Dinosaur 102: 15 more dinosaurs new Dinomoms absolutely must know

With roughly 700 valid species of dinosaurs so far identified and an average of more than 45 dinosaurs discovered each year since 2003, we’ve only scratched the surface in Dinosaur 101.

Let’s scratch some more, with a few dinosaurs with claws, spikes or horns to help!

Enter Dinosaur 102: a longer list of dinosaurs you need to know as a new Dinomom to impress your little dinosaur fan.

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Take Dinosaur 101 first

If you haven’t read it already, we recommend you go back and take Dinosaur 101 first. It introduces the most famous dinosaur of all, the T-Rex.

Seriously, even if you know all about the Tyrannosaurus, the post explains some basic terminology, which you’ll need for Dinosaur 102. The post even lists some of our favourite books on the topic.

We’d almost go as far as to say Dinosaur 101 is required (skim) reading for Dinosaur 102.

Why you need to know the Dinosaur 102 dinosaurs

The Dinosaur 102 dinosaurs are some of the most common dinosaurs according to google. It was easy to find toys for each of them. We’ve seen them frequently at dinosaur parks and in books. Even if you are a new Dinomum or D-Rex, you have probably already encountered some of them.

If you are a new Dinomum or D-Rex, you might not yet know the names of these Dinosaur 102 dinosaurs, how to recognise them or what they ate. But trust me, your little dinosaur fan will look at you strangely if you try to let an Apatosaurus eat a Troodon…

If your child has decided dinosaurs are their thing, you will need to become familiar with these prehistoric giants quickly to understand your fan’s stories, games and TV shows. Know your dinosaurs and your dinosaur fan will view you as chief palaeontologist or at least a great sidekick for all dinosaur investigations. And it will make field trips (visits to museums and dinosaur parks) much easier.

Why doesn’t the Dinosaur 102 list include dinosaurs from the Triassic?

No dinosaurs from the Triassic period make our Dinosaur 102 and even Dinosaur 101 lists. Let’s be honest: there are no dinosaurs from the Triassic period that you need to know to impress your little dinosaur fan.

Why?

The Triassic period (252-201 million years ago) occurred first, much further in the past compared to the Jurassic and Cretaceous. But it does not automatically mean fewer dinosaur fossils.

The Triassic period began after Earth’s worst-ever extinction event, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, which devastated life. Whatever the cause, the Great Dying wiped out around 90% of all species and took the Earth around 10 million years to recover.

As animal life began to recover, it looked nothing like it did before the Great Dying. A small, herbivorous, mammal-like reptile called Lystrosaurus was the most common land vertebrate. Amphibians like frogs and salamanders were just emerging. Between 250 and 246 MYA, Ichthyosaurs took to the sea and would eventually dominate the oceans.

Dinosaurs were not dominant

A diverse range of Archosaurs, including dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and birds first appeared during the Middle Triassic (240 MYA). A little later (228 MYA), the first pterosaurs appeared.

For much of the Triassic, dinosaurs were supporting players in an ecosystem dominated by other creatures. This would partly account for the low number of Triassic dinosaur fossils. By the Late Triassic, a shift in dominance saw the rise of dinosaurs and other archosaurs and a decline in mammal-like reptiles.

The first dinosaurs were small, bipedal creatures that darted across the landscape. They rapidly started to diversify and grow. By the end of the Triassic, early relatives of the Diplodocus, such as Riojasaurus, had grown to 9 metres long.

The Triassic ended as it started, with another mass extinction event 201 MYA. Volcanic eruptions in the Central Atlantic released so much carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide that sea levels rose, oceans turned acidic, and many species became extinct.

This spelt the end for all Triassic archosaurs except dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodiles. Instead, with less competition, dinosaurs began to thrive, grow and diversify.

