17 Extinct Animals

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Extinct Animals by Keiko Hirami Table of Contents Chapter 1 Animals of the Past page 2 Chapter 2 The Woolly Mammoth page 4 Chapter 3 The Dodo page 7 Chapter 4 The Tasmanian Tiger page 10 Chapter 5 Save Animals Today page 14 Glossary/ Index page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

Chapter 1 Animals of the Past Have you ever seen a living dinosaur? Of course not! Dinosaurs are extinct. They no longer exist. All of the dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago. No one really knows why. Some scientists think it was because Earth's climate changed. Many other animals are also extinct. Some became extinct in ancient times. Others became extinct less than 100 years ago. Let's learn about some of them. Dinosaurs are The biggest animals that have ever lived on land.

Chapter 2 The Woolly Mammoth The woolly mammoth looked like an elephant. But woolly mammoths were even bigger! Like elephants, woolly mammoths had tusks and a trunk. Unlike elephants, they had long, shaggy hair all over their bodies. The tusks of the woolly mammoth were much more curved than an elephant's tusks. This museum model shows what scientists think a mammoth looked like. Woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age. Their long hair kept them warm. They used their tusks to scrape ice and snow off plants they ate. Prehistoric people hunted mammoths for food. They also used their bones to make huts, tools, and jewelry.

Prehistoric people painted pictures of mammoths on cave walls. You can still see them today. Woolly mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago. This may have happened because Earth's climate changed. Scientists believe another valid theory is that too many people were hunting woolly mammoths. Chapter 3 The Dodo Have you ever heard the saying, "Dead as a dodo"? People say this because the dodo is extinct. Dodos were big birds that lived on the island of Mauritius (MAW-rish-uhs). They became extinct more than 400 years ago. Dodos used to live on Mauritius.

Dodos had large legs, short wings, and very big beaks. Each one was the size of a large turkey. Dodos laid their eggs on the ground. Dodos were unable to fly or run. This made them very easy to catch. People who landed on Mauritius killed dodos for food. This is the lush island where dodos lived. The only dodos we can see today are models in museums. But hungry people were only part of the problem. In 1644, people brought cats, dogs, and pigs to Mauritius. These animals ate the dodos and their eggs. By 1690, less than 50 years later, the dodo bird was extinct.