In the world of dinosaur plush, there lies a large variety of soft toys from which to choose; tyrannosaur rex, triceratops, and stegosaurus, are just some of the dinosaur plush available.

According to research published in 2007, two mass extinctions of dinosaurs took place along with 50 million years of survival, before these enormous creatures took over the world. Contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs didn't grow or multiply very quickly after they began to exist, but rather it was a slow and complex event that research has shown only happened 30 millions years after they first originated.

This new research, conducted out of the University of Bristol shows that dinosaurs evolved into the animals that defined their lifestyles long-necked herbivores, big predators, etc. - before they started multiplying and diversifying into many of the species we are now familiar with. One researcher, Steve Brusatte, explains it this way: It wasn't just a case of dinosaurs exploding onto the scene because of a special adaptation. Rather, they had to wait their turn and evolved in fits and starts before finally dominating their world.

The origin of dinosaurs was 230 million years ago and they managed to survive what is referred to as the Late Triassic mass extinction which took place 228 million years ago. At that time, 35 percent of all living families died out. The dinosaurs that died out during this extinction are the ones that made it possible for herbivorous dinosaurs to be able to expand into the areas they once occupied. 200 million years ago another mass extinction took place, which was much bigger than the first (the Triassic-Jurassic boundary). Carnivorous and armored dinosaur species didn't expand until after this period in which upwards of half the species we now know lived on the earth, became extinct. As a result, life both on land and in the oceans was forever changed. What was once thought to be a 'simple' rise of groups of animals that had features which allowed to it expand, fill out land mass, and then out-compete other types of animals, isn't really so simplistic at all. Per researcher Professor Michael Benton we argue that the expansion of the dinosaurs took up to 50 million years and was not a simple process that can be explained with broad generalizations.

Luckily for us, dinosaur plush have evolved into some pretty amazing soft toys. Some are so lifelike in fact, they're just downright terrifying to look at. That, however, doesn't stop the legion of dinosaur plush fans from loving them all the more - the scarier they are, the better.