Three reasons why there are no Triassic dinosaurs on our Dinosaur 102 list:

1. There were fewer dinosaurs. Dinosaurs did not start to dominate until the end of the Triassic period and they only started to really diversify during the Jurassic.
2. The Triassic dinosaurs are generally not as interesting (except to palaeontologists). They did not reach the sizes of a Brachiosaurus, they were not as prolific or easily identifiable as a Stegosaurus, and they did not instil fear the way a T-Rex can. This also means that toy manufacturers are unlikely to produce many Triassic dinosaur toys – and you don’t NEED to know about them as part of Dinosaur 102.
3. While you will find Plesiosaur and Ichthyosaur fossils in abundance at museums (e.g., in London or at the Senckenberg), there are fewer Triassic dinosaur fossils to see. I have only seen Plateosaur fossils (at the Dinosaur Park in Mönchenhagen and a recent addition to the Natural History Museum in Vienna). Only one Triassic dinosaur is a US State emblem (the Coelophysis is the fossil emblem of New Mexico). Even dinosaur parks that follow the timeline will have only a few dinosaurs and some early mammals and non-dinosaur archosaurs on display for the Triassic period.

This is Dinosaur 102, so let’s get to the dinosaurs!

After that brief sojourn, let’s get to the important Dinosaur 102 list of 15 dinosaurs you absolutely must know and be able to recognise if you want to impress your little dinosaur fan.

We’ll start with the carnivores this time, but still use alphabetical order.

To help you keep track, we’ve produced another “timeline” showing when each of the dinosaurs on our Dinosaur 102 list lived. You’ll notice, the Cretaceous is our most popular period. It is also the most diverse: a bewildering array of armoured, raptor-clawed, thick-skulled dinosaurs appeared.

Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus is a meat-eating theropod that lived in South America between 72 and 69.9 MYA. It was a smaller, lightly built version of the T-Rex and measured 7.5 to 9 m long and weighed at least 1.35 tonnes.

Carnotaurus is easy to recognise: it had distinctive thick horns approximately 15 cm long above its eyes. The name, which means meat-eating bull, alludes to the horns. We saw (the cast of) Carnetaurus fossils in Paris. 

The first and only skeleton of Carnotaurus was discovered in Argentina in 1984 (the expedition also discovered the Amargasaurus). Even though we only have one fossil, it is one of the therapod dinosaurs we know most about.

The skeleton was only missing part of the tail and a lower leg and feet, which had been destroyed by weathering. It even had the three hyoid bones in place and intact – unique for a dinosaur fossil.

Unusually, the skeleton was preserved with extensive skin impressions. We know from this that Carnotaurus had small (5 mm diameter) overlapping scales with some large bumps (5 cm diameter and height). It was the first therapod discovered with extensive skin impressions and a second expedition was carried out to find more. 

Carnotaurus probably had a good sense of smell, but less developed hearing and sight. It had short forearms, shorter even than those of the T-Rex. Despite the short arms, it was one of the fastest large theropods (scientists estimate it could reach speeds of up to 55 km per hour).

Giganotosaurus

Giganotosaurus is perhaps the largest therapod to have ever roamed the Earth. The “giant southern lizard” lived around 95 MYA in what is now Patagonia (Argentina) and was a taller, slimmer, older brother of the T-Rex or a larger Cretaceous Allosaurus.

Fossils of Giganotosaurus were found in 1993; these made up around 70% of the whole skeleton. Unfortunately, most of the skull, arms and feet were missing, making it difficult to estimate the size. A jawbone, tooth, and some tracks have also been assigned to the Giganotosaurus.

Giganotosaurus is estimated to have been between 12 and 13 metres long and weighed 4.2 to 13.8 tonnes. It had rough and wrinkled nasal bones, and a ridge-like crest ran under its eyes.

Giganotosaurus was the apex predator of its time and would have been quite scary. This is probably why it was included in Jurassic World: Dominion. It had a powerful bite and could close its jaws quickly, capturing and bringing down prey.

Last year, the palaeontologists described a new theropod dinosaur, Meraxes gigas, which was also found in Argentina. It’s similar in size to the Giganotosaurus and is one of the most complete skeletons of its type, teaching us much about its cousin Giganotosaurus, too.

Microraptor

This is one of our LDA’s favourite dinosaurs. She loves pretending to be a Microraptor, gliding and squawking between landmarks in the Jardin des Tuilleries in Paris.

