The biggest dinosaur. The smallest carnivorous dinosaurs

Dinosaurs belonged to the vertebrates, they dominated for over 160 million years in all terrestrial ecosystems - on land, in water and air until the end of the Cretaceous period. The history of dinosaur research is approaching its 200th anniversary, as the first dinosaur remains were discovered in 1822. During this time, paleontologists have done impressive work: they were able to restore the appearance of many lizards, make assumptions about their behavior and establish their diet.

1. Amphicelia

It was this monster that topped the list of TOP 10 most big dinosaurs in the world. This herbivorous giant was one of the first to be discovered - in 1878 thanks to the efforts of archaeologist E. Cope. He had to make a sketch of the vertebra he found, since it fell apart during cleaning. Traces of amphicelia have also been found in Zimbabwe and the USA. This supergiant had a body length of 40-65 meters and weighed up to 155 tons! Thanks to its light cervical vertebrae, it could support its long neck, at the end of which was a disproportionately small head.
The gigantic size did not bring big dividends to the amphicelia - their young, clumsy offspring became easy prey for predatory dinosaur species. To grow, they had to literally destroy all surrounding vegetation, so their habitat was constantly shrinking. Its gigantic size hardly allowed the herbivorous monster to run - it could only walk sedately. It was not difficult for adult individuals to defend themselves from enemies, since their very size kept most predators from attacking. Paleontologists currently believe that 165-140 million years ago there were two species of these sauropods.

2. Mamenchisaurus

This sauropod, which lived in East Asia, had the longest neck, reaching 15 meters. Of course, he was also a herbivore. It differs from other similar dinosaurs in its cervical vertebrae, of which scientists counted 19. The length of adult individuals could reach up to 25 meters, and weight - up to 60-120 tons. Being a sauropod, Mamenchisaurus had a typical small head in comparison with its impressive body dimensions. He walked on 4 legs and may even have frightened other lizards with his size. However, the mamenchisaurs that lived 145 million years ago posed a danger only to flora.

3. Argentinosaurus

This monster was attributed to Argentina, since at one time its remains were discovered in this country. Perhaps the largest dinosaur that lived in the territory South America over 98 million years ago. Unfortunately, few remains of this species were found, so its size can only be speculated. But even a single vertebra measuring 1.6 meters in height already shows how large this sauropod was. In the Argentinean Carmen Funes Museum there is a reconstruction of the Argentinosaurus skeleton, which is almost 40 meters long. Scientists suggest that this is not too much of an exaggeration, since they themselves estimate the possible size of the Argentinosaurus at 23-35 meters and weight at 60-180 tons.
This typical sauropod with a long neck rested on 4 legs, and its diet consisted of the crowns of tall trees, where its head could easily reach. To make food grind better in the stomach, Argentinosaurs swallowed stones. These sauropods lived in groups of 20-25 individuals.

4. Futalognkosaurus

This is a neighbor of the Argentinosaurus, which lived in the Upper Cretaceous period (94-85 million years ago) in South American territory. His remains were found in the Argentine province of Neuquén as recently as 2000. The name was given to him in the language local peoples, and it can be translated as “the main giant.” With a body length of 32-33 meters, this lizard weighed about 80 tons, and could raise its head to a height of 15 meters.
Scientists who carried out excavations at the beginning of this century were very lucky - they found an almost complete skeleton of this monster, only a few vertebrae from the tail were missing. In the entire 200-year history of hunting for dinosaur bones, this discovery was the most complete. Scientists took a closer look at the fossils around the skeleton, and realized that at that time there was a wooded area in which various types of bushes and trees grew. Nowadays there is almost a bare desert here - have dinosaurs really eaten everything?

5. Sauroposeidon

This lizard was named after the ancient Greek god of the seas, Poseidon. This is another giant sauropod that lived 125-100 million years ago in the mid-Cretaceous period. His bones were discovered in the yard of an Oklahoma prison in 1994. Based on these finds, the appearance of Sauroposeidon was reconstructed: with a height of 18 meters, the body length was 31 meters, and the herbivorous giant weighed up to 60 tons.
In terms of height, this lizard is second only to one species of dinosaur - Breviparopus. The females of these giants could lay up to hundreds of eggs. The young animals were forced to live separately and constantly eat in order to grow faster and be accepted on equal terms into the common flock. But out of the hundreds who started up to mature age only 3-4 individuals of Sauroposeidon made it. In addition to changing the types of vegetation on the planet, it was this factor that most likely was fatal for this type of dinosaur.

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6. Diplodocus

Huge diplodocus lived during the Jurassic period (150-138 million years ago). They belong to the lizard-hipped dinosaurs. Its name can be translated as "double ray", as the bones of its tail had the characteristic double-rayed processes that distinguish the species. With a body length of 28-33 meters, diplodocus reached 10 meters in height and weighed 20-30 tons. He used four powerful legs to move, and he kept his balance by balancing with his tail. The tail of the diplodocus, according to paleontologists, also served him as a means of communication in a flock of relatives, and with it he skillfully defended himself from attacks by predators.
In order to consume the amount of calories necessary to maintain such a mass, diplodocus had to eat not only low-calorie vegetation and algae, but also mollusks. Their teeth were poorly developed, so diplodocus did not chew plants, but ground them. At the end Jurassic period, 135-130 million years ago, this type of giant dinosaur came to an end.

7. Liopleurodon

Liopleurodon, along with other pliosaurs, ruled the seas during the Jurassic period (approximately 227-205 million years ago). Very few remains of this waterfowl reptile were found - a few teeth in England, France, and fragments in Mexico and Russia. It was difficult for scientists who had so little material to guess the parameters of this aquatic predator. It is possible that adult individuals grew up to 14 meters in length, while they had a one and a half meter narrow head, and weighed 25-45 tons. Although in the BBC popular science film the size of Liopleurodon is indicated as 29 meters, scientists consider this to be a gross exaggeration.
Moving its four muscular flippers, this underwater creature could quite quickly ambush its prey. Their diet consisted of large fish and mollusks (ammonites), and they did not disdain attacking other marine reptiles. Scientists suggest that Liopleurodons had a well-developed sense of smell in aquatic environment. These sea ​​predators left the historical arena approximately 80 million years ago.

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8. Shonisaurus

Shonisaurus was the largest known at the moment scientist ichthyosaur, who lived in the Late Triassic era (250-90 million years ago) in the ocean depths. The dimensions of this fish lizard were approximately 14 meters, and it weighed 30-40 tons. He had a huge skull with narrow, elongated jaws, reaching 2 meters in length. The largest burial of these prehistoric monsters was found in Nevada. Miners extracting gold and silver unexpectedly unearthed huge skeletons, which were immediately preserved pending further study. But the bones of one of the monsters were transported to a Los Angeles museum, where a skeleton was reconstructed from them.
It is not entirely clear what these rulers of the ancient seas ate - perhaps they hunted for big fish, attacking her from ambush and tormenting her with sharp teeth. In total, the remains of 37 shonisaurs were discovered in Nevada; for this reason, they were even recognized in 1977 as the official fossil of this state.

9. Shantungosaurus

In 1973, the remains of another giant dinosaur were found in the Chinese province of Shandong. This one of the largest species of ornithischian lizards trampled the earth with its heavy tread at the end of the Cretaceous period. The length of this herbivorous creature reached 15 meters, and its weight was 15 tons. Its massive jaws were armed with 1,500 small teeth, suitable only for grinding fiber. There was a special membrane in his nostrils, thanks to which he was able to make sounds.

