Dinosaurs Around the World
Understand that different dinosaurs lived on different continents and that fossil discoveries around the world show dinosaurs were a global phenomenon, with some species found only in certain regions
What a learner can do afterwards
- State that dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent including Antarctica
- Name at least one dinosaur discovery location (e.g. T. rex in North America, Velociraptor in Mongolia)
- Suggest a reason why the same type of dinosaur is sometimes found on continents now far apart
The lesson
Dinosaurs did not live in just one place. Long ago, they roamed all over Earth, and today scientists dig up their fossils on every single continent, even freezing Antarctica.
In North America, scientists dug up bones of the fierce Tyrannosaurus rex. On the other side of the world, in Mongolia, they found the fast, feathered Velociraptor. Huge dinosaur bones have also been found in Argentina, in South America.
Sometimes the very same kind of dinosaur turns up on continents that are now far apart, like South America and Africa. That is because those continents used to be joined together as one giant piece of land, and slowly drifted apart over millions of years.
Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent, and where a fossil turns up can tell us how the continents used to fit together.
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Where this leads
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8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.