Sometimes people find bones

of ancient animals.

Some of these bones

are from dinosaurs.

The bones are like

parts of a puzzle.

When they are put together,

you can see

what a dinosaur looked like.

The word dinosaur looks hard,

but it is really easy to say.

Say: DIE-nuh-sor.

Dinosaur means “fearfully great lizard.”

Millions of years ago

the world belonged

to dinosaurs.

In the days of the dinosaurs,

there were no people.

No dogs or cats.

No horses or cows.

What animals were there?

Turtles.

Crocodiles.

Fish.

Dragonflies.

The world was warmer

than today,

and very wet in some places.

One of the very first dinosaurs

was Panphagia

(pan-FAYG-ee-uh).

Panphagia lived in a forest.

The forest was full

of giant reptiles.

When these giants got hungry,

they came after Panphagia.

SNAP! went the giants’ jaws.

SNAP! SNAP!

Then Panphagia

ran away as fast as it could

on its strong back legs.

Panphagia could eat

leaves, meat, and bugs.

That is how it got its name.

Panphagia means “eats anything.”

Panphagia was a small dinosaur.

It was about the size of a turkey.

Dinosaurs came in many sizes.

Some were small like Panphagia.

Some were big.

And some

were very, very big.

One of the biggest

was Argentinosaurus

(ar-jun-TEE-nuh-SAW-rus).

This dinosaur was

as big as a house,

longer than three buses,

and as heavy

as thirteen elephants!

The name Argentinosaurus

means “lizard from Argentina.”

That is the country

where its bones were found.

Argentinosaurus ate plants.

Lots of them!

Other dinosaurs hunted

for meat to eat.

One meat-eater

was named Mapusaurus

(MAH-poo-SAW-rus).

A grown-up Argentinosaurus

was too big for most

meat-eaters to hunt.

But a baby Argentinosaurus

would be the right size

for a snack.

This dinosaur was not big

and it was not fast.

It could not run and hide.

But it did not need to!

Its back was protected

by bony plates.

Its name was Scelidosaurus

(skeh-LIH-duh-SAW-rus).

It was one of the first

armored dinosaurs.

Not all kinds of dinosaurs

lived at the same time.

Early dinosaurs

like Scelidosaurus

died out.

New kinds

took their place.

Some of the newer dinosaurs

looked a little like ducks.

They are called

duck-billed dinosaurs.

This duck-billed dinosaur

is called Edmontosaurus

(ed-MON-tuh-SAW-rus).

Edmontosaurus had lots of teeth.

Almost one thousand of them!

It used its teeth

to mash up plants.

This is Tyrannosaurus rex

(tie-RAN-uh-SAW-rus REX).

It had some of the biggest teeth

of all dinosaurs.

Its teeth were as long as bananas

and very strong.

The word rex means “king.”

This dinosaur was the king

of the hunters.

What did it hunt?

Other dinosaurs!

Some dinosaurs

had ways to keep safe

from Tyrannosaurus rex.

This dinosaur

had hard plates on its back.

The plates were like armor.

When danger was near,

it just sat tight.

The name of this dinosaur

is Ankylosaurus

(an-KEE-luh-SAW-rus).

Ankylosaurus also had

a strong tail.

It could swing its tail

like a club.

This dinosaur

used its sharp horns

for fighting.

When it charged,

everyone got out of the way!

Its name is Triceratops

(try-SER-uh-tops).

That means “three-horned face.”

We know some amazing things

about dinosaurs.

We know that some

had feathers like birds!

We know that some were colored

black and red and white and brown.

But we do not know the colors

of most of them.

We also know

how dinosaurs were born.

They hatched from eggs,

just like baby birds!

Some dinosaur eggs

were big …

even bigger than a football.

But some were only the size

of a potato.

This dinosaur

is named Citipati

(CHEE-tee-pah-tee).

The mother and father

made nests in the sand.

The mother laid many eggs.

The mother and father took turns

sitting on the eggs.

Their feathers

helped keep the eggs warm.

When the babies were born,

they were very small.

Much, much smaller

than their parents.

You could hold

a baby Citipati

in your hands.

In the days of the dinosaurs,

strange animals

lived in the sea.

They were real-life sea monsters.

Some of these monsters

looked like dinosaurs.

But they were not dinosaurs.

They are called plesiosaurs

(PLEE-zee-uh-SORS).

They had long necks.

They reached into the water

to catch fish.

Other strange animals

flew in the air.

One of these animals

was Pteranodon

(tuh-RAN-uh-don).

Its body was no bigger

than a turkey’s.

But its wings were as wide

as the wings of a small plane.

Pteranodon flew far out to sea.

It rested on the tops of waves.

When it took off,

it soared on the wind

like a glider.

The days of the dinosaurs

lasted a very long time.

Millions and millions of years.

Then a time came

when an asteroid

smashed into the earth.

An asteroid is a

giant rock from space.

The darkness and the cold

meant most dinosaurs

could not find food to eat.

But one kind of

little feathered flying dinosaur

survived.

We still have these dinosaurs today.

They are called birds!

So the dinosaur days go on.