Facts About Dinosaurs For Kids
- Learning Resources Posted On Jun 8, 2022 | Learn
It’s amazing to think that long before humans walked the Earth, mighty animals roamed the Earth’s surfaces and oceans. The ancient Earth that they lived looked very different to the surface of the Earth we see today.
These roar-some creatures went extinct millions of years ago, but palaeontologists around the world continue to discover their fossilised remains. Each time a new fossil is found, we have the chance to learn more incredible facts about prehistoric Earth and unravel a little more about the mysteries of our planet. Carry on reading to find out some facts about dinosaurs for kids. See how many you know!
Check out other fascinating facts for kids:
Facts about dinosaurs for kids
- What are dinosaurs? Many ancient animals roamed the Earth’s surface millions of years ago, but not all ancient creatures are classified as dinosaurs. Scientists classify animals as dinosaurs if they stood upright, with legs perpendicular to their bodies. In other words, their bodies were positioned on top of their legs.
- Dinosaurs lived on land, and like other reptiles, laid eggs. However, they also had two holes behind their eye sockets, through which string muscles attached their jaws to the tops of their skulls. This gave dinosaurs a super strong bite!
- When did dinosaurs live? Dinosaurs lived during a period of Earth’s history scientists call the Mesozoic Era. This was about between 245 and 66 million years ago. This era is divided into three periods – Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. This was long before humans existed.
- Dinosaurs weren’t the only animals that lived on Earth millions of years ago. Dinosaurs shared the Earth’s surface with animals such as pterosaurs, while ancient creatures called ichthyosaurs lived in the oceans. Just like dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs were reptiles and are distant relatives of lizards and snakes. However, ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs. The largest known ichthyosaur is Shastasaurus sikanniensis. This creature measured up to 21m long.
- How many species of dinosaurs are there? Thanks to evidence from fossils, more than 1,000 species of dinosaurs are known. Some were small (less than 1m in length) while others were colossal and are thought to have measured up to 40m long.
- What is the world’s oldest dinosaur? The world’s oldest dinosaur is believed to be Nyasasaurus parringtoni. Fossils have been found in Tanzania in Africa. When this dinosaur lived during the Triassic period, almost all the world’s continents were joined in a super continent called Pangea. This is why dinosaur fossils have been found on all seven continents.
- The largest land-living dinosaur that ever lived was Argentinosaurus and measured up to 40m long from head to tail, it is through to have weighed in at 70 metric tonnes! Although scientists continue to discover new fossils, so who knows, there may have been another even bigger dinosaur that lived millions of years ago.
- Are birds dinosaurs? Believe it or not, but from the tall ostrich to the tiny hummingbird, the birds that live on Earth today are the descendants of dinosaurs! The big and small feathered friends that share our planet evolved from a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. The ferocious-looking Tyrannosaurus rex was also a theropod.
- What is the longest dinosaur name? The longest dinosaur name is Micropachycephalosaurus which has 23 letters and means ‘small thick-headed lizard’. Despite its long name, these dinosaurs were small, measuring between 0.5-1m long.
- What was the first dinosaur to be discovered? The Megalosaurus was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered. It is a large theropod which is a carnivore that walked on two legs and was discovered in England.
Even more facts about dinosaurs for kids!
Each year palaeontologists discover more about our planet's ancient history, and in this video from the Natural History Museum, you can learn about three new dinosaurs that were discovered in 2022.
Dinosaur crafts & activities for kids
Check out these fun dinosaur crafts and activities for kids:
- Make your own cardboard dinosaur feet with Red Ted Art.
- Make your own dinosaur fossil footprint biscuits with Red Ted Art.
- Print out, colour, cut and make your own triceratops dino crown.
- Colour in and cut out your own roar-some dino mask.
