Random Mind-Blowing Facts About Dinosaurs That Make Us Question Everything (27 items)

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  (#21) Many Dinosaurs Were Smaller Than Originally Thought

  While massive dinosaurs may get all the attention, smaller species were much more plentiful. The discovery of the Acrotholus audeti in 2013 resulted in a revision of the timeline created for small, ornithischian dinosaurs - or bird-hipped species. Researchers found evidence of great diversity among this specific group. For instance, the Acrotholus audeti had a more developed, thick skull. This indicates that it evolved from a diverse collection of older small dinosaurs. 

  Additionally, scientists have posited that estimates of dinosaur size have been vastly overstated, sometimes twice as big as their actual body mass. This doesn't mean that large dinosaurs didn't exist, but rather that most known dinosaurs species were smaller than portrayed. 
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  (#11) Scientists Still Don't Know Exactly How Dinosaurs Mated

  Because dinosaurs had a cloaca, researchers look to birds, reptiles, and other creatures with comparable features for guidance about how dinosaurs might have mated. The general conclusion is that, for many species, a male mounted a female from behind.

  However, for Stegosaurus, this wouldn't have been possible. This led to speculation that the males may have stood while the female rested on her side or that they met belly-to-belly. 
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  (#2) The Time Between The Existence Of Stegosaurus And T-Rex Is Longer Than The Span Separating Humans And Dinosaurs

  Stegosaurus lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period. Meanwhile, fossil evidence indicates Tyrannosaurus Rex lived during the Cretaceous period, roughly 65 million years ago. This means Stegosaurus was gone for 80 million years before T-Rex reigned, a longer span than the gulf of time separating T-Rex and humans.  
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  (#8) Humans Have Lived About 1% As Long As Dinosaurs Did

  Dinosaurs and humans never coexisted, and humans have been around for a small fraction of the time dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The Mesozoic Era occurred roughly 66 to 252 million years ago and is broken down into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, all of which featured dinosaurs.

  Alternatively, the earliest humans appeared about six million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. Homo sapiens emerged roughly 300,000 years ago, a mere hiccup in time compared to the almost 200 million years dinosaurs dominated the planet. 
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  (#25) Dinosaur Bones Were First Examined During The 17th Century

  The discipline of paleontology officially began during the early-to-mid 19th century. However, researchers had access to dinosaur bones much earlier. During the late 1600s, Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum keeper Robert Plot assessed an unidentified thigh bone, perplexed by its size. He surmised it was from a massive human, but in reality, it was likely a dinosaur fossil.

  During the 17th and early 18th centuries, scientists continued to encounter dinosaur bones, not realizing what they had. It wasn't until Richard Owen declared a series of unidentified bones as those of dinosaurs - Greek for "terrible lizards" - in 1842 that the now-familiar idea of these creatures began to take shape. 
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  (#24) Majungatholus Was A Cannibal

  There is evidence that Majungatholus Atopus ate its own kind. These carnivores lived on Madagascar during the Cretaceous period and could grow to more than 25 feet in length. Based on skull fossils excavated from Madagascar, teeth marks in the skull of one Majungatholus matched those from a fellow Majungatholus nearby. 

  The Majungatholus didn't only eat each other; they also ate other types of dinosaurs. This instance of cannibalism may have been an act of desperation more than aggression. 

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