Dinosaurs are vertebrates that have ranged from reptile-like to bird-like. Dinosaurs dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, from around 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, when all non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. Dinosaur remains have been found on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica, showing that all land masses were at one time connected in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Vertebrate paleontology has become a global science, with major new discoveries in previously unexploited regions, most significantly the amazingly well-preserved feathered dinosaurs in China, which have further solidified the link between dinosaurs and their living descendants, modern birds.

See also Edit

• Category:Pterosaurs: people often (but wrongly) treat pterosaurs as a type of dinosaur
• Category:Birds: birds are the living descendants of dinosaurs