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Random Dinosaur Generator

86 real dinosaur genera, and all of them are in the table below. Press the button for one at random — you get the period it lived in, what it ate, roughly how long it was and the part of the world its fossils come from.

Press the button for a dinosaur.

no repeats until the list is used up

86 dinosaurs in this list.

All 86 dinosaurs on this list

Dinosaur	Period	Diet	Length	Fossils found in
Tyrannosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 12 m	Western North America
Giganotosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 12 m	Argentina
Spinosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore, much of it fish	about 14 m	North Africa
Allosaurus	Late Jurassic	Carnivore	about 9 m	Western USA and Portugal
Carnotaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 8 m	Argentina
Ceratosaurus	Late Jurassic	Carnivore	about 6 m	Western USA and Portugal
Velociraptor	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 2 m	Mongolia and China
Deinonychus	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 3.4 m	Western USA
Utahraptor	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 5 m	Utah, USA
Microraptor	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 0.8 m	Northeastern China
Troodon	Late Cretaceous	Omnivore	about 2.4 m	Western North America
Oviraptor	Late Cretaceous	Omnivore	about 1.6 m	Mongolia
Citipati	Late Cretaceous	Omnivore	about 3 m	Mongolia
Gallimimus	Late Cretaceous	Omnivore	about 6 m	Mongolia
Deinocheirus	Late Cretaceous	Omnivore	about 11 m	Mongolia
Therizinosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 10 m	Mongolia
Compsognathus	Late Jurassic	Carnivore	about 1 m	Germany and France
Sinosauropteryx	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 1 m	Northeastern China
Coelophysis	Late Triassic	Carnivore	about 3 m	Southwestern USA
Herrerasaurus	Late Triassic	Carnivore	about 6 m	Argentina
Eoraptor	Late Triassic	Omnivore	about 1 m	Argentina
Dilophosaurus	Early Jurassic	Carnivore	about 7 m	Arizona, USA
Cryolophosaurus	Early Jurassic	Carnivore	about 6.5 m	Antarctica
Baryonyx	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore, much of it fish	about 9 m	England and Spain
Suchomimus	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 11 m	Niger
Acrocanthosaurus	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 11 m	Southern USA
Concavenator	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 6 m	Spain
Mapusaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 12 m	Argentina
Carcharodontosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 12 m	North Africa
Majungasaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 7 m	Madagascar
Albertosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 9 m	Alberta, Canada
Tarbosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 10 m	Mongolia
Yutyrannus	Early Cretaceous	Carnivore	about 9 m	Northeastern China
Megalosaurus	Middle Jurassic	Carnivore	about 7 m	England
Yangchuanosaurus	Late Jurassic	Carnivore	about 8 m	China
Archaeopteryx	Late Jurassic	Carnivore	about 0.5 m	Southern Germany
Brachiosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 22 m	Western USA
Giraffatitan	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 22 m	Tanzania
Diplodocus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 26 m	Western USA
Apatosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 22 m	Western USA
Brontosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 22 m	Western USA
Camarasaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 18 m	Western USA
Barosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 26 m	Western USA
Mamenchisaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 25 m	China
Cetiosaurus	Middle Jurassic	Herbivore	about 16 m	England
Argentinosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 35 m	Argentina
Patagotitan	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 31 m	Argentina
Dreadnoughtus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 26 m	Argentina
Saltasaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 12 m	Argentina
Alamosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 26 m	Southwestern USA
Amargasaurus	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 10 m	Argentina
Nigersaurus	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 9 m	Niger
Plateosaurus	Late Triassic	Herbivore	about 8 m	Germany, Switzerland and France
Massospondylus	Early Jurassic	Herbivore	about 5 m	South Africa
Stegosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 9 m	Western USA and Portugal
Kentrosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 4.5 m	Tanzania
Huayangosaurus	Middle Jurassic	Herbivore	about 4.5 m	China
Ankylosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 8 m	Western North America
Euoplocephalus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 6 m	Alberta, Canada
Nodosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 6 m	Western USA
Borealopelta	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 5.5 m	Alberta, Canada
Scelidosaurus	Early Jurassic	Herbivore	about 4 m	England
Triceratops	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 9 m	Western North America
Torosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 8 m	Western North America
Styracosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 5.5 m	Alberta, Canada
Pachyrhinosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 8 m	Alberta and Alaska
Centrosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 5.5 m	Alberta, Canada
Chasmosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 5 m	Alberta, Canada
Protoceratops	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 2 m	Mongolia
Psittacosaurus	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 2 m	China and Mongolia
Pachycephalosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 4.5 m	Western North America
Stegoceras	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 2 m	Western North America
Iguanodon	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 10 m	Belgium and England
Ouranosaurus	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 7 m	Niger
Parasaurolophus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 10 m	Western North America
Edmontosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 12 m	Western North America
Corythosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 9 m	Alberta, Canada
Lambeosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 9 m	Alberta, Canada
Maiasaura	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 9 m	Montana, USA
Shantungosaurus	Late Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 15 m	China
Hypsilophodon	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 2 m	Isle of Wight, England
Dryosaurus	Late Jurassic	Herbivore	about 4 m	Western USA and Tanzania
Heterodontosaurus	Early Jurassic	Omnivore	about 1.2 m	South Africa
Lesothosaurus	Early Jurassic	Herbivore	about 1 m	Lesotho and South Africa
Muttaburrasaurus	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 8 m	Queensland, Australia
Minmi	Early Cretaceous	Herbivore	about 3 m	Queensland, Australia