10. Sarcosuchus

Sarcosuchus belongs to crocodylomorphs, but not to the order of crocodiles, although it significantly resembles them in appearance, except for size. They lived about 110 million years ago in Africa. During the Cretaceous period, it was the largest crocodile-like reptile, and its diet consisted of fish and not the largest dinosaurs. As for size, the largest modern crocodile would be two times smaller than Sarcosuchus.
Its length was 12-15 meters, and its weight could reach 14 tons. Its huge skull was 1.6 meters long, and it could squeeze its powerful jaws with a force of up to 20 tons, which was quite enough to bite a comparable dinosaur in half. However, it did not have the death-spinning skill with captured prey that modern crocodiles possess. The bones of this monster were repeatedly discovered (1966, 1997, 2000) in various geological deposits.

The largest dinosaurs are a group of animals that dominated the Earth during the Mesozoic era. We are talking about predators, carnivores, aquatic animals that had amazing dimensions. Their size to this day is a passion for planetary scientists and researchers, who regularly present new information regarding the weight, height and other features of the superorder of vertebrates, terrestrial and other types of dinosaurs. Consider the rating of the largest dinosaurs that lived 225 million years ago. Please note that we have selected the top 5 largest animals that lived on our planet among 1000 known species.

5 largest dinosaurs in the world

13-18 meters

The largest land predatory dinosaur that lived on the planet 112 million years ago. Spinosaurus is not only the largest, but also the most dangerous land predator, which managed to wreak terror mainly in the territory of North Africa. According to available data, two skeletons of a dangerous creature were also found in Egypt and Morocco. Based on archaeological finds, its back was covered with long spines, approximately 10 times the diameter of its vertebrae. The length varies from 1.5 to 1.7 meters. Most likely, the spines allowed the “predator” to regulate its body temperature. Thus, the largest carnivorous dinosaur is not the Tyrannosaurus Rex at all. Modern paleontologists are sure that with the help of their “sails” spinosaurs scared away other predators. Although, based on its size, this creature had no enemies on land. The weight of representatives of the spinosauridae family ranged from 7 to 21 tons with a height of up to 4.5 meters.

The name for the representatives of this family of dinosaurs was invented by Savage in 1873 after the discovery of a small number of remains of the creature - 3 teeth of 7 centimeters each. Later it turned out that the paleontologist managed to find the remains of the largest sea ​​dinosaur– Liopleurodon. It is known that the reptile also lived in the territory of present-day Germany and England. Viviparous species had first-class protection - very strong bone plates under the skin. The maximum length of teeth found throughout the entire existence of the planet is 30 centimeters. Most likely, the largest representative of the genus reached 20 meters in length.

It's about about the biggest aquatic dinosaur, which is also the largest predator. Fortunately for other animals of the time, Pliosaurus never left the water. For a long time experts believed that maximum length the predator reached a maximum of 20 meters. Everything changed after the discovery of paleontologists in Mexico - an eighteen-meter skeleton, on which there were traces of the four-meter teeth of another predator. Consequently, the size of the second Pliosaur ranged from 25 meters. The fins alone, according to rough estimates, were 3 meters.

Among the largest herbivorous dinosaurs, experts include Puertasaurus, whose length reached 120 feet. In 2016, a certain Matt Wedel conducted a comparative analysis of the vertebrae of Puertasaurus with Notocolossus, as a result of which he found out that the weight of the herbivorous animal could reach 80 tons. Before this scientific work it was believed that Weight Limit the creature is 50 tons. Thus, we see that the study of dinosaurs is very relevant. It is possible that in a few years we will learn completely new data and important facts about the life of dinosaurs.

Now you know how much the largest dinosaur in the world weighed! Share your comments, and don't forget to stay tuned for new materials!

Probably every person on earth knows that some dinosaurs were simply huge! The most “giant giants” were, of course, the saurapods. They had a huge neck, a huge tail that served as a counterweight, and a small (relative to the whole body) head.

Amphicoelias fragillimus - the largest dinosaur that ever existed

The largest dinosaurs are sauropods:

• Argentynozaur (Argentinosaurus) (30-33m, 70-80 tons)
• Zauroposejdon (Sauroposeidon) (34 m, 50 t)
• Seismosaurus (Seismosaurus) (33 m, 27 t)
• Superzaur (Supersaurus) (33-34 m, 35-40 thousand tons)

All of these dinosaurs have names that are fairly easy to remember.

Excavations that have been going on for more than a hundred years have made it possible to establish a more accurate shape and body structure of these ancient animals.

Sauropods - the largest dinosaur

The long-necked sauropod is the largest animal not only among representatives of the ancient world, but also living before and after it. Only a sauropod was larger than the blue whale, which reaches a length of 34 meters and weighs 190 tons.
Some sauropods, or rather some representatives of this species, recently discovered (for example, Seismosaurus (Seismosaurus), which means “ground-shaking lizard” or Argentynozaur (Argentinosaurus)) may be significantly larger than the long-necked one (40 - 50 meters in length), but they weighed no more than 100 tons.

Argentinosaurus is one of the largest dinosaurs - 33 m in length and weighing 70-80 tons

It's all about the voids. Or rather, in the cavities of the bones of these dinosaurs. The largest skeleton with hollow bones ever discovered belonged to the dinosaur Diplodocus (from the Latin diplodocus - “two-rayed”). It is 30 meters long. And then there is Brachiosaurus (Brachiosaurus brancai) - the skeleton of this creature is on display in a museum in Berlin. It is almost 27 meters long and 13 meters high.

But most striking is the skeleton of Brachiosaurus found in Tanzania. This is the most complete dinosaur sauropod skeleton in existence today.

Cavities in the bones significantly reduced weight!

The largest herbivorous lizards had hollows in their bones. Especially in the spine. This made it possible to significantly reduce their weight. For example: Camarasaurus, which got its name because of its hollow bones (cavity lizard). But, even in the presence of voids, the weight of this lizard was greater than that of three elephants. The shoulders of this animal were approximately 2 meters wide. But this was quite enough to support the incredibly large neck.
The shoulders of ultrazaura, who lived at the same time as kamarazur, are somewhat larger - approximately 2.7 meters. This is also a representative of sauropods, a herbivorous lizard that lived around the world about 200 million years ago

Brachiosaurus (Brachiosaurus)

The same huge representative of dinosaurs. It is also a sauropod, up to 27 meters long and 13 meters high. Weight - up to 80 tons, which is the approximate weight of 10 adult elephants.
The family dlugoszyich diplodocoids was interesting view sauropods - Amficelias (Amphicoelias) - “double-concave”. One of its species, Amphicoelias fragillimus, can also lay claim to the title of the largest and heaviest dinosaur.

Diplodocus (skeleton) - one of the largest dinosaurs

In 1978, a fragment of the skeleton of this lizard was found, assessing which, paleontologists came to the conclusion that the weight of the owner could be 100-150 tons, and the length could be up to 60 meters. It was not possible to make more accurate calculations due to the single surviving fragments.

Bruhatkajozaur (Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi)

These dinosaurs are called “heavy-carcass lizards.” But, unfortunately, there is not a single complete skeleton of this dinosaur. Based on the scattered parts that scientists have at their disposal, it can be argued that the weight of these lizards was 70-130 tons, and their body length was 26-34 meters. Height is about 12 meters.

Puertazaur (Puertasaurus)

Puertazaur (Puertasaurus) is a huge lizard, a representative of sauropods, described as recently as 2005. His remains were discovered in 2001 in Argentina. The lizard received its name in honor of one of the researchers, Pablo Puerto.

The discovered vertebra had a gigantic size - 1.06! meters. Such bones could belong to a super-huge dinosaur. He was most likely very slow due to his size. Moreover, it was a herbivorous lizard with a chest 7 meters wide, 38 meters long and weighing 110 tons.
In addition to the types of uncertainty that dinosaurs are: amficelias and bruhatkajozaur, puertazaur would be the largest known dinosaur.

Alamosaur (Alamosaurus)

Sauropods of the titanosaurid group (Titanosauria). Its name comes from the Ojo Alamo, a mountain range in New Mexico, USA, where it was first found. This means "-Lizard of the Alamo."

