How long did dinosaurs live for?

[Concavenator]

Recently, I have been wondering if there is more information regarding how much did dinosaurs live for.

I know that a Tyrannosaurus individual is estimated to have lived for around 30 years.

But, what about other dinosaurs? Is there any idea regarding how much ceratopsians live for? I'm also particularly interested in sauropods- I have done some quick research (on Google  ) and some say that they were able to live for more than 200 years (and as far as 300), because, in most cases, of their huge size and their cold blood.Is this accurate?

[Ravonium]

Just a heads up; in English, 'much' in the title's context refers to something very different to the topic at hand. I'd advise changing it to 'How long did dinosaurs live for?' 

To answer your question; I think there's a good chance we'll never know 

[Shonisaurus]

From what I read in dinosaur books, dinosaurs suffered the same pathologies as humans, cancer, dislocations, osteoarthritis, arthritis. That would greatly reduce their life expectancy in such a hostile world.

[Concavenator]

@Ravonium thanks for the correction 

@Shonisaurus yeah, that's also true. I don't think many dinosaurs could ever get to die of age in such a dangerous world. Maybe, big sauropods who had survived through their youth and reached a notorious size had a chance. Or perhaps big ceratopsians and ankylosaurs ( I think the latter group had more chances).

Many theropods, or at least, "conventional" theropods, like Allosaurus, probably had tough lives too, as the Big Al fossil shows.

[HD-man]

Quoting Sampson (See Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life):

A new generation of paleontologists, including Greg Erickson of Florida State University, has applied the LAG count method to many different kinds of dinosaurs; as a result, these researchers have been able to tackle a whole host of previously intractable questions. The most obvious of these is, How long did dinosaurs live? Prior to the application of quantitative techniques like counts of growth lines, it was suggested that the largest dinosaurs may have topped well over a century in age. After all, how else could they have achieved such gargantuan proportions? It turns out, however, that the largest sauropods lived on the order of 50 years. Giant theropods lived no more than about 30 years, whereas life spans for small to midsized dinosaurs were 7–15 years and those of the tiniest dinosaurs played out in a mere 3–4 years.

[Libraraptor]

I read that they did not become as old as one might expect regarding their gigantism. Huge sauropods may have become 80, but that was it.

[Tyto_Theropod]

I have done some quick research (on Google  ) and some say that they were able to live for more than 200 years (and as far as 300), because, in most cases, of their huge size and their cold blood.Is this accurate?

Just as a heads up, AFAIK the idea that dinosaurs lived in the order or centuries is based on the outdated idea that they were entirely cold-blooded. Because cold blood means a low metabolic rate and thus slower growth, people thought it would have taken centuries for the really big sauropods to reach the sizes they got to. However, since most authorities now agree that dinosaurs were mesothermic (halfway between warm- and cold-blooded), this no long applies.

Having said which, bowhead whales, which as mammals are fully endothermic, have been known to live for 200 years, so none of this is saying that there absolutely couldn't have been ridiculously long-lived dinosaurs. They'd just need to have had some seriously efficient cancer-zapping genes. And of course there'd need to be a good reason why natural selection favoured long-lived individuals.

I'm not an expert on this by any means, so do feel free to correct me if I've got any of that wrong.