Standing 18 feet tall and weighing 15,000 pounds, Tyrannosaurus was the largest meat-eating land animal of all time. This bloodthirsty king of the dinosaurs attacked its prey headfirst, lunging with its monstrous jaws wide open, tearing great chunks of flesh from its terrified victims, dropping them in their tracks or bleeding them to death.
The tallest known animal of all time was the sauropod Brachiosaurus. A complete skeleton of a 76-foot-long specimen displayed in Berlin reaches 39 feet in height. But some bones have been found of an even larger brachiosaur that would have been 100 feet long and 60 feet tall! No predator dared to confront one of these giants
The largest, last and most wide spread of all the ceratopsians was Tricerotops. This well protected plant eater had a head shield, a parrotlike beak, and horns. In the case of Tricerotops the nasal horn was rather small, but the pair over its eyes were huge, up to 3 1/2 feet long. Two males might have locked horns like cattle, pushing and shoving each other until one gave up. Brow horns were also tremendous weapons for goring tyrannosaurus.
This hadrosaur's hollow nasal crest was composed of twin tubelike nasal passages. They extended as far back as 3 1/2 feet behind Parasaurolophus's head before doubling back along the underside to re-enter the skull between the eyes and above the throat. This resonating chamber would have produced an unusual low trumpeting sound.
Among the many Mongolian predators was the modest-size tyrannosaur Alioramus. On top of its rather low, long snout were six small jagged crests of different shapes. These crests may have been simply decorative, but if used during pushing battles for dominance they might have torn up a rival's hide. Alioramus was probably a hunter that preyed on smaller dinosaurs, perhaps the young of larger species. A pack might have dogged a larger dinosaur, biting at its tail and legs until exhausting their victim.
Like a giant albatross, Pterandon soared above the inland seas that once covered the grain belt of mid-America. Skimming the surface, Pteranodon plucked out squid-like mollusks, fish and other small animals for lunch. The catch was saved in a shallow , pelicanlike throat sack beneath its long beak. Like many later pterosaurs, Pteranodon had no teeth.
Eurhinosaurus was a giant slender-finned ichthyosaur shaped like a speedy swordfish. It's upper bill extended far beyond the lower one, yet both bills were lined with teeth all the way to the tips. Perhaps like the swordfish, Eurhinosaurus slashed its way through a school of fish or squid, mangling some, dazing others, then circling back for a leisurely lunch.