Ask The Science Experts

We’ll never know for certain, but the smallest dinosaur yet discovered is the Microraptor, a small bird-like theropod which is thought to have been about 18-24 inches long. Prior to this, the Compsognathus, another theropod was thought to have been the smallest dinosaur. Read the rest of this entry »

It is believed that the Brachiosaurus is the largest dinosaur that ever lived. It is also the largest species in which a whole skeleton has been discovered. This skeleton is in the Humboldt Museum in Berlin and measures 73 feet long and 46 feet tall. Its estimated weight is 35 tons, or about 70,000 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »

No. They narrowly missed each other on the evolutionary timescale. In this case, narrowly means about 65,000,000 years. Contrary to some creationist theories you may have uncovered if you searched for this exact term in your favorite search engine, there is a preponderance of evidence against their claims. Read the rest of this entry »

While many people today use the words interchangeably, they were actually two different animals. Paleontologists aren’t completely certain, but most think the mastodon appeared first and a side branch led to the mammoth.

The mastodon lived in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North and South America. It appeared in the Oligocene period (25-38 million years ago) and survived until as recent as one million years ago. A full-grown adult was about 10 feet tall and, like the mammoth, was covered in thick woolly hair. It’s tusks were straight and mostly parallel to one another. Read the rest of this entry »