Dinosaurs, History and Types of Carnivores, Herbivores, Omnivores

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Dinosaurs are among us! For centuries, humans have been attracted and attracted to this extraordinary creature. Dinosaurs, their way of life, their behavior, how they communicated with each other, and even why they died. As we can tell, there are many questions that researchers have tried to answer since the beginning of paleontology, and even today many of them are still unclear.

It may be because of the mystery that surrounds it, because of its enormous size, because of their appearance, or perhaps for other reasons, but in reality we have all been fascinated by dinosaurs. They all want to know more about them. And for that reason this page appears. To try to answer some of the questions that come to mind those of us who want to know want to know more about this creature.

History of Dinosaurs

The first is to know what dinosaurs are, where the term came from, and to know, in general, its characteristics and way of life. So we’ll start with that.

The history of dinosaurs began about 230 million years ago, in the middle of the Triassic period. Dinosaur is a word derived from Latin. The first person to propose this word was the English scientist, Sir Richard Owen, in 1841. Dinosaurs mean “Terrible Lizards”, and this name came about because Sir Richard saw them as large extinct reptiles, very different in the animal kingdom.

Dinosaurs were the result of a process of specialization of the locomotor system, which had steered them from limbs that stretched sideways (like reptiles) to place them under the body. This specialization process begins with theodonts (ancient reptiles).

In many group subdivisions that can be created from dinosaurs, there are two very important subdivisions:

Depends on the timing. From 245 to 208 million years they are said to be from the Triassic. 208 to 144 million years old, they date back to the Jurassic era. From 144 to 64 million years old, they date back to the Cretaceous Period.
In addition, there is more hanging over your hips. So we find ornithischia, which has the characteristic that they have pubis backwards and downwards, and saurischia. It has pubic forwards and downwards.
Lastly, it is important to mention that dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago. But despite its extinction has always been a very hot topic in paleontology and science, and many very diverse theories have been put forward to explain it. Its extinction remains unknown because none of them were actually contrasted, and therefore accepted.

Read Also: 10 Scary Deep Sea Creatures

Types of Dinosaurs

Jenis dinosaurus

Types of dinosaurs of the type of food is divided into 3 namely herbivores (plant eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), Omnivores (all-eaters).

Omnívora

Omnivorous dinosaurs ate plants, animals, and sometimes eggs of other dinosaurs or often called all-consuming animals. Among the most famous is Oviraptor, whose Latin name means “egg plunder”. It is called by this name because some of the fossils found were found along with a large number of egg shells.

Carnivores

Carnivorous dinosaurs were true predators on Earth millions of years ago. Its spectacular effects and replicas have left us pale in the face of the brutality of the jaws of Tyrannosaurus rex, which despite being one of the most famous carnivores, was not the largest land predator of the time.

These large reptiles lined up for 150 million years, making the list of carnivorous dinosaurs quite extensive. This category includes all dinosaurs that ate mainly or exclusively in animals or meat eaters, through predation or consumption of carcasses. Animals included in the feeding and the way they hunt, carnivorous dinosaurs can be recognized from one of the following groups.

Scavengers

Scavengers supplement their diet by eating animal carcasses. Because hunting is an intense activity that is often not possible by their physical condition. They take advantage of the unfinished work of other predators or the natural death of some species. Dilophosaurus is a species of dinosaur known to be basically a carrion eater. The group also includes some opportunistic predators, who when tired of running prefer to sink teeth into corpses.

Hunters in herd

Small predators such as Deinonychus, ally with their other species to hunt larger herbivores. These dinosaurs have the right and deadly attack methods. Within seconds they fall onto their prey, nailing their sharp teeth and claws in different parts of the body.

Ambush hunters

The largest and most feared land predator uses this hunting method, which consists of ambushes in the bushes to surprise its prey. Depending on the size of the victim, they can swallow them whole, but if they are a large herbivorous species, they are bitten to death and then eaten. Here lies the dreaded Tyrannosaurus rex, which despite having very strong legs, they can not run more than 20 or 25 km / h. These animals need to eat large amounts of meat. so it is possible that they have a diet that combines living prey and carcasses.

5 Largest Carnivorous Dinosaurs

Tarbosaurus bataar

With a length of more than 10 or 12 meters, a height of 4 meters and a weight between 6 and 7 tons, this species was discovered inhabiting the Asian continent and is very similar to the famous North American dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. It shares the same body structure as the large dinosaur, large hind legs, weight, long tail, and very small hands with just two fingers.

Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrannosaurus rex has been considered the king of terrible predators, although it was relegated to fourth place due to its size (about 12.3 metres long and 4m high). His reign of terror lies in a period between 67.7 and 65 million years of The Upper Cretaceous. His extraordinary ferocity was due to the fact that in his jaw he had strong muscles, was able to exert a force of 3,000 kg and pass through steel drums. Their brains are twice as big as other older brothers, giving them higher intelligence to hunt.

Carcharodontosaurus saharicus

In the third largest carnivorous position in history, this dinosaur was known as the “shark tooth reptile”. The fossils have been found in Africa with a length of about 12-13 meters, a height of 3.5-5 meters and a weight between 6 and 15 tons. They are baptized under this name because they have strong teeth similar to sharks, which serve to tear their prey to blood.

