Time: 230 million - 65 million years ago

What were the dinosaurs?

225 million years ago dinosaurs evolved from reptiles. Dinosaurs were different to reptiles, who had four short legs, as they longer legs and some even changed to have only two longer legs on the ground and two shorter legs that looked like arms. This made the dinosaurs the largest, strongest, and fastest animals in the world.

Dinosaur games

Andy's Dinosaur Adventures Game
Join Andy to find dinosaurs, play fun games and collect all the badges.

Dinosaur Train
Games, facts and videos. Join the Dinosaur Train and learn about Dinosaurs.

Dino Dig
Hey, dinosaur hunter! Travel the world to dig up cool dinosaur fossils!

Meat-eaters and plant-eaters

The first dinosaurs to walk the earth were meat-eaters. Called theropods they walked on their two back legs and had very sharp claws for ripping meat.

The biggest dinosaurs were sauropods. These were plant-eaters with large bodies, small heads but extremely long necks and tails.

Other plant-eaters were ornithopods which could run on their back legs to escape from predators. The plant-eaters who were too big and heavy to run from predators developed horns, clubs and spikes to protects them from meat-eating dinosaurs.

Reptiles

Reptiles still lived when the dinosaurs were around. There were swimming reptiles and flying reptiles. There were two types of sea reptiles, ones that looked turtle-shaped called placodonts and ones that had long thin bodies and webbed feet. These ones were called nothosaurs.

Flying reptiles were called pterosaurs. Pterosaurs had big, leathery wings, short necks and long bony tails.

Places to see Dinosaurs

Natural History Museum - London, UK
Visit the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs yourself. Check out their website for loads of facts.

What killed the dinosaurs?

66 million years ago the dinosaurs became extinct (died out). Some scientists say that a meteorite ( enormous rock) hit the earth and the dust cloud from the impact would have made the earth cold and dark for months. With no light and warmth, plants would have died so that the dinosaurs would have no food, and there would have not been enough heat on earth for any living creature to survive. Strangely some lizards, snakes, birds, insects and amphibians did survive. Some can produce their own heat so did not die when the planet was so cold. This was the start of the animals we have today.

Dinosaur facts

Science Kids - Dinosaurs
Dinosaur facts for kids. Learn about everything from the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex to the enormous Diplodocus.

BBC - Age of the dinosaurs
The dinosaurs were among the most successful animals ever to live on the Earth. Lots of Dinosaur facts on the BBC website.