There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Yes I should have started this topic a long time ago... Because the herbivore dinosaurs are also fascinating, and we know clearly and really only a little about them.
Let us begin !
The parasaurolophus : ornithopod of the Late Cretaceous in North America, Alberta, New Mexico, Utah. Only known from a few specimens, it's on of the rarest hadrosaurid although famous through its look (exploited in the "Jurassic Parc" and "Jurassic world"serie of movies).
A very famous dinosaur: the stegosaurus ! Late Jurassic period in the Western United States and the Portugal (North america and Europa weren't completely separated...). Heavily built, the largest individuals can reach 9 meters long and weigh 7 metric tons.
Ankylosaurus: looking even more indestructible than stegosaurus. Very end of the Cretaceous period (from 68 to 66 millions of years) in Western North America. Measuring between 6 and 8 meters long, weighing between 4,8 and 8 tons.
Pachycephalosaurus: late Cretaceous in North America, (Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming). Able to reach 4m50 long and and weigh 450 kilograms. He had a short head covered by a bony dome.
Nice depiction of - feathered ? - pachyrhinosaurus Canadiensis: Alberta and Alaska during the Late Cretaceous. The greatest reached 8m long and weighed 4 tons.
Brachiosaurus: During a long time, this sauropod was believed as being the biggest dinosaur ever known. Late Jurassic in the Colorado River valley. Size: between 19 and 21 meters long, weight: from 28.3 to 58 metric tons. Hindlimb shorter than the forelimbs.
Dacentrurus, a very large stegosaur from late Jurassic/early Cretaceous Europe
10 meters long, weighs 8 tons average, and has very impressive thagomizers (knifelike as opposed to conical for most other stegosaurs)
A typical depiction of the old vision of sauropods we had: the brontosaurus (or apatosaurus) were too big to move onto the ground. Thus they lived in the water...
Brontosaurus: 20 meters long, 30 tons, Jurassic, North America...
The diplodocus (Jurassic) were slim animals: 25-30 meters long, 10-12 tons... Now that we have given up the vision of dinosaurs especially sauropods as being sluggish animals, we depict the diplodocids as being swift and above all as being endowed with a whip, a lash, by way of tail. Very usefull to protect itself from predators...
3 sauropods (brontosaurus ?) walking on the beach, onto the sandy ground... They have a gait similar to the extant elephants, except that their long neck counterbalances their very long tail...
Iguanodon: one of the first dinosaurs ever discovered and known (a pub in Brussels was called "Iguanodon"). Named in 1825, From Late Jurassic to early Cretaceous in Europa and North America (both continents were still united), 10 m long, 3,5 tons... The thumb being a rigid and conical spyke could be used as defense. The little finger, elongated and dextrous, could be served to manipulate some objects (? According to wikipedia...).
Modern depiction :
Old depiction: the tail dragged on the ground, the animal walking straight, right as an "i"...
Idyllic depiction of a mother stégosaurus with her cub... Something is perplexing me. The mother with her lone cub, like the extant mother rhinos or an other solitary mammal herbivore... But they were reptile, thus the stegosaures layed eggs. Did they keep their eggs ? In this case, they could be with several cubs after the hatching. If not, they abandoned their eggs and how did the cubs grow ? With their mother too ? How did they find back her ?