Giganotosaurus carolinii

And the second largest known bipedal dinosaur is the “giant reptile of the south wind”. He has been identified as the theropod that has the largest skull compared to his body. Teeth flattened to the side and jagged, are an ideal instrument for tearing meat. Despite having strong legs and great predatory qualities, he is very slow, which is why it is believed he hunts in ambushes or slow prey.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

The largest land predator that has been crowned the undisputed king, overtaking other large carnivores, is the “thorn lizard”. It was discovered in Egypt and is believed to have lived about 112-97 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. The size is estimated to be between 15 and 18 meters long, but the consensus weight is still reached because experts place it in the range of 9 to 20 tons. The most distinctive feature is the screen of his back, formed by very long spines covering his spine. Since some marine fossils have emerged with the acidic remains of spinosaurus hull, it is thought that these predators exploited the land and marine environment.

Herbivores

Herbivorous dinosaurs, as the name implies, were animals that ate plants and plants exclusively. According to research conducted, scientists have been able to determine that most dinosaurs were herbivores. At the same time, it is known that, given its enormous dimensions and due to energy expenditure, these dinosaurs used most of their time to eat food.

In herbivorous dinosaurs we find two main classification groups namely: herbivores sauropods, which are characterized by walking on four limbs and have lizard-like hips, and herbivores with bird or ornichist hips, the majority of which managed to move both of their limbs. Although later they evolved into two limbs. various forms.

Based on their diet especially on the leaves of trees. Some species, such as Psittacosaurus, use bird beaks and scissor-shaped teeth to tear the leaves and break them down into small digestible pieces. On the other hand, Brachiosaurus (“Armored Lizard”) has a very long neck that allows it to reach the top of the tree and find more fresh leaves.

The weight of herbivorous dinosaurs varies greatly, in addition, given the little evidence of fossil remains found, this is a less obvious aspect. In the case of sauropods, these can range from an impressive 0.5 tons (Astrodonjohnstoni) to 123 tons, as is the case with Amphibians. In the general sense, herbivorous dinosaurs had a large belly that allowed them to store up to 200 kilograms of vegetation per day.

Although it may seem strange, herbivorous dinosaurs had teeth. However, the function of the structure of teeth can vary from one species to another, used in some cases to tear leaves from trees, and on other occasions to grind or decompose food into small pieces.

For example, Lufengosaurus has small teeth, whereas Heterodontosaurus is characterized by the presence of very strange teeth, arranged narrowly and sharply, and with it they manage to slice the leaves. On the other hand, Diplodocus and Apatosaurus have clamp-shaped teeth for leaning and chewing soft parts of plants.

As a curiosity, we must point out that most of these dinosaurs were unable to move their jaws to the side, which is why they limited themselves to swallowing whole leaves, although they also swallowed small stones (gastroliths), and this allowed them to “process” food inside your stomach.

After the dinosaurs became extinct, about 25 million years later, the earth developed grass formation, so that this animal ate only plants that existed at the time, such as shoots and leaves of trees, pine needles, flowers, pineapples, ferns and some plants such as horsetails. In this case, some long-necked sauropods use their molar pieces to tear the leaves, while others have posterior beaks and teeth to complete the process of food destruction. Finally, some herbivores such as Triceratops, use their powerful horns to destroy plants and swallow them through their teeth.

Types of Herbivorous Dinosaurs

Apatosaurus

Its main features are its small head, thick neck, and a flat face that is about 55 centimeters long. Apatosaurus can weigh up to 30 tons, and it is a very large diplocid, much heavier than Diplodocus.

Brachiosaurus

Weighing about 80 tons, Brachiosaurus is considered one of the largest dinosaurs in history (13 meters high). In addition, it has a very long neck and very long fore legs (hence the so-called “arm lizard”).

Camarasaurus

It inhabited the planet during the Jurassic period (140 million years ago), and its most prominent feature is the chambers arranged along the spine and large nostrils whose elastic composition is believed to allow them to make noise to communicate.

Brontosaurus

Weighing about 30 tons and 21 meters long, Brontosaurus was one of the great dinosaurs of the past. Its small head, along with a large body and whip-shaped tail, give this animal a very distinctive feature. It is inhabited mainly in areas currently occupying North America.

Cetiosaurus

It is found mainly in the regions of Europe and Africa, weighing about 25 tons. With a length of 18 meters, it was a large and stocky dinosaur with very long legs. Its name can be translated as “whale reptile” because of its resemblance to these animals.

Dicraeosaurus

Research puts this species at the end of the Jurassic period. It is six meters high and weighs about 15 tons. Dicraeosaurus or “branched reptile”, has a very strange row of thorns on its back and an elongated tail, although it does not have a long neck.

Gigantspinosaurus

Fierce in appearance and with a slab of bone protruding on its head and tail, as well as large spines on its back, Gigantspinosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur species from the Jurassic period. It lives mainly in China, where important excavations of this species were found.

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