Dinosaur Fun Facts

When did the dinosaurs first appear on Earth?

The oldest dinosaur types appeared about 230 million years ago.

 

Did people and dinosaurs live at the same time?

No. After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth.

 

Where did dinosaurs live?

Paleontologists now have evidence that dinosaurs lived on all of the continents.

 

How many kinds of dinosaurs were there?

Scientists are discovering new species all the time. About 700 species have been named so far and no one is sure how many more will be found in the future.

 

What did dinosaurs eat?

The meat eaters (carnivores) ate other dinosaurs, turtles, lizards, eggs or small mammals. Most dinosaurs, were plant-eaters (herbivores) and ate pine needles, ferns, mosses, rushes and other plants. A few may have been omnivorous, and ate meat and plants.

 

What colour were the dinosaurs?

Nobody knows the real colours of dinosaurs because pigment is not preserved in fossils. Many palaeontologists believe that dinosaurs were probably earth-tone colours (greens, greys, browns) so they would be camouflaged in their environment. They may have even had irregular patterns to blend in with their environment.

 

How old did dinosaurs get?

It is not possible to age the dinosaurs from their fossils. Based on a comparison to modern reptiles and large mammals, it is estimated that dinosaurs may have lived for 50-150 years.

 

What was the largest dinosaur?

Scientists believe that the Seismosaurus, who was between 120-150 feet long, was probably the largest dinosaur. They have not yet extracted a whole fossil to confirm this belief. Until then the Brachiosaurus, who were 40 feet tall and weighed 70-80 tons is the largest fully documented dinosaur.

 

Which dinosaur was the smallest?

Scientists believe that the smallest dinosaur was the Compsognathus. These dinosaurs were just slightly larger than a chicken, about 3 ft long and probably weighed about 2.5 kg (6.5 lb).

 

Which is the smartest dinosaur?

Troodon seemed to have had the largest brain of any dinosaur in relation to its body size. This may indicate that they were the most intelligent dinosaur.

 

When did dinosaurs become extinct?

Dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago (at the end of the Cretaceous Period), after living on Earth for about 165 million years.

 

Why did the dinosaurs die out?

There are dozens of theories to explain a probable cause or causes. Throughout the Mesozoic Era, individual dinosaur species were evolving and becoming extinct for various reasons. The unusually massive extinction at the end of the Cretaceous exterminated the last of the dinosaurs, the flying reptiles, and the large swimming reptiles, as well as many other marine animals. There is now widespread evidence that a meteorite impact was at least the partial cause for this extinction.

Making Friendship Journals

A friendship journal is one of the best gifts that a person can receive. They are special because they are hand made with lots of personal thoughts behind them. Friendship journals are a nice way to show your pen pal how special they are to you and how much their friendship means. These journals show your friends that you value their friendship and you know their likes, dislikes, hopes and dreams. These books make wonderful Christmas and birthday presents. Here are a few things to remember when creating a journal.

 

Talk About Your Culture

Most pen pals try to look for people from other countries and cultures to write too. When you are creating your friendship journal, make sure you talk about your own country and the traditions of your people. For example, if you are from the Czech Republic your friend will love to hear how every summer solstice there is a huge parade and celebration in the town of Cesky Krumlov that lasts for one week. Talk about why the tradition or celebration happens and what you like about it. Try to include a picture or two (postcards are good ideas) that shows something special about where you live.

 

Talk About Being A Friend

Discuss what being a good friend means to you. Tell your pen pal why they are a good friend. Perhaps you are someone who can write poetry. Create a poem that is about your friend and add it to the journal. If your friend did something special for you, or made you feel really good about yourself, tell them. Is there something you admire about your friend? Do they have a quality that attracts you to them? Let them know what is unique and special about themselves. Do you have a special memory to share with your friend? Create a ‘Friendship Village Tour’ in your journal where you take your friend for a walk through the village and stop at a few important shops along the way. Shops can include security, trust, love, honesty, respect, value, compassion and more.

 

Share Your Creative Side

First of all, pick out a journal that you can add lots of great things too. Scrapbooks are perfect for this. Don’t worry if you do not like the picture on the journal or scrapbook because you can cover that with plain paper and decorate it yourself. To start your journal off with something special, create a friendship page by using your name and your friends name and decorating it. You can always find some colorful stickers to decorate your pages with. If you do not want to use stickers, draw pictures and color them in with bright cheery colors. Write a story for your friend and include pictures to help tell the story. How about drawing a picture of your friend. Even if you do not know what they look like, it would be fun to imagine and to draw what you see in your head. Create a friendship card and paste it to one of the pages in the journal. Your can even design and decorate a special page with all your own pen pal information on it. This way your friend will always have a resource to turn to when creating things for you. Your pen pal friend will love turning the pages to see all the wonderful words of friendship and colorful designs.

