DINOSAURS: HERBIVORES

DINOSAURS: HERBIVORES LESSON

Directions:

Print the Dinosaurs: Herbivores reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions.  Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt

Dinosaurs were huge creatures that lived about 200 million years ago. Dinosaurs are so old that people were not even alive then! Today, there are tons of people but the dinosaurs are all dead. Dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years. The true cause of the extinction may never be known though many Scientists believe that it has to do with changes in climate. The dinosaurs were unable to handle the rapid changes of the earth. This caused the species to end up dying off.

All dinosaurs had four legs just like other animals we have today. Of course, dinosaurs were much bigger than any animal we have ever seen. They were also more dangerous. There were hundreds of different kinds of dinosaurs. Some of these dinosaurs were related. They were part of the same family or type of dinosaur.

Some dinosaurs ate meat. This meant that those dinosaurs ate other animals to survive. However, the majority of dinosaurs, about two-thirds to be exact, were herbivores. An herbivore does not eat meat. These dinosaurs ate mainly plants to live.

The dinosaurs that were herbivores were usually much bigger than the meat-eating dinosaurs. They had long necks but their tails were smaller than the meat-eaters. The teeth of an herbivore were often dull. These animals did not eat anything to keep their teeth sharp so they flattened out in most cases.

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