Dinosaur Facts

Alongside each book published, John will update this page with related facts. To kick things off, here are 10 facts about dinosaurs that you may, or may not, already know…

  1. The word Dinosaur comes from Greek and means ‘Terrible Lizard’.
  2. Even though, many dinosaurs were really, reaaaally big (Argentinosaurus being the biggest ever found) none of them were as big as the Blue Whale, which is still alive today and thought to be the biggest animal that ever lived.
  3. Modern day birds, yes birds, are not only related to dinosaurs but are considered by many scientists  to be actual living dinosaurs.
  4. Dinosaurs lived everywhere on Earth, even Antarctica.
  5. The large plate on the back of a Triceratops’ head is called a frill and is actually part of its skull.
  6. All dinosaurs laid eggs, but this fact wasn’t realised until 1923. Dinosaur eggs had been found and documented almost 70 years earlier but were mistaken for giant bird eggs.
  7. Many dinosaurs would swallow rocks, which stayed in their stomachs and helped them grind up their food.
  8. In the film ‘Jurassic Park’ all but one of the featured dinosaurs (Brachiosaurus) were actually from the Cretaceous Period.
  9. A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a palaeontologist.
  10. Like most other cool jobs, at some point during his childhood John wanted to be a palaeontologist.