The Weirdest Dinosaurs Ever Discovered

The long-necked dinosaurs were known as some of the largest and longest animals that ever had walked on Earth. They walked the planet for millions of years and some mostly existed in the late Jurassic period (154-153 millions years ago,) even though some of them didn't live in that same time period, some made appearances in other dinosaur eras. Sauropods are not predators, but they are more gentle herbivores where their long necks allowed them to reach vegetation that the other dinosaurs couldn't reach. They were able to reach the leaves high up in trees. The plants that they typically ate were plants like ferns, conifers, and cycads. When they would eat they didn't chew, they swallowed it whole and they used their stomachs to digest the food that they had eaten. They also might have swallowed stones that helped them grind up the hard plants that are in their stomachs. Their bones were light weight because they were filled up with air sacs which made their body light for their size. Many of the sauropods moved in herds, which was helpful for their young for the predators. 

The Apatosaurus were during the late Jurassic period and lived in North America. They were also called the “deceptive lizard” and it grew up to at least 75 feet long. Often times scientists often confused this dinosaur with the Brontosaurus for many years.They most likely used their tail for defensive purposes. Brachiosaurus front legs were longer than their back legs, which gave them the posture that looks like a giraffe. Diplodoucus was one of the longest dinosaurs which measured up to 90 feet long. It had a smaller body and a long whipping-like tail. Argentinsaurus is from the late cretaceous period and from South America, this was the longest dinosaur that reached 100 feet long and lived in the warmer environments and forest areas. 

One of the duck-billed giants is known as the Parasaurolophus weighing around 5.5 tons. They lived in what is known as today's North America during the late Cretaceous Period. As the years went on scientists have been going back and forth if the Parasaurolophus walked on 2 legs or if they walked on 4 legs. As we look at the dinosaur's fossilized skin impression shows that they had a scaly and pebbly skin. They are famous for their crest-like head that was hollow. The Parasaurolophus lived on a plant diet. While they were eating out of the 100s of teeth that they had they only used a few at a time while they ate. 

The scientists have believed that what they used their crest on their head for was for ways to communicate within each other, it was more like acting like a horn that produced deep, resonant sounds that would signal danger or help gather members stay together. They could have also used the crest for just display, even though there were different shapes of the crest that could have shown the differences in their ages and sex. Some of the Parasaulophus had longer, and more dramatic curves in their crests. Meanwhile some of the others had shorter and they were differently angled which is suggesting that their crest has played a role in identity and recognition within their herd that they were a part of. Because of this their crest was hollow and also connected to their nasal passages, which could have enhanced their smell or even adjusted temperature.

The Therizinosaurs is a towering, pot-bollied creature that was armed with the most amazing weapons in the animal kingdom. Their scythe-like claws had stretched up to a meter long. Which was easily way longer than the human arms. Their curved blades  were not built for slashing their prey but more for pulling down the vegetation, defending their territory, and fighting off predators. The western Australian Museum, their claws were more intimidating than the big Tyrannosaurs like Tarbosaurus bataar would be thinking twice before attacking these dinosaurs because of their claws. Even doing one wrong step could result in them being impaled by the talons. Even with their fearsome look, The Therizinosaurus was slow, plant eating giant.

When the in the movies the velociraptor wasn't the monster that people were thinking that they were, the size of the dinosaurs were more likely the size of a turkey that we use for thanksgiving, looked more fierce, and looked more like a bird that has been stretched out than looking like a reptilian super-predators. In the Natural History Museum, their bodies were covered in feathers, with wing-like arms and also have a long stiff tail that was used for balance, also having a narrow, toothy snout that looked more like a land bound eagle than it being a scaly pack hunter from  Jurassic Park. Their claws weren't being used for cutting open big prey but more for attacking the smaller animals, along with the modern raptors using their talons.

These dinosaurs are showing how wide and awesome the prehistoric life of dinosaurs was, ranging from dinosaurs with scythe-like claws, looking like a turkey, long-necked predators, to Duck-billed giants with trumpeting crests. From the long neck dinosaurs shaping their whole ecosystems, the crest headed paraselophus talking through having deep, echoing calls, and to the claw-armed Therizinosaurs protecting themselves with their meter long claws that are longer than human arms. All of these species had their own unique and weird ways to survive. Even with the Velociraptor being way smaller and being more like birds than what the movies told. Also shows how much the dinosaurs are connected to each other and our modern day animals. These discoveries that we have discovered have helped the scientist understand more deeply that these dinosaurs were living, interceded with each other, and grew over the millions of years that they were alive. Showing us that the earth’s past existence was filled with different types of creatures that were more complex and fascinating than what we have imagined.