When talking about dinosaurs, it is always meant to refer to their “abrupt” extinction when they were annihilated by a large meteorite impact on Earth 66 million years ago. However, its origins are less well known. For this reason, we want to tell you now about the history of the origin of dinosaurs with its most curious data.
The history of the origin of dinosaurs: the most curious facts
Although it has never been possible to prove the exact data on the origin of dinosaurs, several studies and investigations in this regard have tried to find an answer as detailed as possible. Therefore, we know that the origin of the dinosaurs occurred in the early Triassic, about 245 million years ago.
At first few were the specimens or species of dinosaurs that inhabited the Earth and apparently occupied a territory of the most surprising. According to a study that was published in 2017 in the journal Nature and carried out by the University of Cambridge, the first dinosaurs seem to have originated in the northern hemisphere specifically, in the territory now occupied by the United Kingdom.
Little by little they expanded throughout the Jurassic period , until they disappeared forever in the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago.
What were the first dinosaurs like?
From the different fossil remains that have been located in different areas of the world but especially in areas of the northern hemisphere, it seems that the first dinosaurs were small bipedal predators . which fed both plants and meat. They were called saurischians and ornithischians.
Among the first saurischians we find the Eroaptor whose height was barely one meter, in addition to having a rather primitive skull. Herrerasaurus was of the same species, also considered one of the first dinosaurs to inhabit the Earth, which was nevertheless much larger: 3 meters high and weighing 250 kilos.
During the second half of the Triassic period, saurischians began to grow progressively, both in size and number, while ornithischians began to diversify when the Jurassic period began.
We can say in general that dinosaurs originate immediately after the deepest mass extinction in history, more than 245 million years ago, they diversify after the Carnian Pluvial Episode, but become dominant in terrestrial faunas only later, ago about 200 million years ago , when they extinguished their main ecological competitors, the crurotarsi. Finally, 66 million years ago, dinosaurs also gave way to other fauna and ended up disappearing, as a result of the disorders caused by the impact of a meteorite.
