the Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. They were herbivores that lived throughout the Jurassic period until the late Cretaceous.

Therapies

Cerapods included many interesting groups, such as Ceratopsian (horned) dinosaurs, Triceratops, and Ornithopods (bird) dinosaurs such as Iguanodon.

  - † Dinosaurs Skeletons of various dinosaurs ... Wikipedia

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth ... Wikipedia

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  -? † Dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus Skeleton Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animals ... Wikipedia

Barnum Brown Barnum Brown D ... Wikipedia

  -? † Edmontosaurus ... Wikipedia

English Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ... Wikipedia

  -? † Dromomeron Dinosauromorphs ... Wikipedia

  -? † Pittacosaurs ... Wikipedia

The request "Bird" is redirected here; see also other values. Birds 18 ... Wikipedia

Books

• Giant children's illustrated dictionary, Alekseeva Varvara Konstantinovna, Likso Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, Vaitken Lyubov Dmitrievna. Of which only encyclopedias have not been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more about that! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedia, in ...
• A large children's illustrated dictionary about everything in the world, Andrei Mernikov, Vyacheslav Likso, Lyubov Dmitrievna Vaitken, Alekseeva Varvara Konstantinovna. Of which only encyclopedias have not been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more about that! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedia, in ...
• A large children's illustrated dictionary about everything in the world, VK Alekseeva. No encyclopedias have been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more about that! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedia, in ...

About 230 million years ago, the first dinosaurs evolved from a population of archosaurs (Archosauria)that shared the planet with many other reptiles, including beast-like reptiles - therapsids (Therapsida)   and pelicosaurs (Pelycosauria). As a separate group, dinosaurs were defined by a set of (mostly incomprehensible) anatomical features, but the main thing that simplifies their identification and distinguishes them from archosaurs is a two-legged or four-legged upright, as evidenced by the shape and location of the bones of the thigh and lower leg. See also: "" and ""

As in all such evolutionary transitions, it is impossible to determine the exact moment when the first dinosaur appeared on Earth. For example, two-legged archosaurus marazuh (Marasuchus)   perfectly suited for the role of an early dinosaur, and lived with dinosaurs a saltopus (S. elginensis)   and procomsognat (P. triassicus)   during the transition between these two life forms.

Newly discovered genus of archosaurs - asylizaurs (Asilisaurus), can shift the roots of the family tree of dinosaurs up to 240 million years ago. There are also controversial tracks of the first dinosaurs in Europe dating back 250 million years!

It is important to keep in mind that archosaurs did not "disappear" from the face of the Earth, after becoming dinosaurs. They continued to live side by side with their possible descendants for the remainder of the Triassic period. And in order to confuse us completely, at about the same time, other populations of archosaurs began to evolve into the first pterosaurs (Pterosauria) and prehistoric crocodiles. For 20 million years, during the Late Triassic, the landscapes of South America abounded with similar looking archosaurs, pterosaurs, ancient crocodiles and the first dinosaurs.

South America - Land of the First Dinosaurs

The earliest dinosaurs lived in the region of the supercontinent Pangea, corresponding to the territory of modern South America. Until recently, the most famous of these creatures were: the relatively large herrerasaurus (about 200 kg) and the medium-sized stavricosaurus (about 35 kg), which lived about 230 million years ago. But now, part of the attention has shifted to the eoraptor (Eoraptor lunensis), discovered in 1991, a small (about 10 kg) dinosaur.

A recent discovery could revolutionize our understanding of the South American origin of the first dinosaurs. In December 2012, paleontologists announced the opening of a nyasasaur (Nyasasaurus)who lived in the Pangea area corresponding to modern Tanzania, Africa. Amazing! The fossil remains of this dinosaur are 243 million years old, which is about 10 million years earlier than the first South American dinosaurs. However, it is possible that the nyasasaurus and its relatives represented a short-term branch from the genealogical tree of the early dinosaurs, or technically it was archosaurs, not dinosaurs.

These early dinosaurs spawned an enduring group of reptiles that quickly (at least in terms of evolution), spread to other continents. The first dinosaurs quickly migrated to the area of \u200b\u200bPangea, corresponding to North America (a striking example is the celophysis (Coelophysis),   thousands of fossils of which were discovered in the Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, USA, as well as the recently discovered tava (Tawa)which are given as evidence of the South American origin of the dinosaurs. Small and medium carnivorous dinosaurs, for example, , soon paved their way to eastern North America, and then further to Africa and Eurasia.

