How It Works

5 things you didn’t know about dinosaurs

by · 24/05/2021

Discover fascinating facts about the long lost dinosaurs
A herd of long-necked Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum dinosaurs eating vegetation and algae
An illustration of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum feeding on brown algae at low tide (Image credit: Getty Images/Sergey Krasovskiy)
1) Which dinosaur had the longest neck?

Amongst the long-necked dinosaurs, such as the Sauroposeidon and the  Diplodocus, there’s one with a neck longer than the rest. With a neck measuring up to 15 metres (approx 49 feet) long, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum would have had no trouble munching on tree tops. 

2) What is the smallest dinosaur? 

In contrast, one of the smallest dinosaurs to exist on Earth was Oculudentavis. Originally, scientists attributed the fossil evidence, which included a skull less than two centimetres (approx 0.7 inches) long, to a bird-like animal, estimated to be around two grams (approx 0.07 ounces) in weight. This would have made them smaller than the smallest bird species alive today, the bee hummingbird. However, after further investigation, its anatomy has been attributed to a scaly lizard-like animal, more closely related to lepidosaurs rather than avian dinosaurs.

Related:  Top 10 deadliest dinosaurs 

3) Have we found all of the dinosaurs?

A new species of dinosaur is named approximately every two weeks, based on fossil evidence. However, it’s estimated that around 76 per cent of all non-avian dinosaurs are yet to be discovered. A 2006 study estimates that scientists will have discovered 90 per cent of ‘discoverable genera’ in the next 100 to 140 years.  

4) Feathered friends?

Contrary to their portrayal in films, many dinosaurs were actually feathered like birds, with the Sinosauropteryx being the first to be un-earthed by palaeontologists back in 1996. 

A 3D illustration of the feathered Sinosauropteryx dinosaur standing on its two legs and extending its long striped tail
A 3D illustration of the Sinosauropteryx dinosaur (Image credit: Getty Images/ Nobumichi Tamura/Stocktrek Images)

Related: Modern-day dinosaurs: Meet the mass extinction survivors 

5) Velociraptor myths

The Velociraptor, made famous by the Jurassic Park films, was not actually as big as it was portrayed, standing at around 1.82 metres (approx six feet) long and only 0.5 metres (approx 1.9 feet) high.

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