INTRODUCTION 

Today, the world is full of wonderful mammals, living anywhere possible in the world. But of course, it wasn’t always like this. Once this blue planet was home do another remarkable group of animals: archosaurs. The most famous were the dinosaurs. Among them were huge 

reptiles that lived in the seas. There were also mighty pterosaurs that grew wings and took to the skies. It was a wonderful world to live in before that horrible asteroid killed the dinosaurs, giant reptiles in the sea and the remarkable pterosaurs.

But some dinosaurs lived, and maybe some are even flying around your window right now! In this book, get ready to travel back in time, when the world was ruled by dinosaurs.

—Baiyan Chen 

BEFORE THE DINOSAURS

Once, there were no such things as dinosaurs. They didn’t stomp with dimetrodon. Instead, the world was ruled by other strange and bizarre beasts.

THE CAMBRIAN was when a wide range of strange creatures lived under the sea. Trilobites scuttled here and there, jellyfish floated through the shallows, and dangerous anomalocaris—the world’s first apex predator.

THE ORDIVICIAN was a time when giant sea scorpions searched for food on the seabed and giant nautiloids peeking out of their straight shells, ready to snap up prey.

These nautiloids were orthocones, which hunted for sea scorpions.

THE SILURIAN was when little centipedes came marching out of the water onto land and chewing on the first plants. Giant scorpions, such as brontoscorpio, challenged the sea scorpions.

THE DEVONIAN is also known as the age of fishes, as many species of fish have been found in this period. However, a huge mass extinction hit the earth, killing most of the fish, such as dunkleosteus. 

THE CARBONIFEROUS was a fantastic time for critters. They grew giant, and dominated the swampy world everywhere you went.

THE PERMIAN was a wonderful period full of half lizard, half mammal reptiles which ruled the earth. Unfortunately, it also ended with a mass extinction, killing all the megafauna.

THE AGE OF DINOSAURS

A few lizard like sauropsids survived the extinction, then started to walk upright. And later, somewhere in the middle Triassic, they evolved into a group that would rule the earth: the mighty dinosaurs.

SPECIES OF DINOSAURS

Dinosaurs were some of the most successful animals of all time, but not everything living in the Mesozoic era were dinosaurs. If you want to identify a dinosaur, then it must be in the bird limbed or lizard hipped group.

THE TRIASSIC was when the first dinosaurs appeared. But they were not dominant. There were many deadly killers called rauisuchians that ruled the Triassic. The most famous is called postosuchus. It definitely wasn’t an animal you wanted to deal with.

NYASASAURUS

Nyasasurus was the first dinosaur. It was about 1-3 metres. This small dinosaur lived in Africa 240 mya, in the mid-Triassic period. Although small, it could probably still have took out a large chunk of you.

HERRERASAURUS

Herrerasaurus was the largest carnivorous dinosaur of the Triassic. It could grow up to a massive 4 metres(twice the size of a queen sized bed), and probably even preyed on small dicynodonts! Herrerasaurus lived between 234-215 mya.

EORAPTOR

Eoraptor was the first omnivorous dinosaur. No omnivorous theropod ever lived in the Triassic, so in strict terms, it is a sauropodomorph, the group that includes mighty diplodocus and gigantic argentinosaurus. Eoraptor lived 230 mya and grew up to 3 feet(1 metre).                                                

COELOPHYSIS

Coleophysis was a theropod that lived with postosuchus in the late Triassic. The world was either in the dry season, or wet season when coelophysis lived. This was one of the most successful Triassic dinosaurs, as they survived the great mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period.

THE JURASSIC was when dinosaurs became the largest, most dominant animals in the world. This was a time when some of the most famous dinosaurs appeared, such as allosaurus, stegosaurus, diplodocus and apatosaurus.

DILOPHOSAURUS

Dilophosaurus lived in the early Jurassic, when some rauisuchians were still around, but as prey. It was a scavenger, tearing flesh through the dead bodies of small dinosaurs.

EUSTREPTOSPONDYLUS 

Eustreptospondylus was a megalosaur from the late Jurassic period, 158 mya. It lived in Europe and probably scavenged on dead animals, like dilophosaurus. However, it also had razor sharp claws and knife like teeth, making it usually a ferocious hunter.

MEGALOSAURUS 

Megalosaurus was the largest killer of the mid-Jurassic, 170-158 mya. It had good eyesight and a strong bite force, that in some ways it was very similar to tyrannosaurus. Megalosaurus lived on the small islands of Europe, making it possibly a good swimmer.

ALLOSAURUS

Allosaurus was a 9 metre  giant killer, living in the plains and deserts of late Jurassic North America. Its prey included camptosaurus, diplodocus, stegosaurus and dryosaurus. It had lots of competition with saurophaganax.

CAMPTOSAURUS

Camptosaurus was a 6 metre ornithopod that lived 155 mya. Its super eyesight helped it spot predators that tried to eat it. Camptosaurus could also run fast to avoid danger. It lived with stegosaurus.

DIPLODOCUS

Diplodocus was giant herbivore from the late Jurassic. Unlike other sauropods, though, its long neck could not reach high because it was too heavy.

It probably fed on ferns on the ground. Diplodocus also had a whip-like tail, which it used to protect itself from predators, such as allosaurus.

THE CRETACEOUS was when the most famous dinosaurs appeared,such as tyrannosaurus and torosaurus. It was also the time when when beautiful flowers and small sprouts of grass appeared. The Cretaceous also saw the heyday of the dinosaurs.