Alamozaur is an inhabitant of the late Cretaceous period (71-65 million years ago). Its range was in North America. This was the last sauropod on our land. Initially, it was believed that Alamosaurus was somewhat smaller - up to 21 meters long and weighing no more than 35 tons. However, in 2011, vertebrae of a lizard were discovered, whose dimensions were more impressive. Paleontologists came to the conclusion that the previously discovered remains most likely belonged to “teenagers” of Alamosaurus. In 2011, the remains of an adult dinosaur were found, whose weight could reach 100 tons and length - 37 meters.

When did dinosaurs appear?
Documented evidence indicates the appearance of dinosaurs about two hundred and forty million years ago. If the history of the Earth is compressed to 1 year, considering that the birth of the Earth occurred on January 1, then the first life appeared no earlier than the end of March. The first dinosaurs would have appeared in mid-December. The first people would appear only a few hours before the end of the year.

How many animals have gone extinct?
More than 99.9 percent of the animals that have ever lived on Earth went extinct before the advent of humans.

The oldest reptile

Unidentified (insectivorous) (1972) was found in Kentucky, USA, with an estimated age of 310,000,000 years.

Dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era

The development of the Earth is divided into five periods of time called eras. The first two eras, Archeozoic and Proterozoic, lasted 4 billion years, that is, almost 80% of all earthly history. During the Archeozoic, the formation of the Earth occurred, water and oxygen appeared. About 3.5 billion years ago, the first tiny bacteria and algae appeared. During the Proterozoic era, about 700 years ago, the first animals appeared in the sea. These were primitive invertebrate creatures, such as worms and jellyfish.

The Paleozoic era began 590 million years ago and lasted 342 million years. Then the Earth was covered with swamps. During the Paleozoic, large plants, fish and amphibians appeared. The Mesozoic era began 248 million years ago and lasted 183 million years. At this time, the Earth was inhabited by huge dinosaur lizards. The first mammals and birds also appeared. The Cenozoic era began 65 million years ago and continues to this day. At this time, the plants and animals that surround us today arose.

The most primitive dinosaur

…counts Eoraptor lunensis. It was given this name in 1993, when in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, in rocks, whose age is 228 million years, his skeleton was found. The body length of this dinosaur reached 1 m. It was classified as a theropod (a predatory dinosaur from the ornithischian order).

Dinosaur lifespan
Most dinosaurs lived more than a hundred years.

The largest animals

Dinosaurs were the largest animals in the entire history of the Earth. One of the largest dinosaurs was Supersaurus Supersaurus. He weighed the same as 10 elephants. Herbivorous dinosaurs reached enormous sizes. They were especially large, up to 30 meters in length. brachiosaurus And diplodocus. Sauropods- representatives of the suborder of saurian dinosaurs, distinguished by a long neck, long tail and moving on four legs. These herbivorous dinosaurs inhabited most of the land during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, 208-65 million years ago.

Diplodocus

Diplodocus, who lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of more than 25 m; he lived in North America.

Dinosaurs had five fingers

The land dwellers, tetrapods, were four-legged amphibians with five toes on each foot, and loved to walk along the coastal sand of ancient seas and oceans. These are the traces, 360 to 345 million years old, that were recently discovered in eastern Canada - the oldest known to date.

The most ridiculous dinosaur - therizinosaurus
Therizinosaurs had bird-like legs, a snout ending in a toothless beak, and each paw had four functional toes.

The heaviest dinosaurs

...were probably: titanosaur Antarctosaurus giganteus(giant Antarctic lizard), weighing 40-80 tons, the fossil remains of which were found in India and Argentina; brachiosaurus Brachiosaurus altithorax(hand lizard), so named for its long forelimbs (45-55 t); Diplodocus Seismosaurus halli(lizard shaking the earth) and Supersaurus vivianae(the weight of both exceeded 50 tons, and according to some calculations, was close to 100 tons). The estimated weight of the Argentine titanosaur is argentinosaurus– reached up to 100 tons. Estimates made in 1994 were based on the size of its giant vertebrae.

Armored dinosaurs

Ankylosaurs- the most armored of dinosaurs. Their back and head were protected by bone plates, horns and spikes. The body reached a width of 2.5 m. Distinctive feature there was a large club with which the tail ended.

Tallest dinosaur

The tallest and largest species of dinosaur, the skeleton of which was completely preserved, was brachiosaurus Brachiosaurus brancai, found in Tedaguru, Tanzania. It was discovered in Late Jurassic deposits (150 -144 million years ago). The total length of the brachiosaurus was 22.2 m; height at withers - 6 m; height with head raised - 14 m. Probably, during life, the weight of the dinosaur was 30 - 40 tons. However, the fibula of another brachiosaurus, stored in the museum, suggests that these animals were even larger.

Longest dinosaur

… This brachiosaurus. Footprints suggest that the body length of the brachiosaurus Breviparopus reached 48 m. Diplodocus Seismosaurus halli, found in 1994 in pc. New Mexico, USA, reached a length of 39-52 m. These estimates are based on bone comparisons.

Iguanodon

Iguanodon, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of about 10 m; he lived in Western Europe, North Africa, Mongolia; was a herbivore.

The smallest dinosaurs

The smallest dinosaurs were the size of chickens. Length lived in southern Germany and southeastern France cosmognathus (trans. graceful jaw) and a little-studied herbivore fabrosaurus from pcs. Colorado, USA, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail was 70-75 cm. The first weighed about 3 kg, and the second - 6.8 kg.

The largest skull
...belongs Torosaurus. This herbivorous lizard, wearing a giant bone shield around its neck, was about 7.6 m long and weighed up to 8 tons. The length of its skull, together with the bone frill, reached 3 m, and its weight was 2 tons. It lived in the territory of the present states of Montana and Texas, USA.

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of about 9 m; was a herbivore.

The biggest tracks were on

… hadrosaurus (platypus). They were discovered in 1932 in Salt Lake City, pc. Utah, USA, This large dinosaur walked on its hind legs. The length of its tracks is 136 cm, and the width is 81 cm. Other reports from Colorado and Utah spoke of tracks whose width reached 95-100 cm. The width of the tracks, apparently, of the hind limbs of the largest brachiosaurs reaches up to 100 cm.

Triceratops

Triceratops is a reptile that looks like a rhinoceros, lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of about 7 m; he lived in North America; was a herbivore.

The most toothy dinosaurs

... these are ornithomimids. In a bird-like dinosaur Pelecanimimus there were more than 220 very sharp teeth.

The longest claws
...belong therizinosaurs, found in the Nemegt basin, Mongolia, in Late Cretaceous sediments. Their length along the outer curvature reached 91 cm (compared to 20.3 cm for Tyrannosaurus rex). This dinosaur had a fragile skull and no teeth. It probably ate termites. The second contender is spinosaurus. In January 1983, amateur paleontologist William Walker near Dorking, c. A claw 30 cm long was found in Surrey, England. It is believed to have belonged to a Spinosaurus, the total length of which exceeded 9 m, with an estimated weight of 2 tons.

Speed ​​of movement

Dinosaur tracks can be used to estimate their speed. One trail, discovered in 1981 on the territory of the state. Texas, USA, suggests that a certain carnivorous dinosaur could move at a speed of 40 km/h. Some ornithomimids ran even faster. For example, a 100-kilogram man with a large brain Dromiceiomimus, living on the territory of what is now Albert Ave., Canada, at the end of the Cretaceous period, could probably outrun the ostrich, which reaches speeds of over 60 km/h.