Microraptor – the small thief – is a small, four-winged dinosaur discovered in Liaoning, China. It lived during the early Cretaceous (125 to 120 MYA). The dinosaur Cryptovolans is now considered to be Microraptor.

With more than 300 (!!) well-preserved fossils found, we know much about Microraptor. Together with Archaeopteryx, it provides important information about the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs.

Microraptor had long, glossy, black (flight) feathers on their arms and a diamond-shaped fan of feathers on its tail. Unlike the Urvogel, it also had them on its legs. This led Chinese palaeontologist Xu Xing to describe Microraptor as a four-winged dinosaur and speculate it may have glided using all four limbs for lift. Later anatomical studies have shown it might have been capable of powered flight and lift, too.

With a length of 77 cm and a weight of up to one kilogram, Microraptor was one of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs. It was an opportunistic feeder and ate small mammals, birds, fish, and lizards according to gut content found with some fossils.

Oviraptor

The “egg thief” may not have been a thief at all.

Oviraptor lived in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Asia during the late Cretaceous period (75 – 71 MYA). It was a small, feathered oviraptorid with a toothless, horny beak like a parrot. It had well-developed arms with three fingers with curved claws on each hand and long hindlimbs with four toes on each foot.

Oviraptor weighed between 33 and 40 kg and was around 1.6 m long. Rather than a long tail, Oviraptor had a pygostyle, a group of fused vertebrae, which we often refer to as the parson’s nose on birds today. The Pygostyle supported large feathers used for courtship displays.

Oviraptor fossils were first discovered in 1923. They were only 10 cm away from 15 eggs, believed to be ceratopsian eggs, and Oviraptor was interpreted as being an egg thief. Osborn even named it Oviraptor philoceratops because of its supposed preference for ceratopsian eggs.

Other findings of Oviraptors in nesting poses demonstrate that the initial fossil was probably brooding or protecting the eggs and not stealing from the nest when it got caught in a sandstorm or similar. Juvenile remains also indicate parental care.

Originally, Oviraptor’s diet was thought to consist of the eggs they stole. Now palaeontologists believe that the Oviraptor was omnivorous or at least herbivorous, and feasted on leaves, nuts and seeds. It may have also eaten small lizards: the partial bones of a lizard were found in the body cavity of one specimen.

Troodon

Is your child a fan of Dinosaur Train?

If they are, you will know the train conductor is a Troodon. He is portrayed as a wise, omnivorous, bipedal dinosaur with large claws on the feet and feathers on the top of the head.

Troodon (also written Troödon) was a relatively small, bird-like dinosaur that lived approximately 77 MYA. It was first discovered in Montana in 1855 but was thought to be a lizard for the first 20 years. Several specimens were found in Alberta, although these were reclassified as Stenonychosaurus in 2017. 

Troodon is Greek for “wounding tooth”: its teeth are different from the other theropods known when it was discovered. After a close examination of the teeth and bite, palaeontologists concluded the Troodon is probably omnivorous, like the conductor on the Dinosaur Train. However, teeth later found in Alaska suggest a diet of soft food, primarily meat (and not bones, insect exoskeletons or tough plants).

Troodon’s large, forward-facing eyes gave it keen vision for hunting at night. It also had a relatively large brain (cavity) for its size. That’s why the train conductor is portrayed as a fountain of knowledge: Troodons are generally considered to be one of the smartest dinosaurs.

Troodon fossils have been discovered in parent and egg clutches. Scientists believe Troodon produced a pair of eggs and incubated them in earth nests, even using their body heat for incubation.

Utahraptor

Utahraptor is one of the most terrifying dinosaurs of all.

As the name suggests, Utahraptor is named after the State of Utah, where it was found. Allosaurus is the official state fossil of Utah; in 2018, Utah, therefore, made Utahraptor its official state dinosaur. 

Utahraptor grew to around 6 m long and weighed more than 270 kg. Until the Utahraptor was found, experts believed all raptors were small and lived in the Late Cretaceous. The Utahraptor forced them to review their findings –Utahraptor was much larger and lived in the Early Cretaceous. 

