Dinosaurs

The dinosaurs were reptiles that had legs held upright beneath their bodies, rather than sprawling. They walked on either two legs or all fours. Most kinds had long tails, clawed...

Albertosaurus

Albertosaurus was a tyrannosaur, a family of large theropods living in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period. Its massive head measured up to 1 metre (more than 3 feet)...

Allosaurus

Allosaurus was a giant theropod, one of the largest before the appearance of the tyrannosaurs about 70 million years later. It lived in the open woodlands of Jurassic North...

Apatosaurus

Apatosaurus was a huge sauropod that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. It was one of the largest land animals ever to have lived. Its fossils were discovered...

Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx was a bird-like dinosaur that lived in Europe around 150 million years ago. It had features that resembled those of both birds and dinosaurs, leading many...

Baryonyx

Baryonyx was a large Early Cretaceous theropod from Europe. Its skull was long and narrow like a crocodile’s, with jaws lined with narrow, pointed and finely serrated teeth...

Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus was a huge sauropod that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic Period. Like all sauropods, it had a long, flexible neck, but a relatively short tail. It...

Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus was a large theropod that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It is known from a single fossil, an almost complete skeleton, that was found in...

Coelophysis

Coelophysis was a theropod from Triassic North America. It had a narrow head, shaped like a stork’s, with a long curved neck. Its body was slim and compact, with long legs and...

Compsognathus

Compognathus was a small, bird-like theropod, about the size of a turkey, but with a slender body, a long, thin tail and a long, flexible neck. It was a native of European islands...

Deinocheirus

Deinocheirus was an ornithomimosaur that lived in Mongolia around 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. Other ornithomimosaurs, such as the ostrich-like...

Deinonychus

Deinonychus was a ferocious theropod from Early Cretaceous North America. It had long hindlimbs with a large, scythe-shaped claw on second toe of each foot. Its muscular arms had...

Diplodocus

Diplodocus was an immensely long sauropod that lived in North America during the Jurassic Period. But it was relatively light for its great length, weighing no more than three...

Euoplocephalus and the ankylosaurs

Euoplocephalus was an ankylosaur, an armoured dinosaur, that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It may have wandered alone in search of plants and roots to...

Hypsilophodon

Hypsilophodon was a small, gazelle-like ornithopod that ran on two long, slender legs. It lived during the Early Cretaceous Period in Europe. It had two short forelimbs with five...

Iguanodon

Iguanodon was a large ornithopod that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period. The ornithopods (the name means "bird feet", after their three-toed feet) were a group of...

Lambeosaurus

Lambeosaurus was a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur, that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It had typical hadrosaur features: its face was elongated into...

Maiasaura

Maisaura was a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur, that lived in North America in the Late Cretaceous Period. It had a flattened snout with a toothless beak and batteries of...

Mamenchisaurus

Mamenchisaurus was a sauropod that lived in East Asia during the Late Jurassic Period. It had typical sauropod features: an enormously long neck—more than half its body...

Microraptor

Microraptor was a tiny, feathered theropod that lived in Asia in the Early Cretaceous Period (125–120 million years ago). Its fossils were discovered in Liaoning province, China...

Ornithischians A-Z

Ornithomimus

A theropod from the Late Cretaceous Period, Ornithomimus was a typical member of the ornithomimid group: the "ostrich dinosaurs". The group also included Struthiomimus, Gallimimus...

Oviraptor

Oviraptor was a small, feathered theropod that lived in Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous Period. It had a parrot-shaped head, a short, toothless beak and extremely powerful...

Pachycephalosaurus

Pachycephalosaurus lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous. Its most distinguishing feature was its smooth, high-domed head made of thick bone with bony knobs around the...

Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur, that lived in North America in the Late Cretaceous Period. Like all duck-bills, its face was elongated into a flattened...

Patagotitan and the titanosaurs

Patagotitan was a titanosaur, a large sauropod dinosaur from Cretaceous South America. Fossilized bones have been found in the desert near La Flecha, Chubut Province, Patagonia...

Plateosaurus

Plateosaurus was a prosauropod that lived during the Triassic Period. Prosauropods were part of a larger group of dinosaurs, called the sauropodomorphs. This group also included...

Sauropods A-Z

Silvisaurus and the nodosaurs

Silvisaurus was a nodosaur, part of the ankylosaur group, the armoured dinosaurs. The name Silvisaurus means “forest reptile”. It lived in North America during the Middle...

Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus was a giant theropod that lived in Africa during the middle part of the Cretaceous Period. The largest of all predatory dinosaurs, it had a long, narrow skull, like a...

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus was a plated dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic Period. It had a bulky body with a high, arched back and pillar-like limbs. Its front legs...

Styracosaurus

Styracosaurus was a ceratopsian, a horned dinosaur, that lived in North America in the Late Cretaceous Period, 76–66 million years ago, possibly living in the same environment as...

Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus was an unusual theropod—one that was probably not carnivorous, but herbivorous—from the Late Cretaceous. It had a small head with a toothless beak. Its long...

Theropods A-Z

Triceratops

Triceratops was a ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period—in fact, right at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It had a massive head...

Tuojiangosaurus

Tuojiangosaurus, a stegosaur, lived in East Asia during the Late Jurassic Period. It had a small, narrow head held low to the ground, a bulky body with an arched back and...

Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrannosaurus rex was a giant theropod that lived in North America in the Late Cretaceous Period, during the very last years of the Age of Dinosaurs. Longer than the width of a...

Velociraptor

Velociraptor was a small, bird-like theropod dinosaur belonging to the dromaeosaur group, which also included Deinonychus. It lived about 75 to 71 million years ago, during the...

Yi qi

Yi was a pigeon-sized dinosaur that lived in China around 159 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period. It is known from a single fossil specimen, whose full scientific...