Amazing Facts About Dinosaurs that will Intrigue You (Part II)

Dinosaurs existed on this earth for about 150 million years and are probably the biggest mammals that ever walked on the earth. People always knew about these giants but Steven Spielberg’s 1994 movie ‘Jurassic Park’ made these creatures quite famous. Dinosaurs were amazing animals, and some of them could fly also. Continuing from the first part of the story, here are a few more amazing 

1. Dinosaurs Probably Evolved into Birds 

According to many Paleontologists and Dinosaur researchers, a few of the dinosaurs who managed to survive later evolved into birds.

Many of us think that lizards are close relatives of dinosaurs and probably evolved from them only but you will be surprised to know that most Paleontologists are convinced that birds, not lizards are close relatives of dinosaurs and evolved from them only. Sounds quite strange but many pieces of evidence suggest so. One of them being the DNA of dinosaurs matches more with birds than other animals and amphibians. Modern birds evolved from small, feathered, tetrapod dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

2. The majority of Dinosaurs Were Plant Eaters

Contrary to normal belief, most of the dinosaurs were plant eaters instead of being carnivorous.

While ferocious carnivores like Tyrannosauruses and Giganotosaurus were carnivorous, the number of plant-eating dinosaurs exceeded the number of carnivorous dinosaurs. Large-sized dinosaurs feed on small dinosaurs and other small mammals. Many also suggest that most dinosaurs became extinct because the number of dinosaurs increased a lot and most of them were plant eaters, the number of plants reduced a lot and dinosaurs didn’t get enough plants to eat and became extinct and carnivorous dinosaurs became extinct because no plant-eating dinosaurs existed to feed on them. It’s just a theory and most Paleontologists believe they became extinct because a large number of meteorites hit the earth and made dinosaurs extinct.

3. Dinosaurs Lived at the Same Time as Mammals

Dinosaurs were not the only creatures of that era as many mammals coexisted with them.

Early mammals coexisted with dinosaurs for most of the Mesozoic Period. In fact, both dinosaurs and these mammals evolved together during the same period of time. Most of these mammals were early fur balls and their sizes were like modern-day mice and shrews, but a few (like the dinosaur-eating Repenomamus) developed into large sizes with the weight of nearly 50 pounds. Most of these mammals also got extinct and few evolved into mice, frogs, etc.