What period did the dinosaurs live in?

Answer 1

Well, their whole period of existence was called the MESOZOIC period. The earliest dinosaurs such as Coelophysis, a predator, appeared in the sub-period called the TRIASSIC, from around 225 million BC to 190 million BC. By the way, Coelophysis was from the late Triassic. Then in the JURASSIC period (210 million BC to 140 million BC as they overlapped slightly), probably the best well known period from the movie 'Jurassic Park' (which in fact most of the dinosaurs in it came from the next period), then (again the late Jurassic) sauropods, like Brachiosaurus (you might know it as Brontosaurus, because it was discovered later and named again but the scientific name is Brachiosaurus) were widespread, so the Jurassic is sometimes known as 'the age of the giants'. Next came the CRETACEOUS period, from 135 million BC until 65 million BC, when all the well known dinosaurs existed, such as T. Rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus ETC. Now most of the sauropods had died out, except from the titanosaurians, the really big dinosaurs - like Argentinosaurus, one of the largest animals to ever walk this planet. But then in something known as the CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY event, then the dinosaurs became extinct, from known paleontological evidence as quite suddenly. So what happened? No-one knows. And we may never know. But we have some quite good theories, such as perhaps a meteorite, a huge one, around the size of 10km. Then perhaps another comet arrived, to tip the dinosaurs over the edge into extinction. But how would this affect the dinosaurs? Well there is a theory that the impact created a huge amount of dust, enough to block out the sunlight from the Earth. This would then kill plants, killing herbivores, killing carnivores. And the only thing to survive it were some of the smallest things on the planet, the things that could hide in tiny holes to avoid the dust... the mammals. It was the start of a new age... the TERTIARY age, which we are still in now.

Answer 2

Cretaceous period