Types of herbivorous dinosaurs
The word “” comes from Latin and is a neologism that began to be used by paleontologist Richard Owen, combined with the Greek words “deinos” (terrible) and “” (lizard), so its literal meaning would be “terrible lizard”.The name sounds like a glove when you think of Jurassic Park, doesn’t it?
- These lizards dominated the world and were at the top of the food chain.
- Where they remained for a long time.
- Until the mass extinction that occurred on the planet more than 65 million years ago [1].
- If you want to know more about these great saurios that inhabited our planet.
- You found the right article of Animal Expert.
- We will show you the most important types of herbivorous dinosaurs.
- As well as their names.
- Characteristics and images Read on!.
The dominance of the carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs lasted more than 170 million years and spanned most of the Mesozoic era, from -252.2 million years ago to -66.0 million years ago. The Mesozoic lasted just over 186.2 million years and consists of three periods.
Now that you’re here, you may want to know a little more about the Mesozoic, the time these saurio giants lived, to learn more about their history:
Learn more about the different types of dinosaurs that existed in this other article.
The time has come to meet the real protagonists: herbivorous dinosaurs.These dinosaurs feed exclusively on plants and pastures, with the leaves being their main food.They are divided into two groups, the “sauropods”, those who walked with four limbs and the “ornithopods”, which moved to two limbs and then evolved into other life forms.Discover a complete list of the names of herbivorous dinosaurs, large and small:
You know some of the names of the great herbivorous dinosaurs that inhabited the planet more than 65 million years ago Do you want to know more?Read on as we will introduce you, in more detail, 6 herbivorous dinosaurs with names and images so that you learn to recognize them, we will also explain the characteristics and some curiosities of each of them.
We started by presenting one of the most representative herbivorous dinosaurs that ever existed, the Brachiosaur, discovers some details about its etymology and its characteristics:
The name Brachiosaurus was established by Elmer Samuel Riggs from the ancient Greek terms “Brachion” (arm) and “saurus” (lizard), which can be interpreted as “lizard arm”.It is a species of dinosaur belonging to the group of sauropods.
These dinosaurs inhabited the earth for two periods, from the late Jurassic to the mid-Cretaceous, from 161 to 145 AD.Brachiosaur is one of the most popular dinosaurs, so it appears in films such as Jurassic Park, and for good reason: it was one of the largest herbivorous dinosaurs.
Brachiosaur is probably one of the largest terrestrial animals that ever existed on the planet; it was about 26 meters long, 12 meters high and weighed between 32 and 50 tons; it had an unusually long neck, consisting of 12 vertebrae of 70 each.Cm.
It is precisely this morphological detail that has provoked heated discussions among the specialists, as some claim that he could not have kept his long neck straight, because of the small muscular raisins he possessed.In addition, his blood pressure had to be particularly high in order to pump blood to his brain.His body allowed his neck to move left and right, as well as up and down, giving him the same height as a four-story building.
The brachyosaur was a herbivorous dinosaur that supposedly fed on the cups of cycas, conifers and ferns, was a voracious diner, since it had to eat about 1,500 kg of food a day to maintain its energy level, it is suspected that this animal was gregarious and moved in small groups, allowing adults to protect young animals from large predators of , like theropods.
Following our article on herbivorous dinosaurs with names and images, we introduced Diplodoco, one of the most representative herbivorous dinosaurs:
Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878 named Diplodocus after observing the presence of bones that were called “hematic arches” or “chevron”. These small bones allowed the formation of a long band of bones at the bottom of the tail. In fact, it owes its name to this characteristic, since the name diplodocus is a Latin neologism derived from the Greek, “diploos” (double) and “dokos” (beam). In other words, “double do”. These small bones were later discovered in other dinosaurs, however the specification of the name remained until today. Diplodocus inhabited the planet during the Jurassic period, in what would now be western North America.
The Diplodocus was a huge four-legged creature with a long neck that was easy to recognize, mainly because of its long whip-shaped tail, its forelegs were a little shorter than the hind legs, so from a distance it could look like a kind of suspension bridge, it was about 35 meters long.
The Diplodocus had a small head in relation to the size of its body resting on a neck more than 6 meters long, composed of 15 vertebrae, now it feels that it had to be parallel to the ground because it could not hold it very high.
Its weight was about 30 to 50 tons, which was partly due to the immense length of its tail, composed of 80 caudal vertebrae, which allowed it to balance its very long neck.Diplodoco fed only on grass, small shrubs and tree leaves.
It is the turn of The Stegosaurus, one of the most unique herbivorous dinosaurs, mainly for their incredible physical characteristics.
The name Stegosaurus was given by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 and comes from the Greek words “stegos” (ceiling) and “” (lizard) so its literal meaning was “covered lizard” or “covered lizard”.stegosaurus “armatus” (armed), which would add an additional meaning to its name, being “armored roof lizard”.This dinosaur lived in 155 AD and would have inhabited the lands of the United States and Portugal during the Late Jurassic.
