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Your dinosaur questions answered
We called in world-leading dinosaur researcher Professor Paul Barrett to help us answer some of your brilliant questions about the prehistoric reptiles that dominated our world for millions of years.
Has every species of dinosaur been discovered?
‘Although scientists have now named hundreds of species of dinosaurs, new discoveries in the field and re-interpretations of old specimens in museum collections are leading to the recognition of more and more different kinds each year,’ says Paul.
‘At present, around 50 dinosaurs are named around the world per year, on average. This partly reflects fieldwork in new regions, the fact there are now more dinosaur specialists doing the work and the availability of new technologies back in the lab that make more detailed study possible than ever before.’
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Explore more than 300 dinosaurs by name, shape or when and where they lived.
Where are most dinosaur fossils found?
‘Dinosaur fossils can be found wherever there are rocks of the right age and type - in this case rocks dating from around 240-66 million years ago, during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods,’ explains Paul.
‘As dinosaurs lived on land, their remains are usually found in mudstones and sandstones laid down by rivers, lakes and sand dunes.’
‘To date, the most dinosaur fossils have come from the USA, Canada, China and Argentina, but significant numbers are also known from the UK, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, India and many other countries. These are places with long histories of study and many rocks with the right combination of features for dinosaur fossil preservation.’
‘As scientists explore more areas, however, it’s likely we’ll find many new fossils and the list of countries with their own dinosaurs will grow even longer than it is now.’
Discover how palaeontologists find and dig up dinosaur bones.
Why did Triceratops have frills?
‘Triceratops and other close relatives - which are in a group called Ceratopsidae - all have large frills that make up the back of the skull and project backwards and upwards to partly cover the neck,’ says Paul.
‘Such frills can be over two metres in length and these dinosaurs have the longest known skulls of any land animal, living or extinct.’
Triceratops was the largest ceratopsian dinosaur, about twice as long and heavy as an African elephant. Its large frill could reach almost one metre across. Discover which dinosaur was the biggest of them all.
‘It used to be thought that the frills were for defence, to protect the animal’s neck from the bites of large meat-eaters like Tyrannosaurus. However, this seems unlikely as some of the frills are very thin and don’t seem to be too strong.’
‘Instead, it’s now thought that the frills were for showing off - they might have been brightly coloured and used in display or maybe fighting contests with other Triceratops, in disputes over mates or territory.’
