Dinosaurs

The dinosaurs or dinosaurs (the first term is the correct translation of Dinosauria, the scientific Latin name of the group) are a group of animals belonging to the Archosauria, which dates back to the Mesozoic.The Dinosauria emerged some 230 million years ago in the Triassic, where the division within the wider group of Dinosauriformes. The first dinosaur was a small bipedal carnivore. That was the direct ancestor of the two main groups which all dinosaurs can be divided: the Saurischia and Ornithischia. In these two groups developed quickly even herbivorous species. The dinosaurs were dominant toward the end of the Triassic, when the country most other large animals became extinct. During the ensuing Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaurs 140 million years had been the dominant land animals, probably the greatest who ever lived. Thousands of species, carnivores and herbivores, developed in many forms, including by moving the continents apart. The zeereptielen from that time and the pterosaurs, flying reptiles, were not dinosaurs. At the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, most dinosaurs died out, perhaps from the impact of a meteorite. The birds are living dinosaurs.Since 1808, the extinct dinosaurs scientifically described and the group got its name in 1842, that "formidable dinosaurs" means. Between 1870 and 1925, many dinosaur fossils discovered, particularly in North America. Then she took off considerable interest but since 1968 has resulted in a considerable revival of the study, called "Dinosaur Renaissance". Especially in China and Argentina are hundreds of known species newly found. There are much improved insights gained about their relationships, building and lifestyle. Former popular science books on the subject are therefore completely obsolete.Because of the shape wealth of dinosaur is the typical properties of the group difficult to indicate. Not a particular characteristic makes an animal a dinosaur, but that he descended from the first dinosaur. Apart from big dinosaurs were and are very small. Dinosaurs are reptiles and have a scaly skin and at least partially reproduce by means of eggs. Unlike other currently existing dinosaurs are reptiles, birds, warm-blooded. Unknown and controversial is to what extent the extinct dinosaurs were warm blooded and possessed a feather or fur. Types of dinosaurs were small, even if no birds were probably a high metabolism and several of their fossils show the remains of feathers or hair. Most scientists now believe that all dinosaurs, the largest, relatively active animals were rather slow and cumbersome, which explains their evolutionary success.


Information comes from wikipedia.nl and translating from google.nl