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  Dinosaur Bones

  Bob Barner

  To the many natural history museums who have kept my love of dinosaurs from becoming extinct. And a special thanks to Godzilla.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Dinosaur Bones

  Copyright

  Dinosaurs are gone for good

  The last dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago. Dinosaurs became extinct because climate changes made it hard for them to find enough food.

  Maybe dinosaurs once lived in your neighborhood!

  The first dinosaur bones were discovered in England in the 1820’s. Since then dinosaur fossils have been found all over the world.

  Fossils are bones and footprints that have been preserved in the earth’s crust.

  Dinosaurs had teeth to bite and jaws to chew.

  The shape of the jaws and teeth help scientists find out if a dinosaur was a meat or plant eater. Dinosaurs with sharp teeth like this T. Rex were meat eaters.

  They walked the earth when those bones were new.

  Tyranosaurus Rex means “king of tyrant lizards.” Its arms were so short it couldn’t even scratch its chin. The first T. Rex skeleton was found in Montana in 1902. A T. Rex skull can weigh up to 750 pounds!

  They had bones for legs and bones for hips,

  Scientists study the bones to find out more about dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs had hips like birds. Others had hips like lizards. Many dinosaurs were giants, but some were the size of a chicken.

  dinosaur bones used on long dinosaur trips.

  Some dinosaurs traveled and hunted in groups or herds. Living in groups helped protect them from predators. Ancient footprints show that baby dinosaurs were often protected from predators by walking in the center of the herd.

  They had bones with disks and bones with points,

  Stegosaurus had pointed bones on its back. Its small head held a brain the size of a walnut!

  bones for running with sockets and joints.

  Stegosaurus spent most of the time munching plants to feed its huge body. It used the spikes on its tail to fight attacks from meat-eating dinosaurs like T. Rex.

  Today only bones are left to show.

  Triceratops had a skull one-third the length of its body. It gathered plants with its turtle-like beak and chewed food with teeth in the back of its mouth.

  But dinosaurs rumbled and creaked long, long ago.

  Triceratops means “three-horned face.” This plant eater was generally peaceful. However, it used its long horns to fight when attacked. Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs to exist.

  So, when you see dinosaur bones at a museum in town,

  Scientists put together dinosaur bones like a puzzle. They use chisels, diamond saws and dental drills to remove the bones from rock. The skeletons are held together with metal wire and pipes.

  remember a dinosaur once used them to get around!

  Brachiosaurus weighed more than ten elephants. It was one of the heaviest and longest dinosaurs. A hungry Brachiosaurus used its long neck to reach tender leaves at the tops of trees.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2001 by Bob Barner.

  All rights reserved.

  Book design by Catherine Jacobes Design, San Francisco.

  The illustrations in this book were rendered with pen and ink, watercolor, cut and torn paper and a computer.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

  eISBN: 978-1-4521-0408-9

  Chronicle Books LLC

  680 Second Street

  San Francisco, California 94107

  www.chroniclebooks.com/Kids

 

 

  Dinosaur Bones (epub), Bob Barner

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