Why Dinosaurs are Extinct

Did you ever have a bad dream? Imagine that you were looking out your bedroom window and you saw a giant dinosaur with its huge mouth full of sharp teeth staring back at you. Luckily, things like that only happen in dreams or movies.

Dinosaurs became extinct long, long ago. No one is certain why this happened. Here are a few theories:

At one time the area where dinosaurs lived was much different. The climate may have been very warm and tropical. There were many plants for the plant-eaters and plenty of animals for the meat-eaters. Something happened to change the climate. Maybe a huge comet or a meteor struck the earth and created large clouds of dust that blocked out the sun. The amount of rainfall changed, causing a drought that affected all of the plants and animals.

Animals can be affected by diseases. Maybe a disease was spread rapidly among the dinosaurs that caused them to become sick or die.

A sudden change in temperature can harm animals such as reptiles. Putting a turtle outside in the snow would cause it to die if it were left there for very long. It is possible that the weather became very cold during the time of the dinosaurs causing them to die out.

TRY IT

Write a story about the reason why dinosaurs became extinct. Include two reasons that may have caused this to happen.