I love facts, so for each book release I will post some facts too. To kick things off, here are 10 delicious dinosaur facts (and factoids)…

1. The word Dinosaur comes from Greek and means ‘Terrible Lizard’.
2. Some dinosaurs were really, reaaaally big. Argentinosaurus is so far the biggest dinosaur ever found (although bones supposedly from larger animals were discovered but then lost again). However, none of dinosaurs we know about were as big as the Blue Whale, which is still alive today and thought to be the biggest animal that ever lived.
3. Modern day birds, yes birds, are not only related to dinosaurs but are considered by most scientists to be actual dinosaurs (or evolved from them). They are referred to as avian dinosaurs.
4. Dinosaurs lived everywhere on Earth, even Antarctica (although it was less freezing back then).
5. The large plate on the back of a Triceratops’ head is called a frill and is actually part of its skull.
6. Dinosaurs laid eggs, but this fact wasn’t realised until 1923. Egg discoveries had been documented almost 70 years earlier but they were mistaken for giant bird eggs.
7. Many dinosaurs would swallow rocks, which stayed in their stomachs and helped them grind up their food.
8. In the original ‘Jurassic Park’ movie (not the newer ‘Jurassic World’ one) only two of the featured dinosaurs (Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus) were actually from the Jurassic period.
9. A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a palaeontologist.
10. Like most other cool jobs, at some point during his childhood John wanted to be a palaeontologist but he didn’t like to get his clothes dirty, so that put paid to that.