Some dinosaurs had huge bodies, such as Lei Long. During the Jurassic period, the climate on the earth was warm and humid, and there were lush forests everywhere. Because of these rich plant foods, herbivorous dinosaurs flourished. After that, Lei Long was also active in the North American Plain.

Lei Long weighs about 35 to 50 metric tons and has thick legs like a trunk. Long neck, standing as high as seven stories, can be said to be the largest animal in the world. Although Lei Long's body is surprisingly large, her temperament is very gentle. She usually feeds on plants in temperate forests and sometimes walks into swamps. Because of the buoyancy of water, she can reduce the heavy burden on her body and avoid the attack of fierce carnivorous dinosaurs like Allosaurus.

(2) three dragons:

Bone plates and fragments of Stegosaurus and Ceratosaurus can only be passively defended and cannot fight back. It was not until the Rocker Dragon appeared that the situation gradually changed. Lei Long is the largest of all sauropods. It has two spear-shaped horns on its head, and the other horn protrudes between its eyes and nostrils. Such a sharp weapon, even the most terrible carnivorous dinosaur will give it three points.

(3) Stegosaurus:

Stegosaurus appeared10.5 billion years ago, characterized by two ribs on its back and spikes on its tail. Stegosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur and moved slowly. Its bone plate and spikes on its tail became the best weapon against carnivorous dinosaurs.

(4) Ankylosaurus:

Stegosaurus was protected by a bone plate, but it was still fragile where the bone plate could not cover it. When stegosaurus gradually disappeared, Ankylosaurus (armadillos) covered with bone plates took its place. Ankylosaurus is like an invincible tank car, even Tyrannosaurus Rex can't help it.

(5) Tyrannosaurus Rex:

Tyrannosaurus Rex is the largest and most ferocious carnivorous dinosaur. Tyrannosaurus rex appeared at the end of the dinosaur era, about 80 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus rex's body is 14 meters high and weighs about 10 metric ton. Its hind feet are thick and strong, and can even support a rhinoceros.

From the fossils of Tyrannosaurus Rex, it is found that every tooth is as big as an adult's palm, and even its eyes are bigger than a human head. Although most of the body is surprisingly large, the forelimbs of Tyrannosaurus rex are so small and short that it is impossible to send food into its mouth. The killer dragon has the same habit as Tyrannosaurus Rex, and it is a fierce animal.

[6] duck crown dragon:

Like Tyrannosaurus rex, the duck-crowned dragon appeared at the end of the dinosaur era. The most special thing about the duck-crowned dragon is its head. Its flat and long jawbone looks like a duck's mouth, so it has the name of duck-crowned dragon. In the past, people thought that the life of duck-crowned dragon was similar to that of duck. It swims in the water and feeds on plants in the water. Later, when scientists studied the fossils of the duck-crested dragon, they found that they did not eat aquatic plants for a living, but lived in trees on the shore, and the goose-crested dragon had the same habit.

(7) Iguanodon

1822 One day in March, it was very cold, but Mr. Mantel went out to see the patient as usual. The lady is waiting for her husband to come back at home. She is always worried that he will catch cold. Later, Mrs Mantell couldn't sit still, so she took her husband's clothes and went out to meet him in the direction of his house call. She walked on a road under construction, and the newly cut steep walls on both sides of the road exposed layers of rocks. She walked habitually, observing the newly exposed rock formations on both sides. Suddenly, a shiny thing caught her attention. "What is this?" While talking to herself, she stepped forward to watch carefully. Wow! It turned out to be some strange-looking animal tooth fossils. These fossil teeth are so big that Mrs Mantell has never seen such big teeth. The excitement of discovery made Mrs mantel forget to send clothes to her husband. She carefully took these fossils out of the rocks and took them home.

Later, Mr mantel went home. He was shocked when his wife showed him the newly collected fossils. He has seen many ancient animal tooth fossils, but none of them can be similar to such a big and strange tooth.

Soon after, Mr mantel found many such tooth fossils and related bone fossils near the place where the fossils were found. In order to find out what animals these fossils belong to, Mr Mantell took them to Ye Wei, a French naturalist, and asked the most famous scholars in the world to identify them.

To tell the truth, Ye Wei has never seen this kind of fossil, and all the books and papers written by senior scientists he has read have never mentioned this kind of fossil. However, Ju Ye Wei made a judgment based on his rich knowledge of zoology. He thinks that the teeth are rhinoceros's and the bones are hippopotamus's, and he is not too old.

Mr Mantel is very skeptical about the evaluation of living in Ye Wei. He thinks that the conclusion of living in Ye Wei is too hasty. He decided to continue his research. From then on, whenever he had the opportunity, he went to museums all over the country to compare specimens and consult materials.

One day two years later, he met a naturalist who worked in the Royal College Museum in London. He is studying an iguana, a modern lizard living in Central America. Therefore, Mr Mantel took those fossils to the Royal College Museum in London and compared them with the teeth of iguanas collected by naturalists, and found that they were very similar. Overjoyed, Mr mantel concluded that these fossils belong to an extinct ancient reptile similar to an iguana and named it "the teeth of an iguana".

Later, with the discovery of more and more fossil materials, people have a deeper understanding of these ancient animals. We know that the so-called "iguana's teeth" are actually a member of a wide variety of dinosaur families; It does belong to reptiles such as iguanas, but it is farther related to real iguanas than to other dinosaurs! However, according to the biological naming rules, the Latin word of the earliest scientifically recorded dinosaur name has not changed, and it still means "teeth of an iguana". However, its Chinese name was translated into Iguanodon.

