I have decided to speak on dinosaurs today! ;D
But did you know not all dinos are reptiles?! And some even had feathers!
These ancient monsters are incredible! Here let me tell you...
The Spinosaurus (spine-oh-sore-us), name meaning: "spine lizard" was the largest carnivore ever, up to 40-60 feet long and 11,000-20,000 pounds! It was a fish eater and lived by rivers, using it's deadly hooked claws to scoop fish up from the water. They share many similarities with crocodiles, the edge of it's mouth and the shape of it's teeth. They are also believed to have a large sail on their back, measuring up to 5.5 feet. Some studies show that this sail was used to store fat, originally thought to control body temperatures.
Another powerful dino was the Mosasaurus (mose-ah-saw-rus). It was around 50-56 feet long, weighed up to 20 tons and preyed on fish, squid, and tooth marks have also been found on ammonites (nautilus-like invertebrates). This HUGE sea beast looked like a crocodile with flippers and was the T-Rex of the seas. They are suggested to be relatives to snakes, scale impressions show they had scaly skin, similar to that of snakes.
One of the most famous dinos is... the Velociraptor (vel-oss-ee-rap-tor) name meaning: "swift plunderer". Instead of being all scaly and large, as portrayed in movies, they are actually only 6 feet long, believed to have feathers, and hunt solo or scavenge when they got the chance. The have a large, sickle-like claw that could hook onto it's prey.
Now for the final (not at all carnivorous) Argentinosaurus (are-jen-teen-oh-sore-us)! The largest land animal ever! It weighted 161,000 pounds! And was 98-100 feet long! How huge is that!? Although they had small brains, meaning they weren't very bright. Even though only a few bones have been found scientists estimate that this Titanosaur was longer than a tennis court and nearly 20 times heavier than an elephant! It's eggs were the size of footballs and most likely took around 40 years to reach full adult size!
I really hope you enjoyed reading this! Until next time...
