DINOSAUR FAQ What is a dinosaur? What does the word "dinosaur" mean? Where did dinosaurs live? When did dinosaurs live? If I find what I think is a dinosaur bone, what do I do? What are the best sources of information about dinosaurs? How many dinosaurs were there? Why were dinosaurs so big? What was the "biggest" dinosaur? Are dinosaurs extinct? 2. What does the word "dinosaur" mean? The word dinosaur comes from the ancient Greek words deinos ("fearfully great", as in awe-inspiring) and sauros (a lizard). The name was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen, who knew they were not lizards, but thought that they may have been derived from them. Owen used the term deinos as a superlative. It was sometimes interpreted as "terrible" in the sense of "inspiring terror". Unfortunately, in more recent decades, this word has come to mean "bad" or "awful", a sense Owen never intended.
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