The range of dinosaur morphology
There's a lot of dinosaurs out there. It can be hard to know them all. Plus, a lot of them look more-or-less the same as each other. So I went through and selected fifty dinosaurs that pretty much cover the range of shapes you can get. If all you are interested in is what the dinosaur looked like, rather than when and where it lived, this list provides an example of every "type" of dinosaur, where two dinosaurs are considered the same type if I couldn't tell the difference between their sillhouettes.
The names given here are usually Genus names, with a few exceptions. Click on the name to see a Google Image search, which is the best way to see a variety of interpretations.
Therapods:
Tyrannosaurus Rex: Massive size, powerful jaws with banana-sized teeth, disproportionately small arms.
Allosaurus: A more typical large therapod. A little longer arms, less robust, but still really scary.
Spinosaurus: Enormous neural spines forming a massive "sail" on its back. It was probably semi-aquatic and had a snout like a crocodile. The tall spines continued onto its tail.
Baryonyx: Large curved claw on its thumb, long crocodile-like snout.
Carnotaurus: Two forward-curving horns above its eyes.
Dilophosaurus: Two thin, bony crests running along the top of its snout. Jurassic Park gave this the ability to shoot acid and a crest that opened up like a lizard-- both unsupported by the fossil record.
Yutyrannus: This is a tyrannosaur, like T. Rex but somewhat smaller and covered all over with feathers.
Oviraptor: Bony crest on head, feathered body, nesting behavior, a toothless parrot beak. They called it oviraptor because they thought it was stealing the eggs, but actually it was sitting on its own eggs.
Gallimimus: Long, slender neck and legs, small, toothless beak (ostrich-like appearance).
Therizinosaurus: Extremely long, scythe-like claws on its forelimbs.
Compsognathus: One of the smallest known non-avian dinosaurs, roughly the size of a chicken.
Raptors (dromaeosaurs, a type of therapod)
Velociraptor: Sickle-shaped claw on the second toe, relatively large brain size. But little, like dog sized.
Deinonychus and Utahraptor: Like Velociraptor but big, like in Jurassic Park, still covered in feathers.
Hadrosaurs (duckbills)
Parasaurolophus: Long, curved, tube-like crest extending backward from the top of its head.
Corythosaurus: Tall, plate-like crest on its head resembling a Corinthian helmet.
Lambeosaurus: Hollow, hatchet-shaped crest on its head.
Tsintaosaurus: Horn-like projection on the top of its head.
Maiasaura: Typical duckbill (no crest) but known to take care of its nest.
Edmontosaurus: A giant duckbill, like Maiasaura but T-Rex size.
Iguanodon: Large thumb spike, toothless beak, sometimes bipedal. Not really a duckbill, but related.
Stegosaurs
Stegosaurus: Two rows of kite-shaped plates along its back, four sharp tail spikes (thagomizers).
Kentrosaurus: Smaller than Stegosaurus, with plates on front, spikes on the rear and tail.
Ankylosaurs
Ankylosaurus: Heavily armored wide flat body with bony plates and knobs, large bony club at the end of its tail.
Priconodon: A giant ankylosaur, 45 feet long.
Sauropelta: Some ankylosaurs had more prominent spikes coming out of their shoulders.
Ceratopsians (they have a frill on the back of their skull)
Auroraceratops: Small, early, walked on two legs, no horns.
Protoceratops: Small, without horns.
Monoclonius: One big horn on its nose.
Achelousaurus: Two horns over its eyes.
Triceratops: Three horns.
Diablosaurus: Four horns: two over its eyes, two on top of the frill.
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