Lengths are the commonly accepted adult estimates and are given as approximations because that is what they are — most genera are known from incomplete skeletons, and a new specimen can move the figure. Where a genus is known from more than one continent, both are listed.

How this list was built

Every name here is a dinosaur, which rules out several famous animals. Pterodactyls and other pterosaurs were flying reptiles, not dinosaurs. Plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles. Dimetrodon, which turns up in almost every toy set, lived before the first dinosaur existed and is closer to us than to Tyrannosaurus. None of them is on this list.

Birds are dinosaurs, and one is on the list. Modern birds descend from theropods, so strictly the group never went extinct. We have not filled the list with sparrows, but Archaeopteryx is here because it sits exactly on the line and is the reason we know the line exists.

Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus are both listed, on purpose. Brontosaurus was sunk into Apatosaurus in 1903 and stayed sunk for over a century; a 2015 study argued it is separate after all, and the argument is not settled. Rather than pick a side quietly, both appear and this note explains why.

The list is a genus list. Tyrannosaurus is a genus; Tyrannosaurus rex is a species within it. Naming genera keeps the entries comparable, since many genera have only one named species and some have several. Roughly 50 of the 86 are plant-eaters, which is close to the real balance — the giant predators are famous, not typical.

Sources. Genus names, periods, diets and fossil localities follow standard palaeontological reference works. Sizes are given as approximations throughout because published estimates differ between specimens and are revised as new material is found; a page that gives an exact figure for an animal known from a partial skeleton is inventing precision.

Common questions

How many dinosaurs does this pick from?

86 genera, from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous, covering the giant sauropods, the armoured and horned plant-eaters, the duck-bills and the predators. All of them are in the table on this page.

Is a pterodactyl a dinosaur?

No. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles closely related to dinosaurs but outside the group, so they are not on this list. The same goes for plesiosaurs and mosasaurs in the sea, and for Dimetrodon, which died out before dinosaurs appeared.

What was the biggest dinosaur?

Among those on this list, Argentinosaurus at roughly 35 m. Several South American titanosaurs are in the same range and which one was largest depends on fragments, so the honest answer is that a handful of sauropods were all enormous and the ranking is unsettled.

Can I use this for a school project or a name for a game?

Yes — that is the usual reason. Each pick comes with the period, diet, size and location, which is enough to start a write-up without looking anything else up.

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