W B Dinosaurs seized everyone’s imagination, but how much do people know about them? Were they actually huge carnivores? Did they all look like reptiles? Time to find out!
#1 They had feathers
As you may already know, dinosaurs were the ancestors of modern-day birds, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of them had feathers. In fact, the fierce Velociraptor was covered in feathers, which made them look more like a large bird than the iconic reptile you see in movies. According to some fossil discoveries in Siberia, scientists conclude that all dinosaurs probably had feathers, although the areas covered by plumage depended on their size. The bigger the dinosaurs, the fewer feathers they had. The most solid theory about the origin of feathers in dinosaurs is that these were used as thermal insulation, thus avoiding attracting heat to their body. Also, due to the evidence, there’s even a theory that these feathers were colorful and increased the chances of reproductive success.
#2 Fleas the size of cockroaches
You actually didn’t expect animals like dinosaurs to be free of fleas, did you? Most surprising of all is that these were giant. (CLIP) Compared to today’s fleas, these parasitic insects, called Pseudopulex, were between 0.55 and 0.81 inches long in the case of females and between 0.31 and 0.57 inches long in the case of males. They were so big that you could have picked them up with your hands. These prehistoric flea specimens were discovered in China and date back to 165 to 125 million years ago, meaning they lived with dinosaurs. Just like current fleas, it’s a wingless insect, though with way longer legs than modern fleas and a single, long blood-sucking tube. Scientists suggest that due to those physical features, these insects used animals covered in hair or feathers as their hosts, and you know there were quite a few dinosaurs with said characteristics.
#3 Most of them were herbivores
Even though the movie Jurassic Park depicted the Jurassic period as an endless jungle, full of ravenous predators everywhere you go, (CLIP) most dinosaurs were herbivores. It’s even known that all dinosaurs that walked on four legs were herbivores. What’s more, carnivorous and iconic dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor were an exception to the rule as scientists studied the diet of 90 species of theropods, those that walked on two legs, and found that the vast majority of them also preferred to eat plants and grass. A theory behind this is that theropods developed an omnivorous diet that helped them exploit new habitats as the continents broke apart, and those who developed a taste for plants lost their teeth as their necks grew. On the other hand, researchers are still not sure what led these dinosaurs to become birds, although they theorize that perhaps it was due to the need to reach food that was in the trees.
#4 How did they mate?
Dinosaurs spread all over Earth and although it’s obvious that a female and a male were needed for this, scientists are still not sure how they reproduced. Many dinosaurs were so gigantic that researchers have wondered, how could females have supported the weight of the male during the act of reproduction? Regarding this, scientists state that said process is the same as any species, the male would have deposited sperm inside the female, the question was, how? The most widely accepted theory is that when the male mounted the female, he put his front legs on the female’s shoulders and one of the hind legs on the back, then moved the tail to reach the female’s genitalia. Many paleontologists support this theory stating that dinosaurs had a hole called cloaca which they used for defecation and also served them to mate. Unfortunately, no dinosaurs have been found fossilized in any breeding position. Hence why researchers have had to rely on the reproduction studies of reptiles and birds, the modern descendants of dinosaurs, but there’s still no clear answer. What do you think? If you know the answer, please let me know in the comments.
#5 Were they warm-blooded?
Dinosaurs were giant reptiles, but the idea that they were cold-blooded is a fact that many took for granted. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, as new studies have cast doubt on that belief. Major analysis on dinosaur bones revealed that they had the so-called Harries lines, which today’s cold-blooded animals have, but new studies have shown that current mammals around the world feature these as well. Remember that soft tissues such as the skin aren’t preserved, so much of what’s known about dinosaurs is due to the study of their fossils and comparisons with other animals. So far, only modern-day reptile fossils that had these lines had been studied. Many researchers considered this position too simplistic since no one had ever been interested in investigating mammalian bones. Once the results showed that warm-blooded mammals also had these lines, the idea that dinosaurs were cold-blooded was long gone.
#6 Dinosaurs lived with mammals
If you think that mammals appeared long after the dinosaurs, back in the ice age, you’re wrong, they already co-existed. About 150 million years ago, dinosaurs ruled over Earth, there’s no doubt; however, in rivers and small tunnels, mammals were on top. Actually, recent discoveries revealed that early mammals were very diverse and had a variety of traits quite different from dinosaurs like climbing, gliding, burrowing, the ability to produce breast milk, and excellent senses. Once dinosaurs started to disappear, mammals evolved, grew bigger, as they used to be the size of rats, and diversified, creating a new biological variety on Earth.
#7 They didn't live just in the jungle
Almost all films and documentaries about dinosaurs show them in a jungle where they coexist feeding on the ecosystem and each other, but it wasn’t always the case. Dinosaurs inhabited an array of diverse ecosystems, including not only dense forests but also desert and even arctic regions. In the Jurassic period, Australia wasn’t a country of paradisiacal beaches, at that time, it was pretty close to Antarctica and covered in snow. Under the cold weather and with sunlight for only 6 months a year, several dinosaurs succeeded in adapting to these conditions, these are known as polar dinosaurs. Furthermore, just as today, deserts back then offered little chance for a species to survive. But even so, feathered dinosaurs like the Oviraptor and even the Velociraptor ran through deserts in search of food or prey.
#8 Not all dinosaurs were dinosaurs
That was amazing, you probably thought it was the coolest dinosaur in Jurassic World, but the truth is that this animal was a Mosasaurus, and it wasn’t a dinosaur. Moreover, many of what people consider to be dinosaurs aren’t actually dinosaurs, they’re just huge prehistoric lizards. These also include the pterosaurs, ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and dimetrodon, all of which are quite famous, but none are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs have an upright stance, with legs perpendicular to their body, which is the main feature that sets dinosaurs apart from other large reptiles. This allowed them to use less energy to move, unlike others that had a sprawling stance like modern lizards. That ability contributed to their dominance on Earth.
#9 Spinosaurus, the only known aquatic dinosaur
As mentioned earlier, many giant aquatic reptiles weren’t actually dinosaurs, so technically, there were no aquatic dinosaurs. Of course, that was until the Spinosaurus appeared on stage, which was one of the largest carnivores in history at 50 feet long. Besides, this massive animal could hunt both on land as well as in water, and its tail is the most extreme aquatic adaptation ever seen in a large dinosaur. That’s because the bones on its tail were biologically designed to propel itself through water as if it were a boat. New evidence proved that the Spinosaurus was able to move with agility and hunt like a modern crocodile. There’s no doubt that the Spinosaurus was the king of aquatic predators in the dinosaur category.
#10 Their days were already numbered
I bet you also believed that dinosaurs were comfortably ruling over Earth until the giant asteroid spoiled the party and drove them to extinction. Well, let me tell you it isn’t completely true, in fact, dinosaurs were already dying off about 50 million years before the mass extinction. After a thorough statistical study on different dinosaur fossils, researchers found that dinosaurs from three main sub-clades, Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, and Theropoda, reached a deadly tipping point about 90 million years ago. That’s when they began going extinct at a higher than the species being spawned, in other words, there were more dinosaurs dying than those being born. There are many theories regarding this, such as that the land was under intense volcanic activity or that sea levels fluctuated greatly due to the separation of the only two continents on Earth. While the asteroid wasn’t the only reason for the extinction of dinosaurs, it could certainly have been the final blow.
I hope you’ve gotten to know the incredible dinosaurs better with this video, which fact did you find the most shocking, tell me in the comments. Don’t forget to share!
