Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs

The World of Dinosaurs Imagine that you've been sent back in time 230 million years. The world looks very different from the one you know. All the land on Earth is one giant continent. Shallow seas cover parts of the ground. The weather is warm, even near the poles. In the shadow of an enormous plant, you hear a noise. Something large is hiding there.

You have arrived in the time of the dinosaurs. You are probably familiar with dinosaurs from books and movies. These animals were just one part of an entire ancient world. The age of dinosaurs lasted for about 180 million years. Earth changed a lot during that time. The continents split apart, and the first flowering plants grew.

Some kinds of dinosaurs died out, and new ones appeared. Like today's world, the world of the dinosaurs was a changing place.

Meet the Dinosaurs Dinosaurs were a kind of reptile that is now extinct. Dinosaurs stood up off the ground, while other reptiles crawled. They had large eyes and could probably see color. Many scientists think that dinosaurs were faster and more active than other reptiles. With the help of these traits, dinosaurs spread across Earth.

At least one thousand species of dinosaurs have been discovered and named, but scientists think far more lived on Earth. Dinosaurs could be as small as a chicken or as large as a school bus. Some grew as long as 39 meters (128 ft. ). Everything we know about dinosaurs and their world comes from fossils. A fossil is the remains or print of a plant or animal that was preserved in soil or rock. Scientists have found parts of preserved dinosaur skeletons. They have found only a few whole dinosaur skeletons.