Picture of dinosaur fossil by Dominique

Scientists have found dinosaur fossils on every continent. Most of these sites are in the United States and Europe.

Scientists dig very carefully using chisels to free the fossils from the rock they are trapped in. They take lots of notes to describe the fossils and where they are found. Then they take the bones to a laboratory and analyze them. They try to put the bones back together like a puzzle. Sometimes this part is easy, other times it's very difficult.

Once they know how the bones fit together, a scientific artist sketches the bones and adds muscles and skin. Part of this is just guesswork because no one really knows what color they were or if they had spots or stripes.

The first dinosaur fossils were found in 1824. William Buckland found a jaw and teeth and studied them. He called the animal a Megalosaurus, which means great lizard, because he thought they were the teeth of a big lizard. Another woman found a tooth partly buried in a rock. She gave it to her husband, who collected fossils. He thought that the tooth came from a large reptile like an iguana. He called it Iguanodon, which means iguana tooth.

After that, several other dinosaur fossils were found. In 1842 a scientist called them Dinosauria, which means terrible lizard.

Since then we have found lots of other dinosaur fossils and have been able to learn about many different kinds of dinosaurs.

Graphic by Dominique

Math Fun:  When scientists find dinosaur bones, they take the femur (leg bone) and measure it. Then they multiply that number by 5 to get an estimate of how tall the dinosaur was.  If a scientist finds a femur that's 7 feet long, how tall was that dinosaur? What about if a femur is 4 feet long?