What types of dinosaurs existed on earth. Herbivorous dinosaurs names and photos. Types of dinosaurs, their classification

12.03.2020

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

Allosaurus - a thunderstorm of diplodocus!

Within the framework of this article, we will not be able to consider all types of dinosaurs with names, so we will only turn to the most prominent 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 group of theropods. Like diplodocus, allosaurs existed in the Jurassic period about 155 million years ago.

These creatures walked 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. Allosaurs 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 lizards

They represent an extinct detachment 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 come from diapsids. This version is supported only by conjecture: apparently, the shoot of ichthyosaurs somehow branched off from the main diapsid stem even before this subclass split into archosaurs and lepidosaurs. However, the ancestors of these fish lizards are still not known. Ichthyosaurs died out about 90 million years ago.

Dinosaurs take to the sky

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

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

Tyrannosaurs are the most famous dinosaur species.

The list of ancient lizards would be incomplete if we did not mention the most majestic dinosaur of all times and eras - the tyrannosaurus rex. This insidious and dangerous creature fully justifies its name. This creature represents a genus from the coelurosaur group and theropod suborder. It includes a single species - a tyrannosaurus rex (from the Latin language "rex" is a king). Tyrannosaurs, like allosaurs, were bipedal predators with massive skulls and sharp teeth. The limbs of Tyrannosaurus Rex were a complete physiological contradiction: massive hind legs and tiny hook-shaped forepaws.

Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest species within its own family, as well as one of the largest terrestrial predatory lizards in the entire 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 in their century that the death of the entire dynasty of ancient lizards occurred. It was the tyrannosaurs that crowned the entire great era of dinosaurs, which ended during the Cretaceous period.

Feathered heritage

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

Are turtles amphibians?

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

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.

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Types of dinosaurs, their classification

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

Today we will take a closer look at what varieties of dinosaurs are, and what information about them is available today. In general, when you start to be interested in these animals, it is amazing how much paleontologists know, and no one has ever seen these animals with their own eyes. Now these 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 how such unusual creatures really looked like. Very often different dinosaurs are compared to dragons.

Scientists, unfortunately, have not been able to come to a unanimous conclusion why dinosaurs suddenly died out 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 it was not the Earth's climatic conditions that changed dramatically, but the dinosaurs could not live in the new environment, so one by one they began to die. The second theory (more realistic) says that 65 million years ago a huge asteroid crashed into our planet, which destroyed many earthly 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 they managed to establish which dinosaurs existed, to report approximately how many species there were, and also to give them certain names.

For the first time, the English biologist Richard Owen spoke about dinosaurs, it was he who called animals by this term (by the way, “dinosaur” is translated from Greek 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 what are the two largest and most ancient groups of these animals. Maybe the names will seem funny to someone, but these are lizard and ornithischian creatures. Next, we list the most famous and, in our opinion, the main species or types of dinosaurs. Do not be surprised that representatives of the most famous breeds could perfectly 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 were doing more and more research, as a result of which the world learned about trinosaurs, ichthosaurs, pliosaurs, tyrannosaurs, ornithocheirs and so on.

The exact number of species of dinosaurs that existed cannot be established, and it is unlikely that this will ever be known. There are many nuances in the study of fossils. The number of varieties is said to range from 250 to 550 and these numbers are constantly changing. For example, some species have only been identified from the excavation of a single 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 can draw firm conclusions. Perhaps most types of dinosaurs exist only in the fantasy of paleontologists and other sensationalists. But since these huge creatures have disappeared from our planet, it means that it was necessary. Nothing happens by chance, and especially the extinction of real giant predators.

Swimming dinosaur: myth or reality?

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

Sea monsters were classified as follows:

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

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

with a collar around the neck;
with a hood;
with a crest on the back (sometimes with two crests);
with spikes;
with a tuft on his 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 fight solely for the purpose of self-defense. Rarely have herbivorous creatures attacked first. At the same time, dinosaurs of this type were not at all weak, defenseless animals. A powerful skeleton, huge horns, a tail with a mace, unrealistically huge sizes, strong limbs that could immediately strike on the spot - all these are the characteristics of completely peaceful animals.

There were several types of herbivorous creatures:

stegosaurus - they had peculiar combs on their bodies, chewed grass, from time to time swallowed stones to improve digestion;
euplocephalus, which was covered with spikes, a bone shell and had a mace on its tail. This is a truly terrible monster;
brachiosaurus - could eat about a ton of greens in just a day;
triceratops had beaks, horns, lived in herds, easily defended themselves from enemies;
hadrosaurs were quite large, but very vulnerable, it is still a mystery how they survived.

