bipedalGetting about on the two back legs only. The earliest dinosaurs were bipedal, and so is every bird.
carnivoreA meat eater, such as Allosaurus or a living cat. Some meat-eating dinosaurs hunted and some scavenged. Lizards, turtles, eggs and early mammals were all food for them.
dinosaurAn ancient land reptile that stood on straight legs. Lizards and crocodiles sprawl, with their legs out to the side. Every continent has given up dinosaur fossils.
extinctWith not one of its kind alive, like Triceratops. Kinds of dinosaur died out all through their long history. Stegosaurus was gone more than 70 million years before Tyrannosaurus appeared.
fossilAn ancient bone, tooth, egg or track, kept in rock. Most kinds of dinosaur are known only from single bones or partial skeletons. Nothing becomes a fossil unless it is buried first, most often by sand, mud or ash.
herbivoreA plant eater, as most kinds of dinosaur were. On the menu were conifers, ferns, cycads and ginkgoes. Flowering plants arrived late in the time of the dinosaurs.
Show all 36 terms (30 more)
Dinosaur basics, continued
JurassicThe period of Brachiosaurus and the first birds. It lies between the Triassic and the Cretaceous and started about 201 million years ago. Its name is taken from the Jura Mountains of Europe.
juvenileA youngster, past hatching but not yet an adult. Mussaurus, the mouse lizard, was named from the tiny skeletons of juveniles. The adults turned out to be far bigger.
omnivoreNeither only a plant eater nor only a meat eater. The ostrich-like dinosaurs, most of them toothless, were omnivores or plant eaters. Most bears are omnivores today, and so are crows.
paleontologistA scientist who finds, studies and names dinosaurs. One who works on dinosaurs is a vertebrate paleontologist. The science covers all the life of the past and reads it mainly from fossils.
quadrupedalUsing all four legs to stand and walk. Stegosaurus, Triceratops and the long-necked giants were quadrupedal.
speciesA single kind of dinosaur, bird or other creature. Tyrannosaurus rex is one species. More than 1,000 species of dinosaur have been named from fossils, not counting birds.
Groups, periods and behavior 12
broodTo cover a nest of eggs with the body, as hens do. Fossils of Citipati, a feathered dinosaur, were found sitting on nests with their arms spread around the eggs.
clutchA nestful of eggs from a single laying. Dinosaurs laid eggs, as far as the evidence shows. Troodon, a small theropod, seems to have laid two every day or two until its clutch was complete.
CretaceousThe period that ended with an asteroid strike. It was the longest of the three periods and the time of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. The asteroid struck what is now Mexico 66 million years ago.
MesozoicThe era made up of all three dinosaur periods. It lasted about 186 million years and is nicknamed the Age of Reptiles. Flying pterosaurs lived in it too.
nesting colonyMany nests of one kind of animal, set close together. Maiasaura, a duck-billed dinosaur, raised its young in nesting colonies. Seabirds nest in the same crowded way now.
ornithischianA bird-hipped dinosaur with a beak bone on its jaw. Triceratops, Stegosaurus and the duck-billed dinosaurs were ornithischians. Birds are not: they come from the lizard-hipped side of the family.
predatorOne that gets its meals by hunting, not by grazing. Most paleontologists accept that Tyrannosaurus was a predator. Many predators also scavenge.
preyAn animal that has to watch out for hunters. Stegosaurus had spikes on its tail, most likely for defense against predators. The thumb spikes of Iguanodon may have served the same way.
sauropodA long-necked giant, such as Diplodocus. Sauropods ate plants and walked on four thick legs. No land animal has ever been bigger than the biggest of them. Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus were sauropods too.
theropodOne of the group of dinosaurs that birds belong to. Its members had hollow bones, walked on their hind legs and mostly ate meat. Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus were theropods.
trackwayA trail of fossil footprints made by one animal. The spacing of the prints lets scientists estimate how fast the animal moved. Trackways side by side suggest a herd.
TriassicThe period when the early dinosaur Coelophysis lived. It began about 252 million years ago. Dinosaurs shared the land with many other reptiles then, and most of them were small.
What the names mean 12
bronto-Thunder, the boom that follows lightning. Brontosaurus, the thunder lizard, was named in 1879. For decades it was counted as Apatosaurus, until a 2015 study argued that it is a separate animal.
cerato-Horn, the kind that grows on an animal's head. From the Greek keras. The horned dinosaurs as a group are the ceratopsians, the horn faces.
-odonTooth, one of the hard parts in a jaw. Iguanodon, iguana tooth, was named in 1825 for teeth like those of an iguana, only far bigger. Only Megalosaurus was named before it.
-opsFace, the front of an animal's head. From a Greek word for eye or face. Tri-, cerato- and -ops together make Triceratops, three-horned face.
ornitho-Bird, such as a sparrow or an ostrich. From the Greek ornis. Ornithomimus is the bird mimic, and ornithischian means bird-hipped.
pachy-Thick, the opposite of thin. Pachycephalosaurus is the thick-headed lizard: pachy- for thick, cephalo- for head. Its skull roof was a dome of bone.
