Few topics are as exciting to young readers as dinosaurs. They learn the most difficult names and minute details just to satisfy their abundant curiosity. This motivating volume about the mighty reptiles answers the big question that budding paleontologists have: Where did the dinosaurs go? Readers will discover the fascinating answers their enquiring inquiring minds seek through comprehensible text, colorful images, and detailed illustrations.

Many theories have been put forth to explain the mysterious disappearance of the dinosaurs. Did they get too large to survive? Did the climate change too abruptly? Did an asteroid collide with Earth? This inviting book explains some of the theories and examines why they've been accepted or rejected.

This study identifies the fall of dinosaurs as the factor that allowed mammals to evolve into the dominant tetrapod form. It refutes the single-cause impact theory for dinosaur extinction and demonstrates that multiple factors--massive volcanic eruptions, loss of shallow seas, and extraterrestrial impact--likely led to their demise. While their avian relatives ultimately survived and thrived, terrestrial dinosaurs did not. Taking their place as the dominant land and sea tetrapods were mammals, whose radiation was explosive following nonavian dinosaur extinction. The author argues that because of dinosaurs, Mesozoic mammals changed relatively slowly for 145 million years compared to the prodigious Cenozoic radiation that followed. Finally out from under the shadow of the giant reptiles, Cenozoic mammals evolved into the forms we recognize today in a mere ten million years after dinosaur extinction.

The past is full of mysterious events. How did ancient people build pyramids. What is Stonehenge for? Maybe the explanations for these events are simple ... or maybe there's something strange going on. Explore history's mysteries through closely level text, dynamic imagery, and visual infographics.

A compelling account of how the impact of a giant asteroid may have killed the Earth’s dinosaurs.

Seasonal changes in nature are so familiar that we often fail to stop and contemplate: Hey, why is this happening? Falling leaves are one of the most noticeable changes in autumn to inquisitive young minds, and sometimes the most perplexing. This bright and cheerful book, which supports elementary science standards, describes what happens in trees to cause this curious occurrence. Strikingly colorful images of nature provide support to the significant science concepts that your young botanists will learn.