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

carnivorous dinosaurs

Yet most dinosaurs were predators by nature. They had a powerful body structure, huge teeth, horns, shells. All this allowed animals to rise above other living beings, often dinosaurs fought with their relatives. The strongest always won, there was no question of any family ties. 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 was really scary, disgusting, ruthless, bloodthirsty.

Dinosaur with a long neck (name and species)

Among herbivorous, marine and predatory species, there were breeds that were distinguished by 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 did indeed have wings, scales, sometimes even feathers. A feature of these creatures were huge very sharp teeth, which cannot be said about modern birds. These are pterodactyls, pterosaurs, archeopteryxes. Ornithocheirus was the size of a small plane, had a light skeleton, a crest on its beak. Such "birds" lived near large reservoirs.

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

- †Dinosaurs Skeletons of various dinosaurs ... Wikipedia

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth ... Wikipedia

This article is proposed for deletion. An explanation of the reasons and the corresponding discussion can be found on the Wikipedia page: To be deleted / August 8, 2012. While the process of discussion ... Wikipedia

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

Barnum Brown Barnum Brown D ... Wikipedia

- ? † Edmontosaurus ... Wikipedia

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

- ? † Dinosauromorph Dromomeron ... Wikipedia

- ? † Psittacosaurus ... Wikipedia

"Bird" redirects here; see also other meanings. Birds 18 ... Wikipedia

Books

Giant Children's Illustrated Dictionary, Alekseeva Varvara Konstantinovna, Likso Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, Vaitkene Lyubov Dmitrievna. What kind of encyclopedias have not been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedias, in ...
A large children's illustrated dictionary about everything in the world, Mernikov Andrey Gennadievich, Likso Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, Vaitkene Lyubov Dmitrievna, Alekseeva Varvara Konstantinovna. What kind of encyclopedias have not been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedias, in ...
A large children's illustrated dictionary about everything in the world, Alekseeva V.K.. What kind of encyclopedias have not been written - about technology, animals, space, great people, grandiose historical events. And much more! But there is a special type of universal encyclopedias, in ...

1. Triceratops (Triceratops horridus)

Triceratops is a herbivorous dinosaur that lived on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period in regions of North America.

As herbivores, Triceratops fed on shrubs and plants such as ferns, palms, and cycads. These herbivorous dinosaurs had beak-like mouths that could basically only grab food, not chew. Interestingly, these dinosaurs had up to 800 teeth, which served exclusively for grasping vegetation.

An interesting fact is that many of them had horns.

2. Dracorex († Dracorex hogwartsia)

Dracorex is a herbivorous dinosaur that existed during the Late Cretaceous. This dinosaur reached 1.4 meters in height, 6.2 meters in length and weighed about 45 kg. Dracorex was the owner of the original long mouth. Numerous spikes and bumps were localized on his skull.

Whether this dinosaur is a herbivore or not is still debated at present. The dracorex had extremely sharp teeth with many fangs,

therefore, some scientists classify it as an omnivore.

Its name Dracorex hogwartsia is taken from the popular Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. As you understand, this name means "Dragon King of Hogwarts".

3. Moschops († Moschops capensis)

Moschops is a genus of prehistoric herbivorous mammalian reptile that existed during the Permian period. Most Moschops remains have been excavated in a region called the Karoo in South Africa.

In this habitat, Moschops was the largest herbivore. He had a massive

body (about 5 meters long), thick skull and very short but heavy tail.

As mentioned above, this dinosaur had a herbivorous lifestyle, so its teeth were serrated at the ends - this helped to chew plants.

4 Argentinosaurus († Argentinosaurus huinculensis)

The next herbivorous dinosaur on this list is Argentinosaurus, which may have been the largest and most massive land animal that ever existed. The Argentinosaurus was a herbivore, as it fed on plants that grew on our planet during the Jurassic period until the end of the Cretaceous period. It had a long neck, making it easy to reach the tops of the trees.

Literally, the name of this dinosaur means "silver lizard". Argentinosaurus fossils were first excavated in South America in 1988. Unfortunately, very little information is currently known about this species of dinosaur.

5. Stegosaurus († Stegosaurus)

Stegosaurus is known to be a genus of herbivorous dinosaurs that predominantly settled in areas of western North America during the Late Jurassic.