Utahraptor was the size of a small T-Rex. It was bulky and had a large head. It was also possibly covered in feathers like other, smaller raptors.

Like the Velociraptors depicted in Jurassic Park, the Utahraptor had a large, retractable sickle claw on its foot, designed for cutting its prey. This claw was 24 cm long! It could be deadly, even for something as powerful as a T-Rex. Utahraptor was the much larger brother of the Velociraptor – and its claw was much bigger, too. 

Can you imagine what Sam Neil alias Dr Alan Grant would have to say about the Utahraptor?

Dinosaur 102 continues – the herbivores

This dinosaur 102 list would be incomplete without herbivorous dinosaurs. Apparently, around 65% of all dinosaur species were plant eaters, though carnivores made up only one per cent of the dinosaur population.

Logically, we need nine or ten herbivores on this Dinosaur 102 list to keep the balance.  

Apatosaurus

The Apatosaurus, or “deceptive lizard” is a herbivorous sauropod that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic (152 to 151 MYA). It is closely related to Brontosaurus, so closely that for many years, all Brontosaurus were thought to be Apatosaurus. “Deceptive” seems to suit!

In 1877, Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Bone Wars) first described and named the Apatosaurus. A miner found the bones in Morrison in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (the formation where they were found known as the Morrison formation). Apatosaurus fossils have since been found in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah and are often found together with Allosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus and Stegosaurus fossils.

Apatosaurus was 21 to 23 metres long and weighed 16.4 to 22.4 tonnes. It was a larger, stockier version of the Diplodocus with a small skull. It had a deep chest and forelimbs that were slightly shorter than the hindlimbs, but the sauropod could still walk 25 to 40 km per day (based on ichnites). Like Diplodocus, Apatosaurus could also use its tail as a whip.

Apatosaurus held its head elevated, with its neck parallel to its back. The bones on its spine were full of holes on the inside. This made the bones lighter and it was easier for the animal to hold its head and tail up.

Prior to this discovery, Apatosaurus was thought to be too heavy to support its weight on dry land. To compensate for their size, palaeontologists surmised that Apatosaurus lived partly submerged in water and fed on algae and other water plants. We now know they lived on land and grazed on plants at ground height, including ferns and algae.

Numerous fossils have been found, including fossils of juveniles. Compared to other sauropods, we know much about the Apatosaurus. For example, juveniles had proportionately shorter necks and tails than adults.

And it does not matter if you can’t tell Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus apart – they are so similar, palaeontologists couldn’t tell them apart for decades either!

Corythosaurus

Corythosaurus is the first crested “duck-billed” dinosaur on this Dinosaur 102 list.

The “helmeted lizard” lived in what is now North America during the Cretaceous Period (77 to 75.7 MYA).

Famous fossil hunter Barnum Brown discovered a nearly complete skeleton – including skin impressions – of the Corythosaurus near Alberta, Canada in 1911. (He was also responsible for naming the Tyrannosaurus.) More than 20 skull specimens have been found.

Corythosaurus has a distinctive crest on its skull. It resembles that of a modern-day cassowary or a Corinthian helmet – after which it is named. The chambers in the crest and skull indicate that it was probably used for vocalisation, to warn or attract a mate.

Corythosaurus grew to about 7.7 to 9 metres long and weighed 2.5 to 3.8 tonnes. Its skull, including the crest, is 70.8 cm tall.

Corythosaurus fed on conifer needles, seeds, twigs and fruits. Remains found in the stomach area of fossils confirm this.

Edmontosaurus

As the name suggests, Edmontosaurus was found in Edmonton in Canada. 

Edmontosaurus fossils are some of the best-preserved fossils ever discovered. The Senckenberg Museum even has an Edmontosaurus mummy with fossilised skin (and not just skin impressions)!

Edmontosaurus is a(nother) hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) that lived 73 to 66 MYA in North America. Based on fossils, it grew to around 15 metres long and weighed 9 tonnes. This makes it one of the largest hadrosaurids. 

