Interesting facts about dinosaurs you may not know

Dinosaurs have become some of the strangest animals to have ever lived on this planet. While it's fun to imagine a world where dinosaurs and humans coexisted at the same time, it's probably not the best idea – we've all seen how that turned out in Jurassic Park!

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Here are some of the most amazing facts about dinosaurs you can imagine.

Dinosaurs have been around for over 230 million years!

About 250 million years ago, most life on Earth became extinct, and within the next ten million years, dinosaurs began to evolve. The exact time when dinosaurs first appeared is still a question, but we know for sure that it was around 230-245 million years ago.

Dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic period

The Mesozoic period lasted from 245 to 66 million years ago and is often divided into three periods: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.

Dinosaurs first evolved in the Triassic, increased in number and diversity during the Jurassic, evolved further during the Cretaceous, and then, effectively, became extinct.

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They evolved from reptiles the size of house cats.

Between 244 and 242 million years ago, small but agile reptiles known as dinosaurs rapidly increased in number and spread across the world.

Although they were too small to make it near the top of the food chain, they were fast enough to escape predators long enough to evolve into dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs are still alive and well with us today!

Don't run screaming for help, though, unless you happen to be scaring chickens to death! In fact, all birds are descendants of dinosaurs – even the humble hummingbird.

All non-avian dinosaurs are extinct, but avian dinosaurs evolved over millennia into today's birds.

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Pterodactyls are not actually dinosaurs.

Pterodactyls, along with all other dinosaur-like winged reptiles, are not dinosaurs but are classified as Pterosaurs. Although Pterosaurs are indeed related to dinosaurs, they are quite distantly related, separating them from archosaurs.

Lesley Montoya

Update 02 February 2025