I feel like no one ever gets asked this question past the age of 6. It’s a real shame, because I’m sure most of us here are dinosaur nerds, so allow me to ask this question so we can all nerd out together. Mine is beyond a shadow of a doubt Nanuqsaurus, the “polar bear lizard.'” They’re to my knowledge the largest predator in the Cretaceous Arctic, and just objectively adorable. I request that you all watch the frozen worlds episode of Prehistoric Planet to learn about this dinosaur superior to all others.
If a dinosaur could be cute, this would be the one! I was thinking “awww”
I’m probably in the minority but I never really got into dinosaurs and didn’t learn anything other than the basic T-Rex and whatnot in school. I love your thread though, very creative question!
I’m with @gina5678. I know nothing about dinosaurs except for what is depicted in Jurassic Park so if I have to have a favorite I pick “Dino”!
Yabba Dabba Doo!
I’ve always been a sucker for carnotaurus, tsintaosaurus, and dilophosaurus. I had this dictionary of dinosaurs as a kid and that was my favorite book for years.
Then Jurassic Park movie dropped and my love of velociraptors and utahraptor happened. Lol.
I still absolutely love the allosaurus mount at the museum of natural history in NY though.
I have always had a big man crush on Triceratops. And, I am not sure why! Knowing me (as I think I do) I would have thought “some kind of carnivore”.
For decades, I had a large plastic diplodocus who graced my fireplace mantle. When my older kids moved away, I noticed it missing. Actually made me feel good that I nerded out at least one of them. We called it Akbar, and come to think of it, he was an herbivore, too. Maybe I don’t know myself…!
Although Nanuqsaurus is my favorite and always will be my favorite, I gotta appreciate some of the dinosaurs from my home state, New Mexico. Many specimens of Tyrannosaurus were found there, along with so many other species, the most notable of which being Coelophysis.
I love Pachyrhinosaurus !! Similarly polar and their nose bumps are really cute to me!! I also really like Spinosaurus because of the way its ecology keeps changing and big spiny lizard is cool
I also feel that herbivores (in general, not just with dinosaurs) are overlooked, I also love styracosaurus a WHOLE bunch, and I’m way more on board with Therizinosaurus now that it might have been a big ol chicken. Also gimme a good lambeosaurus all the way.
Therazinosaurus is another favorite of mine. I find the species with “exaggerated” features the most interesting, from a scientific and aesthetic standpoint. Oh, and deinonychus is a hard-to-resist classic, lol. XD
I refuse to pick a favorite sauropod because any time I do it changes in a few days. There are just so many amazing sauropods. I guess a few that are consistently up there are Alamosaurus, Saltasaurus, Isisaurus, Giraffatitan and Australotitan. I kinda fluctuate between these species for who is my favorite sauropod.