Dinosaurs lived in many kinds of terrestrial environments, and although some remains, such as footprints, indicate where dinosaurs actually lived, their bones tell us only where they died. After dinosaurs were recognized as a new type of fossil animal, popular fascination with them reached a peak in the 1850s with the first attempts to reconstruct iguanodon, megalosaurus, and hylaeosaurus. The mass extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago remains a misconception The fossil record shows that dinosaurs were already in decline during the late cretaceous. By these measures, argentinosaurus was the largest dinosaur, as well as the largest land animal, ever known. The chief difference between the two major groups of dinosaurs is in the configuration of the pelvis
The two dinosaurian orders were named saurischia and ornithischia in 1887. Tyrannosaurus rex was a large dinosaur Scientists estimate that the largest adults weighed 4,000 to 7,000 kg (about 9,000 to 15,000 pounds) and measure more than 12 meters (about 39 feet) long. These lizardlike reptiles got the name dinosaur from greek words that mean “terrible lizard.” the last dinosaurs became extinct, or died out, about 65.5 million years ago. Take this science quiz at encyclopaedia britannica to test your knowledge of dinosaurs.
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