This herbivorous dinosaur is characterized by a toothless beak and small teeth on the inside of the cheeks. It follows that such teeth were not suitable for eating animal flesh. Unlike other herbivorous dinosaurs, which had strong jaws and teeth for crushing plant matter, this dinosaur had jaws that only allowed the teeth to move up and down.

Among dinosaurs, Stegosaurus is known for having a relatively small brain and perhaps even for having the lowest brain-to-body ratio.

This dinosaur, whose name literally means "covered lizard", is memorable because of the presence of plates that lay along its back in a vertically flattened position. In total, this dinosaur had 17 original spikes on its back (called forceps) that were not hard per se, but consisted of soft bony material where many blood vessels passed.

6. Edmontosaurus († Edmontosaurus regalis)

Next on this list is Edmontosaurus. It is characterized by having a beak-shaped mouth, short limbs, and a very long, pointed tail.

7. Diplodocus († Diplodocus longus)

Diplodocus is considered one of the longest land animals that ever existed.

Fossils of this herbivorous dinosaur showed that these animals existed in the late Jurassic period. Most of their fossils have been excavated from the Rocky Mountains in the western United States.

Due to its enormous size, Diplodocus also required huge amounts of plant material to survive. Scientists have speculated that its blunt teeth functioned to cut plants, as Diplodocus swallowed food whole without even chewing.

It is interesting to know that, having such dimensions and body structure, this dinosaur did not have the opportunity to raise its long neck above five meters from the ground.

8. Hadrosaurus († Hadrosaurus foulkii)

Literally means "strong lizard". Hadrosaurus is a genus of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in parts of North America during the Late Cretaceous.

Hadrosaurus had a beak-shaped mouth and jaw that were designed to crush plant matter such as pine needles and cones.

It is also important to note that only one skeleton of this dinosaur has ever been found. This fossil was missing a skull, making it difficult for scientists to analyze the appearance of the hadrosaur.

9. Nodosaurus († Nodosaurus textilis)

Another famous herbivorous dinosaur is the Nodosaurus, which is very notable for its "armor".

This dinosaur was a herbivore. He had a rather narrow head with an elongated mouth. Interestingly, Nodosaurus had cavities in its skull that separated its mouth from its nasal passages, thus making it able to eat and breathe at the same time.

Individuals of this genus existed from the late Jurassic until the early Cretaceous. It is interesting that at this time the lands of Alabama were divided into two parts: the northern part was covered with forests, and the southern part was covered with small lakes.

10. Ankylosaurus († Ankylosaurus magniventris)

The name comes from other Greek. ??????? ??????, which means "bent lizard". Ankylosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur that existed in parts of the western United States and Canada during the Late Cretaceous.

Like the Stegosaurus, this massive dinosaur had a body also covered in bony plates (called "scutes"). These shields grew on different parts of the dinosaur's body, such as the neck, back, and hips.

This dinosaur was a herbivore that fed on low-lying vegetation. The beak-shaped mouth allowed the animal to pluck leaves from plants. In addition, studies have shown that he could swallow a huge amount of plants without even chewing.

About 230 million years ago, the first dinosaurs evolved from a population of archosaurs. (Archosauria), which shared the planet with many other reptiles, including animal-like reptiles - therapsids (Therapsida) and pelycosaurs (Pelycosauria). As a separate group, dinosaurs were identified by a set of (mostly obscure) anatomical features, but the main thing that makes them easier to identify and distinguishes them from archosaurs is their bipedal or quadrupedal upright posture, as evidenced by the shape and arrangement of the bones of the thigh and lower leg. See also: "" and ""

As with all such evolutionary transitions, it is impossible to determine the exact moment when the first dinosaur appeared on Earth. For example, the bipedal archosaur Marazuh (Marasuchus) great for the role of an early dinosaur, and lived with the saltopus dinosaurs (S. elginensis) and procompsognatus (P. triassicus) during the period of transition between these two forms of life.

Recently discovered genus of archosaurs - asilisaurs (Asilisaurus), could shift the roots of the dinosaur family tree to 240 million years ago. There are also controversial footprints of the first dinosaurs in Europe dating back 250 million years!

It's important to keep in mind that archosaurs didn't "disappear" from the face of the earth when they turned into dinosaurs. They continued to live side by side with their possible descendants for the remainder of the Triassic period. And, to confuse us completely, around 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 Pangea supercontinent, 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 Staurikosaurus (about 35 kg), which lived about 230 million years ago. But now, part of the attention has shifted to Eoraptor (Eoraptor lunensis), discovered in 1991, a small (about 10 kg) dinosaur.