 

The Sky Is Your Limit

There really is no limit to what you can put into a friendship journal. Add recipes, crafts ideas and instructions, drawings, special occasion cards, poetry, short stories, pictures from magazines, cartoons, stickers, bookmarks, address labels, pressed flowers, etc… Once your friendship journal is complete, simply package it up and send it off to your friend. I can assure you, they will be pleasantly surprised and very happy.

Weather Fun Facts

What is weather?

Weather is the daily occurrences of sunshine, rain, hail, snow, fog or wind.

What is climate?

Climate is the overall weather in a particular area over a long period of time.

 

How do meteorologists forecast weather?

Meteorologists (weather forecasters) use information collected by weather stations on land, at sea and on satellites orbiting the Earth. Air pressure and cloud formation help predict future weather. Computers are used to analyze large amounts of data and to predict the weather of the future.

 

What causes the seasons?

The Earth is slightly tilted as it moved around the Sun on it’s orbit. At different times of the year, the northern and southern hemispheres may be slightly nearer or further from the Sun. This us what causes the differences in temperature and weather that we call seasons. The only place on Earth that stays the same all year round is the equator. The equator is located on the middle of the planet and therefore is always the same distance from the Sun.

 

What are the different kinds of clouds?

Cirros (curled), cumulo (piled up), nimbo (rain), strato (in layers or sheets) and alto (high). The clouds with the words nimbus or nimbo bring rain hail or snow. The very lowest clouds drift over high ground as fog and the highest clouds are made of ice crystals.

 

What causes lightning?

Water droplets in rain clouds have a positive electrical charge at the top of the cloud and a negative one at the bottom of the cloud. When the negative charge comes near enough to an attracting positive charge from the Earth below or a nearby cloud, the electrical energy is released in a flash of light.

 

Why do we see lightning before we hear thunder?

Light travels faster than sound. That is why you will see the flash before you hear the sound of thunder.

 

What is wind?

Simply, wind is the horizontal movement of air relative to the earth’s surface.

 

How do we describe the wind?

The Beaufort scale was devised to describe wind.

  • Calm – Smoke rises straight up
  • Light Air- Smoke slowly drifts
  • Light Breeze – Tree leaves rustle
  • Gentle Breeze – Flags flutter
  • Moderate Wind – Branches wave
  • Fresh Wind – Small trees sway
  • Strong Wind – Umbrellas misbehave
  • Near Gale – Large trees bend
  • Gale – Small branches break
  • Severe Gale – Roof tiles dislodge
  • Storm – Trees blow over
  • Severe Storm – Buildings are damaged
  • Hurricane – Major structural damage

 

What is a Tornado?

A tornado is a wind that twists violently to form a funnel. Rising air within the funnel can suck objects (cars, buildings, animals and people) into the air. Tornados travel at very high speeds and can change direction very quickly.

 

What is a Hurricane?

Hurricanes can also been known as Typhoons, Tropical Cyclones. They are Tropical storms with wind speeds of 64 knots (117km/h) up to 240 knots (414 km/h) that can be thousands of square kilometers in size. These systems usually have a lifespan of several days. A hurricane warning is issued in the Marine Forecast if winds are expected to exceed 64 knots (115 km/h).

 

What is fog?

Fog is a cloud based at the Earth’s surface consisting of tiny water droplets or, under very cold conditions, ice crystals or ice fog; generally found in calm or low wind conditions. Under foggy conditions, visibility is reduced to less than one kilometer.

What is hail?

Hail is precipitation in the form of lumps of ice associated with thunderstorms. Hail size usually ranges from that of a small pea to the size of cherries, but has been observed as large as golf balls or even oranges. Hail occurs most frequently during the summer when thunderstorm activity is at a peak.

 

What causes rain?

The water that is in our lakes, rivers, oceans, seas, and even our swimming pools, evaporate. That means it rises up into the sky in an invisible process. When water evaporates into the sky, it makes the clouds. The clouds move around the Earth and gradually fill with more water. They eventually get too heavy with water and the water falls to the Earth in the form of rain or snow (depending on the temperature).

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