Dee Phillips - Dinosaurs: A Kids Dinosaur Fun Facts Book

Dinosaurs

A Kids Dinosaur Fun FactsBook

By Dee Phillips

Published by Dee Phillips at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Dee Phillips

Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

This ebook islicensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not bere-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to sharethis book with another person, please purchase an additional copyfor each recipient. If youre reading this book and did notpurchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then pleasereturn to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you forrespecting the hard work of this author.

Dinosaurs roamed the earth along, long time ago. They first appeared in the Triassic period,about 237 million years ago. They lasted through the Jurassicperiod (about 201 million years ago) up until the Cretaceous period(about 66 million years ago). They were the dominant life form forall that time.

The word dinosaur meansterrible lizard, but they were not really lizards at all. Theywere actually classed as reptiles.

Image courtesy of LondonLooks @ search.creativecommons.org

There were many differenttypes of dinosaurs. Some were herbivores (which means they only ateplants). An example of a herbivore dinosaur is theStegosaurus.

Picture courtesy of BrittneyLe Blanc @ britls photostream

Some dinosaurs werecarnivores (which means they were meat eaters). Raptors andTyrannosaurus Rex are examples of this type of dinosaur.

One thing that makesdinosaurs so interesting is their huge size. Some dinosaurs werevery large, reaching a height of 190 feet high and weighing over 50tons. The Diplodocus and the Brachiosaurus are examples of thelarger dinosaurs.

Some dinosaurs were verysmall, being only about 20 inches long. The Microraptor (a tinyrelative of the well known Velociraptor) was one of the smallestdinosaurs.

Some dinosaurs walked on twolegs (like the T-Rex) and some dinosaurs walked on four legs (theBrontosaurus, for example). Some dinosaurs shifted between bothways of walking, some of the time walking upright and sometimeswalking on all fours.

People today learn aboutdinosaurs from fossils. Fossils are the ancient remains of plantsand animals that are dug up by special scientists calledpaleontologists.

The fossils sometimescontain pieces of the bones of real dinosaurs. The scientists canput these bone pieces together to find out what the dinosaur lookedlike when it was alive.

Here are some facts aboutsome of the more popular dinosaurs:

1. Megalosaurus

This was a very largemeat-eating dinosaur that lived in the Jurassic time. It isbelieved to be the first dinosaur ever studied and named from afossil.

The Megalosaurus had a largehead and sharp teeth. It had a long tail to balance its body. Ithad large muscular legs. It hunted and ate the Stegosaus andsauropods (which were large dinosaurs that walked on fourfeet).

2. Nanyongosaurus

The Nanyongosaurus was aherbivore (a plant eating) dinosaur that lived in the earlyCretaceous time, near where China is now. This dinosaur was asmaller dinosaur being only about 13 feet long.

It walked on 2 large backfeet and had small front arms.

3. Saltasaurus

The Saltasaurus lived in thelate Cretaceous time.

This was a medium sizeddinosaur compared to some other large dinosaurs. It was only about39 feet long.

The Saltasaurus was aherbivore (plant-eating) dinosaur. It walked on 4 feet.

4. Abrictosaurus

This dinosaur lived in theearly Juraissic period of time. It lived in the area of where SouthAfrica is now.

The Abrictosaurs walkedupright on 2 feet and was about 4 feet long. It had long tusks forteeth on its upper and lower jaws.

This dinosaur was anomnivore, which means it ate both plants and otheranimals.

5. Pentaceratops

The Pentaceratops was knownas the 5 horned face dinosaur. It had a nose horn, 2 long hornson its brow and long horns on its skull. It looked a little likethe triceratops.

This dinosaur was aherbivore (plant eater) and lived in the late Cretaceous timeperiod in the area of North America.

It was about 20 feet long,had a shorter tail and walked on all 4 legs.

6. AfrovenatorAbakensis

The Afrovenator was known asthe African Hunter. It lived in the middle of the Juraissicperiod in northern Africa.

It had a mouth full of sharpteeth and 3 claws on each hand. It walked upright on 2 heavy hindlegs. It was about 30 feet long from its nose to itstail.

The Afrovenator was a meateater.

7. Zalmoxes

The Zalmoxes was a smallerdinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous time period nearRomania.

It was about 13 feet longwith a thick body. It walked upright on its 2 hind legs. It had 2smaller arms in front. It had a triangle shaped head, with apointed beak and a short neck.

It was aherbivore.

8. Nipponosaurus