So please remember: Iguanodon is the earliest recorded dinosaur in the history of science. At the same time, don't forget the name Mantel and his wife who loves nature.

There is a small place called Lewis in Sussex in the south of England. 180 years ago, there was a village doctor named mantel. This Mr mantel is full of curiosity about nature, and especially likes collecting and studying fossils. In addition to practicing medicine and treating diseases, he often takes his wife to climb mountains and wade to find and collect fossils, and his footprints have traveled all over the ravines and ridges with exposed rock layers around him. With the passage of time, Mrs Mantell has also become a "friend of nature" and a master of fossil collection.

(8) parrot-billed dragon

However, it was not until Mantels discovered Iguanodon and compared it with iguana that the scientific community initially determined that Iguanodon was an extinct reptile similar to lizard. Therefore, the names of new types of dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles discovered later are all related to lizards, such as "lizards like whales" and "lizards in the forest". At the same time, these ancient animal fossils that first attracted people's attention are often huge and grotesque, which is really frightening.

With the discovery and excavation of these horrible lizard-like ancient animal fossils, their species have accumulated more and more, and many naturalists have begun to realize that they should be self-contained in animal taxonomy. 1842, Sir Owen, a British paleontologist, created a name for them in Latin. This name consists of two roots, the former means "terror" and the latter means "lizard". Since then, "scary lizard" has become the general name of this large class of reptiles. They are related to each other to some extent, but their behaviors are different. We in China have both imagination and generalization, and translated this Latin name into "dinosaur".

(9) Mamen Xilong

Now we know that there are indeed many horrible behemoths in the dinosaur family, but there are also some small and lovely "little things". If you go to the China Museum of Paleozoology, which is not far to the west of Beijing Zoo, all kinds of dinosaurs with different sizes and shapes, ranging from parrot-billed dragon with a length of less than 1 m to Mamenxilong with a length of 22 m, will definitely give you a more comprehensive understanding of the dinosaur world.

(10) Ssangyong

Ssangyong has a stout body, a high skull, a well-developed jawbone, a large mouth crack, teeth covered with small sharp knives, and small serrations at the front and rear edges of teeth. These characteristics show that it can tear up any captured prey and then swallow large pieces of meat into its stomach. In addition, Ssangyong's skull has holes behind the eyes to better attach the muscles that affect the jawbone, so Ssangyong's bite force must be very strong. Scientists speculate that Ssangyong may be the most brutal and ferocious carnivore in the early Jurassic ecosystem.

Ssangyong and archaeopteryx dinosaurs were buried together.

Ssangyong has strong hind legs and claws on its feet, which can be used to catch and tear prey. About 200 million years ago, Ssangyong often appeared in the highlands or jungles between rivers and lakes, chasing all kinds of vegetarian animals. They may also like to live alone, sometimes hiding in places that are not easy to be detected, waiting for an opportunity to attack their prey. They may even eat dead animals and carrion for various reasons, just like modern hyenas.

China also found the Ssangyong fossil in Jinning County, Yunnan Province.

1In August, 987, the dinosaur excavation team of Kunming Museum in Yunnan Province excavated a Yunnan sauropod dinosaur fossil in Xiyang Township, Jinning County. The news that spread like wildfire attracted people from all directions to watch. People here are all Yi people. They have never heard of any dinosaurs. But when they see the fossil fragments, some people think that this bone-like stone looks familiar. Some people told the excavation team that such stones had been seen on the hillside of Muganlang Village in Sunset Township.

The excavation team followed the messenger to Muganlang village and exposed a pile of dinosaur spines in a small gully. They decided to dig here. A few days later, a shocking scene appeared. There are two dinosaurs here! Moreover, two complete dinosaur skeletons are twisted together, one of which is an ancient-footed dinosaur, and the other is a carnivorous Ssangyong, whose big mouth just bites on the tailbone of the former. According to the burial conditions of fossils, scientists speculate that there may be two reasons for the death of these two dinosaurs: one is that they both died in a life-and-death struggle; Another possibility is that the ancient toe dragon has been dead for many days, and the meat on the corpse has rotted and deteriorated, while the hungry theropod dinosaur just filled its stomach, but it was accidentally poisoned by eating the rotten ancient toe dragon meat. Judging from their calm attitude, the latter is more likely.

China Shuanglong is the largest carnivorous dinosaur in the early Jurassic period, with a body length of nearly 4 meters and a sharp and long mouth. There is a crack in the front of its maxilla, which enables it to move. Scientists speculate that its favorite food is probably the internal organs of other animals, because its sharp mouth can extend into the abdominal cavity of an animal corpse. When its head extends into the abdominal cavity of a corpse, two thin crowns on its head can support the cavity wall.

Ssangyong is also a member of the fauna around the Tethys Sea, so the species found all over the world are similar. Their fossils have also been found in modern Antarctica, indicating that the ice-covered Antarctica was a warm dinosaur day at that time.

extinct

In recent years, dinosaur fossils and new species have been discovered continuously. Scientists are always interested in their research, and generations of children and their parents have a strong interest in these mysterious ancient creatures. Why is this?

Now we also know that dinosaurs were not lizards at all. Although both belong to reptiles, the kinship between dinosaurs and lizards is far from each other in a reptile family!

From the dexterous Protosaurus to the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex

-Carnivorous theropod dinosaurs

Ssangyong, the overlord in the early Jurassic

1942, a large theropod dinosaur was found in the early Jurassic strata of Arizona, USA. Because it has a pair of slender V-shaped bones on its head, scientists named it Shuanglong.