Herbivorous lizard with a hole in its skull
Bones of a new species of dinosaur Suuwassea emilieae were excavated in Montana in 1999 and 2000. This herbivorous dinosaur is 150 million years old. He is a relative of the well-known Diplodocus. The length of the animal was 15 meters. It had a long neck and a whip-like tail, as well as a mysterious extra hole in its skull. Its purpose is unknown. Moreover, scientists had previously discovered a similar extra hole in only two species of dinosaurs found in South America and Africa.

The smartest dinosaur

In flightless dinosaurs - troodontids the brain mass in relation to body mass was such that perhaps dinosaurs were the smartest, just like the smartest birds.

Brain with walnut
Stegosaurus its length reached 9 meters, but its brain weighed 50 - 70 g and was only the size of a walnut. This represented 0.002% of its body weight, which was estimated to be 3.3 tons. Stegosaurus lived about 150 million years ago in what is now the states of Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, USA.

Plesiosaur

Plesiosaur - a long-necked marine animal that lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of 16 m; he lived in Europe, North America; lived at sea; was a carnivore and fed on fish and marine invertebrates.

Predators were smaller

Predatory dinosaurs were smaller and walked on their hind limbs. The largest of them was a tyrannosaurus, 5-6 meters high and 12 m long. Its mouth was 1 m long. In one sitting, it could swallow prey weighing 200 kg. Tyrannosaurs – the most terrible land predators in the history of the planet. Adults weighed about 5-6 tons, and therefore were 15 times heavier than the largest modern predator - polar bear. The dinosaur that walked the Earth 65 million years ago was the largest land predator of all time.

How long did tyrannosaurs live?
Tyrannosaurs, the most feared land predators in the history of the planet, died young. The predator grew quickly, gaining two kilograms a day, like a modern one African elephant. How did they manage to grow to such sizes? Some experts believed that they grew slowly throughout their lives, others that they grew rapidly in their youth, and then the rate of increase in size slowed down, as in birds and mammals. that all these creatures were between two and 28 years old at the time of death. Animals grew the most in the 14-18th years of their lives, subsequently maintaining the achieved sizes.

Feathered Tyrannosaurus

Ancestors tyrannosaurus were covered with small feathers rather than bare skin. The skeleton of the ancestor, about 130 million years old, is the most ancient representative of the genus of tyrannosaurs, and is still the only one whose “feathering” is beyond doubt among paleontologists. It was about one and a half meters from the nose to the tip of the tail. However, it walked on its hind legs and was a formidable predator - for smaller herbivorous dinosaurs. The tyrannosaurus itself was unlikely to be covered with feathers - they would have hindered it more than helped it; due to its large size, it was more important for it to give the world around us excess heat to avoid overheating. However, its "chicks" could hatch from eggs covered with some analogue of down, and lose it as they grow older. Slow predators

Most large predator in the world of dinosaurs was probably quite slow.
Tyrannosaur rex could not accelerate to a speed of more than 40 km/h, although many scientists believe that it was capable of running almost twice as fast. Scientists made their conclusions based on a computer model of a six-ton ​​lizard.

What did tyrannosaurs eat?

The size of tyrannosaurs posed problems for these animals - as they became larger, they most likely gradually lost the ability to move quickly. Young small animals could reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour, but as soon as the weight became more than a ton, this became impossible for biomechanical reasons. So if this animal was a predator and not a scavenger, it seems a mystery how it managed to obtain enough food to maintain a gigantic body growth rate. Perhaps the Jurassic ecosystem produced enough carrion that the tyrannosaurs simply did not need to actively hunt. There was plenty of carrion around. It is still unclear whether tyrannosaurs were predators, or fed primarily on carrion?

Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of about 14 m; he lived in Asia, North America; it is the largest carnivorous land animal ever to exist.

Four-winged lizard

A four-winged dinosaur lived in northeast China Microraptor gui. It is assumed that he could make short gliding flights from tree to tree. Measuring only 77 cm from head to tail, it is considered the rarest dinosaur species ever discovered. One of the most valuable finds is the remains of a four-winged carnivorous dinosaur called Microraptor gooi, which was discovered last year in China's Liaoning province. According to scientists, this type of dinosaur is the last missing link in the evolutionary picture of the transformation of lizards into birds.

Powerful bite

The tyrannosaurus did not simply sink its teeth into the body of the victim, as, say, lions do today. He quickly and easily bit through muscles, cartilage and even thick bones to great depths, and then tore large pieces of flesh out of the victim. The ground bones were eaten along with the meat. Tyrannosaurus had a very strong skull and jaw. And the most amazing thing is that the monster also had a whole shock absorption system. In particular, unlike most animals, part of the bones that make up the skull of the tyrannosaurus retained some mobility relative to each other. Connective tissues helped dissipate the impact energy. Of course, this way of feeding the tyrannosaurus was also facilitated by its sharp 15-centimeter teeth.

How did a dinosaur breathe?

What the effective lung capacity of fossils was can be judged by studying the articulations between the spinal column and the ribs of the animal. In their oldest species respiratory system was significantly weaker than, for example, the tyrannosaurus rex and others who lived closer to the end of the Jurassic period. The chest of the latter had a better ability to expand. Early lizards North America were able to absorb forty percent less air per unit of time than the later ones, who lived after the mid-Jurassic period. As for the dinosaurs of South America, a similar development took place much later.

Northern Dinosaur Hunting Strategy
There is an assumption that the “northerners” resorted to “patrolling” large areas, and then pursued their prey over very long distances. This hypothesis is based on studies of the thorax of predators, which allowed the lungs to absorb large volumes of air.

The largest eggs

put off titanosaur. Hypselosaurus priscus, A 12-meter titanosaur that lived about 73-65 million years (according to some sources - 80 million years) ago. Fragments of this dinosaur's egg were found in October 1961 in the Durance River valley, France. It can be assumed that in general its dimensions were 30 cm in length and 25.5 cm in diameter (capacity - 3.3 l). The titanosaur itself weighed about 10 tons.

The biggest egg ever laid by a living creature belongs to the extinct Aepiornis of Madagascar. The egg had a length of 24 cm and a volume of 11 liters.

There were dinosaurs caring parents Unusual fossil remains have been dug up in China from Cretaceous rock layers. This is the skeleton of one adult dinosaur of the species. Psittacosaurus, surrounded by cages of 34 “kids”. Psittacosaurus was a small herbivorous dinosaur that reached the size of a dog. The position of the skeletons suggests that they were all overtaken by sudden death - perhaps the collapse of a hole, perhaps they were covered by a volcanic eruption. The number and density of the location of child remains near an adult is another fact in the treasury of evidence of the prevalence of parental care among dinosaurs.

Long-necked dinosaur hunted from ambush

Dinocephalosaurus orientalis lived 230 million years ago. He swam in the shallow sea that is now southeast China. This swimming dinosaur had an unusually long neck with 25 vertebrae. They also found unusual bone spurs protruding to the side near the neck. The predatory Dinocephalosaurus orientalis may have been one of the first animals to ambush hunt. And he could have arranged it simply in the water. The fact is that due to the turbidity of the water and poor lighting, the huge body of the dinosaur, hidden “somewhere out there,” was not visible to the fish. They might only notice a small head. But the monster also hid her away from the intended victim, and then - with a snake-like throw of her head and flexible neck - she overtook her prey. At the same time, the predator solved the problem of a strong shock wave in the water in a very original way, which overtakes the fish first and frightens it and gives the fish a chance to escape with a sharp, instinctive acceleration. At the moment the dinosaur threw, the neck muscles protruded those same processes, spreading the neck wider. Its volume increased sharply and through the open mouth the monster simply swallowed its own shock wave, falling into a huge long throat along with an unsuspecting victim.

Why did dinosaurs become extinct?

