How It Works-Book Of Dinosaurs

71

Dinosaurs had

giant fl eas

Fossilised remains reveal that

dinosaurs in the Cretaceous and

Jurassic were hosts to giant

fl ea-like insects measuring ten

times the size of modern fl eas.

78

Lots of dinosaurs were

smaller than a human

Diplodocus, Triceratops, T-rex and Stegosaurus were

all enormous, but many of the two-legged raptors

and some of the herbivores were smaller than we are.

77

Many dinosaurs had

hollow bones

Birds have hollow bones, which helps to keep their weight

down for fl ight and enables a unique way of breathing –

sauropods and theropods had hollow bones too.

Indosuchus

Late Cretaceous

India

© Corbis; H. Zell; Thin k stock; Mariana Rui z; Diy ing Huang et al/REX

74

Dinosaurs survived

for 165 million years

People often think of the dinosaurs as being

evolutionary failures, but they survived for a

staggering 165 million years, far more

impressive than the 200,000 years

managed so far by humans.

72

Ornithopods

walked on

two legs

Dinosaurs like Iguanodon and the

duck-billed Hadrosaurs walked

upright on two legs, and lived in

herds like modern-day antelope.

73

One dinosaur is

named after the

Harry Potter books

Dracorex hogwartsia (“dragon king of

Hogwarts”) was a pachycephalosaur

with a large bulge on its forehead and a

dragon-like spiked frill.

Argentinosaurus was

longer than

a blue whale

35 m

FACT 75

Compsosouchus

Late Cretaceous

Asia

DID YOU KNOW? (^) In 2005, collagen tissue was found in a T-rex fossil. Scientists think iron molecules helped prevent its decay
Dracorex
Late Cretaceous
North America