A brief history of dinosaurs

By Laura Geggel published July 07, 2021

Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for about 174 million years. Here's what we know
about their history.

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The history of dinosaurs encompasses a long time period of diverse creatures. This piece of art is a reconstruction of a late
Maastrichtian (~66 million years ago) paleoenvironment in North America, where a floodplain is roamed by dinosaurs like
Tyrannosaurus rex, Edmontosaurus and Triceratops. (Image credit: Davide Bonadonna)

Jump to:

 What are dinosaurs?

 Types of dinosaurs
 When did dinosaurs live?
 What is the largest dinosaur? The smallest dinosaur?
 Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs
 Did dinosaurs have feathers?
 Could dinosaurs fly?
 Why did dinosaurs go extinct?
 Can dinosaurs be brought back?
 Additional resources
Dinosaurs were a successful group of animals that emerged between 240 million and
230 million years ago and came to rule the world until about 66 million years ago, when
a giant asteroid slammed into Earth. During that time, dinosaurs evolved from a group of
mostly dog- and horse-size creatures into the most enormous beasts that ever existed on
land.
Some meat-eating dinosaurs shrank over time and evolved into birds. So, in that sense,
only the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. (For the purposes of this article, "dinosaurs"
will refer to non-avian dinosaurs, unless otherwise stated.)
During the roughly 174 million years that dinosaurs existed, the world changed greatly.
When dinosaurs first appeared in the Triassic period (251.9 million to 201.3 million years
ago), they roamed the supercontinent of Pangaea. But by the time the asteroid hit at the
end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), the continents were in
approximately the same place they are today.