I bet you’ve always wanted to meet a real-life dinosaur, haven’t you?
(Uh, we talkin’ T-Rex here, because, nah, I’m good!)
Well, if you did have the chance, you’d be surprised to set eyes on a creature covered
in feathers, fur, and giant fleas!
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
How about we kick this list of dino facts off with the most famous of them all…
#1: The T-Rex wasn’t the largest dinosaur by far.
The humungous Tyrannosaurus Rex that terrified us all in the classic dino-flick Jurassic
Park was not, in fact, even among the 15 largest dinosaurs!
With a max length of 40 ft and a weight of about 10 tons, it was a pip-squeak compared
to the biggest land dinosaur: the Argentinosaurus.
This gargantuan 100-foot-long herbivore made the ground shake with all its 75 tons of body
weight.
Basically, if you live on the 6th floor of a building, this dino could peak in on you
through the window!
(Hey, tiny humans, what’s for lunch?)
Still, to be fair to the T-Rex, I must say, it was the largest carnivore that ever existed.
Well, I guess being the king of predators is better than not being king at all, right?
While we’re on the topic of size…
#2: Dinosaurs weren’t the biggest animals ever.
As much as we’re used to thinking dinosaurs were the hugest things on earth, well, they
weren’t.
In fact, the largest known animal in this planet’s history is our contemporary!
Meet the blue whale.
At 98 ft long, it’s about the size of the mighty Argentinosaurus, but its weight is
far greater.
You ready for it?
A whopping 190 tons!
(That’s about as heavy as your typical one-story house, by the way.)
Blue whales are real titans of this world, and there’s never been anything bigger than
them, neither in the sea nor on land.
I guess we can consider ourselves lucky to live alongside such amazing creatures!
#3: Dinosaurs aren’t really extinct.
Uh, come again?
Does that mean Nessie is real?
I knew it!
No, unfortunately for mystery enthusiasts, I’m not talking about giant lizards here.
But ya know, you actually meet dinosaurs every single day without even realizing it!
I know, sounds like complete hogwash, but it’s true.
According to scientists from the University of Berkeley, birds aren’t just distant relatives
of dinosaurs but are dinosaurs themselves!
You see, the classification of animals we’re all used to, which divides them into families,
species, and so on, doesn’t take evolution into account.
That system was actually created long before scientists realized that organisms evolved
at all.
So today, most biologists prefer to use another classification that incorporates animals’
evolution over time.
And that includes dinosaurs, which (get ready for it) evolved into modern-day birds!
Hey, give me a “like” if you’ve ever fed some dinos at your local park!
#4: Dinosaurs were dressed in feathers, not scales.
Since we were kids, all the books, cartoons, and movies showed dinosaurs as reptilian creatures
looking more like lizards than anything else.
Recent paleontological discoveries, though, prove otherwise.
And not so recent ones too!
Way back in 1923, explorer and adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews led an expedition to the
Gobi Desert and found the first fossilized dinosaur eggs.
Interestingly enough, those eggs were apparently laid by a strange birdlike creature that soon
became a sort of star among the scientific community.
As more fossils were discovered over time, paleontologists later concluded that most
dinosaurs, including the T-Rex and its kin, had feathers attached to their bones.
This fact was only overlooked for decades because nobody wanted to part with the image
of giant scaly reptiles!
Talk about the force of habit, huh?
#5: Jurassic Park just might become a thing one day.
Evolutionary researchers across the world have been trying to understand the development
of dinosaurs for years now.
What they did was look at how chicken embryos grew inside their eggs.
Remember I told you about birds being actual evolved dinosaurs?
Yeah, that’s the thing.
And in 2016, a team of scientists from the University of Chile tweaked a couple of genes
in some embryos to give them dinosaur legs.
…And they actually succeeded!
The not-yet-hatched chicks grew with lower limbs resembling those of ancient lizards.
Apart from purely scientific theory, this experiment showed that birds could indeed
one day be turned into real dinos.
