Dinosaurs were some of the wildest animals that lived on Earth a very, very long time ago. They lived millions of years before any people were born! Some dinosaurs were as tall as buildings, and others were as small as chickens. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 150 million years. That is way longer than people have been around!
There were many different kinds of dinosaurs. Some ate plants, like the giant Brachiosaurus that had a super long neck to reach leaves high up in trees. Others ate meat, like the fierce Tyrannosaurus rex. T. rex was one of the biggest meat-eating animals to ever walk on land. It was about 40 feet long, which is as long as a school bus! Some dinosaurs walked on two legs, and some walked on four. A few could even fly!
About 66 million years ago, a giant space rock called an asteroid crashed into Earth. It was almost as wide as a small city! The crash made so much dust and smoke that it blocked the sunlight and changed the weather. It got very cold, and the dinosaurs could not survive. But we can still learn about them today! Scientists called paleontologists dig up dinosaur bones called fossils and put them together like a puzzle.
- Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 150 million years. People have only been here for about 300,000 years!
- There are about 700 known kinds of dinosaurs, and scientists keep finding new ones.
- Some dinosaurs were as small as a chicken, while others were bigger than 10 elephants put together.
- The word “dinosaur” means “terrible lizard,” but dinosaurs were not actually lizards!
- Birds that we see today are actually related to dinosaurs. So in a way, dinosaurs are still around!
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