I am an unashamed dinosaur nut. I had three different Time Life series on them as a child and if I had them today I would still read them. Dinosaurs are amazing and I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading about them.
In case you didn't know, Texas has been the home of plenty of the thunder lizards. Seriously, we have some of the best in the whole world on our list. Some of the great ones that once roamed what would eventually become the streets of Houston include...
Iguanodon Standing 30 feet high, the Iguanodon is one of the most prolific of the herbivore dinosaurs. They're found more in Europe than in America, but several good fossils have shown up in Central Texas. Footprints suggest that it walked on all fours, but could rear up and use the distinctive thumbspike for defense.
Panoplosaurus Similar to the anklyosaurus but lacking the club tail, the panoplosaurus was an armored herbivore of the Late Cretaceous period. Well muscled forelegs suggest that the beast may have been able to charge like a rhino and crush attackers with its spikes and bony armor like a cannonball.
Deinonychus Think a velociraptor, but nearly twice the size. Deinonychus sported the same pack hunting ability and the fearsome toe-claw of its more famous cousin, and regularly hunted the larger Tenontosaurus. Contrary to Jurassic Park, these dinosaurs were almost certainly feathered, though looking ridiculous didn't make them any less dangerous.
Technosaurus Are you a Red Raider? Texas Tech has its own Triassic dinosaur named in its honor. Unfortunately, only tiny fragments of skeletons have been found, leaving much of what it looked and acted like up to speculation. Paleontologists currently link it to silesaurus, a thin, dog-like dinosaur built for great speed.
Dimetrodon The Dimetrodon is not actually a dinosaur, though you'll find them in any good collection of prehistoric animals because look at them! Extinct some 40 million years before the first true dinosaurs walked the Earth, Dimetrodon is actually more closely related to mammals than reptiles or dinosaurs. The sail was once believed to be used in maintaining body temperature, but the latest studies suggest that sexual selection was the true purpose.
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