Dinosaur Worksheets

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The extinct dinosaurs has many widely theorized explanations. The most widely acceptable explanations include the impact of a meteorite, volcanic gases, and changes in climate. Other explanations include a change in Earth's orbit or magnetic field and low reproduction rates as a result of environmental changes. What ever the reason for their extinction, dinosaurs have a permanent home here.

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A Brief History of Dinosaurs: The Giants That Walked the Earth Before Us

The world as we know it today was once ruled by a different and rather special species, namely dinosaurs. Numerous plants and animal groups we see today first appeared in the Mesozoic Era. This era was known as the age of the dinosaurs, but contrary to popular belief, all dinosaurs did not live during one geological time. The Mesozoic Era lasted more than 180 million years, and this era had periods that included Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.

They had evolved from other animal species before them but ended up growing ever so large that they dominated the planet earth fully. Today the world is split into seven continents, but 300 million years ago, there was one massive supercontinent called Pangaea, and dinosaurs roamed across that.

They are one ancient specie that scientists have studied extensively since first finding bones of a large reptile in the 1820s. In 1842, Sir Richard Owen first coined the term dinosauria, which comes from the Greek language "deinos," meaning fearfully great, and "sauros," meaning lizard.

Since then, paleontologists have found more evidence of dinosaurs existing. Paleontologists have researched these creatures to understand how different species can be related to one another and to analyze and reconstruct the history of how dinosaurs evolved.

What are Dinosaurs?

They are the prehistoric reptiles that came to a rise around 230 million years ago.

Since their rise, dinosaurs ruled our world until about 66 million years ago. In this period, other species also arose but went extinct. They are also linked to the specie of reptiles called the archosaurs. Today, the closest links to this group are birds and crocodiles. However, in the past, the specie was far more diverse. And what made them starkly different from other animal groups was their unique anatomy.

They mostly laid eggs. After these eggs hatched, their babies grew really quickly. After 7 to 8 years, they grew to their full size.

There were numerous types of dinosaurs, and they all lived in almost all parts of the world. They were land animals. The way they looked was not standard because they were of different sizes and different body shapes. Some dinosaurs were large, up to 40 meters long, and weighed 100 tons, while some were the size of a chicken. Regardless of their size, they mostly had scaly skin with no hair across their body.

They usually ate meat as well as leaves. Most dinosaurs who fed on meat, such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, had particularly sharp, pointed teeth that were slightly curved backward; this allowed them to rip apart their prey easily. Meat-eating dinosaurs used to directly swallow chunks of food.

In contrast, the teeth of plant-eating dinosaurs were designed for their diets, and they had 100 teeth that formed a solid wall allowing them to chop the vegetation. Plant-eaters also had long necks, such as Diplodocus. The long necks made it easy for these creatures to reach the branches of trees. Dinosaurs such as Diplodocus had pencil-like teeth and swallowed their whole food.

The larger dinosaurs had stronger bones that could easily support their weight, could walk on their two hind legs, and stood straight, but the smaller ones had hollow and light bones, which helped them to move swiftly.

How Did They Evolve?

The evolutionary history of dinosaurs is extensive, and scientists have greatly researched them based on the fossil evidence found. There is still a mystery that clouds the story of their origin. The earliest dinosaur is not one animal but a part of a larger ecosystem with varying species. It was in the later Triassic period in Argentina, containing some animal remains, indicating that early reptiles once dominated the earth.

They primarily evolved from a group that was mostly the size of dogs and horses, and they transformed into the largest species that ever roamed our land.

How Long Did They Live?

Although scientists use fossil evidence to understand the history of this ancient specie, analyzing all of it just by the fossils is not enough to tell how long the dinosaurs lived. However, paleontologists have provided an estimate for their life expectancy. They believe that dinosaurs, on average, as long as the elephants of today.

How Did They Spend Their Day?

Mostly during the day, dinosaurs, like other animals, spent the day walking around, hunting for their meals, and eating. When we think of dinosaurs, instinctively, we think they were aggressive animals, but they were mostly seeking out food and were not necessarily violent animals. Their giant sizes can, although, make one perceive them as a threat.

During the time they were not hunting, they engaged in communicating with one another. Communication for them included hooting at each other, cracking sounds, and even symbolic love calls that are much like what a peacock does today. Like other animals today, they slept at night, but there were some who were nocturnal, so they spent their nights hunting for food.

Why Are They Extinct?

The information regarding why the non-avian dinosaurs eventually went extinct is not certain, but several theories give us some idea of what possibly happened. What is certain is that a large asteroid or comet struck the earth at that time, which led to some extensive changes in the earth's climate. Climate change is one factor that is assumed to have sent the dinosaurs to extinction. The change in sea levels and large volcanic eruptions could also have led to a mass extinction.

No one evidence directs us to the extinction of dinosaurs, but there is plenty of evidence of their existence. Nonetheless, the history of dinosaurs is definitely interesting to study.