Like me, Edmontosaurus preferred the beach: most of the fossils found were found on (what was) coastal plains.

Many of the fossils have been found in bone beds. This suggests they lived in groups and may have also been migratory. 

Edmontosaurus’ primary threat? T-Rex…

Kentrosaurus

Dinosaur 101 had the Stegosaurus. Dinosaur 102 has another, pricklier stegosaur. Kentrosaurus is a small Stegosaurus with extra spikes on the shoulders. 

Kentrosaurus lived 155-150 MYA in Tanzania (as German East Africa) where It was found by a group of German palaeontologists in 1909 and 1912. The palaeontologists discovered over 1200 bones from 50 individual fossils, but many were destroyed in WWII. The remaining 350 specimens and other findings from those trips can be seen at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. 

The name “kentron” is Greek for sharp point or prickle. I guess you could say it is a prickly dinosaur.

Kentrosaurus was a relatively small Stegosaur, measuring 4 to 4.5 metres in length and weighing 700-1,600 kg. Like Stegosaurus, it had a double row of plates running along its back and tail, with spikes on the tail called a thagomizer. The shoulder spikes were even longer than the tail spikes – in one species they measured 73 cm!

Maiasaura

Maiasaura means “Good mother lizard” which is one of the reasons why we chose it as the name of our blog. It’s our mascot, if you like. 

Maiasaura fossils were found surrounding nests and eggs at “Egg Mountain” in Montana (south of Choteau). Some of these were fossils of babies, still too weak to walk, like helpless baby birds. This suggests at least some dinosaurs including the Maiasaura looked after their young. 

Maiasaura is one of the only dinosaurs found at a variety of ages. Palaeontologists are convinced they had a huge growth spurt (I am sure many parents are familiar with those!).

The herbivorous hadrosaurs lived in the late Cretaceous (80-75 MYA) and grew to about 9 metres long.

And why is it “saura” and not “saurus”? The first Maiasaura found in 1977 was a female – saura is the female form. It was also the first ever dinosaur to be given a female name.

Coincidently, the Maiasaura is the state fossil of Montana.

Pachycephalosaurus

Do you know someone who is thick-skulled? Nothing gets through to them and you are continuously hitting your head against the wall with them (I know, this describes most 3-year-olds). 

Pachycephalosaurus means “thick-headed lizard”. It lived during the Cretaceous Period (70-66 MYA) in North America. It was a bipedal herbivore with an extremely thick skull dome – up to 25 cm thick. This dome was edged with bony knobs and spikes.

Pachy (a common abbreviation – the full name is a mouthful) is the largest of the bone-headed dinosaurs at around 4.5 metres in length and 450 kilograms. It could probably see well and was bipedal with long hind legs and a heavy tail. 

Pachy’s diet is still a mystery. Their teeth were small and ridged; they could not have chewed the fibrous plants eaten by contemporary dinosaurs. They may have lived instead on a diet of leaves, seeds and fruit. Pachy may also be an omnivore or even a carnivore. The most complete fossil jaw shows blade-like front teeth normally found in carnivorous therapods.

Most of what we know about Pachycephalosaurus comes from the skull. Still, it is not clear why the skull was so thick.

Did male Pachycephalosaurus ram each other in combat, like some sheep or oxen? Neck bones show this was not the case.

Did they headbutt each other’s flanks instead? Around a quarter of the bones show signs of an infection following a head injury, so male Pachys probably did butt their heads against something at least. 

Greater investigation of the skulls also suggests Stygimoloch and Dracorex are juvenile Pachycephalosaurus. All three have also been found together, supporting this theory. I think this features in the Dino Dana movie (which hasn’t made it to Germany yet).

Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus has a distinct, easy-to-recognise profile.

Parasaurolophus had a huge, elaborate cranial crest extending like a snorkel from the skull. The skull, including the crest, is 1.6 to 2 metres long. It was HUGE! 

The crest was probably used to visually distinguish between the two sexes, to signal to others and to regulate heat in the brain. It is not used as a snorkel.

