Dinosaurs | KS1 Topic | Ages 5-7

Science

What were dinosaurs?

Image of a stegosaurus with red spikes and a dark and light green skin. It also has yellow spikes on its tail.

Dinosaurs were big reptiles that lived a long, long time ago. Some were huge and others were small.

They lived on land and in the sea, but they are now extinct, which means they don’t live on Earth anymore.

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What are the different types of dinosaurs?

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Dinosaurs came in many different shapes and sizes. Some were as tall as buildings and had sharp teeth, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Some dinosaurs were small and some dinosaurs, like the Pterodactyl and the Yi, could even fly.
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Many dinosaurs had long tails, like the Tsagantegia. The Tsagantegia also had special armour all over its body to defend itself from other dinosaurs.

Activity: Dinosaur quiz

What did dinosaurs eat?

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Some dinosaurs were thought to eat meat, some ate plants and some ate both. Dinosaurs that ate plants were called herbivores. The Triceratops is an example of a herbivore. Herbivores do not eat other animals.
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Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores. Velociraptors are examples of carnivores. Carnivores do not eat plants.
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Most dinosaurs were either herbivores or omnivores. However, a very small amount ate both plants and animals. Animals that eat both plants and animals are called omnivores. An example of an omnivore is the Oviraptor.

Key Vocabulary

Word	Definition
Reptiles	A group of animals with scaly skin, like Lizards. Baby reptiles are born from eggs.
Extinct	Living things that no longer exist.

Play: Dinosaur Discovery

Work scientifically and become a dinosaur expert!

In this dinosaur game learn about:

The Cretaceous period and its dinosaurs
The Jurassic period and its dinosaurs

Geography

Where did the dinosaurs come from?

Image of Pangaea. This is labelled with Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India.

From studying fossils, we know that dinosaurs lived all over the world. At first, they lived in what is now called South America, and then spread across the globe more than 200 million years ago. At that time, the countries and continents were ed together in a single stretch of land called Pangaea.

Where did dinosaurs live?

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Land dinosaurs
Land dinosaurs lived on all types of land, such as wetlands, in the forests, in the desert, and even in the North and South Poles. The Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex were land dinosaurs.
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The pterodactyl
Dinosaurs such as the pterodactyl lived on cliff faces or in trees. They flew through the air with their large wings, which were around 9 metres across!
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Dinosaurs in the water
Dinosaurs like the ichthyosaurs lived in the sea. They hunted fish and other small dinosaurs.

Where can dinosaur fossils be found today?

Image of people walking on a beach in Lyme Regis

There are some places where many fossils can be found, just like in Lyme Regis, in the south of England. The cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis are part of an area called The Jurassic Coast, which shows how the land has changed over about 150 million years.

Fossils such as ammonites show up regularly on the beach in Lyme Regis. Ammonites look like snails but were actually sea creatures a bit like squid with a curvy shell.

Activity: Draw a dinosaur in each landscape

Draw a dinosaur for each landscape: air, water and land.

Use the scene below to help you.

Image of a scene with mountains, trees and a river.

Quiz: Geography

History

How do we know about dinosaurs?

Animated image of a dinosaur skeleton with people looking at it.

As dinosaurs are extinct, we can’t find out about them from watching them like we do with other animals. Instead, we find out about dinosaurs by studying fossils.

Fossils are bones, footprints or even plants buried deep in the ground, from when dinosaurs died millions of years ago.

Who was Mary Anning?

Animated image of Mary Anning holding a shell fossil with her dog next to her. She is wearing a green coat and a yellow hat tied with a red ribbon.

Mary Anning lived between 1799 and 1847. She discovered some of the first dinosaur bones on a beach near to where she lived in Dorset, England.

Her discoveries helped scientists learn more about dinosaurs and life on Earth. Even though she wasn’t famous when she was alive, today we her as one of the most important fossil hunters ever.