8 Animals from the Past

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Animals from the Past 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 are not living anymore. Around 65 million years ago, all the dinosaurs died. Some scientists think it was because Earth's climate changed. Language DETECTIVE They: They has the th sound. Find three more words with the th sound in this chapter. Many other animals are extinct, too. Some became extinct in ancient times. Other animals 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 hair all over their bodies. tusks: very long teeth The woolly mammoths had rounder tusks than the elephants' 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 get ice and snow off the plants they ate. Prehistoric people hunted mammoths for food. They also used their bones to make huts, tools, and jewelry. Ice Age: a time when ice covered most of Earth

Prehistoric people painted pictures of mammoths on cave walls. You can still see them today. Woolly mammoths became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Maybe this happened because Earth's climate changed. Scientists think another valid theory is that too many people were hunting woolly mammoths. Chapter 3 The Dodo Have you ever heard anyone say, "Dead as a dodo"? People say this because the dodo is extinct. Dodos were big birds that lived on the island of Mauritius. They became extinct more than 400 years ago. island: land with water all around it This map shows where dodos lived.

Dodos had large legs, short wings, and very big beaks. Each dodo bird was the size of a large turkey. Dodos laid their eggs on the ground. Dodos were unable to fly or run. They were easy to catch. People killed dodos for food. Language DETECTIVE Unable: Unable has the un- prefix. Find another word with the un- prefix on page 4. Dodo birds lived on this island. Today, the only dodos we can see 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, the dodo bird was extinct.