1. An exciting prospect in speculative fiction.

2. Dinosaurs were gigantic reptiles that existed some hundreds of millions of years ago. Some ate plants, others ate meat. There were hundreds of different kinds and they lived in almost every country that exists today.

3. Throughout history, many giant skeletons and collections of bones have been found. We call these fossils. People who go looking for these bones for research are called paleontologists. From the fossils, we know when they existed and what they look like.

4. No one really knows. All we do know is that they’re not around anymore. One theory says that a giant meteor hit the earth, blocked out the sun and denied the dinosaurs heat. Is this likely? Others believe that they simply evolved out of existence.

5. Contrary to popular belief, humans never co-existed with dinosaurs. … but the idea of a world with dinosaurs in it is still very popular.

11. 1) What do the following words mean: Dinosaur, fossil, paleontologist, extinct. 2) How do we know dinosaurs existed? 3) What is one theory about why the dinosaurs became extinct? 4) Name three examples of speculative fiction that make use of the idea of live dinosaurs.