Dinosaurs went extinct approximately 65 million years ago. The reason for their complete disappearance is not yet known. Among the reasons may be the following: 1) the asteroid that fell to Earth threw up such a cloud of dust that it blocked access to the sun's rays, causing mass death of plants and large animals from the cold; 2) the earth warmed up too much, and dinosaurs could not withstand the sharp climate warming; 3) the number of mammals that ate food familiar to dinosaurs began to grow rapidly.

Plesiosaur diet

The fossil remains of two elasmosaurid plesiosaurs found in Queensland (where there was a sea 100-110 million years ago) helped to establish their diet. These plesiosaurs weighed about a ton and reached a length of 5-6 meters. These specimens died shortly after their lunch, and the contents of their stomachs were also well preserved. It turned out there were a lot of snails there, bivalves and crustaceans - inhabitants of the bottom - their broken and undigested shells and shells. Interestingly, the teeth of the plesiosaur were not adapted for grinding hard shells and snail "houses". Gastrolith stones were found in its stomach, which helped the animal cope with the shells.

The first reliably documented discovery of the remains of giant reptiles

... there was a huge jaw with a full set of teeth, discovered in 1770 in a quarry in the Netherlands. The great Georges Cuvier examined this jaw and in 1795 announced that it belonged to some enormous sea ​​lizard. A few years later, Reverend William Conybeare, an expert on marine animals, called the discovered creature a mosasaurus - “the lizard from Mooz” (after the name of the place where the bones were discovered).

An animal the size of a crow

Rahonavis - This crow-sized animal, which lived about 80 million years ago, belongs to the same group of dinosaurs as Velociraptor. True, the creature also has a lot in common with birds. Rahonavis had a retractable sickle-shaped claw on its middle toe, feather cover, and a long, clawed tail similar to Archeopteryx.

Hadrosaurus - the first dinosaur discovered

More than half a century passed, and in 1858, bones, including an almost complete skeleton, of another giant reptile were found in New Jersey, USA. These findings were studied by Joseph Leedy, professor of anatomy. He noticed that the forelimbs of the discovered lizard were significantly shorter than the hind limbs, and concluded that these fossil animals must have walked on their hind legs, like modern kangaroos. This judgment helped to further establish the appearance of such bipedal (i.e. moving on two legs) lizards as iguanodons, megalosaurs, tyrannosaurs and others. The remains, discovered in 1858, are now believed to have belonged to a hadrosaurus, one of the duck-billed dinosaurs.

Ichthyosaur and Megalosaurus from England

In England, at the beginning of the 19th century, Professor William Buckland examined a jawbone with teeth, which his friend, James Parkinson, identified as belonging to a huge lizard called a megalosaurus. A description of this fossil was published in 1824. In 1811, eleven-year-old Mary Anning and her brother Joseph, while collecting shells and fossils for their mother's store in Lima Regis in southern England, found a 5-meter skull of a giant sea reptile, later named an ichthyosaur.

First discovery of iguanodon

Around 1818, country doctor Gideon Mantel and his wife Mary were collecting fossil bones and teeth from a quarry in Sussex. The most interesting were the finds of leaf-shaped teeth, reminiscent of the teeth of the modern iguana lizard. Hence the name iguanodon, which was given to this animal in 1825.

Who coined the word "dinosaur"

The word dinosaurs itself appeared around 1841. This name was proposed by paleontologist Richard Owen, who was able to understand that creatures such as Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and the recently discovered Guleosaurus were so different from modern reptiles that they should have been classified as separate group. Owen identified this group as a suborder, which he called the dinosaur suborder. Subsequently, ideas about the classification of reptiles changed, and now giant ancient reptiles are no longer considered a single systematic group. Nevertheless, the word “dinosaurs”, which has gained wide popularity, still serves today as a general name for these extraordinary animals.

Ichthyosaur

The fish lizard or ichthyosaur, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a body length of 12 m; he lived in the sea.

Iguanodons from Belgium

In 1876, a remarkable discovery was made in a coal mine near the village of Bernissart in Belgium - a whole cemetery of iguanodons was found: 39 skeletons, many of which were complete! These remains were prepared and then mounted in the Brussels Museum in a two-legged position.

The most mysterious dinosaur of the Cambrian period

...was found in Canada a hundred years ago. This is a hallucinogenia (Gallucinogenia - a genus of marine lobopods), which lived on the bottom of an ancient lake approximately 500 million years ago. Hallucinogenia probably had male and female form. The larger and more stable form was “a rigid body with a strong neck and a spherical head.” The smaller form was slimmer, with an articulated torso and thin neck, topped by a small head with two fang-like projections, two horns, and possibly a pair of eyes. Both forms possessed seven pairs of hard vertebral processes and seven pairs of long, thin, flexible legs with a large claw, typical of modern caterpillar-like invertebrates. Hallucinogenia is the ancestor of some of the most viable families of the modern animal world - arthropods, that is, insects, spiders and crabs. Far from being a “dead end of the universe,” hallucinogeny and its contemporaries had features that can be considered inherited by some organisms living quite successfully today. Other dinosaur monsters include Vivaxia, a scaly creature with a ring of growths on its back, and Anomalocaris, a fearsome squid-like predator.

The Great American Dinosaur Hunt

In the second half of the 19th century. The most remarkable discoveries of dinosaurs were made in North America, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Two paleontological explorers, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drickner Cope, independently sent expeditions to this area and paid prospectors for interesting fossil remains. As a result of their search, dubbed the “Great American Dinosaur Hunt,” XIX century 136 new species of ancient dinosaurs were discovered.

Cradle of Dinosaurs - Canada

Canada became the main place for searching for dinosaur remains at the beginning of this century. Barnum Brown, a professional “dinosaur hunter” who worked for the American Museum of Natural History and discovered fragments of several tyrannosaurus rex skeletons at Montath, began excavations in the Red Deep River region of Alberta. There he discovered fragments of the skeletons of duck-billed dinosaurs. And the Canadian researcher Charles Shterenberg and his sons managed to discover there a large number of remains of not only duck-billed, but also predatory, armored and horned dinosaurs.

Brachiosaurus and Centasaurus from Tanzania

In 1909, an expedition from the Berlin Museum discovered the skeletons of a brachiosaurus and a centasaurus in Tanzania.

A new species of dinosaur called Buitreraptor gonzalezorum fossils discovered in northwestern Patagonia. This predator, very similar to a bird, was not a bird. The dinosaur, approximately the size of a rooster, hunted snakes and lizards, as well as small mammals. He had long tail and forelimbs similar to wings, however, “equipped” with powerful claws. Its elongated muzzle resembles a beak, but it had sharp teeth, indicating a “meat” diet. Beautriraptor, like its closest relative Velociraptor, belongs to the class of dromaeosaurs - bird-like dinosaurs that run on two legs.

Oviraptors and Velociraptors from the Gobi Desert

In 1923 in Central Asia(Gobi Desert) the remains of protoceratops were discovered - amazing herbivorous lizards with a powerful bony collar on the skull, small predatory oviraptors, reminiscent in appearance of small ostriches with a long (up to 1.5-2 m) tail and a horn-like outgrowth on the nose, and velociraptors, medium-sized predatory dinosaurs. In addition, dinosaur eggs were found for the first time in the world in the Flaming Rocks area. Later, using a similar egg with a well-preserved embryo, it was determined that it belonged to the predatory oviraptors.

Baryonyx - a new type of dinosaur

In 1983, a complete skeleton of Baryonyx was excavated in Surrey (England), the structure of which does not correspond to any patterns of the structure of predatory dinosaurs. Its forelimbs were long enough to allow it to walk on all fours. The Baryonyx's muzzle was decorated with a crest. In addition, it had very long jaws, armed with a huge number of teeth - twice as many as other predatory dinosaurs. The elongated limbs of the dinosaur were equipped with huge curved claws, with the help of which Baryonyx caught fish. Later, its relationship with the spinosaurus Spinosaurus from Egypt and Morocco was established. They were the predecessors of crocodiles. The length of Baryonyx was about 9.5 m. He lived 125 years ago.

