19 facts about dinosaurs

1. The longest dinosaur was Seismosaurus, which measured over 40 metres, as long as five double-decker buses.
2. The first dinosaur to be named was Megalosaurus. It was named in 1824 by Reverend William Buckland.
3. Blue whales are bigger than any dinosaur found so far.
4. The smallest fully-grown fossil dinosaur is the little bird-hipped plant-eater like lesothosaurus, which was only the size of a chicken.
5. The heaviest dinosaur was Brachiosaurus at 80 tonnes. It was the equivalent to 17 African Elephants.
6. Stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut - only 3 centimetres long and weighing 75 grams.
7. One of the most intelligent dinosaurs was Troodon. It was a hunting dinosaur, about 2 metres long, and had a brain size similar to that of a mammal or bird of today, stereoscopic vision, and grasping hands
8. Sauroposeidon was massive and probably grew to 18.5 metres tall making it the tallest dinosaur.
9. The tallest dinosaurs were the Brachiosaurid group of sauropods. Their front legs were longer than the rear legs giving them a giraffe-like stance. This combined with their extremely long necks, which were held vertically, meant they could browse off the tallest trees.
10. The oldest dinosaurs known are 230 million years old, and have been found in Madagasgar. As yet they have not been formally named. Before this Eoraptor, meaning "dawn thief" had held the title at 228 million years.
11. The speediest dinosaurs were the ostrich mimic ornithomimids, such as Dromiceiomimus, which could probably run at speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour.
12. Elasmosaurus was the longest plesiosaur at up to 14 metres (46 ft) long. Half of its length was its neck, which had as many as 75 vertebrae in it (in comparison to 7-8 neck vertebrae in humans).
13. One of the first dinosaurs was the Herrerasaurus. It lived about 230 million years ago. One of the last kinds was the Tyrannosaurus.
14. Quetzalocoatlus with its wingspan of up to 13 metres was probably the largest pterosaur, and hence the largest flying creature of all time.
15. The Largest Plesiosaur
16. The oldest dinosaur types are known from rocks in Argentina and Brazil and are about 230 million years old. (source)
17. It is believed that dinosaur extinction was part of a mass extinction brought about by two massive destructive events. The first of these was the collision with the Earth of a meteorite landing in what is now the Yucatan Peninsula, of Mexico. This was followed by an enormous volcanic eruption which split what is now India in half.
18. Approximately 700 dinosaur species have been named.
19. Galliminus could travel an estimated 35 miles per hour — faster than any Olympic sprinter. Coelophysis may have clocked in at 25 miles per hour, while Tyrannosaurus rex lumbered behind at only 15 miles per hour.