-podFoot, the part an animal stands on. From the Greek pous. Theropod means beast foot and sauropod lizard foot.
ptero-Wing, or sometimes feather. From the Greek pteron. A pterosaur is a wing lizard and a pterodactyl a wing finger. Neither was a dinosaur.
rexA king, in the language of ancient Rome. Tyrannosaurus rex was named in 1905. The whole name means tyrant lizard king.
-saurusLizard, although no dinosaur was one. From the Greek sauros. Megalosaurus, the great lizard, was the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name, in 1824.
tri-The number after two, in Greek and Latin. Triceratops had three horns: one on its snout and one above each eye.
tyranno-Tyrant: a harsh, all-powerful ruler. From the Greek tyrannos. Relatives of Tyrannosaurus are called tyrannosaurs.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-12. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Dinosaur, Fossil, Paleontology, Herbivore, Carnivore, Omnivore, Jurassic, Jura Mountains, Extinction, Mussaurus, Bipedalism, Quadrupedalism, Species, Theropoda, Sauropoda, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, Ornithischia, Triassic, Coelophysis, Cretaceous, Chicxulub crater, Mesozoic, Predation, Fossil track, Clutch (eggs), Egg incubation, Broodiness, Bird colony, Maiasaura, Citipati, Stegosaurus, Iguanodon, Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Megalosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Ornithomimus, Ornithomimosauria and Pterosaur. The name parts were read in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/): -saurus, rex, tyranno-, tyrant, tri-, cerato-, -ops, bronto-, ptero-, -odon, -pod, pachy-, cephalo- and ornitho-, with the entries Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Iguanodon, Pachycephalosaurus, Ornithomimus, pterosaur and pterodactyl for how each name is built; bipedal, quadrupedal, juvenile, trackway, thunder and ornithischian were read there too. What makes a dinosaur, the upright legs, the three periods and their dates, the groups, bird hips and the beak bone, body and trace fossils and the dinosaurs of each period were checked a second time against the Age of Dinosaurs pages of the U.S. National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fossils/dinosaurs.htm, with What Makes a Dinosaur a Dinosaur, Major Groups of Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs in the Fossil Record, Triassic Dinosaurs, Jurassic Dinosaurs and Cretaceous Dinosaurs) and against What are dinosaurs? (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-are-dinosaurs.html) and When did dinosaurs live? (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/when-did-dinosaurs-live.html) of the Natural History Museum, London. Name meanings, diets and periods of single dinosaurs were read in the museum's Dino Directory (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/): Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Iguanodon, Pachycephalosaurus, Ornithomimus, Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus and Coelophysis. What dinosaurs ate, how they are named, trackways and speed, vertebrate paleontologists, Mussaurus and the gap between Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus are from Dinosaurs: Facts and Fiction of the U.S. Geological Survey (https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dinosaurs/), a pamphlet whose dates and counts are older than the ones used here. The fact after each meaning is from the same pages. Licence: own work
How it works
This dinosaur vocabulary worksheet lists fossil, paleontologist, herbivore, carnivore, Jurassic, extinct and six more terms down the left, their meanings in mixed order down the right. The last page is the key. It has no pictures to color or label.
Read the full guide
Groups, periods and behavior
Set opens on Dinosaur basics. The second set has theropod, sauropod, ornithischian, Triassic, Cretaceous, Mesozoic, predator, prey, trackway, clutch, brood and nesting colony.
What the names mean
The third set is twelve name parts to match to plain English: -saurus, rex, tyranno-, tri-, cerato-, -ops, bronto-, ptero-, -odon, -pod, pachy- and ornitho-. With them a class can take Triceratops or Pachycephalosaurus apart.
Cast, mold, amber and the other fossil words are on the paleontology vocabulary worksheet; the dinosaurs by name are on the dinosaur word search.
Questions and answers
What does the word dinosaur mean?
Terrible lizard. Richard Owen coined it in 1842 from the Greek deinos, terrible or fearfully great, and sauros, lizard or reptile. He meant the name to call up the animals' size and majesty, not only their teeth and claws.
How are dinosaurs named?
Usually after a feature of the body, the place where the fossil was found or a person tied to the find. The name is two Greek or Latin words, genus first and then species, built just as the names of living animals are.
Are birds dinosaurs?
Yes. Birds evolved from small meat-eating dinosaurs during the Jurassic, which makes them the dinosaurs that are still alive. When scientists mean all the others, they say non-avian dinosaurs.
What was the biggest dinosaur?
A sauropod. The longest known from good fossils is Patagotitan, whose mounted skeleton is about 37 meters, or 120 feet, long. Argentinosaurus may have been as big or bigger, but fewer of its bones have been found.