| Audio | Visual |
|---|---|
| Dinosaurs! By Brandi Chase. Illustrated by Dale Beisel. |
A T-Rex looks out at the reader from a prehistoric landscape with hills and trees. A Triceratops stands in the background. |
| A long time ago, before there was you, dinosaurs roamed Earth, this really is true. From the forest green to the muddy swamp- dinosaurs would wander, thumpity, thump! |
Three different dinosaurs roam the land, including the T-Rex. He says, "GRR!" His feet go, "THUMP, THUMP!" |
| Carnivores. Some animals eat animals, but not to be mean. We call them carnivores. They eat meat, not green beans. When dinosaur carnivores looked for lunch, they found other animals to crunchity, crunch. |
A silly T-Rex grins to show it's big teeth. |
| Tiny Compsognathus moved fast as lightning. It could sneak past larger carnivores so frightening. Its sharp teeth were fearsome to the lizards it chased. Have you ever wondered how a lizard might taste? |
A small T-Rex-like dinosaur chases a tiny lizard. |
| Tyrannosaurus Rex was long and was tall, but its two tiny arms were no help at all. When it felt hungry, the only thing it could do was open its mouth, and chew, chew, chew. |
A drawing of a silly T-Rex shows its big legs and tiny arms. |
| Herbivores. Some animals eat plants, they never eat meat. We call them herbivores. Leafy greens are their treat. When dinosaur herbivores looked for lunch, they found tasty plants to munchity, munch. |
A tall, long-necked dinosaur chews on tasty leaves from the top of a tree. |
| Giant Apatosaurus was as big as a house, but the brain in its head was the size of a mouse. Its body was much like an elephant's, we're told. Its long neck and long tail were a sight to behold. Mighty Stegosaurus had bony plates on its back, and spikes on its tail to fend off an attack. That tail could swing from the left to the right, to protect Stegosaurus if it needed to fight. |
An Apatosaurus is shown with its long neck, while a spiky-tailed Stegosaurus walks through the trees. |
| Triceratops was three-horned, so the story goes. One horn above each eye, and one upon its nose. Its shield-shaped head was made of bone, so most of the time carnivores left it alone. What made Corythosaurus stand out from the rest? It blew a booming sound out of its crest. The crest is the bone on the top of its head, some like to call it a helmet instead. |
A short, friendly Triceratops with its three horns looks over at a much taller Corythosaurus. |
| Asteroid. Where are the dinosaurs? Where can they be? On this most paleontologists agree: After an asteroid fell from space, the earth became an unfriendly place. Great dusty clouds blocked out the sun. Each day was colder than the previous one. And so, without sunlight to keep them alive, the poor dinosaurs could no longer survive. |
A view from space shows a big asteroid crashing into planet Earth. |
| Fossils. How do we know about life long ago? The Earth's fossil record, it tells us so. Fossils are plants, teeth, eggs, and bones, that over millions of years have turned to stone. Most fossils are buried deep in the ground. How old or how new? It depends where they're found. Layers of rock and mud tell the Earth's history. Each fossil buried is part of the mystery. Of changes through time, large and small, the Earth's fossil record contains it all. |
Here are ancient imprints in stones from plants, and a fossilized dinosaur tooth, leg bone, and egg shell. |
| We imagined all dinosaurs as reptiles with scales, running from the tops of their heads to their tails. But a recent discovery revealed something new, several dinosaur fossils with a feathery clue. Fluffy feathered dinosaurs? It sounds so absurd! But some dinosaurs are ancestors of birds! So far the feathered dinosaurs we know are quite small, "Feathered Tyrant," Yutyrannus is the largest of them all. T. Rex is its relative, and paleontologists say, they are both distant cousins to the chickens of today. |
A feathery dinosaur runs along with one of its children in a snowy field. |
| Do you ever wonder about life long ago? Do you sometimes ask, "Now why is this so?" If you think about dinosaurs, then I might suggest when you're grown you become a paleontologist. The End |
Children in a museum examine dinosaur bones on display. |