Dinosaur Fact Book....

The study of dinosaurs stretches our imaginations, gives us new perspectives on time and space, and invites us to discover worlds very different from our modern Earth.

When did the dinosaurs first appear on Earth?
The oldest dinosaur types are known from rocks in Argentina and Brazil and are about 230 million years old. The most primitive of these types, Eoraptor, was a small meat-eating dinosaur. Because Eoraptor's skeleton shows some advanced skeletal features, older dinosaurs may yet be found.

OTHER FACTS:
Some dinosaurs were as small as a hen, but the typical dinosaur weighed about as much as a hippopotamus or an elephant.

Dinosaur eggs are smaller than those of modern birds (relative to the weight of the mother). In fact, the largest known dinosaur eggs are much smaller than those of the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar.


Instead of chewing their food, some sauropods ground their food between stones in a portion of the digestive tract, much like the gizzard of a modern bird.

How fast could dinosaurs walk or run?
Estimates of dinosaur speeds vary because several different methods are used to calculate them. One recent estimate suggests that an average person might have been able to to outrun an adult Tyrannosaurus (although you probably would not volunteer to try). The two basic approaches for estimating dinosaur speed are comparing to recorded speeds of modern animals of similar body size and build, and measuring distances between fossil footprints in a trackway and using these distances to calculate estimated speed. Walking-speed estimates for medium-sized bipedal (two-legged) dinosaurs vary from 4 kph to 6 kph, and peak running-speed estimates vary from 37 kph to 88 kph. The highest figure (88.6 kph) is the same as the peak speed of the currently fastest land animals, such as the North American pronghorn "antelope" (Antilocapra americana), and very probably is too high.
OTHER FACTS:
The earliest dinosaurs resembled two-legged, short-headed crocodiles, but later dinosaurs were oddly reminiscent of giant mammals and birds.


Some dinosaurs spent time in the water, but no dinosaur could swim very well.


Dinosaur bones have been found on all of the continents, but the fossil record is most complete in North America and Asia.


Dinosaurs had tiny (or completely absent) outside fingers and toes.



It's easy to tell a dinosaur skeleton from that of a modern reptile because dinosaur skeletons have a strong joint between the backbone and hips.


Small, two-legged dinosaurs could turn rapidly by swinging their tail abruptly in a direction opposite to where they wished to turn.

Some dinosaurs had feathers.

Dinosaurs generally are named after a characteristic body feature, after the place where they were found, or after a person involved in the discovery. Usually the name consists of two Greek or Latin words (or combinations); in order, these are the genus (plural, genera) and the species name. For example, the Greek and Latin combination (binomen) Tyrannosaurus rex means "king of the tyrant lizards." Biologists name modern animals exactly the same way. Some examples include humans (Homo sapiens), domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), box turtles (Terrapene carolina), and rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus).


More Info at:

Farlow, J.O., 1993, The dinosaurs of Dinosaur Valley State Park -- Somervell County, Texas: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Austin
Glut, D.F., 1982, The New Dinosaur Dictionary: Secaucus. Citadel Press
Lambert, D., and the Diagram Group, 1990, Dinosaur Data Book: New York, Avon Books
Norman, D., 1985, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: New York, Crescent Books
Russell, D.A., 1989, An Odyssey in Time, the Dinosaurs of North America: Minocqua, North Word Press,
Thulborn, T., 1990, Dinosaus Tracks: London, Chapman and Hall

Children Books:

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (Macmillan)
Astrosaurs: Riddle of the Raptors by Steve Cole (Random House)
Dinosaur Chase by Benedict Blathwayt ( Red Fox)
Rotten and Rascal! by Paul Geraghty (Red Fox)