Bones of ancient lizards have been discovered on all continents

In China, where dinosaur research began only in the 40s. our century, so many dinosaur skeletons were found that they made up a quarter of all currently known finds, and a huge number of eggs of ancient lizards were also found there. Moreover, Chinese dinosaurs turned out to be very similar to their counterparts discovered in North America. This suggested that during the Mesozoic there were very similar environmental conditions throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Currently, work to search for fossil remains continues, but organizing international expeditions is becoming increasingly difficult. There are funding and supply difficulties all over the world, not to mention all sorts of political turmoil.

Of all the dinosaur species, sauropods and ornithopods are the most commonly found remains in Asia. The lizard called Chuanjiesaurus anaensis, which was discovered in 1995 in the Chuanze region, is the largest sauropod living in Asia and at the same time the oldest sauropod in the world.

For dinosaur excavations - prison

Many interesting dinosaur cemeteries are located in remote and remote places, in countries whose authorities are suspicious of international groups showing interest in their domains. Thus, the participants of one international expedition spent Christmas 1977 behind bars in a Nigerian prison because the authorities of that country misunderstood the goals of the researchers. However, amazing discoveries still occur.

A meteorite crash led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

According to today's theory, after the fall of a meteorite with a diameter of 10 km, something similar to a “nuclear” winter began on Earth. At the same time, the temperature dropped throughout the world by an average of 7-12°C. According to new data, the maximum difference could be only 7°C.

The shield has not changed for 200 million years

The common shieldfish, which lives in clean puddles of ecologically safe regions of our country, according to external signs as two peas in a pod as it is to its distant ancestors who lived about 200 million years ago.

Does a plesiosaur live in Loch Ness?

Unknown.

Do pterodactyls live in Congo?
It is not clear yet.

Here's what: » The largest and smallest dinosaurs. Otherwise, you can get confused in this topic. It is advisable to consider sauropods and theropods (carnosaurs) separately. Well, if anyone else interesting comes along)"

Let's understand this issue of the long-standing history of our mother Earth.

But the task turns out to be not an easy one! Firstly, how to evaluate the largest dinosaur? By height? By weight? By length? And there are so many reservations that this or that type has not been particularly proven. And by the way, many discovered dinosaurs have almost the same estimated sizes. Well, okay, let me offer several versions on this topic, and then you decide for yourself who can be considered the largest or the smallest.

“Terrible lizard” is how the word “Dinosaur” is translated from ancient Greek. These terrestrial vertebrates inhabited the Earth in Mesozoic era for more than 160 million years. The first dinosaurs appeared in the late Triassic period(251 million years ago - 199 million years ago), approximately 230 million years ago, and their extinction began at the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million years ago - 65 million years ago), about 65 million years ago.

The dinosaur remains, found back in 1877 in Colorado, are still considered to be the bones of the largest dinosaur - Amphicelia. Amphicelia(lat. Amphicoelias from Greek amphi"on both sides" and coelos"empty, concave") - a genus of herbivorous dinosaurs from the group of sauropods.

Paleontologist Edward Cope, who back in 1878 published an article on amphicelia, drew his conclusions from a single fragment of a vertebra (destroyed shortly after cleaning and not preserved to this day - only a drawing has survived), so the size and even the very existence of this dinosaur is in doubt. If Amphicelias is nevertheless described correctly, then its length, according to calculations, was from 40 to 62 meters, and weight - up to 155 tons . Then it seems to be not only the largest dinosaur ever, but also the largest known animal. Amphicelias is almost twice as long as the blue whale and 10 meters longer than Seismosaurus, which is in second place. Then the maximum size of animals will be at the level of amphicelias - 62 m in length. However, it has been suggested that more massive dinosaurs existed (for example, Bruchatkaiosaurus, which lived in the Cretaceous period.

Bruhathkayosaurus (lat. Bruhathkayosaurus) is one of the largest sauropods. By different versions,weighed 180 or 220 tons (according to other hypotheses - 240 tons) . Apparently, Bruchatkaiosaurus is the heaviest animal that has ever lived (second place is 200-ton blue whale, on the third - 155-ton amphicelias). The genus contains a single species found in southern India (Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu). Age - about 70 million years (Cretaceous period). There is no single estimate of the length of this dinosaur; different scientists determine its length from 28-34 meters to 40-44 meters.

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However, do not rush to believe the assumptions just yet. Due to the small number of bones, this has not yet been proven. Only scientists' guesses and a wide range of estimates. We will wait for new excavations - after all, we rely only on facts. And if you rely only on the facts, then this is what they say.

Although paleontologists claim that they have found a larger Saurus, the size of Argentinosaurus is supported by compelling evidence. Argentinosaurus's vertebrae alone are over four feet thick! It had a hind limb length of about 4.5 m, and a length from shoulder to hip. 7 m. If we add to the obtained results the length of the neck and tail, corresponding to the proportions of previously known titanosaurs, then the total length of the Argentinosaurus will be 30 m. However, this does not make it the longest dinosaur. The longest is considered to be the Seismosaurus, whose length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail is estimated at 40 m, and the mass is from 40 to 80 tons, but, according to all calculations, the Argentinosaurus is the heaviest. Its weight could reach 100 tons!

In addition, Argentinosaurus is undeniably . the largest lizard about which good paleontological material has been collected. This giant was dug up in 1980 by two paleontologists, Rodolfo Coria and Jose Bonaparte from the Natural History Museum in Buenos Aires. According to these researchers, Argentinosaurus belongs to the titanosaurs (a suborder of sauropods of the saurischian dinosaur order), which were widespread in the south of the American continent in the Cretaceous period.

Argentinosaurus bone

Comparing the found bones with the already known remains of sauropods, scientists calculated that the unearthed monster had a hind limb length of about 4.5 m, and a length from shoulder to hip. 7 m. If we add to the obtained results the length of the neck and tail, corresponding to the proportions of previously known titanosaurs, then the total length of Argentinosaurus will be 30 m. This is not the longest dinosaur (the longest is Seismosaurus, whose length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail is estimated at 40 m , and weight - from 40 to 80 tons), but, according to all calculations, the heaviest. Its weight could reach 100 tons.

Sauroposeidon ( Sauroposeidon ) named after Poseidon, the Greek god of the ocean. In size, it competed with Argentinosaurus, and perhaps could have surpassed it, but its weight was much less, according to paleontologists, it weighed no more than 65 tons, while Argentinosaurus could weigh up to one hundred tons. But, Sauroposeidon could be the tallest dinosaur that ever roamed the earth, and what is it, the tallest creature on the planet in general! Its height could reach almost 18-20 meters

His physique meant that he had to consume about a ton of vegetation every day, an almost endless job. To accomplish this feat, the dinosaur had 52 chisel-shaped teeth that cut down plants in one fell swoop. He didn’t even bother chewing his food, swallowing tasty vegetation, which immediately ended up in a 1-ton stomach, the size of a swimming pool. Then his gastric juice, which had incredible power and could even dissolve iron, did the rest of the work. The dinosaur also ingested rocks, which helped it digest fiber.

It’s good that the dinosaur’s digestive system worked so well, because with a lifespan of 100 years (one of the longest in the dinosaur kingdom) and in the absence of such a metabolism, it would have aged very quickly.

We all discussed the so-called sauropods (sauropods), but which of the predators is the largest dinosaur?

You probably thought that Tyrannosaurus Rex would be in this category. However, it is now believed that Spinosaurus was the largest predatory dinosaur. Its mouth looked like the mouth of a crocodile, and the growth on its back resembled a huge sail. The sail made the appearance of this theropod even more majestic. The leathery “sail” reached a height of 2 meters. The predator itself was more than 17 meters long and weighed 4 tons. It walked on its hind limbs like other therapods. It could be over 20 feet tall. Read more about the dinosaur

Spinosaurus had a leathery “sail” stretched over the axial processes of the vertebrae, reaching a height of 2 meters. The predator itself was more than 17 meters long and weighed 4 tons. It walked on its hind limbs like other therapods.

