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ShareDinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago.
At the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, a catastrophic extinction event ended the dominance of dinosaurs on land.
One group of dinosaurs is known to have survived to the present day: taxonomists believe modern birds are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs. Since the first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the early nineteenth century, mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world.
Dinosaurs have become a part of world culture and remain consistently popular among children and adults.
They have been featured in best-selling books and films, and new discoveries are regularly covered by the media. The term dinosaur is sometimes used informally to describe other prehistoric reptiles, such as the pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the winged pterosaurs, and the aquatic ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, although none of these were dinosaurs.
For more information about the topic Dinosaur, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Paralititan — Paralititan stromeri was a giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt. ... > read more
Brachiosaurus — The Brachiosaurus is a famous dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period. One of the largest ever dinosaurs to walk the earth, it has become a ... > read more
Stegosaurus — Stegosaurus, meaning "plated lizard", because of the plates on its back was a genus of large herbivorous dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic of North ... > read more
Albertosaurus — Albertosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 ... > read more
Hadrosaurid — Hadrosaurids or duck-billed dinosaurs are members of the superfamily Hadrosauroidea, and include ornithopods such as Edmontosaurus and ... > read more
Feathered dinosaurs — The realization that dinosaurs are closely related to birds raised the obvious possibility that some dinosaurs had feathers. Fossils of Archaeopteryx ... > read more
Triceratops — Triceratops, meaning "three-horned face", because it had three horns was a ceratopsid herbivorous dinosaur genus from the Latest Cretaceous period of ... > read moreRecommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
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