Undoubtedly! Dinosaurs were a variety of species of reptiles that managed the Earth for a period of over 160 million years, from the Late Triassic Period (230 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago). They constructed into an extensive number of species with various measurements, forms, and adaptations.
Dinosaurs adapted to a range of the preferences, including land and water. Some were bipedal, meaning they walked on two legs, while others were quadrupedal. Many dinosaurs featured distinguishing characteristics such as crests, horns, or frills, which were likely employed for communication, exhibition, or defense.
The most well-known event in dinosaur history is the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period, which is commonly attributed to an asteroid strike. This tragic catastrophe caused the extinction of most dinosaur species, paving the path for the creation of mammals.
Modern birds have been suggested to be the living descendants of theropod dinosaurs, which were tiny and feathered. Birds have since become the only dinosaur lineage that has survived. Birds are the last living dinosaurs. Birds were traditionally regarded as a unique superorder that developed from dinosaurs. However, most modern paleontologists reject the old method of categorization based on physical similarities in Favour of phylogenetic taxonomy based on inferred ancestry, in which each group is defined as all descendants of a certain founding genus. Birds belong to the dinosaur subgroup Maniraptoran, which includes coelurosaurs, theropods, and saurischians.
Matthew G. Baron, David B. Norman, and Paul M. Barrett's 2017 study proposed a fundamental revision of dinosaur systematics. Baron et al.'s phylogenetic research revealed that the Ornithischian is more closely related to the Therapods than the Sauropodomorphs, contrary to the accepted union of theropods and sauropodomorphs. To guarantee that sauropods and their offspring were still classified as dinosaurs, they re-defined Dinosauria as the last common ancestor of Triceratops horrid us, Passer domestic's, and Diplodocus Carnegiea, as well as all of their descendants. They also revived the clade Ornithoscelida to refer to the group that includes Ornithischians and Therapods.
Dinosaurs were the dominating terrestrial animals during the Mesozoic Era, particularly during the Jurassic and Cretaceous eras. Other animal species were limited in size and habitat; mammals, for example, were seldom larger than a domestic cat and were often rodent-sized predators of tiny food. Dinosaurs have long been recognised as a diverse group: approximately 900 non-avian dinosaur taxa have been firmly classified (2018), with 1124 species (2016). Estimates place the overall number of dinosaur genera preserved in the fossil record at 1850, with almost 75% yet unknown, and the number that ever lived (in or out of the fossil record) at 3,400. A 2016 estimate placed the number of dinosaur species alive in the Mesozoic at 1,543-2,468, comparable to the number of modern-day birds (avian Dinosaurs) number 10,806 species.