Spinosaurus hunted alone, lying in wait for its prey. At the same time, he relied on his giant size and the strength of the jaws, elongated like a pliosaur and armed with sharp conical teeth. This predator fed mainly big fish, but could easily attack even a sauropod dinosaur of its own size. By sinking its teeth into the neck of the sauropod, the spinosaurus would bite the throat, which led to the rapid death of the victim. It could also attack crocodiles, pterosaurs and freshwater sharks.

In the middle of the day, Spinosaurus could turn its back to the sun. In this position, the “sail” was facing the direct rays of the sun with its edge and did not absorb heat, so the Spinosaurus, which, like all reptiles, was cold-blooded, avoided the risk of overheating. If he suddenly became too hot, he could dive into the nearest lake or river and dip his “sail” in the water to cool it down. Early morning temperatures, even in the warm climate of the Cretaceous period, were probably not as high as during the day. It is possible that at dawn the Spinosaurus was even chilly. Then he could stand so that the “sail” would fall onto the plane sun rays, as shown in the illustration. There is another theory according to which it is believed that the “sail” in mating season could serve as a means of attracting females.

Apparently, Spinosaurus was one of the most ferocious predators of the Late Cretaceous period. The length of its body from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail was about 15 m - more than the length of a modern bus. In the illustration you can see a row of spines on the spine, the longest of which reached 1.8 m. These spines served as the basis for the “sail” of Spinosaurus. The longest spines were located in the center; each spine in the middle was thinner than at the upper end. The massive body of the Spinosaurus was supported by two powerful column-like legs, and its feet ended in three sharp claws. In addition, there was an additional weak toe on each foot. The huge claws on the feet of the Spinosaurus could have been useful for holding down prey trying to escape. The upper limbs of Spinosaurus were short, but also very strong. The skull structure of Spinosaurus was similar to that of other carnivorous dinosaurs; his characteristic feature there were straight teeth, sharp as meat knives, which could easily pierce even the thickest skin. The tail of the Spinosaurus was long, wide and very strong. Scientists suggest that in some cases, Spinosaurus could knock down prey by striking it with a series of powerful blows with its tail.

Here are some other predators that can be mentioned that could compete with the largest dinosaur. And again this is not a Tyrannosaurus rex :-)

Tarbosaurus, a genus of extinct giant predatory dinosaurs (superfamily Carnosaurus). Large terrestrial predators - body length is usually over 10 m, height in a bipedal pose is about 3.5 m. The skull is huge (more than 1 m), massive, powerful dagger-shaped teeth, designed for attacking very large animals (mainly herbivorous dinosaurs). The forelimbs of T. are reduced and had only 2 full fingers, the hind limbs are highly developed, forming, together with the powerful tail, a supporting tripod for the body. Skeletons of T. were found in the Upper Cretaceous deposits of the South Gobi (MPR).

Lit.: Maleev E. A., Giant carnosaurs of the family Tyrannosauridae, in the book: Fauna and biostratigraphy of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Mongolia, M., 1974, p. 132-91

The Asian Tarbosaurus (Tarbosaurus bataar) was a close relative of the North American carnivorous dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous period. Tarbosaurus is a robber lizard. From the tip of the muzzle to the tip of the tail - about ten meters. The largest of them is more than 14 m long and 6 m high. Head size - more than a meter in length. The teeth were sharp, dagger-shaped. All this allowed the Tarbosaurus to cope even with those opponents whose bodies were protected by bone armor.

With its height and appearance, it strongly resembled tyrannosaurs. It also walked on strong hind legs, using its tail to maintain balance. The forelimbs were greatly reduced, two-fingered, and apparently served only for holding food.

Among the first dinosaur finds in England was a fragment of a lower jaw with several teeth. Apparently, it belonged to a huge predatory lizard, which was later dubbed

Megalosaurus (giant lizard). Since no other parts of the body could be found, it was impossible to get an accurate idea of ​​the body shape and size of the animal. It was believed that the lizard walked on four legs. Over the years, many other fossilized remains have been excavated, but a complete skeleton has never been discovered. Only after making a comparison with other predatory dinosaurs (carnosaurs), the researchers came to the conclusion that Megalosaurus also ran on its hind legs, its length reached 9 meters and it weighed a ton. It was possible to reconstruct the Allosaurus (another lizard) with greater accuracy. More than 60 of his skeletons have been found in America. different sizes. The largest allosaurs reached a length of 11-12 meters and weighed from 1 to 2 tons. Their prey, of course, included giant herbivorous dinosaurs, which is confirmed by the found piece of an Apatosaurus tail with deep bite marks and knocked out Allosaurus teeth.

Even larger, in all likelihood, were two species that lived 80 million years later in the Cretaceous period, namely the tyrannosaurus (tyrant lizard) from North America and the tarbosaurus (terrifying lizard) from Mongolia. Although the skeletons are not completely preserved (most often the tail is missing), it is assumed that their length reached 14-15 meters, height 6 meters, and body weight reached 5-6 tons. The heads were also impressive: the Tarbosaurus skull was 1.45 meters long, and the largest Tyrannosaurus skull was 1.37 meters long. The dagger-shaped teeth, protruding 15 cm, were so powerful that they could hold an actively resisting animal. But it is still unknown whether these giants could really pursue prey or were too massive for this. Perhaps they ate carrion or the remains of their prey for more than small predators, which it was not difficult for them to drive away. The dinosaur's forelimbs were surprisingly short and weak, with only two fingers. And a huge finger with a claw 80 cm long was discovered in a Tercinosaurus (sickle-shaped lizard). But whether this finger was the only one and what size the entire animal reached is unknown. The 12-meter Spinosaurus (spiny lizard) also looked impressive. Along his back, his skin was stretched in the form of a sail 1.8 meters high. Perhaps this served him to scare away rivals and competitors, or perhaps it served as a heat exchanger between the body and the environment.

Who was the giant "terrible hand"? Until now, we are not able to imagine what a giant predatory dinosaur looked like, from which, unfortunately, only the bones of the front and hind limbs have so far been found during excavations in Mongolia. But the length of the forelimbs alone was two and a half meters, that is, approximately equal to the length of the entire Deinonychus or four times the length of its forelimbs. Each hand had three huge claws, with which it was possible to stab and tear even very large prey. Amazed by this discovery, Polish researchers gave this dinosaur the name Deinocheirus, which means “terrible hand.”

If we take for comparison the size of the ostrich dinosaur, which has a similar structure of the forelimbs, but is four times smaller in length, then we can assume that Deinocheirus was one and a half times larger than the tyrannosaurus! Dinosaur lovers and researchers around the world are eagerly awaiting new discoveries of bones and clarification of the mystery of the giant “terrible hand.”

Tarbosaurs, the remains of which were found in the southern part of the Gobi Desert, are large carnivorous dinosaurs. The total length of their body reached 10 and height - 3.5 meters. They hunted large herbivorous dinosaurs. Tarbosaurs were distinguished by the impressive size of the skull - in adult individuals it exceeded 1 meter.

According to experts, the dinosaur, whose skull the detained man wanted to sell, lived on our planet 50-60 million years ago.

Every year, Mongolian paleontologists and international expeditions find more and more remains of tarbosaurs in the South Gobi.

Since the early 1990s, such unique exhibits began to actively fall into private hands. According to Mongolian law enforcement agencies, a network of smugglers engaged in such fishing operates illegally. For recent years Customs officers and police stopped several attempts to export fossilized eggs and parts of dinosaur skeletons abroad.

