Classification

The kindergarten children had been gaining interest in the types of dinosaurs that we were studying. In one of the most recent reference books we were using, it described the new way of classifying them - by using the type of hip. We studied this and then attempted to show our learning by making a huge mural.

The first category was the Lizard-Hipped dinosaurs known as

Saurichians

(pronounced so-ree-chee-ens)

The first type of lizard hipped, or saurichian, was the theropod group. This includes the meat-eaters like T-Rex, small dinosaurs like Compsognathus, and the ostrich dinosaurs, like Struthiomimus.

The second type of lizard hipped, or saurichian, was the sauropod group. This includes all the "long-necked" dinosaurs, like apatasarus, supersaurus, and diplodocus.

The second category of dinosaur is the Bird-Hipped dinosaurs known as

Ornithischians

(pronounced or-nith-iss-chee-ens)

The first category in the Ornithischian group is the Ornithopods. This includes all duckbills, like Parasauralophus and Maiasaura.

The second category in the Ornithischian group is the Ceratopians. This includes all dinosaurs that had horns on their heads, like Triceratops and Protoceratops.

The last group of Ornithischian is the Ankylosauria, which included all the fused lizars like Ankylosaurus and Edmontonia.

Each of those groups can be subdivided further by looking at their attributes, characteristics, and by what food they ate.

Another way to classify dinosaurs is by the time period in which they lived. For example, they could be a Triassic dinosaur, or a Jurassic dinosaur, or a Cretaceous dinosaur.

In some of our dinosaur books, they showed the flying reptiles and swimming reptiles from those same time periods as being dinosaurs. We learned that they are not dinosaurs at all. We made separate categories for them, just to show the parents that they were not really dinosaurs!

Flying Reptiles

Water Reptiles