travel_exploreDiscovery · From dinosaurs to birds

🐦 From dinosaurs to birds

Are birds living dinosaurs? Simple, true from dinosaurs to birds facts for young children, each with a fun fact, a tiny activity and a question to talk about together.

Tap a question to reveal the answer, share the fun fact, try the tiny activity, then talk about it together.

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Are birds living dinosaurs? Revealexpand_more

Yes. Scientists now agree that birds are a kind of dinosaur that never died out. They descended from small, feathered, meat-eating dinosaurs and carry many of the same features, like hollow bones and wishbones. So the sparrow in your garden is a real dinosaur, just a small and feathery one.

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Talk about itWhich bird near you would make the most surprising tiny dinosaur?

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Did you know?This means dinosaurs never fully disappeared, they are singing in the trees right now.

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Try itWatch a bird and look for dinosaur clues: scaly legs, clawed feet and a sharp beak. Those are dinosaur traits.

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🐦🪶Did any dinosaurs have feathers?🪽What was Archaeopteryx?🐦How exactly did birds evolve from dinosaurs?

🤖Still curious?Which dinosaurs were the closest ancestors of birds?arrow_forward

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Why did feathers appear before flight? Revealexpand_more

Feathers did not start out for flying at all. The first feathers were simple and fuzzy, and they most likely helped dinosaurs stay warm or show off bright colours to each other. Only much later did some feathers grow long and stiff enough to help their owners glide and finally fly.

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Talk about itWhat is something you use for one job that could be handy for a totally different one?

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Did you know?Many feathered dinosaurs could never fly at all, they just wore their feathers like a warm coat.

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Try itThink how a coat keeps you warm. The first feathers may have worked just like that for little dinosaurs.

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🐦🪶Did any dinosaurs have feathers?🐦Are birds living dinosaurs?🪽What was Archaeopteryx?

🤖Still curious?How did feathers slowly change from fuzz into flight feathers?arrow_forward

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What was Archaeopteryx? Revealexpand_more

Archaeopteryx was an amazing creature, about the size of a crow, that was half dinosaur and half bird. It had feathers and wings like a bird, but also teeth, clawed hands and a long bony tail like a dinosaur. It is one of the best clues we have that birds slowly evolved from dinosaurs.

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Talk about itWhat would you name a creature that is part bird and part dinosaur?

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Did you know?When the first Archaeopteryx fossil was found, its feathers were beautifully preserved in stone.

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Try itDraw a creature that is half bird and half dinosaur. That mix is exactly what Archaeopteryx looked like.

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🐦🐦Are birds living dinosaurs?🪶Did any dinosaurs have feathers?🐦How exactly did birds evolve from dinosaurs?

🤖Still curious?Could Archaeopteryx actually fly, or only glide?arrow_forward

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Did any dinosaurs survive? Revealexpand_more

Almost all dinosaurs died out long ago, but one group made it through: the ancestors of today's birds. These small, feathered dinosaurs survived the disaster that wiped out the giants, and over millions of years their descendants became every bird alive today. So dinosaurs are still all around us.

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Talk about itDoes it change how you see birds to know they are dinosaurs?

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Did you know?There are more kinds of birds alive today than there ever were kinds of other dinosaurs.

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Try itCount how many different birds you can spot in a day. Each one is a survivor from the age of dinosaurs.

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🐦🐦Are birds living dinosaurs?☄️Why did the dinosaurs die out?🐢Which animals survived the extinction, and why?

🤖Still curious?Why did small feathered dinosaurs survive when the giants did not?arrow_forward

🐦 From dinosaurs to birds

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