Travel back to the Mesozoic Era by learning 15 interesting dinosaur facts. Brushing up on your knowledge of these ancient creatures is a great way to celebrate the national days of the year that are dedicated to them!
Even though dinosaurs are extinct, they are still the subject of three national days. Dinosaur Day falls on the third Tuesday in May, International Dinosaur Day is June 1, and National Fossil Day is the Wednesday of the second full week of October.
Whether you know a lot of interesting dinosaur facts, or you’re just looking to entertain your little ones with some new dinosaur facts for kids, you’re bound to learn some dino-mite information below!
For example, did you know that not all dinosaurs were alive at the same time? The Stegosaurus was extinct 80 million years before the T-Rex appeared!
You might also be surprised to learn that modern-day birds are descended from dinosaurs. Who would have thought that your pet parrot would be related to dinosaurs?
Interesting dinosaur facts for kids
Add to your knowledge of dinosaurs and teach your kids about these prehistoric animals by reading the interesting facts about dinosaurs for kids below. Some may surprise you!
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- Dinosaurs were alive during the Mesozoic Era which lasted 186 million years.
- The Mesozoic Era was divided into three periods of time – the Triassic Period (252-201 million years ago), the Jurassic Period (201-145 million years ago) and the Cretaceous Period (145-66 million years ago).
- People and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
- Humans appeared 65 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct.
- As far as we know, all dinosaurs laid eggs to reproduce.
- Dinosaur bones have been found on every continent, including Antarctica.
If your kids love dinosaurs make sure to check out our 15 free dinosaur coloring pages for hours of artistic fun, and this free dinosaur word search to challenge their dinosaur knowledge!
Cool dinosaur facts for kids
One of the neat things about dinosaurs is that we are constantly learning new information about them. When new fossils are discovered, they change what we believe about dinosaur superlatives like largest dinosaur, oldest known dinosaur, etc.
The facts about dinosaurs below are based on current fossil information, but if you see something that doesn’t appear correct, please click here to contact us and we will update it!
The oldest known dinosaur is the Nyasasaurus Parringtoni. It was discovered in a 243 million year old fossil found in Tanzania, Africa.
While we think of dinosaurs as enormous creatures, they actually had a wide range of sizes. One of the smallest known dinosaurs is the Compsognathus, which is roughly the size of a chicken.
The Argentinosaurus is believed to be the largest dinosaur. Though no complete Argentinosaurus skeletons have been found, estimations put the dinosaur’s height between 37 to 40 meters (121 to 131 feet), and weight between 90 to 100 metric tons (99 to 110 tons).
To put the massive size of the Argentinosaurus in perspective, a single vertebra from this dinosaur is the same size as a fully grown human being. Talk about a big dino!
If you’re a big fan of dinosaurs and want something dinosaur-themed to display in your home, you can get your own dinosaur fossil replica.
Interesting facts about dinosaurs for kids
Keep the fun going with more cool dinosaur facts by reading the list below. There’s so much to learn about these majestic creatures.
- You may be surprised to learn that not all dinosaurs lived at the same time. For example, the Stegosaurus was extinct for roughly 80 million years before the T-Rex appeared. This means that humans are closer in time (65 million years) to the T-Rex than the Stegosaurus was!
- Birds are descended from dinosaurs. More specifically, birds evolved from theropods (a category of two-legged, three-toed, dinosaurs that includes the T-Rex)
- Some dinosaurs had feathers. Fossil evidence proves that, unlike their depiction in the Jurassic Park movies, Velociraptors had feathers!
- Dinosaurs can be classified by their dietary preferences. There are carnivores, which ate primarily meat (eg. Tyrannosaurus Rex), herbivores which primarily ate plants (eg. Brachiosaurus), and omnivores which ate both plants and animals (eg. Citipati).
- In 1677, Robert Plot discovered the first dinosaur bone. He originally believed it was a large human bone, but further analysis revealed it was the first dinosaur bone ever discovered.
If you want a fun tool to help teach your kids more about these prehistoric animals, check out these dinosaur flash cards with statistics about each type of dinosaur listed on them.
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About the author
Since graduating from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Jess has been living and working in Los Angeles, CA. She is a freelance writer, specializing in content related to fashion, food and drink, and film industry topics. Find out more about Jess here.
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