Dinosaur World Records
Dinosaur World Records
God created dinosaurs on Day 6 of Creation. They are some of the most fascinating and interesting creatures that ever lived on the planet. Dinosaurs have gone extinct, like many other kinds of animals such as saber tooth tigers, wooly mammoths, and giant sloths. Even though dinosaurs are no longer living, we can learn a lot about them from their fossils. Let’s look at some dinosaurs that hold dinosaur world records.
Longest Dinosaur
As we look at these dinosaur world records, we must remember that we are trying to figure out these things from fossils. Sometimes we do not have all the fossil bones of an animal, and there is guesswork that goes into the numbers. For our record list, we will be looking at the dinosaurs that at the time this article is printed, most people believe to fit the category. In the future, new discoveries might change these winners. Our first dinosaur world record holder for longest dinosaur to ever live is Supersaurus. You could probably guess that its name means “Super Lizard.” And, wow, is it ever “super.” When you go to a fast-food drive-thru, they often ask you if you want to “super-size” your meal. They want to know if you want a larger order of fries or drink. Well, Supersaurus was definitely created super-sized. Based on the fossils we have, scientists estimate that this massive dinosaur could grow to be 135 feet long. Considering that the Blue Whale, the largest animal alive today, grows to be about 100 feet long, that makes Supersaurus look super long for sure.
Tallest Dinosaur
The Supersaurusholds the record for the longest dinosaur, but not for the tallest. The record for the tallest dinosaur ever to have swung its long neck through the trees goes to Sauroposeidon. This huge sauropod (large, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur) had a neck so long that it could hold its head 65 feet from the ground. That is higher than a six-story building. Imagine walking out of your balcony while staying on the sixth floor of a hotel and coming face to face with a Sauroposeidon. It’s name means “Poseidon Lizard,” and it was truly something to see. In fact, it was so tall, people who lived with them most likely could have seen them from half a mile away. You would want to be careful trying to put the first-place medallion for tallest dinosaur around the top of the neck of this lanky lizard.
Largest Dinosaur Tooth
Of course, a list of dinosaur world records would not be complete without including the Tyrannosaurus rex, also known as T-rex, whose name means “King Tyrant Lizard.” You might be surprised to know, however, that finding a category that T-rex is the top of is rather difficult. T-rex is not the fastest dinosaur, in fact it was relatively slow. It was not the longest or tallest. About the only record that we could find that T-rex holds is that it grew the world’s longest dinosaur tooth. With a massive, knife-like tooth that grew to be more than 12 inches long, T-rex could really give us a toothy grin if we were to take a picture of this record-holder for largest dinosaur tooth.
Dinosaur with the Most Teeth
Speaking of teeth, while the T-rex had a mouth full of about 65 super-sharp teeth, it was a long way from having the most teeth. What dinosaur in the past had the most teeth? Actually, there was not one species of dinosaur that holds the title. Instead, the record goes to an entire group of dinosaurs known as the hadrosaurids (or hadrosaurs), or the duck-billed dinosaurs, which include dinosaurs such as Iguanodon, Lambeosaurus, and Parasaurolophus. Did you catch that these dinosaurs are the “duck-billed” dinosaurs? You probably would not imagine that a group of dinosaurs that have bills that look like the bill of a duck would be the dinosaurs with the most teeth, but they are. In fact, hadrosaurs have several rows of teeth with numerous teeth in each row. These rows are called “dental batteries.” A hadrosaur could have as many as 900 teeth. Imagine having to brush and floss all those teeth!
The dinosaur that ranks second in the “most teeth” category is the well-known Triceratops. It had a turtle-like beak in the front of its mouth, but had numerous rows of teeth stacked on top of each other. Triceratops had as many as 800 teeth!
The Not-Smartest Dinosaur
If all we find are fossils of dinosaurs, how would we ever know which dinosaur was the least intelligent? Generally speaking (but not always), the intelligence of an animal is connected to how big its brain is compared to the size of its body. For instance, how smart would an animal be that has a brain the size of a golf ball? You would not be able to tell unless you knew how big its body was. An animal the size of a chipmunk with a brain the size of a golf ball would be very intelligent. An animal the size of a cow with a golf-ball sized brain would not be very intelligent. So, which dinosaur has the smallest brain-to-body ratio? That dubious honor goes to Stegosaurus, which had a body that could be 30 feet long and weigh 11,000 pounds, but had a brain the size of a walnut. To put that into perspective, squirrels weigh less than two pounds and their brain is the size of a walnut. It was a good thing that the Stegosaurus was big, had armor on its back, and spikes on its tail, because it was not going to think its way out of any trouble.
The Not-Fastest Dinosaur
Okay, you are right, maybe we should say the slowest dinosaur, but not-fastest seemed a little more fun to say. So, which dinosaur moved slower than all the others? Again, we need to remember that all we have to look at are fossils, so exactly how fast or how slow a dinosaur traveled is hard to say. Scientists who study dinosaurs, however, suggest that the Ankylosaurus may have been the slowest dinosaur on the planet. When you look at this creeping creature, it is not hard to imagine it being slow. It was about the same size as a Stegosaurus. It weighed 10,000 pounds and grew to be 30 feet long. But it had much shorter legs and was very close to the ground. With heavy armor on its back, a large club-like ball at the end of its tail, and feet set wide apart, it looks like an army tank. What was the top speed of an Ankylosaurus? This stout, squat, armored crawler could hit a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour. Humans can walk faster than that. We shouldn’t think too badly of this tank-like lizard, though, because many of the huge sauropod dinosaurs most likely did not travel much faster.
Some dinosaurs were fast; some were slow. Some had hundreds of teeth; others had no teeth at all. Some dinosaurs had huge, long necks, while others had little, short ones. There is one thing that all dinosaurs had in common, though. God created them during the first week of Creation. The Bible explains that God brought different kinds of animals before Adam so that he could name them (Genesis 2:19-20). He did not speak English, and he would not have named the dinosaurs the names we used in this issue of Discovery, but can you imagine how much fun it would have been for him to see these amazing creatures for the first time? The design, variety, and enormity of these beasts would have helped Adam know how awesome His Creator was. And when we get to study them from their fossils, we can see just how amazing our God still is, and always will be.
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posted by Believer | 4:07 AM
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