Of course, a park full of dinosaurs is still probably decades away, but the potential is
there!
I just hope scientists watch the movies before they make any decisions on the matter – the
idea didn’t work out too well even in the fictional world…
#6: The biggest herbivores had equally large diets.
As you know, some plant-eating dinos were really massive.
In fact, growing as huge as possible was their way of protecting themselves from predators.
But now let’s imagine, say, a Diplodocus.
How much food do you think it’d take to fill the belly of a 110-foot-long creature
weighing in at about 15 tons?
Well, the short answer is a whole lot – leaves and plants by the busload!
In the era of dinosaurs, when it was warm and tropical almost everywhere, it was totally
possible for these giants to find so much food, of course.
But anyway, just picture such a creature walking into your yard and stripping every single
tree of its leaves, and still being hungry after that!
#7: There were chicken-sized dinosaurs.
When you hear the word “dinosaur” you probably imagine a creature that’s at least
the size of a large dog, but the first thing that comes to mind is most likely a big Triceratops
or something.
Well, dinos actually came in all shapes and sizes, and there were really tiny ones!
The smallest known dinosaur to this day is called Compsognathus, and it was just about
the size of a chicken.
But scientists are pretty sure there were even smaller species – it’s just that
their bones haven’t been found yet.
Large fossils are obviously easier to discover, so it should come as no surprise that we mostly
know about the bigger reptiles.
#8: Dinosaurs had fleas the size of roaches.
And now I’m feeling itchy all of a sudden.
Eck!
Dr. George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University describes the prehistoric pests as not exactly
fleas because they couldn’t jump as high as the modern-day ones.
But still, a creature that was almost a full inch in length and could bite through thick
dino skin does give you the heebie-jeebies.
As Professor Poinar puts it, “We can be thankful our modern fleas are not nearly this
big.”
I couldn’t agree more!
#9: Carnivorous dinosaurs had pretty large brains.
There’s another one of those tidbits everybody knows about dinos: they had itty-bitty brains!
Well, that might be the case for a lot of them, especially when you compare their brain
and body size.
For instance, one of the biggest dinosaur species, the Stegosarus, had a brain the size
of a lime.
However, this discrepancy only concerned herbivores, or plant eaters.
Carnivorous dinosaurs, or meat eaters, had a much larger brain.
Getting back to the T-Rex, that monster had a particularly big brain inside its skull.
So, all those images showing this predator with a brain the size of a walnut are simply
not accurate.
Scientists believe that predators needed bigger brains because they had to hunt their prey
at high speeds.
A bigger brain meant a faster reaction time, and that’s exactly what they needed.
#10: Dinosaurs shed their skin.
You certainly know that snakes and lizards shed their skin as they grow.
Well, dinosaurs seem to have done the same!
A 2018 study published in the journal Nature Communications showed that fossilized dino
dandruff could be proof that the ancient lizards also shed their skins!
But there’s something even more fascinating about this discovery.
Like I said earlier, dinosaurs had feathers, not scales.
So this prehistoric dandruff finding meant they didn’t just lose their entire skin
in one piece.
Instead, they shook off fragments of it from in between their feathers.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t get the image of a dinosaur with dandruff out
of my brain now.
Too bad they didn’t have shampoo back then!
#11: Some dinosaurs had fur.
While you’re still probably trying to grasp the idea of feathered dinos, here’s some
more food for thought: in the cooler regions, Pterosaurs had fur to protect them from the
cold.
In a 2018 study, paleontologists from the University of Bristol suggested that some
Pterosaurs might’ve had several types of body covering at the same time.
They had feathers on their head and wings, while their whole body was covered in soft
fuzzy fur.
Scientists believe both were important for heat regulation and flight control.
Now I wouldn’t dare call these flying creatures lizards anymore.
Would you?
Hey, if you know any other surprising facts about dinosaurs, leave them down in the comments!
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