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• Image Gallery
Dinosaur Diversity
The Age of Dinosaurs began around 230 million years ago. For the next 160 million years dinosaurs ruled the land unchallenged and became dramatically diverse.
Some dinosaurs stayed small. Others became the largest creatures ever to walk the planet. Some were meat eaters, while others ate plants. Some walked on two legs; others walked on four. Some evolved feathers. Some even took to the skies.
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Thyreophorans | Sauropods | Theropods | Ornithopods | Marginocephalians
Thyreophoran Dinosaurs
Meet the armored dinosaurs, the thyreophorans (THY-ree-oh-FOR-unz). Thyreophorans ranged from five to thirty feet long and were plant eaters.
The word “thyreophoran” comes from the Greek thureos (“shield”) and phoros (“bearing”). Thyreophorans are named for the bony “shields” on their bodies. These bony plates, called osteoderms (OS-tee-oh-durmz), appear on their backs (and sometimes covering other parts of their bodies too).
Sauropod Dinosaurs
Meet the biggest creatures ever to have walked the Earth, the sauropod (SOR-uh-pod) dinosaurs. The largest reached lengths of more than 100 feet and may have weighed as much as 70 tons!
Massive giants with long necks, sauropods have 12 or more vertebrae in their necks. With their long necks, these plant eaters could even have reached high treetops.
The word “sauropod” comes from the Latin saurus (“lizard”) and poda (“foot”)—perhaps because these dinosaurs’ discoverers thought they had found “lizards” with enormous feet.
Continue to Theropod Dinosaur Images. >>
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