The other day, I asked a little kid what he knew about dinosaurs… “Dinosaurs are very powerful and they have strong jaws,” he answered confidently. “When they stomp on a person, the person can easily die. They have sharp claws and can weigh one million pounds. They have big legs. A pterodactyl can fly and it’s got a beak so it can easily bite someone.”

Now while that might be cute and slightly true, it’s not 100% accurate and more than a bit out of date. But it does go to show that no matter your age, you probably know a thing or two about the giant prehistoric reptiles that once roamed earth.

To learn some more (factual) information about the reptiles that inspired the tattoos featured here, Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Kimberley Chapelle. She’s a vertebrate paleontologist and assistant professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Anatomical Sciences. She’s so clued up that she once helped unearth a new species of dinosaur. More on that later... 

First, I wanted to know if Chapelle had any dinosaur tattoos of her own. Despite being a walking dinosaur thesaurus, Chapelle revealed that she doesn’t. "I don't have any tattoos. But if I were to get one, it would be one of a proudly South African dinosaur!” she exclaimed. Born and bred in South Africa, the scientist’s work has taken her around the world.

Chapelle told me she always knew she wanted a career in science, and was particularly interested in anatomy and evolution. “I took an introduction to paleontology class in my 3rd year of undergrad, and I was hooked. I went up to the professor at the end of the first lecture and asked about postgraduate opportunities,” she said. It was a decision that shaped her future.

In 2017, she set off for Zimbabwe on a dangerous and daring mission to dig for dinosaurs. “I was lucky enough to be part of the team that did some field work in Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe back in 2017 and 2018. Lake Kariba is the world's largest (by volume) man-made reservoir. We stayed on a houseboat (called Musankwa), which acted as our mobile laboratory,” she explained. 

“The fossils could only be found when the water levels were really low, allowing us to walk the shores of the islands. But far away from the water's edge, and only during the day because of the many crocodiles and hippos that inhabit the area.”

Crocodiles and hippos weren’t going to deter these dinosaur diggers from doing their work and finally, they hit the jackpot. “One of our team members, Paul, discovered the fossil leg of a plant eating dinosaur. We were all very excited! It turned out to be a new Late Triassic dinosaur species, which we named Musankwa sanyatiensis. This is only the fourth dinosaur to be named from Zimbabwe.”

The team estimates the dinosaur lived in the Late Triassic period around 210 million years ago. Musankwa sanyatiensis was one of the biggest dinosaurs to have lived in that era. 

He or she was believed to have been almost five feet tall at hip height and tipped the scales at 859 pounds. The long-necked dinosaur was also found to be a vegan who likely had family in Argentina and South Africa. In modern times, they’d probably make a really unique and interesting tattoo.

I asked Chapelle why she thinks people are still so intrigued by dinosaurs millions of years after their demise, and why some would even have the prehistoric reptiles forever etched in ink on their bodies. 

“Most dinosaurs are not like anything we see in the world today,” she answered. “They were so diverse, and came in all sorts of wonderfully weird shapes, and of course really impressive sizes!”

If you’re planning a dinosaur tattoo, 2024 might be a good year to get one. It marks the 200 year anniversary of the scientific naming of the first dinosaur ever discovered, as well as the introduction of the word dinosaur. 

It was coined by a British chap, who happened to be Oxford University’s first geology professor. “On February 20th 1824, William Buckland described the first dinosaur species Megalosaurus and presented it to the Geological Society of London,” explained Chapelle. 

The Megalosaurus was a giant, meat eating dinosaur that looked like a lizard and walked (or ran) on its hind legs. You might have seen him on some of the tattoos. 

People had been digging up dinosaur fossils since the 1600s. But without much knowledge of evolution, they had no idea where the huge bones came from. From dragons, to cyclopes, elephants and even human giants, the discoveries caused much confusion.

It was through Buckland’s research that the mystery was finally solved. Since then, around a thousand species of dinosaurs have been named. We can also sleep a bit easier knowing that fire-breathing dragons and one-eyed giants were mere mythical monsters. 

I went back to the little kid source to ask why dinosaurs disappeared. Again, he answered confidently: “Because there was an asteroid.” I needed a bit more than that so I turned to Chapelle. “We often hear that dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous when a giant meteorite hit the Earth,” she began, backing up the kid's short explanation.

“During their time on Earth, dinosaurs experienced several mass extinctions. The most famous one is the end-Cretaceous extinction around 65 million years ago, which wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs. But way before that, around 201 million years ago, is the end-Triassic extinction. This led to the disappearance of ~76% of species on Earth," elaborated Chapelle.

"Although still debated, the current consensus is that large and widespread volcanic eruptions... were the cause. After the end-Triassic extinction, dinosaurs became the dominant animals on Earth.”

For those who just can’t bear the thought of never meeting a real, living dinosaur - fear not. Chapelle has this gem for you: 

“Dinosaurs are still around today. In fact, they are the most diverse group of land vertebrates. Birds! Birds are direct descendants of the group of meat eating dinosaurs known as theropods, which include animals like T. rex.” 

It turns out we need look no further than the sky, to be teleported back to the time of the tremendous Tyrannosaurus rex.