Early meat-eating dinosaurs like Coelophysis relied on their speed and agility to catch a variety of animals like insects and small reptiles. The sharp teeth and grasping claws of Coelophysis would have helped them to hold and kill their food.
Clash of titans
Zoologist Nigel Marven travels back in time to meet the giants of the dinosaur age and walks into a battle of gigantic proportions.
Iguanadon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs. Many species of Iguanodon have been named, dating from the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic Period to the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous Period from Asia, Europe, and North America. However, research in the first decade of the 21st century suggests that there is only one well-substantiated species: I. bernissartensis, that lived from the late Barremian to the earliest Aptian ages (Early Cretaceous) in Europe, between about 126 and 125 million years ago. Iguanodon's most distinctive features were its large thumb spikes, which were possibly used for defence against predators, combined with long prehensile fifth fingers able to forage for food.
The huge dinosaurs called sauropods astound us. So massive! So tall! Such long necks and tiny heads! But more astounding is this: these strange giants rank among Earth’s great success stories, roaming the planet for 140 million years.
Today, scientists from many fields have joined in an effort to figure out how they did it. Paleontologists, biologists, botanists, animal nutritionists and engineers all agree: the world’s largest dinosaurs were extraordinary creatures. The challenge is to discover what made them tick.
Spinosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in what is now North Africa, from the lower Albian to lower Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period, about 112to 97 million years ago. Spinosaurus may be the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs, even larger than Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Estimates published in 2005 and 2007 suggest that it was 12.6 to 18 metres (41 to 59 ft) in length and 7 to 20.9 tonnes (7.7 to 23.0 short tons) in weight.
Giganotosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived around 97 million years ago during the early Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period. It is one of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, slightly larger than Tyrannosaurus, but smaller than Spinosaurus. Its fossils have been found in Argentina.
Speedy escape
Little Leaellynasauras have to stay hyper alert to the larger forest predators.
Gastornis
Gastornis was a giant of its time, one of the largest animals of the Eocene at two metres tall. It is thought to have been a predator, because its huge beak would have been far too powerful for simply crushing nuts and other vegetation, and it also had impressive talons on its toes. Its size and heavy build show that it can't have been a fast runner, so it probably ambushed prey. Gastornis was formerly known as diatryma, as fossils found in the USA had been given that name before they were identified as being the same species. Gastornis fossils are common at the site of Geiseltal, Germany and in the USA.
Mononykus olecranus is a rather strange dinosaur that has perplexed scientists and resisted a definitive classification.
Stegosaurus
Weather wise
From Horizon
Dr Ruben Cuneo of Trelew Palaeontological Museum explains how fossils of stromatolites, conifers and ferns show that there was a massive climate change in the mid-Jurassic. This programme was first shown in 2002.
Dinosaur size comparison.
If we measured success by longevity, then dinosaurs must rank as the number one success story in the history of land life.
ROBERT T. BAKKER, The Dinosaur Heresies
A group of Alosaurus stalk a herd of Diplodocus. Painting by AIRt http://airt.deviantart.com/gallery/11929650#/dgqwta
January 13, 2011—Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur species at the foot of South America's Andes mountains. The long-necked Eodromaeus, or "dawn runner," searched for prey as the age of dinosaurs began, approximately 230 million years ago.
The first dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago and for the next 160 million years, the Earth belonged to these ancient reptiles. Discover how these gentle plodding giants and fierce, bloodthirsty hunters lived, ate, and if they really died out 65 million years ago.
Triceratops