The real rulers of the eart were the dinosaurs, like we can see on these animated gifs here.

From the left to the right:

Left, we see a Compsognathus, out of which the birds developed at the beginning of Jura, next to this goes a Parasaurolophus, who belongs to the hadrosaurs with its strange head decoration; then a Brachiosaurus and finally a Triceratops.

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The rise of dinosaurs began in TRIASSIC, before 240 to 200 million years with creatures like the Plateosaurus:

From the left to the right:

On the left, we see a reconstruction of the Plateosaurus, the two next images show Plateosaur skeletons at Museum am Löwentor in Stuttgart.

More about Plateosaurus, you find on the page of the University of Erlangen

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In the age of JURASSIC before 200 to 140 million years, various creatures ruled the sea, the land and the air.

In the sea romped Ichthyosaurs, the fish reptiles, that we see here and the paddle reptile Thaumatosaurus (last picture):

From the left to the right:

On the left an Ichthyosaur-Fossile, at which one can see even rests of the skin, next to this a fiurther fossile of Ichthyosaurus. Left below a fossile of a female Ichthyosaurus at the moment of birth of a living young (such findings are frequent at Holzmaden) and finally an image of the paddle reptile Thaumatosaurus.

Findings of Ichthyosaurus one can see at Hauff-Museum in Holzmaden and at the Museum am Löwentor in Stuttgart.

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Between the land and teh sea lived the Steneosaurus, relative to present crocodiles and gavials:

On the left the skeleton of a Steneosaurus in posidonia slate of Holzmaden, on the right a present gavial.

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On the land lived the first little dinosaurs like the Compsognathus, out of which then developed the first birds:

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The Archaeopteryx was the first bird:

On hte left, we see the specimen, that is now visible in Berlin, then the exhibit of almost equal size, that is nowadays in London. The third image shows a specimen, which is visible at the Jura-Museum on the Willibalds Castle at Eichstätt. The fourth image shows a reconstruction of the primary bird.

An overview about all the seven specimens is here, on the page of the Senckenberg-Museum in Frankfurt/Main

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Near the end of Jura, the first huge Sauropodes appeared, which form our image of a "typical" dinosaur, e. g. the Brachiosaurus:

Of Brachiosaurus, that we see on image 1 and image 3, we have the biggest preserved skeleton, visible on image 2 and image 4.

This skeleton has been found in Tanzania and is at Humboldt-Museum in Berlin.

The skeleton has been recorded photogrammetrically, like one can see on the page of the TU Berlin.

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Further Sauropode-Giants of Jura time are the Apatosaurus (formerly: Brontosaurus), which we see on the left and the Diplodocus (right):

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At the time of these giants, 150 million years ago, also lived the Iguanodon, one of the first dinosaurs, that have been found:

On the left we see a reconstruction of the animal, on the right the skeleton, that one can see at Senckenberg-Museum in Frankfurt/Main.

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At this time also lived the able-bodied Stegosaurus:

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Their blossom had the dinosaurs at CRETACEOUS, before 140 to 65 million years:

90 million years ago lived the Triceratops, which was strongly armed and fought with Tyrannosaurus rough fights:

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And here the Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a heigth of 12 meters the biggest beast of prey of all times.

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At this time also lived the biggest animal, that ever ruled the sky, the Pteranodon, with a wing span of 7 meters.

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A very quick, little dinosaur, was the Ornithomimus, which looked like the present ostrich:

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At the end of the crayon time appeared the Hadrosaurs, which attracted attention above all by their head decorations:

On the self-made animated gif on the left, one can see some of the hadrosaurs. The next image shows the Parasaurolophus.

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