Specialization of early dinosaurs

The first dinosaurs coexisted on equal terms with archosaurs, crocodiles and pterosaurs. If you moved back in time to the end of the Triassic period, you would never have guessed that these reptiles are above all others. Everything changed with the mysterious Triassic-Jurassic, which destroyed most of the archosaurs and therapsids. No one knows exactly why the dinosaurs survived, perhaps this is due to upright posture, or the more complex structure of the lungs.

By the beginning of the Jurassic, dinosaurs began to diversify the ecological niches left after extinct counterparts. Split between the lizards mi (Saurischia)   and poultry (Ornithischia)   dinosaurs occurred at the end of the Triassic period. Most of the very first dinosaurs belonged to the lizards, for example, sauropodomorphs (Sauropodomorpha)that evolved into bipedal herbivores prozavropod (Prosauropoda)   in the early Jurassic period, as well as larger sauropods (Sauropoda)   and titanosaurs (Titanosaurus).

As far as we can tell, poultry-gaz dinosaurs, including ornithopods, hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs and ceratops, evolved from an eocursor (Eocursor)   - a genus of small, two-legged dinosaurs of the late Triassic of South Africa. The eocursor most likely came from an equally small South American dinosaur (possibly an eoraptor) that lived 20 million years earlier (a vivid example of how such a huge variety of dinosaurs could have arisen from such a modest progenitor).

List of first dinosaurs

Name (genus or species)	Short description	Picture
	genus of lizardotazovy dinosaurs related to herrerasaurs (Herrerasaurus).
Tselofiz   (Coelophysis)	a genus of medium-sized dinosaurs that lived in North America.
	genus of small dinosaurs, close relative (Compsognathus).
Compsognat (Compsognathus)	a genus of dinosaurs the size of a large chicken, living in the late Jurassic period.
Demonosaurus (Daemonosaurus)	predatory reptiles from theropod suborder (Theropoda).
Elafrosaurus (Elaphrosaurus)	genus of carnivorous dinosaurs from the late Jurassic period.
Eodromeus (Eodromaeus murphi)	view of ancient predatory dinosaurs from South America.
Eoraptor (Eoraptor lunensis)	a kind of small dinosaur, one of the first of its kind.
	a genus of early dinosaurs named after Godzilla.
Guerrerasaur (Herrerasaurus)	the genus of the first predatory dinosaurs from the vastness of South America.
Lilienstern	genus of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of the Triassic period.
Megapnosaurus (Megapnosaurus)	translated from Greek, the name of the genus means "large dead lizard."
Pampadromaeus barberenai	ancient species of herbivorous reptiles and ancestor of sauropods.
	genus of one of the very first dinosaurs in North America.
Procomsognat (Procompsognathus)	a genus of prehistoric reptiles that possibly belonged to the archosaurs.
Saltopus	as in the previous case, the saltopus was definitely unknown to dinosaurs or archosaurs.
Sanhuanzavr (Sanjuansaurus)	genus of early dinosaurs from South America.
	genus of carnivorous dinosaurs from the vastness of England of the early Jurassic period
	a genus of small reptiles from the theropod suborder living on the territory of North America of the Jurassic period.
Stavricosaurus	primitive carnivorous dinosaur of the late Triassic period.
Tava (Tawa)	genus of lizardotazovy carnivorous dinosaurs found in southern North America.
Zupaurus (Zupaysaurus)	a representative of the early theropods found in the territory of modern Argentina.

Dinosaurs are a group of lizards, or reptiles, that flourished in the Mesozoic era - an era of middle life on our planet. Other reptile species lived on Earth with them - crocodile-like, flying lizards, plane-toothed and serpentine, fish-like and scaly species of lizards. The differences between the dinosaurs were so great that scientists establish their family ties with great difficulty. Dinosaurs were the size of a cat or chicken, and were the size of whales. Some moved on four legs, others ran on two. Among them were bloodthirsty killers and predators, dexterous hunters, as well as herbivorous and harmless species.

Dinosaur species

But there is one feature that unites them, they were all terrestrial animals, their paws were located at the bottom of the hull, and not on its sides like most of the current lizards. Therefore, dinosaurs can still be called running reptiles. What were the dinosaurs, is currently not known exactly. Archaeological excavations are still underway, according to the results of which, every year new and new species of dinosaurs are discovered. Over the 150 years of work of paleontologists, with the help of the remains and skeletons, about 500 species of these animals have been discovered. But in fact, more than 10,000 remains have been found. And this indicates that there could have been over 4,000 species of dinosaurs living in different eras of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

If you look at the comparative characteristics of what dinosaurs used to be, you can see the trend of their great diversity and prevalence around the globe. Dinosaurs flew, swam, crawled, they were of various sizes and bizarre shapes:

• Notosaurs and flutes looked like modern lizards with a crest, with a swimming tail flat on the sides.
• Crocodiles and mososaurs were elongated, and moved due to the twisting movements of the tail.
• Plesiosaurs, sea turtles, pliosaurs resembled a lizard with a crest, and hind limbs were used as fins.
• Fish-shaped lizards, which looked like dolphins, in their shape resembled fish, and moved in the water with the help of a tail.
• A distinctive feature of flying dinosaurs was the presence of their wings, covered with a leather membrane, like modern bats. And the fourth finger, from which the skin was stretched, was greatly lengthened.

