Some represent entire groups of dinosaurs paleontologists didn’t know about and can alter the big picture of how dinosaur evolution unfolded through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.Įarlier this month, paleontologists named Iani, a new dinosaur from Utah, which belonged to a group called rhabdodontomorphs that was only recognized in 2016. “Not all of these new dinosaurs are just another flavor of sauropod or stegosaur, not just another type of tyrannosaur that differs from other tyrannosaurs by a tiny bump on its snout or an extra tooth,” Brusatte says.

And experts hypothesize that more dinosaurs remain unknown than have been uncovered. Paleontologists are rapidly documenting various non-avian dinosaurs that roamed our planet between 66 million and 235 million years ago-a span of time more than two and a half times as long as the post-Cretaceous history of our planet. While the 19th-century “ Bone Wars” are widely known as when many dinosaurs were discovered and named, the early 21st century is seeing the greatest dinosaur bone rush of all time. “One of my go-to lines whenever I’m giving a public talk or writing a pop science article or book,” says University of Edinburgh paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, “is that we’re in the golden age of paleontology.” Fossil hunters are not just uncovering new dinosaur species-they’re revealing entirely new dinosaur groups that were unknown even ten years ago. And as experts announce each astonishing species, the nature of the dinosaur family tree shifts. On average, a new species of “terrible lizard” is named about every two weeks from fossil sites all over the world. Paleontologists are uncovering new dinosaurs at an astonishing rate.

Steve the dinosaur online world record