Dinosaur Discoveries

Palaeontologists
Scientists called palaeontologists (say pale-ee-en-toll-uh-jists) learn about dinosaurs by studying fossils. Fossil remains of dinosaurs have been found on all continents except Antarctica.

A group of paleantologists looking for fossils

What is a fossil?
A fossil is the remains of a dead animal or plant that has been preserved in rock. Sometimes the fossil is just an imprint such as a footprint, or even an animal's dung. Fossils are generally found in rocks that were once under water. The animal or plant was first covered by mud, and over a very long time, many layers of soil or mud built up and were squeezed together. Water containing minerals seeped through the layers and changed the plant or animal remains into rock.

A fossilised
pterodacyl

Giant Jigsaws!
When paleantologists have gathered dinosaur bones, it is rather like a giant jigsaw as they slowly piece them together to form a complete skeleton. From this they can begin to solve other questions such as what the animal ate, how it moved and so on, based on the evidence they have discovered.

The most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is at Chicago Museum

Click here to find out about Australian sites where dinosaur fossils have been found.
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/sites.htm

Click here to find out about fossils
http://necsi.org/projects/evolution/evidence/layers/evidence_layers.html

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Dinosaurs...Dinosaur timeline...Triassic...Jurassic...Cretaceous...Australian Dinosaurs...Flying reptiles...Marine reptiles...A-Z

If you use any part of this, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
The Age of Dinosaurs (2002). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

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updated August 2006