The best of the best

Well, now let's talk about the records. Are you curious to know which is the largest dinosaur, and which is the smallest, which are predatory, and which are herbivores? Records among dinosaurs will be considered below:

• The smallest dinosaur is a cosmognatus, whose length was about 70 cm and weight was about 3 kg.
• The highest dinosaur is the brachiosaurus, whose length reached 23 meters, and the weight was 30-40 tons.
• The longest dinosaur is a diplodocus, the length of which could reach 52 meters.
• The most toothy dinosaur is ornithomimid, which had about 220 sharp teeth.
• The smartest dinosaur is supposedly a troodontid, which, by the ratio of the size of the body to other dinosaurs, had the largest brain.
• The largest and heaviest dinosaur, apparently, was a titanosaurus, which lived in the Antarctic and weighed, according to some estimates, about 100 tons.

The most common types

Well, our last question regarding which species of dinosaurs were the most common, and to this day they find the largest number of their remains. These are triceratops, tyrannosaurus, pterodactyl, diplodocus.

• Triceratops is a horned, herbivorous dinosaur that lived on Earth in the Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago. On his head were three large horns, for which he received the name. He weighed about 12 tons, and was about 9 meters in length.
• Tyrannosaurus - sometimes the most famous lizard nowadays. The largest predator, whose weight reached 4 tons and a height of about 6 meters. All tyrannosaurs had powerful heads and jaws, and the length of the teeth could reach 15 centimeters!
• Pterodactyl - inhabited the Earth about 150 - 70 million years ago. The flying lizard, with a long mouth dotted with sharp teeth, mainly fed on fish and small creatures. The wingspan could reach 16 meters.
• Diplodocus is a herbivorous dinosaur that inhabited about 150 million years ago. Paleontologists found the remains of these giants in the best preserved form and therefore, almost their entire skeletons are found in museums. It is believed that this may be the longest land dinosaur, according to scientists, its length could reach 52 meters.

Each of us is familiar with the classic dinosaur names, such as the Stegosaurus, the Apatosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is often simply called the tyrex (T. rex). These Mesozoic fossils were widely known in the late XIX - early XX centuries, when they first began to be exhibited in museums.

But where did these names come from? And how did the lesser-known dinosaur names come about - Spinops, Bistahieversor and Pantydraco? Let's try to figure out what scientists are guided by choosing official names for their favorite pangolins \u003e\u003e

At the dawn of paleontology, the question was simply solved - by adding to the keyword the Greek ending -saurus (–saurus), that is, in fact, the lizard. The very first dinosaur to be officially named back in 1824 was the megalosaurus (Megalosaurus), or "huge lizard." True, the dinosaur following the time of description in 1825 was called the iguanodon (Iguanodon), that is, literally "iguana tooth". But still the vast majority of dinosaurs that became famous in the 19th century received names ending in -zavr.

The first part of the typical dinosaur name, traditionally dating back to Latin or Greek roots, usually emphasizes the main feature of ancient animals. For example, when in 1877, Yale paleontologist Otniel Marsh (O.C. Marsh) came up with the name Stegosaurus, which means “rooftop,” he proceeded from the erroneous assumption that the back plates of this dinosaur formed a fragile outer cover. The other godson of Marsch - Triceratops (Triceratops) - also has a description of his own appearance, enclosed in the name. After all, the name given to him in 1889 literally translates as "three-horned muzzle." Indeed, you cannot confuse with any other dinosaur.

However, some dinosaur names have rather strange meanings. Despite the fact that the allosaurus (Allosaurus) was the dominant predator and even the hero of many films, its name translates simply as "another lizard." Probably, according to the first sample found to the paleontologists who studied it, it became clear that this animal is different from those found previously.

