Not All Were Giants

Movies fixate on monsters, but dinosaurs came in a huge range of sizes. Body-mass studies put the typical species in the multi-tonne range — around the size of a rhino — yet plenty were far smaller. For every towering Brachiosaurus, some species weighed less than a turkey and made their living hunting bugs, cracking seeds, or scurrying underfoot.

Microraptor had four wings and was no bigger than a crow. Epidexipteryx tipped the scales at roughly 170 grams — about the weight of an apple. Small dinosaurs like these vastly outnumbered the giants, but they rarely make the movies. Building-sized beasts simply sell more tickets.