A recent discovery could overturn our understanding of the South American origin of the first dinosaurs. In December 2012, paleontologists announced the discovery of Nyasasaurus. (Nyasasaurus), who lived in the area of Pangea corresponding to present-day Tanzania, Africa. Amazing! The fossil remains of this dinosaur are 243 million years old, which is approximately 10 million years earlier than the first South American dinosaurs. However, it is possible that Nyasasaurus and its relatives were a short-lived offshoot from the early dinosaur family tree, or technically they were archosaurs rather than dinosaurs.

These early dinosaurs spawned a hardy group of reptiles that quickly (at least in terms of evolution) spread to other continents. The first dinosaurs quickly migrated to the areas of Pangea corresponding to North America (a prime example is the Coelophysis (Coelophysis), thousands of fossils of which have been discovered in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, USA, as well as recently discovered tawa (Tawa), which are given as proof of the South American origin of dinosaurs. Small to medium carnivorous dinosaurs such as , soon made their way to the eastern part of North America, and then further into Africa and Eurasia.

Specialization of early dinosaurs

The first dinosaurs coexisted on equal terms with archosaurs, crocodiles, and pterosaurs. If you were to move back in time to the end of the Triassic period, you would never guess that these reptiles are above all others. Everything changed with the mysterious Triassic-Jurassic, which wiped out most of the archosaurs and therapsids. No one knows for sure why dinosaurs survived, perhaps due to upright posture, or more complex lung structure.

By the beginning of the Jurassic period, dinosaurs began to diversify the ecological niches left behind by their extinct cousins. The split between the lizards mi (Saurischia) and ornithischians (Ornithischia) dinosaurs occurred at the end of the Triassic period. Most of the very first dinosaurs were sauropods, such as sauropodomorphs (Sauropodomorpha), which evolved into bipedal herbivorous prosauropods (Prosauropoda) in the early Jurassic, as well as larger sauropods (Sauropoda) and titanosaurs (Titanosaurus).

As far as we can tell, ornithischian dinosaurs, including ornithopods, hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratopsians, evolved from eocursors. (Eocursor)- a genus of small, bipedal dinosaurs of the late Triassic of South Africa. Eocursor most likely descended from an equally small South American dinosaur (possibly Eoraptor) that lived 20 million years earlier (a clear 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	Image
	genus of lizard dinosaurs related to the herrerasaurs (Herrerasaurus).
Tselofiz (Coelophysis)	a genus of small dinosaurs that lived in North America.
	a genus of small dinosaurs, a close relative of Compsognathus (Compsognathus).
Compsognathus (Compsognathus)	a genus of dinosaurs the size of a large chicken that lived in the late Jurassic period.
Demonosaurus (Daemonosaurus)	carnivorous reptiles from the theropod suborder (Theropoda).
Elaphrosaurus (Elaphrosaurus)	a genus of carnivorous dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic.
Eodromaeus (Eodromaeus murphi)	a species of ancient carnivorous dinosaurs from South America.
Eoraptor (Eoraptor lunensis)	a species of small dinosaurs, one of the first of its kind.
	a genus of early dinosaurs named after Godzilla.
Herrerasaurus (Herrerasaurus)	genus of the first carnivorous dinosaurs from the vastness of South America.
Lilienstern	genus of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of the Triassic period.
Megapnosaurus (Megapnosaurus)	in Greek, the genus name means "big dead lizard."
Pampadromaeus barberenai	ancient species of herbivorous reptiles and ancestor of sauropods.
	genus of one of the earliest dinosaurs in North America.
Procompsognatus (Procompsognathus)	a genus of prehistoric reptiles possibly related to the archosaurs.
saltopus	as in the previous case, it is not known exactly whether saltopus belonged to dinosaurs or archosaurs.
Sanjuansaurus (Sanjuansaurus)	a genus of early dinosaurs from South America.
	a genus of carnivorous dinosaurs from the expanses of England in the early Jurassic period
	a genus of small reptiles from the theropod suborder that lived in North America during the Jurassic period.
Staurikosaurus	primitive carnivorous dinosaur of the late Triassic period.
Tava (Tawa)	a genus of lizard-like carnivorous dinosaurs found in southern North America.
Zupaisaurus (Zupaysaurus)	a representative of early theropods found in what is now Argentina.