Dinosaurs

Dinosaur fossils have been found in every continent of the world - even Antarctica! Fossils have been found deep in rocks or just under the surface of the ground.

What do fossils tell us about dinosaurs? Fossils give us an idea of what dinosaurs looked like and the food they ate.

Dinosaur fossils suggest that dinosaurs were reptiles. A reptile is a cold-blooded animal with scaly skin. Modern-day animals such as snakes, turtles and crocodiles are reptiles. Dinosaurs were different from other prehistoric reptiles in several ways.

Dinosaurs probably had scaly skin like reptiles, but they stood and walked with their legs straight under them. A dinosaur's body didn't touch the ground. Other reptiles dragged their bodies on the ground.

Dinosaurs lived on land, not in the water like some other prehistoric reptiles. The big dinosaurs probably spent some time in water eating plants, but all dinosaurs primarily lived on land.

Though we cannot be sure, some people think that dinosaurs might have been warm-blooded, which means that their body temperatures stayed the same. Reptiles are cold-blooded, which means that their body temperatures change with their environment.

What else do fossils tell us? Dinosaur fossils show us that there were different sizes of dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs were as little as chickens. Some were bigger and taller than buildings!

Not only were there different sizes of dinosaurs, there were different shapes. Some dinosaurs had really long necks and big bodies. Some dinosaurs had horns on their heads!

Fossils also give us a clue to what dinosaurs ate. From tooth and jaw fossils, we can tell that some dinosaurs were plant-eaters and some were meat-eaters.

If a dinosaur's teeth were sharp and jagged like knives, it probably ate meat. Meat-eaters ate other animals and dinosaurs. One of the best-known meat-eating dinosaurs is the Tyrannosaurus.

If a dinosaur's teeth were wide and flat, or if its jaw had no teeth in front, it probably ate plants. Plant-eaters ate leaves and bark from trees and other plants. One of the best-known plant-eating dinosaurs is the Brachiosaurus.

Fossils tell us a lot about dinosaurs, but they can't tell us why all the dinosaurs became extinct. There are many ideas about what happened to the dinosaurs. Some people think that the Earth's weather changed too much and the dinosaurs died. Another idea is that the Earth was hit by a big meteorite from space.