Dinosaur Picker

Dinosaur Picker

Watch the nest

Fill the nest

Tap dinosaurs to add or remove their eggs from the clutch (up to 12).

Somewhere in this nest, a dinosaur is waiting to hatch. Every dinosaur you pick is buried in a speckled egg. Press Hatch One and the clutch rumbles while a glow prowls from shell to shell, stops, and one egg splits wide open — whatever climbs out is your dinosaur. Fill the clutch, add a species of your own, and let the nest decide.

  • Dino-mad kids
  • Teachers & classrooms
  • Family game night
Crack open a surprise

Hatch a surprise egg to pick a random dinosaur

Ask a dino-mad kid to pick just one favourite dinosaur and you'll be there all day. The Dinosaur Picker settles it the way the dinosaurs themselves began: in an egg. Each dinosaur in your clutch is tucked inside a speckled surprise egg; press Hatch One and the nest rumbles while a glow roams from shell to shell, stops on one, and the egg splits open. Whatever climbs out is the answer — decided by a random draw before the glow even moved, so no amount of pleading changes it.

Build your clutch

The nest hatches only the dinosaurs you give it. Tap species to add or remove their eggs and type in any the list doesn’t have — obscure favourites, tongue-twisters you can finally pronounce, or a species that exists only in your drawings. Two eggs make a quick showdown; twelve fill the whole nest.

1
Fill

Pick the dinosaurs that go in the clutch.

2
Hatch

Press Hatch One and feel the nest rumble.

3
Roar

The shell pops off and your dinosaur climbs out.

Meet the clutch

Not sure what just climbed out? Here’s when each one lived and what it’s known for:

DinosaurWhen it livedClaim to fame
T-RexLate CretaceousThe most famous predator ever — bite force of a school bus landing on you
VelociraptorLate CretaceousTurkey-sized, feathered, and frighteningly clever
TriceratopsLate CretaceousThree horns and a bony neck frill — T-Rex's classic rival
StegosaurusLate JurassicBack plates for show, tail spikes for business
BrachiosaurusLate JurassicFront legs longer than back — built like a giraffe the size of a house
SpinosaurusCretaceousBigger than T-Rex, swam rivers, wore a sail
AnkylosaurusLate CretaceousArmoured like a tank with a sledgehammer tail
MosasaurusLate CretaceousNot a dinosaur at all — a giant marine reptile that ruled the seas

Triassic, Jurassic or Cretaceous?

Dinosaurs ruled for about 165 million years, split into three periods. Once your dinosaur has hatched, ask which one it came from:

  • Triassic (about 252–201 million years ago). The first dinosaurs appear — mostly small, fast two-legged animals sharing the land with other reptiles.
  • Jurassic (about 201–145 million years ago). The age of the giants: Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus and Stegosaurus, hunted by Allosaurus.
  • Cretaceous (about 145–66 million years ago). T-Rex, Triceratops, Velociraptor and Ankylosaurus — until an asteroid ended it all, except for the dinosaurs that became birds.

A fact that surprises most grown-ups: more time separates Stegosaurus from T-Rex than separates T-Rex from us.

When to hatch an egg

  • The endless favourite debate. When "which dinosaur is best" has gone on for twenty minutes, let the egg answer.
  • School projects. Assign each student a dinosaur to research — the nest hands them out with zero arguments.
  • Story time. Hatch an egg, then read about (or make up a story starring) whoever climbs out.
  • Drawing prompts. One hatch equals one drawing challenge — Parasaurolophus is worth bonus points.
  • Toy-shop tiebreakers. One pocket-money dinosaur, five candidates? The egg decides, tears avoided.

Every egg gets an equal shot

The T-Rex egg is no more likely to hatch than the Ankylosaurus egg. The pick comes from your browser’s crypto random generator before any egg moves, and the clutch is reshuffled into new places between hatches, so an egg on the edge of the nest is just as likely as one in the middle. The rumbling and cracking are pure theatre — tap the shield below the nest to see the receipt for any draw.

More animal pickers

Once your dinosaur has hatched, keep the safari going:

Frequently asked questions

The winner is settled the instant you press Hatch One: your browser’s crypto random generator draws one egg from the clutch, with rejection sampling so every dinosaur has an exactly equal chance. Only then does the glow set off across the nest, on a route that ends at that egg.

Yes — handy when two siblings both wanted the T-Rex. After the hatch, tap the shield below the nest to open the provably-fair receipt, which records that draw so it can be checked afterwards.

Eight eggs: T-Rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Spinosaurus, Pterodactyl and Ankylosaurus. Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Parasaurolophus and Mosasaurus are waiting in the chooser.

No, and neither is Mosasaurus. Pterodactyls were pterosaurs — flying reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs — and Mosasaurus was a giant sea lizard, closer to today’s monitor lizards and snakes. They are in the clutch because most kids expect to find them there.

Yes. Type it into the “Add your own dinosaur” box — Pachycephalosaurus, Therizinosaurus, or a species you just invented. Names are capped at 22 characters, so Micropachycephalosaurus (23 letters, one of the longest dinosaur names) loses its final “s”.

They did — every dinosaur we know of laid eggs. Fossil nests have been found around the world; Maiasaura, the “good mother lizard”, was named after nests of eggs and babies found in Montana, and Oviraptor was named “egg thief” after being found beside a nest it was thought to be raiding — the eggs turned out to belong to its own kind.

From two up to twelve. Two makes a quick head-to-head (T-Rex or Spinosaurus?), and twelve fills the nest with every dinosaur on the list.

Neither. The Dinosaur Picker is free, has no signup, and works in the browser on phones, tablets and computers.