OUR ASTONISHING DINO FACTS ARE CLAWS FOR THOUGHT
NEW TV show Dinosaur with Stephen Fry starts today – and we’re celebrating with some monster facts about the prehistoric beasts.
The four-part series on Channel 5 will see him using state-of-the-art CGI to tell us all about the creatures, from the horned triceratops to terrifying T Rex.
Fry, who will also be busting dino myths along the way, says: “I’m a traveller going back in time and standing there, down and dirty, in with the animals…”
JAMES MOORE reveals some freaky figures behind the ancient beasts… 1
The first dino named was Megalosaurus – it was initially thought to be a giant ancient lizard.
2
lbs. The weight of one of the smallest dinosaurs known, the chicken-sized Microraptor.
3
periods of geological time the dinos lived in: the Triassic, Jurassic and the Cretaceous.
5
ft. Length of the spines on 50ft Spinosaurus’ back. The largest predator, it ate fish up to 26ft long.
6
miles. Width of the asteroid that hit the Earth. It wiped out most dinosaurs and left a 110mile-wide crater.
10
ft. Size of the largest dinosaur skull, belonging to a Pentaceratops.
12
ft. How long Titanosaurus’ penis may have been!
15
inches. Length of the toe claw of a deadly Utahraptor, a bigger relative of the Velociraptor.
18
inches. That’s how big a dinosaur’s eggs could be. 23
letters, in the longest dinosaur name – the Micropachycephalosaurus.
33
per cent of the body of Triceratops was made up of its skull, which had three huge horns.
40
mph. The speed which the fastest dinosaurs, such as Gallimimus, could run.
46
ft long. Length of the longest dinosaur tail, belonging to the Diplodocus. It did 33ft-long droppings.
50
new species of dinosaur are discovered each year by scientists.
60
ft. Height the tallest dinosaur, the Sauroposeidon, could reach.
69
inches. Length of the biggest dinosaur footprint, of a Sauropod, found in Australia.
75
grams. Weight of the walnut-sized brain of the Stegosaurus.
80
years. How long herbivores like Apatosaurus could live.
Carnivorous dinosaurs could live to about 30.
100
tonnes. Weight of heaviest dino, the herbivore Argentinosaurus. It’s the same as 15 elephants.
197
feet. Length of Amphicoelias, the longest dino, it was twice as big as a blue whale.
700
the number of dinosaur species that have been unearthed so far, with more than 100 in Britain.
1000
teeth of the duckbilled Edmontosaurus. The T Rex had 60, eight-inch long gnashers.
1842
The year the word “dinosaur” was coined by British scientist Richard Owen.
40,000
calories. How much food T Rex had to eat every day. Its stomach could hold 500lb of meat.
60,000
newtons. The biting force of a T Rex’s 4ft jaw – that’s enough to crush a car door. 66million
years ago non-avian dinos went extinct. Some had feathers and today’s birds are related to them.
180million
years. How long the dinosaurs had been around in what’s called the Mesozoic era.
5billion
pounds. How much the Jurassic World movie franchise has grossed since 1993.