15 Dinosaurs You've Probably Never Heard Of

Are you a Stegosaurus fan? Then you might want to have a look at its equally stubby yet spinier cousin, Kentrosaurus. The 15-foot-in-length Kentrosaurus was believed to bow its forelimbs for better traction while swinging its massive tail spikes (otherwise known as “thagomizers,” which is an awesome word to say) to fend off predators. Attackers on the receiving end of those thagomizers must have been in rough shape, Kentrosaurus could whip its tail at a speed of 40 meters-per-second—more than enough force to rip through skin or shatter bones.

Psittacosaurus (it's pronounced sih-tack-oh-sore-us and means “Parrot Lizard”) was only 2-feet tall and 4-feet in length. Surprisingly this guy is in the same family as Triceratops and used its bird-like beak to crack open seeds and nuts for food. But instead of chewing it would swallow stones to help grind and digest whatever he was nibbling on for dinner.

Look at the dome on this guy! 127 to 65 million years ago, Stygimoloch was roaming around what is now Wyoming and Montana. It may sound like it was up to no good (get this, its name literally means “horned demon from the river of death”), but this human-sized dinosaur was a fairly harmless plant-eater—that is until it became mating season. Male species would use their thick skulls and pointy horns to battle via head-butting each other in order to win the right to mate with single Stygimoloch ladies who were ready to mingle.

This dinosaur is known because of a single, nearly complete fossil discovered in western China close to where the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was made, so it was dubbed “Yinlong,” or roughly “hiding dragon” in Chinese. The 4-foot long dinosaur is also the earliest known relative of later bigger dinosaurs like Triceratops, and dates back to a whopping 159 million years ago.

If any dinosaur needed a manicure, it'd be Therizinosaurus whose massive claws measured up to 27.5 inches long. But it ain't no Freddy Kruger meat-eater--Therizinosaurus was an herbivore, and its talons were thought to pull down and snip tree branches for food.

Animantarx would be the fullback if we were playing dinosaur football. Its name translates to "living fortress," most likely because penetrating its solid armored back and spikes would be nearly impossible. A full skeleton of Animantarx was discovered in the Utah desert using a geiger counter because the fossil had become radioactive because of the minerals present in the soil around it.

Imagine a more flamboyant cousin of Velociraptor or Deinonychus and you'll get Achillobator. Initially the collected fossils of this potentially-feathered dino led paleontologists to believe it was really an amalgam of different dinosaurs, but its unique, downward facing pubis bone authenticated its existence as a single, unique dinosaur.

This little turkey-sized dinosaur is the the first to ever have its color scientifically verified. Though it belongs to the same suborder as predators like Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus, this little carnivore stuck out like a sore thumb by sporting orange-ish feathers and a striped tail. Using electron micrography, a group of paleontologists discovered phaeomelanosomes in the dinosaur's fossilized feathers. These phaeomelanosomes are the same things that create and store red pigments in human and animal hair today, meaning Sinosauropteryx has the scientific distinction of being the first (and maybe only?) dino-ginger.

This highly unconventional 2-foot-tall dinosaur had two single digit claws that it potentially used to dig for bugs to eat. Poor guy, if only I could give it a hug. Like the human tailbone and appendix, Linhenykus' nub hands are vestigial structures that randomly appeared during the course of the dinosaur's evolution.

No, unfortunately this is not a dinosaur named after a Seinfeld character. Instead, the Kosmoceratops is kind of like a Triceratops with a gnarly toupee. That toupee, though, was used by these dinos to attract mates. With no less than 15 horns on its head (the most out of any dinosaur) I guess you could say Kosmoceratops is the horniest dinosaur to ever walk the earth.

I like to call this guy the Nose-a-saurus, mostly because Rhinorex actually means "king nose." Yet paleontologists are still baffled as to why this 8,500-pound dino's nose is so big in the first place. It didn't have a good sense of smell, so that's out, but some say it may be for simply recognizing members of its own species or for breaking trees and large plants for food.