Some dinosaur skeletons, by the way, can also receive proper names in addition to species. The Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) is home to Sue (Tuex) and the Triceratops Hatcher (National Museum of Natural History (Washington)). In general, the same nomenclature rules are used in the systematics of dinosaurs as in other animals. First comes the name of the genus - for example, Brontosaurus, and after it - the name of the species: excelsus. From time to time, paleontologists find new species belonging to an already known genus. For example, Velociraptor mongoliensis was found back in 1924, and in 2008 another species of the same genus, Velociraptor osmolskae, was described.

For many paleontologists, choosing the name of an ancient animal is a very serious matter. “Choosing a name for a new species of dinosaur has always been a difficult task for me,” says Lindsay Zanno, a paleontologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. After all, these names play a large role not only for communication between researchers. Dinosaurs have their own, and quite significant, niche in pop culture, and an interesting, vivid name is a great way to interest the audience. “A well-chosen name will arouse interest, revive extinct species in the collective imagination,” adds Dr. Zanno.

But in the most serious case, sometimes there is a place of stupidity. A long-necked dinosaur with muscular legs was called Brontomerus, which literally translates as "rattling thighs." This name was invented by Mike Taylor and colleagues in 2011. And in 2012, another paleontologist Michael - Ryan (Michael Ryan) - a paleontologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, examined with his colleagues a sample that was believed to belong to a representative of centrosaurs (Centrosaurus ), that is, "spiked lizards." Scientists have found that in fact the sample belongs to another species, which was called the coronosaurus (Coronosaurus) - or the "lizard with the crown."

But, Ryan recalls, his fellow paleontologist Jim Gardner called him Broccoliceratops for the duration of the study because of the protuberant ridges on the crest. “I'm sure Jim suggested the name just for fun,” recalls Ryan. “But it's very expressive.”

However, sometimes such working nicknames given to an undescribed dinosaur stick to him forever. This happened with the Wendiceratops, described there by Ryan and David Evans in 2015. The pangolin received this nickname in honor of its discoverer Wendy Sloboda, and then it became the official scientific name of the animal.

Often dinosaurs are named after peoples or tribes, in the places of residence of which the find was made. In the 1980s, the bones of duckbill dinosaurs found in the Colville River region of Alaska were identified as the remains of Edmontosaurus, a widespread and well-studied Cretaceous herbivore. But last year, paleontologist Hirotsugu Mori (Hirotsugu Mori) and colleagues found that these bones belong to another, not previously described species, which they called Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis. This name, translated from Inuit, Inupiak means "an ancient animal grazing on the Colville River."

The co-author of the study, Patrick Druckenmiller, proposed this name. "He believed that the indigenous peoples of Alaska knew that the bones belong to the herbivorous reptile before they were found by scientists," said Mori.

The appeal to human culture, and in particular to mythology in general, is very popular among paleontologists, says Zanno: “This is a way to connect science and imagination - two sides of the same coin, although we often don’t realize it.” As an example, Zanno cites a large oviraptorosaurus resembling a flightless parrot.

"It was clear that the name should emphasize its huge size, but in addition, I would like to transfer the audience to bygone days when our planet was a completely different, almost unimaginable world," the paleontologist explained. And he chose the name Hagryphus giganteus for the new animal, in which "the name of the Egyptian god Ha of the western desert Ha and the name of the mythical beast of the griffin were combined." The species name in this case indicates a large size of animals. “This is now my favorite combination,” Zanno added.

There is no doubt that over time, science will be enriched by even more names - after all, paleontologists are constantly finding new dinosaurs. In fact, we now live in the golden age of paleontological discoveries: a new species of dinosaurs is described on average every two weeks. And estimates of the number of fossils not yet found say that we discovered and described only a small fraction of all types of dinosaurs.

Gradually, the methods of inventing names for new species of dinosaurs change. “My generation is probably the first one that did not have to learn Greek and Latin during training,” says Ryan. “Over time, ignorance of these languages \u200b\u200bgrows and scientists are further moving away from previous taxonomic traditions.”

All this, coupled with the fact that researchers are also influenced by pop culture, has led to a noticeable change in the names of dinosaurs. In 2001, the wry-toothed "vicious lizard" Masiakasaurus knopfleri received a specific name in honor of Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler - because it was to the music of this group that the remains of a dinosaur were discovered.

Nevertheless, the anatomical traits traditionally noted in the names, locations, as well as the names of the authors of the find still play an important role in naming new species - both dinosaurs and other animals. "Researchers emphasize morphological features in the name of the genus, while the name of the species can be given in honor of some geographical object or person. But if you discovered a new species of beetles with a Superman sign on their abdomen, it’s hard to resist giving its obvious name, "Ryan summed up.

Based on materials from Smitrsonian.com