During the 1820s that was the very first time when scientists first started studying dinosaurs, when they discovered the bones of a large land reptile they titled it a “big lizard” buried in the English countryside. Sir Richard Owen, Britain’s, who is a leading paleontologist of Britain, first coined the term “dinosaur” In 1842. Owen studied the bones of three different creatures namely--Megalosaurus, Iguanadon (“iguana tooth”) and Hylaeosaurus (“woodland lizard”). Each of these cratures used to live on land.They were huge in size than any other living reptile. They used to walk with their legs directly below their bodies. Moreover they had three more vertebrae in their hips than other known reptiles. Studying this information, Owen concluded that these three formed a different and special group of reptiles, which he named as Dinosauria. The word is extracted from an ancient Greek word
deinsssos (“terrible”) +sauros (“lizard” or “reptile”)= Dinosauria
Since then, dinosaur fossils have been found from most of the corner of the world. Paleontologists examined them to find out more about the types of these creatures that existed. After studying the fossils of dinosaurs scientists divided the species of then in two parts: the “bird-hipped” Ornithischia and the “lizard-hipped” Saurischia. From there, as the studies moved on dinosaurs were categorized in more genera and each genus into one or more species. Studies also say that some dinosaurs were walked on two legs, some on four legs and some were able to switch between these two walking styles. Some dinosaurs were covered with a type of armor that helped them to protect themselves, while other’s bodies were covered with feathers. Some of them were able to move quickly, while others were very much slow. Most of the dinosaurs were herbivores, or plant-eaters, but few of them were carnivorous and used to kill other dinosaurs to survive. Also the dinosaurs had a huge body with tons of weight with 2 to 5 tons as estimated.
Various movies have been made to demonstrate the life style of the dinosaurs. Movies like Jurassic park has made its best efforts to reveal the secrets related to their lives. After watching these movies you can get the depth insight of dinosaurs. Also some studies say that these species were never existed. But what we can say about rumors. We can just believe on the facts and figures that has been introduced.
Despite the fact that dinosaurs no longer exist in our planet, ostensible shadow of these enormous reptiles can be identified in theirjavascript:void(0) modern-day descendants: birds. Dinosaurs have died physically died but they still exist among us, they live on in the study of paleontology. The uncovered secrets about them will let them live with us for a very long time.
Enter the age of dinosaurs in the most exciting online paleontology site http://www.dinosaurfact.net/
