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Theropod facts for kids

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Theropods
Temporal range:
Late TriassicPresent, 231.4–0Ma
Coelophysis bauri mount.jpg
Mounted skeleton of Coelophysis bauri, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Marsh, 1881
Subgroups

Theropods ('beast foot') are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs.

Although they were primarily carnivorous, a number of theropod groups evolved herbivory, omnivory and insectivory.

Today, they are represented by the 9,300 living species of birds, which evolved in the Upper Jurassic from small feathered coelurosaurian dinosaurs.

Among the features linking theropods to birds are bipedalism, the three-toed foot, a furcula (wishbone), air-filled bones, feathers and brooding of the eggs.

Proto-theropods

Theropods first appear in the earliest part of the Upper Triassic about 230 million years ago. They were the sole large terrestrial carnivores from the Lower Jurassic until the close of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago.

The earliest and most primitive of the theropod dinosaurs were:

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Theropoda para niños

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