The stegosaur was 9 meters long, 4 meters high and weighed about 6 tons, it is one of the children’s favorite herbivorous dinosaurs, easily recognizable by the two rows of bone plates along its spine, and its tail had two other defensive plates about 60 cm long These particular bone plates were not only useful as a defense as a defense , but it is also believed that they played a regulatory role in adapting their body to room temperature.
The stegosaur had two forelegs smaller than the rear, giving it a unique physical structure, showing a skull much closer to the ground than the tail.It also had a kind of “peak” that had small teeth, located at the back of the mouth.cavity, useful for chewing.
Do you want to continue discovering examples of herbivorous dinosaurs? Learn more about Triceratops, another of the most famous thieves who inhabited the country and who also witnessed one of the most important moments of the Mesozoic:
The term Triceratops comes from the Greek words “tri” (three) “keras” (horn) and “ops” (face), but its name would actually mean something like “hammerhead.”The Triceratops lived at the end of the Maastrichtian, in the Late Cretaceous, from 68 to 66 AD, in what is now called North America.It is one of the dinosaurs that has experienced the extinction of this species.He is also one of the dinosaurs that lived with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, from which he was imprisoned.After finding 47 complete or partial fossils, we can assure you that it is one of the most present species in North America during this period.
Triceratops are thought to be between 7 and 10 meters long, between 3.5 and 4 meters high, and weighed between 5 and 10 tons.The most representative feature of Triceratops is undoubtedly its large skull, considered the largest skull of all terrestrial animals.. It was so large that it represented almost a third of the length of the animal.
It was also easily recognizable by its three horns, one on the bezel and one on top of each eye, the largest can measure up to one meter.Finally, it should be noted that the skin of Triceratops was different from the skin of other dinosaurs, as some studies indicate that it may have been covered with hair.
Protoceratops is one of the smallest herbivorous dinosaurs we show on this list and its origins are found in Asia.Read more:
The name Protoceratops comes from the Greek and is formed by the words “proto” (first), “” (horns) and “” (face), so it would mean “first head with horns”.This dinosaur inhabited the land between 84 and 72 AD, especially in the lands of present-day Mongolia and China.It is one of the oldest cuckold dinosaurs and probably the ancestor of many others.
In 1971, an unusual fossil was discovered in Mongolia: a Velociraptor hugging a Protoceratops.The theory that this position explains is that they would probably both have died fighting when a sandstorm or dune fell on them.In 1922, an expedition to the Gobie Desert discovered the nests of Protoceratops, the first dinosaur eggs found.
About 30 eggs were found in one of the nests, suggesting that this nest was shared by several females who had to defend it from predators; several nearby nests were also found, suggesting that these animals lived in groups of the same family or possibly in small Once hatched, the chicks should not be more than 30 centimeters long.Adult females brought food and defended the young until they were old enough to fend for themselves.Adrienne Mayor, a folklorist, wondered if the discovery of these skulls in the past could not have led to the creation of “griffins”, mythical creatures.
The protoceratops did not have a well-developed horn, just a small bony lump in the snout.It wasn’t a big dinosaur because it was about 2 meters long, but it weighed about 150 kilos.
The Patagotitan Mayorum is a type of sauropod clade that was discovered in Argentina in 2014, and was a particularly large herbivorous dinosaur:
Patagotitan was recently discovered and is one of the lesser known dinosaurs. Its full name is Patagotian Mayorum, but what does it mean? Patagotian derives from “patte” (referring to Patagonia, the region where its fossils were found) and “Titan” (from Greek mythology); On the other hand, Mayorum pays tribute to the Mayo family, owners of the La Flecha farm and the land where the discoveries were made, according to studies, the Patagotitan Mayorum lived between 95 and 100 million years in what was later a wooded area.
As a single fossil of the Patagotitan Mayorum has been discovered, the figures are estimates only; however, experts estimate that it would have been about 37 metres long and weighed 69 tonnes; its titanic name was not given in vain, the Patagotitan Mayorum yes.be but the largest and most massive being that has ever walked on the ground of the earth.
We know it was a herbivorous dinosaur, but Patagotitan Mayorum has not yet revealed all its secrets. Paleontology is a science forged in the certainty of uncertainty because discoveries and new evidence are waiting to be fossilized in the corner of a rock or on the side of a mountain that will be excavated at some point in the future.
We’ll end up with some amazing features shared by some of the herbivorous dinosaurs you’ve found on our list:
The diet of dinosaurs was mainly based on leaves, bark and soft branches, as in the Mesozoic there were no fleshy fruits, flowers or grass.At that time, the common fauna was made up of ferns, conifers and cycads, mostly large, more than 30 centimeters tall.
An undeniable feature of herbivorous dinosaurs are their teeth, which unlike carnivores, are much more homogeneous: they had earlier teeth or larger beaks to cut flat leaves and back teeth to devour them, as they are generally thought to chew, as modern ruminants do.It is also suspected that their teeth have had several generations (unlike humans who have only two, baby teeth and permanent teeth).
Large sauropods are thought to have “calculations” in the stomach called gastrotrocytes, which would help crush foods that are difficult to digest during the digestion process.This feature is currently observed in some birds.
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend you visit our Curiosities of the Animal World section.