The Different Types of Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs roamed the world millions of years ago. They were huge reptiles. They became extinct 66 million years ago. Today, reptiles like crocodiles or snakes are tiny in comparison. Did you know that birds evolved from dinosaurs? They became smaller over time. Scientists looked at dinosaur bones and noticed that there are different types of dinosaurs. Using this, they classified them into three types (based on their diet): omnivores, herbivores, and carnivores.

Different Groups

There are many different ways of putting dinosaurs into groups. We can group them by their size, what they eat, and even, what kind of bones they have! Everybody knows about herbivore and carnivore. There are also omnivores- who ate both plants and animals. Scientists found out what dinosaurs ate by looking at remains of their droppings. The names of different types of dinosaurs can be super-confusing but here are some of them:

Had Lizard Hips

Dinosaurs that had hips shaped like lizards are a lot like birds. They are divided into 2 smaller groups- the Sauropods and the Theropods. Theropods are meat-eaters with small arms and strong legs. They include Velociraptor, T-Rex and Allosaurus. Sauropods have long necks and legs. They also walk on four legs instead of two. Brachiosaurus is a Sauropod. They are mostly plant-eaters.

Had Bird Hips

Dinosaurs with hips shaped like birds. They are a lot like lizards. They included plant and meat-eating two-legged and four-legged species. Stegosaurus and Ceratopsian are examples of dinosaurs with bird-shaped hips.

What is a Carnivores?

Carnivore are meat-eaters. They have sharp teeth to help them eat other animals. The carnivores that lived on land also had stronger legs so they could run after their prey. Some carnivore hunted together in packs.

Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus was the biggest carnivore dinosaur. They were as heavy as 3 elephants. Their bones were shaped like spikes.

Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex)

These were the scariest dinosaurs. No other dinosaur could eat them because they were on top of the food chain. They had really strong legs and could run extremely fast.

Trodoons

These dinosaurs were small but they could easily chase their prey because they ran really fast. They didn’t weigh a lot and ran on two legs. They also had really sharp claws to grab their prey with!

Deinonychus

These were one of the smartest dinosaurs. Like birds, they had feathers on their body. They had large sharp claws and talons on their back legs too - they couldn’t fly though. They used their feathers to stay warm.

What are Herbivores?

They look really scary but most of them actually ate plants! Plant eating dinosaurs had blunt teeth that they used to tear leaves. They could digest cellulose found in plants with special stomach acid.

Stegosaurus

They walked on four legs and had small plates along its spine. They had very small brains and long bodies.

Triceratops

They were a lot like sheep. They grazed grass together in groups. They had two horns that they used to defend themselves from carnivores. Triceratops were as heavy as a single truck!

Brachiosaurus

They walked on four legs and had super long necks and legs. They were huge but only ate plants. Just like the Triceratops, they grazed grass in groups too.

Diplodocus

They were the longest out of all the different types of dinosaurs. Their long tail helped them balance their body. They protected themselves with their tails. Predators stayed away from them because of how long they were. They were heavy but not as heavy as some other dinosaurs.

What are Omnivores?

Omnivores ate both animals and plants. Some have no teeth and beak-like mouths. Others had sharp front teeth for animals and blunt back teeth for plants. Omnivores ate smaller animals. They have a really interesting digestion system! It can break down both plants and animals. They could survive almost anywhere in every kind of habitat. Most were small and light-weight so they could move easily.

Omnivores had a much better chance of surviving. There were three types of omnivores- Troodontids, Ornithomimosaurs and Oviraptosaurus.

Orivaptosaurus

They were a lot like birds. They could digest both plants and animals because they had rocks in their stomach! When scientists looked through the fossils of their stomach, they found the remains of baby dinosaurs.

Troodontids

These dinosaurs looked the most like birds. They had huge eyes. They had large brains, which is why scientists think they were as smart as chickens. These dinosaurs could easily survive in cold temperatures. There are many different species that belong to this group. They laid many eggs at a time. Scavengers often took their eggs.

Ornithomimosaurs

T-Rex frequently hunted this group of dinosaurs. Their digestive systems are a lot like those of herbivores. Which means that they could digest plants. They actually looked a lot like ostriches. They had small beaks that they could use to hunt smaller animals.

Did you know that there were also dinosaurs that lived under the sea?

Interesting Facts

- There were almost 700 types of dinosaurs

- They lived everywhere! On every continent

- Argentinosaurus was one of the biggest dinosaurs

- The longest dinosaur is actually the Micropachycephalosaurus in China

- Many reptiles today come from dinosaurs

- All the dinosaurs except for flyers (birds today) went extinct when an asteroid hit the earth.

You can image what dinosaurs looked like from movies like Jurassic Park, and a many other Dinosaur cartoons. It is believed that all dinosaurs died when an asteroid hit the earth. If they were still alive, they would probably be a marvel. Now you know the names of different types of dinosaurs. The T-Rex is my favorite.