Millions of years before the first human appeared, gigantic and fascinating creatures roamed the planet.

Some fun facts:
– The earliest known dinosaurs appeared during the Triassic Period (approximately 250 to 200 million ago).

– Not all dinosaurs lived during the same geological period. Stegosaurus, for example, lived during the Late Jurassic Period, about 150 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus rex lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 72 million years ago. Stegosaurus was extinct for 66 million years before Tyrannosaurus walked on Earth.

– Until recently it was believed that feathers were unique to birds. Recent discoveries, however, have unearthed evidence for feathered non-avian dinosaurs.

– In 1842, the English naturalist Sir Richard Owen coined the term Dinosauria, derived from the Greek deinos, meaning “fearfully great,” and sauros, meaning “lizard.”

– All non-avian dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago.

– Modern birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs because they share a common ancestor with non-avian dinosaurs.

– Based on bones alone, this is what modern animals would look like if they were drawn like dinosaurs.

So far, finding a dinosaur bone/fossil is still on my bucket list, but I did enjoy an attempt at drawing one.