The Cretaceous Period ran from 143 to 66 million years ago. The world’s land masses divided up into lots of islands. Cut off from each other by the sea, dinosaurs in different lands began to evolve into different species. The ornithischian (“bird-hipped”) dinosaurs become much more abundant, while most of the Jurassic sauropods died out. One group of sauropods, the titanosaurs, lived on during the Cretaceous Period. They were the largest animals that ever walked the Earth.

Iguanodon

Iguanodon (Ig-WAH-noh-don) was an ornithopod, a type of ornithischian. It lived in Europe about 125 million years ago. It was not quick enough to run away from attackers. Instead, Iguanodon relied on its sharp thumb-spikes for defence. If any dinosaur dared to attack it, the Iguanodon would rear up on its back legs and jab its spike into the predator’s body.

Duck-billed dinosaurs

Hadrosaurs lived during the Cretaceous Period. Their snouts were wide and flat. They looked quite like duck’s bills, which is why they are known as duck-billed dinosaurs. They had hundreds of hard-wearing teeth in their jaws. This allowed them to chew their food. They could eat all kinds of plants, including leaves, ferns and pine needles.

Parasaurolophus

Many duck-bills had crests on top of their heads. Parasaurolophus (Pah-rah-SAW-roh-LOAF-us) had a long, backward-pointing crest. It was hollow with tubes inside. These were connected to the dinosaur's nose and throat. All this helped to make its warning calls much louder and deeper.

Horned dinosaurs

Horned dinosaurs, or ceratopsians, were mostly enormous plant-eaters. They had horns on their heads and a curved frill of bone around their necks. Triceratops (Try-SERRA-tops) was one of the largest ceratopsians. It had three horns on its head and a massive, solid neck frill. It lived in North America at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Tyrannosaurus was one of the few predators powerful enough to attack it.

Deinonychus

Deinonychus (Die-NON-ee-kus) was a small meat-eating dinosaur. It was a dromaeosaur, or raptor. It was intelligent and had sharp eyesight. Packs of Deinonychus may have hunted together to bring down prey much larger than themselves. On each of their feet they had a single, massive, curved claw. Having cornered their victim, they used the claw to pin it down while they sank their teeth into its flesh.

Tyrannosaurus rex

One of the largest flesh-eating dinosaurs, 12-metre-long Tyrannosaurus rex (Tie-RAN-oh-SAW-rus REX) had massive, powerful legs, tiny arms and teeth as sharp as steak knives. It would creep up on its prey, then charge at it, bringing it down with the huge claws on its feet. It would have probably also have fed on carrion—including kills made by other animals.