What are some fun dinosaur facts for kids?

Fun facts about dinosaurs for kids start with the name "dinosaur." This name means "terrible lizard" and comes from the Greek language. They walked the earth for 160 million years during the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Dinosaurs, which spanned the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous periods.

The first dinosaur to be named was the Megalosaurus in 1824. Among the largest of all the dinosaurs, the Brachiosaurus and the Apatosaurus were herbivores. Other smaller herbivores such as the Stegosaurus and the Triceratops employed natural weapons on their bodies such as spikes, head shields and horns. The modern descendants of dinosaurs are birds, which evolved from theropods, a type of dinosaur.