Data:
- herbivore
- gregarious animal
- lower Cretaceous, ~140.000.000 - 110.000.000 years ago
- length 10 m, height 5 m, weight 4,5 tons
- Europe, North America
- was able to walk on 4 or run on 4 legs.
- horn thumb
Special info:
1822 the english doctor Gideon Mantell found some pieces of an Iguanodon skelleton (some told, that actually it was his wife who found some bones and theeth…). In 1825 he described the dinosaur Iguanodon. But he assembled the skeleton wrongly e.g. he put the horn thumb on the nose. Most likely Iguanodon is the first dinosaur that was described and classified ever.
The museum of natural history in Brussel displays some complete skeletons, which were found 1878 around Bernissart in Belgium.
(=Dromaeosauridae)
proceed to the Parasaurolophus cartoon
Data:
- carnivorous
- lone wolf
- upper Cretaceous, ~70.000.000 - 65.000.000 years ago
- lenght 13 m, height 6 m, weight 7 tons
- North America, China
- moved on the hind legs
- the "vestigially" arms appear quite useless
- owned theeth like daggers
Special info:
Tyrannosaurus
Rex is the most famous dinosaur. One interesting question about him is
the usage of the vestigial arms with only 2 fingers. Could they help to
stand up from a lying position? Or were they evolutionary totally unnecessary
and formed themselves back? As T. Rex is very young (in means of a geological
timescale) dinosaur it could be that the extinction event at the Cretaceous/Tertiary
boundary prevented the total loss of arms for the species Tyrannosaurus
Rex…
Scavenger or predator? On the basis of a Triceratops skeleton that shows
a hole (of the same size of a Tyranosaurus tooth) on the inner side of
the pelvic bone is assumed that the Triceratops was already dead when
the T-Rex ate him and thus the T-Rex was a scavenger. To my mind this
is only provocative. The Tyrannosaurus could have killed that Triceratops
by himself and then disembowelled him. Furthermore a bone injury (again
the same size of a T-rex tooth) of a Triceratops is known, that healed
before years later the Triceratops died. Consequently this Triceratops
survived a Tyrannosaurus Rex attack. There for we know that T-rex was
able to hunt for prey. Nevertheless it is possible that he ate carrion
if he could find some….
Two good preserved skeletons are at disposel in New York. A skull is shown in Brussel. A complete skeleton is displayed in the London 'Natural History Museum'.
Data:
- herbivore
- gregarious animal
- Upper Jurassic, ~155.000.000 - 140.000.000 years ago
- length 28 m, height 13 m, weight 50 - 80 tons
- The heaviest land animal of all times
- Afrika, North America, Europe
- walked on 4 legs
- forelegs longer than hint legs
- opening of the nose was on the top of the arched head
Special info:
A long time discussion is, whether the bones of Brachiosaurus could have carried the calculated weight or not. Due to the nostril on the vertex of the head and the very long neck many scientists suppose that Brachiosaurus spent his whole life aquatic. But four legs make little sense (evolutionary) for an exclusive water animal. Therefore I* believe that the Brachiosaurus indeed was able to move on land. It could be that in danger (who could have become a danger to such a giant?) Brachiosaurus went down into water and let emerged only its nostril.
A complete skeleton stands in the entrance hall of the 'Naturkunde Museum" in Berlin.
Data
- herbivore
- gregarious animal
- Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretacous, ~150.000.000 - 130.000.000 years ago
- length 30 - 45 m, height 5, weight 11 tons
- The longest land animal of all times
- North America
- walked on 4 legs
- defendet himself against predators with his long (whip-like) tail.
Special info:
Who was longer: Diplodocus or Seismosaurus? The estimated length of Seismosaurus was about 50 m. Though an incomplete skeleton was the basis of the calculation. The caudal vertebra of Seismosaurus which were assumed as number 20-27, were compared to a complete Diplodocus skeleton. After that this caudal vertebra revealed as number 12-19, which gave a new calculated length of about 35 m for Seismosaurus. It is possible that Seismosaurus was a large kind of Diplodocus. Also possible is that Seismosaurus is the mature form or sex specific larger form of Diplodocus. The Diplodocus skeletons found in former times would turn out as young animals or the sexually smaller form. Most likely the name Seismosaurus for an own kind of dinosaur can be deleted.
Museum:
A casting of a complete skeleton is exposed in the museum for natural history in Berlin, the orginal in the Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh, USA.
Data
- herbivore
- gregarious animal
- upper Cretaceous, ~70.000.000 - 65.000.000 years ago
- length 11 m, height 2 m, weight 8 tons
- North America
- walked on 4 legs
- able to defend itself due to a bone neck shield and 3 horns
Special Info:
In my* opinion Triceratops is the most popular dinosaur. Maybe that is because Triceratops was probably the only herbivore that was en equal opponent against Tyrannosaurus Rex. But it should be mentioned that Triceratops -just like Trex- was one of the youngest and last of all dinosaurs before mass extinction. The gigantic Sauropods like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus died out long before. On that score they could not face Tyrannosaurus Rex in a fight at all.