So, which of the record holders do we have in the rank of sea dinosaurs?

The crown of weight and size in the pliosaur family belongs to Lioplevodon. It had four powerful flippers (up to 3 m long) and a short, laterally compressed tail. The teeth are huge, up to 30 cm long (possibly up to 47 cm!), round in cross section. It reached a length of 15 to 18 meters. The length of these reptiles reached 15 meters. Liopleurodons ate large fish, ammonites, and also attacked other marine reptiles. They were the dominant predators of the Late Jurassic seas. Read more about the dinosaur

Described by G. Savage in 1873 from a single tooth from the Late Jurassic layers of the Boulogne-sur-Mer region (Northern France). The skeleton was discovered at the end of the 19th century in Peterborough, England. At one time, the genus Liopleurodon was combined with the genus Pliosaurus. Liopleurodon has a shorter lower jaw symphysis and fewer teeth than Pliosaurus. Both genera form the family Pliosauridae.

Liopleurodon ferox is the type species. The total length reached 25 meters. The length of the skull is 4 meters. Lived in bodies of water northern europe(England, France) and South America (Mexico). Liopleurodon pachydeirus (Callovey of Europe), distinguished by the shape of the cervical vertebrae. Liopleurodon rossicus (aka Pliosaurus rossicus). Described from an almost complete skull from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian era) of the Volga region. The length of the skull is about 1 - 1.2 m. A fragment of the rostrum of a giant pliosaur from the same deposits may belong to the same species. In this case, the Russian Liopleurodon was not inferior European species. The remains are on display at the Paleontological Museum in Moscow. Liopleurodon macromerus (aka Pliosaurus macromerus, Stretosaurus macromerus). Kimmeridge - Tithonium of Europe and South America. A very large species, the length of the skull reached 3 meters, the total length should be from 15 to 20 meters.

Liopleurodons were typical pliosaurs - with a large narrow head (at least 1/4 - 1/5 of the total length), four powerful flippers (up to 3 m long) and a short, laterally compressed tail. The teeth are huge, up to 30 cm long (possibly up to 47 cm!), round in cross section. At the tips of the jaws, the teeth form a kind of “rosette”. The external nostrils were not used for breathing - when swimming, water entered the internal nostrils (located in front of the external ones) and exited through the external nostrils. The flow of water passed through Jacobson's organ and thus Liopleurodon “sniffed” the water. This creature breathed through its mouth when it surfaced. Liopleurodons could dive deeply and for a long time. They swam with the help of huge flippers, which they flapped like birds' wings. Liopleurodons had good protection - they had strong bone plates under their skin. Like all pliosaurs, Liopleurodons were viviparous.

In 2003, remains of the species Liopleurodon ferox were discovered in Late Jurassic marine sediments in Mexico. It reached a length of 15 to 18 meters. It was a young individual. On its bones were found marks from the teeth of another Liopleurodon. Judging by these injuries, the attacker could have been more than 20 meters in length, as his teeth were 7 cm in diameter and more than 40 cm in length. In 2007, the remains of very large pliosaurs of an unknown species were discovered in the Jurassic sediments of the polar archipelago of Spitsbergen. The length of these reptiles reached 15 meters. Liopleurodons ate large fish, ammonites, and also attacked other marine reptiles. They were the dominant predators of the Late Jurassic seas.

Well, that’s probably all with the biggest ones, choose which one you like best for the pedestal :-) And now about the smallest ones...

In 2008, Scientists discovered the skull of one of the smallest dinosaurs that lived on Earth. This find may help answer the question of why some dinosaurs became herbivores.

The skull, less than 2 inches long, belonged to a baby Heterodontosaurus that lived about 190 million years ago and measured 6 inches tall and 18 inches from the head. to the tip of the tail.

But in to a greater extent It was not the size of the animal that intrigued scientists, but its teeth. Experts are divided on whether the heterodontosaurus ate meat or plants. The mini-dinosaur, whose weight, according to The Telegraph, is comparable to mobile phone, there are both front fangs and teeth typical of herbivores for grinding plant food. There was an assumption that adult males had fangs, who used them to fight competitors for territory, but the presence of them in the cub refuted this theory. Most likely, such fangs were required for protection from predators.

Now the scientists who discovered the animal have a theory that the heterodontosaurus was in the process of an evolutionary transition from a carnivore to a herbivore. It was probably an omnivore, eating mainly plants, but varied its diet with insects, small mammals or reptiles.

Laura Porro, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago (USA), suggested that all dinosaurs were originally carnivores: “Because Heterodontosaurus is one of the earliest dinosaurs to adapt to plants, it may represent a phase of transition from carnivorous ancestors to fully herbivorous descendants. Its skull indicates that all dinosaurs of this species survived such a transition."

Fossils of Heterodontosaurus are incredibly rare, with only two known finds so far. South Africa belonging to adult individuals.

Laura Porro found part of a fossilized baby skull with two adult fossils during excavations in Cape Town in the 60s. Dr Richard Butler, a specialist at the Natural History Museum in London, described the find as extremely important as it provides insight into how the animal changed as it grew. Interestingly, most reptiles change their teeth throughout their lives, while Heterodontosaurus only did this during maturation, like mammals.

Another small one:

But in 2011, the discovery of a new fossil could indicate the existence of the world's smallest species of all known dinosaurs. The feathered bird-like creature, which lived more than 100 million years ago, measured no more than 15.7 inches (40 centimeters) in length.

The fossil, a small neck bone discovered in southern Britain, measured just a quarter of an inch (7.1 millimeters) in length. It belonged to an adult dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period 145-100 million years ago, University of Portsmouth paleozoologist Darren Naish reports in the current issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.

The discovery should place another bird-like dinosaur, so far named Anchiornis, among the world's smallest dinosaurs, which lived in what is now China 160-155 million years ago. The newly found bone belongs to a member of the maniraptoran, a group of theropod dinosaurs believed to be the ancient ancestors of modern birds.

Having a fossil with only one vertebra, it is difficult to guess exactly what it ate. small dinosaur or even how big he actually was.

The vertebra lacks a neurocentral suture, a rough, open line of bone that does not close until the dinosaur is an adult, Naish and his University of Portsmouth colleague Steven Sweetmen reported. This means that the dinosaur died as an adult animal.

But calculating the estimated length of a dinosaur from one bone was a rather tricky task. The researchers used two methods to determine how big maniraptoran was. The first method involved building a digital model of the dinosaur's neck, and then scientists superimposed that neck onto the silhouette. typical representative maniraptoran.

The technique is more art than science, Naish wrote on his blog, Tetrapod Zoology, predicting that it was bound to infuriate some researchers. A little more mathematical method, used to calculate the neck and torso ratios of other related dinosaurs, was applied to determine the new length of maniraptoran. Both methods resulted in the following figures - about 13-15.7 inches (33-50 centimeters), Naish noted.

The new dinosaur does not yet have official name and dubbed the Ashdown maniraptorian after the area where it was discovered. If Ashdown dino turns out to be the smallest dinosaur on record, it will break the record for the smallest known dinosaur in North America at about 6 inches (15 cm). This dinosaur, Hesperonychus elizabethae, was a velociraptor carnivore with a hideous, twisted toe claw. He was about a foot and a half (50 cm) tall and weighed about 4 pounds (2 kilograms).

In the 1970s In the Upper Triassic sediments of Newfoundland (Canada), a small footprint was discovered left by someone, no larger in size than a thrush. The structure of the fingers is typical of carnivorous dinosaurs of that time. This print belongs to the smallest dinosaur ever found on Earth. However, it is still not known what age the individual that left the mark could have been - an adult or a cub.

sources

http://dinopedia.ru/

http://dinosaurs.afly.ru/

http://dinohistory.ru/

http://www.zooeco.com/

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