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels has a replica Parasaurolophus skull, with the crest. Our LDA loved pushing a button and hearing the Parasaurolophus call as air was forced into the skull and crest. The museum refers to the sound as the Parasaurolophus’ “scream”.

Parasaurolophus means “like Saurolophus” or “near crested lizard”. Saurolophus’ crest is much smaller – only 13 cm long compared to the more than one-metre-long crest of the Parasaurolophus.

This herbivorous dinosaur (another duck-bill!)  lived in what is now North America and possibly Asia in the Late Cretaceous Period (76.5-73 MYA). Remains have been found in Alberta (Canada), New Mexico and Utah (USA). Fossils found in Heilongjiang (China) may also belong to Parasaurolophus.

Parasaurolophus grew to an estimated 9.5 m long and weighed 2.5 tonnes. It probably walked on 4 legs but could run (or reach food) on two. It was a more “selective” eater than other Hadrosaurs (i.e. it was a picky eater, like our LDA!).

Have you seen the bioluminescent Parasaurolophus in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous? 

Styracosaurus

The “spiked lizard” is very ornate.

A close cousin of Triceratops, Styracosaurus had four long spikes or horns extending from its neck frill, smaller homes on each cheek and a single horn on its nose which may have been up to 60 cm long. Some had a third pair of frill spikes, while others had hooks on their frill. Yes, it was ornate!

No one knows the reason for the horns. Were they used for combat? Why then were there so many spikes? Did they identify individuals, like the antler on a deer?

And what about the large frill? Did it help regulate the temperature, like the ears of an elephant? Or was it used in sexual display?

The herbivorous dinosaur was a relatively large ceratopsian and resembled a rhinoceros. It grew to 5 to 5.5 metres long and stood around 1.8 metres tall, with short legs, a bulky body, and a relatively short tail. Styracosaurus weighed about 1.8 to 2.7 tonnes.

Styracosaurus was discovered at the Dinosaur Park Formation near Alberta in Canada and named in 1913. Twenty-two years later, a team from the Ontario Museum revisited the site and more of the same skeleton. The bone beds suggest Styracosaurus may have been a herd animal, travelling in large groups.

Styracosaurus lived in the Cretaceous, about 75.5 to 74.5 MYA.

Therizinosaurus

Strange-looking Therizinosaurus is easy to recognise. Its appearance in Jurassic World: Dominion makes it worthy of inclusion in this Dinosaur 102 list if only to clear up some inconsistencies.

Therizinosaurus lived in Mongolia during the Cretaceous period (about 70 MYA). It was discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1948 and named by Evgeny Maleev in 1954. He thought it was a large turtle-like reptile (to his defence, many turtle fossils were found at the same site).

The “scythe lizard” has three gigantic claw bones on each hand. They are the longest of any land animal, reaching more than 50 cm in length. The claws were stiff and long and curved at the end.

Though intimidating, the claws were fragile. They were more useful for pulling vegetation than for attack or defence. They probably weren’t strong enough for Theizinosaurus to play the role it did at the end of Jurassic World: Dominion.

Therizinosaurus grew up to 9 or 10 metres long and 4 to 5 metres tall. It may have weighed more than 5 tonnes. Each of its arms, including claws, was 2.4 metres long.

Therizinosaurus was a herbivore. It walked on its two long hindlegs and was slow-moving. Its long neck – nearly 3 times the length of its humerus – allowed it to graze on vegetation high in the trees. Therizinosaurus had a relatively small head, a horny beak and a big belly to break down its food.

Dinosaur 102: Enjoy the dinosaur investigations!

With 12 dinosaurs from our Dinosaur 101 list and 15 from this Dinosaur 102 list, you now have 27 dinosaurs that you can identify and name. And you know all about their spikes and claws and horns. This knowledge will impress your little dinosaur fan during future dinosaur investigations and activities.

Should we do a dinosaur 103? Or perhaps Dinosaur 201, with some more unusual dinosaurs?

How many of the dinosaurs on this dinosaur 102 list have you come across?

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