Recently in Dinosaurs Category

They ruled the Earth for millions of years - and now, a host of life-sized animatronic dinosaurs have roared into their new home at a zoo.

Twelve huge mechanical creatures arrived at Bristol Zoo Gardens where they will take pride of place in its DinoZoo exhibition for the next three months.

Emerging one by one, some of the world's most popular dinosaur species - such as the tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops and the long-necked brachiosaurus - were unloaded by forklift truck from three lorries and moved into the zoo.

The exhibition will give visitors the chance to get up close to the moving, hissing, growling and even water-spraying creatures alongside the zoo's 400 animal species.

The exhibition opens on May 25 and will run until September 2.

Huge plant-eating dinosaurs may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth's climate, research suggests.

Like leviathan cows, the mighty sauropods would have generated enormous quantities of methane.

Sauropods, recognisable by their long necks and tails, were widespread around 150 million years ago.

Dinosaurs may have gone out with a whimper rather than a bang from a massive asteroid striking the Earth, scientists believe.

New research suggests different groups of dinosaurs were declining at different rates before the impact.

It indicates that the creatures were not all suddenly snuffed out at the height of their reign 65 million years ago.

Laying eggs led to the dinosaurs' downfall after ruling the Earth for 150 million years, a study suggests.

The direct cause of their extinction 65 million years ago is believed to be a massive asteroid that smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico.

But it was the fact dinosaurs hatched out of eggs that ensured they could not survive the catastrophe, the evidence shows.

An ancient fragment of a skull from a 125 million-year-old flying reptile has unlocked secrets to how the creature scavenged for food, an expert say.

Dr Mark Witton, a palaeontologist from the University of Portsmouth, has re-examined the fragment which has been housed in the Natural History Museum in London for more than a century.

He believes it shows that the pterosaur was a scavenging, vulture-like creature which lived off the carcasses of dinosaurs.

Image via Wikipedia

When it comes to biting power, Tyrannosaurus rex was the undisputed king, a study has shown.

No living or extinct creature that ever walked the earth has been able to match the chomping force of the iconic dinosaur's jaws, researchers believe.

The findings, based on computer simulations, suggest that T. rex hunted large prey which it despatched with bone-crushing bites.

A dinosaur-age ancestor of modern crocodiles from Morocco had a huge armoured head designed as a "fish trap", scientists have revealed.

The extinct creature, dubbed "Shieldcroc", lived around 95 million years ago but was unlikely to have wrestled with dinosaurs.

Instead, it probably used its long flat jaws to ambush fish.

Millions of years before gardens existed there might have been blackbirds, research has shown.

A study has revealed new clues about the "first bird", Archaeopteryx - including the fact that it had black feathers.

Scientists used a powerful electron microscope to analyse a 150 million-year-old wing feather from one of the raven-sized creatures found in limestone rocks in Germany in 1861.

A dinosaur nesting site older than any discovered before suggests the creatures were caring mothers early in their evolution.

Scientists uncovered multiple clutches of fossilised eggs at the site in South Africa, many containing embryos.

They also found tiny footprints of hatchlings showing that young dinosaurs stayed in the nest long enough to at least double in size.

The nests belonged to Massospondylus, a 20-foot ancestor of long-necked "sauropod" dinosaurs that lived 190 million years ago.

Velociraptor used its famous oversized toe claw like an eagle's talon to pin down struggling victims which were eaten alive, according to a new theory.

The dinosaur's sickle-like claw was probably not employed to disembowel and dispatch prey, as suggested in the movie Jurassic Park, it is claimed.

A comparison with modern birds of prey indicates that instead it was a tool designed for grasping and restraining.