The Most Amazing Facts

1. Although we consider the first discovery of dinosaur fossils to be in 1822, some bones were in fact found prior to this - around 300 years ago, people believed they came from elephants or even giant humans, whereas when some dinosaur teeth were discovered in China 3500 years ago, people thought they belonged to a dragon!
2. Most dinosaurs had a single body opening for urination, defecation and reproduction; however some did have separate organs. Some scientist think that the tyrannosaurus rex had a penis over three and a half metres in length!
3. We have discovered fossilized trackways in Australia. At first it was thought this was evidence of a stampede of dinosaurs running away from a massive carnivore, however recent research suggests that it may be the site of a river crossing!
4. Dinosaurs were not in fact the first reptiles to rule the earth! Archosaurs (‘ruling lizards’) and therapsids (mammal-like reptiles) were the original kings of the land until around the beginning of the Jurassic period.
5. Contrary to what you may think, there were a number of mammals around in the time of the dinosaurs. Repenomamus for instance was one of the largest - about a metre long, and enjoyed a diet of small dinosaurs. We know this because one repenomamus fossil has been found with the remains of a psittacosaurus in its stomach!
6. Over half of all of the species of dinosaur identified have been found in the last 20 years or so!
7. The stegosaurus lived around 156 million years ago, whereas the tyrannosaurus rex lived around 67 million years ago. This means that the T-rex lived closer in time to us than it did to the stegosaurus! Amazing!
8. A new species of dinosaur discovered in 2006 was named after the famous wizarding school in Harry Potter - dracorex hogwartsia, literally the Hogwarts Dragon!
9. The first dinosaur in space - that we know of - was a maiasaura fossil taken on a space shuttle mission in 1985, although no-one from NASA has given a scientific explanation as to why...
10. Sadly, although it seems reasonable, the science of Jurassic Park isn’t going to bring dinosaurs back. Unfortunately, DNA degrades over time, and is not thought to last more than 1.5 million years at the most. This means that even the most perfectly preserved specimen from the finest and most secure piece of amber will not have any DNA left to clone from. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other methods of bringing dinosaurs into the modern world!