Dinosaurs refer to the closest common ancestor and all descendants of Triceratops, modern birds, and Diplodocus.
For the convenience of research, dinosaurs can be divided into avian and non avian dinosaurs. Among them, non avian dinosaurs only lived during the Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous) and were completely extinct 65 million years ago. And this entry mainly introduces non avian dinosaurs.
The robust limbs, long tail, and massive body are portraits of some non avian dinosaurs. They mainly inhabit forest or open areas on lakeside plains (or coastal plains).
In 1841, British scientist Richard Owen, while studying several fossilized lizard like bones, believed that they were left behind by some prehistoric animal and named them dinosaurs, meaning "terrifying lizards".
In 1915, geologists Dr. George D. Laudberg and Dr. R. R. Moss from the University of California discovered dinosaur fossils in Zigong City. In March 2022, the vertebrate research team from the School of Life Sciences at Yunnan University discovered the Yuxi dinosaur, which is the earliest armored dinosaur discovered in Asia to date.
