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The Magic Paintbrush | Short Kids Stories
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CHAPTER ONE
Once upon a time, there was a handsome boy called Digby. He was four years old. He loved to look at dinosaurs in his dinosaur book, and imagine what it was like to draw a real dinosaur… from life!
One day, he was sitting in his bedroom with his paint and paintbrushes and a beautiful picture of a dinosaur. It was a Triceratops, which meant that it had three big horns coming from its forehead. Its face looked hungry, like it would like to eat a little boy, or perhaps just a big bowl of porridge.
Digby took his red paint and made the dinosaur the colour of a fire engine. He used green paint for the horns. Then, because it still looked hungry, he painted a big bowl of porridge right beside it.
He was admiring how well he had coloured in the dinosaur. There were hardly any spots at all where he had gone outside the lines. But then – what was this? He noticed a tiny little purple spot in the corner of his picture. Oh no! He must have gone outside the lines after all!
He didn’t stop to think that the little dot was purple, and he had only used red and green paints (which as we know, together don’t make purple at all!). He just put down his paintbrush, and with his little finger, rubbed the paper very gently, to see if the spot would come off.
OWWW! The page was spiky!
He pulled his finger back and saw a little sore on his pinky finger. There was even a bit of blood beside his fingernail. He thought he would definitely need to put a sticking plaster on it.
He sucked his finger until it felt better and looked again at the picture. Did he imagine it? Or had the dinosaur moved, just a tiny little bit?
He took his finger out, and this time more carefully, touched the picture again. Sure enough, the paper did not feel like paper when he touched it.
Instead, it was rough and scaly, like a snake, or perhaps like a scab.
He ran his finger gently down where the dinosaurs spikes made a fence along his backbone. That part of the picture was pointy. What was going on? His dinosaur picture didn’t feel like a dinosaur picture any more!
Just then, as he was about to call his big brother Arthur, the dinosaur took one beady little eye and turned it towards Digby. He heard a tiny ROAR! like the sound of someone’s television on a different floor. Could it have been his dinosaur? He didn’t dare touch the mouth…
Then the dinosaur made another ROAR and there was no doubt about it this time. It was HIS dinosaur painting that had made that sound.
Suddenly, the bowl of porridge that he had made for his dinosaur disappeared. It seemed that the dinosaur had eaten it all up.
CHAPTER TWO
There was no doubt that Digby had painted himself a real live dinosaur. It never seemed to move, but it was hungry, Digby could tell.
He could tell by the glistening little eye that seemed to look at him as he picked up his paintbrush once more.
If the dinosaur was hungry, then Digby was going to have to paint him some more food. But what would a dinosaur like to eat?
He though that some sweets might be yummy. He painted a lovely pink chocolate with a little heart on it, and some jelly snakes. He watched the dinosaur picture very carefully. Sure enough, very soon, the sweets and the chocolate that he had drawn beside the dinosaur just – disappeared. It was like he had never painted them at all.
Digby put his face very close to see if the pictures he’d painted had left any traces, like sometimes happens when you use an eraser to rub out your drawing that you did by mistake. But there was not a trace of the sweets and chocolate he had painted, or of the porridge. There was just one – slightly less hungry looking, and still very sharp, Triceratops.
Just at that moment, Digby’s big brother Arthur walked into the room.
“What are you doing?” said Arthur.
“I don’t know…” said Digby, trying to think of something that wasn’t true. He didn’t want to tell Arthur right at this moment that he had a real live painting of a dinosaur eating porridge and sweets.
Arthur leaned down and looked at the dinosaur.
“That’s a pretty good dinosaur Digby,” he said. “But I think you’ve done his head a little bit wrong.”
And before Digby could say anything at all, Arthur had picked up a paintbrush and, using orange paint, was starting to paint on the Triceratops’ head.
“NO!” yelled Digby. “Don’t do that!” But it was TOO LATE!
Arthur gave a scream as the end of his paintbrush was snapped right off by a set of angry Triceratops teeth.
“What happened to my paintbrush?” cried Arthur.
“The dinosaur is alive!” said Digby. “I painted him just now, and when I had finished painting him in, I think I spiked my finger on him! He’s really sharp! And he’s hungry. He’s already eaten one big bowl of porridge, a chocolate with a heart in the middle, and some jelly snakes.
”
“Wow!” said Arthur, his eyes gleaming. “I can’t believe you painted a real life Triceratops! How did you do that? Are you magic?”
“I don’t know!” said Digby. “I just used these paintbrushes here.”
Arthur snatched the paintbrushes away from his little brother and spread them all across the desk. They did make a mess. Every colour you could imagine was in their bristles. Then he grabbed a piece of paper and started to paint.
CHAPTER THREE
“What are you painting?” said Digby.
“I’m painting a tiger!” said Arthur. “See it? It’s got big orange ears, and black stripes like this.”
He painted the tiger and a very nice tiger it was too. It was standing up on two legs and had its paws out, like it was about to swat somebody.
He coloured it in carefully then stood back to look at his work. Sure enough, he’d done a fine job. He hadn’t gone outside the lines at all. All except a tiny purple dot in the corner of the tiger’s tail.
Arthur frowned. He didn’t like going outside the lines.
“What’s this?” he said. He took his finger and very carefully, rubbed at the little purple spot. “OWWWWWWWWW!” he said. “It bit me!”
“The tiger bit you?”
“It bit me! Look! I’ve got a sore, right here. On my pinky finger.”
“It’s just the same as me,” said Digby. “My triceratops did exactly the same thing when I touched it. Perhaps the tiger doesn’t like you touching his tail. Why don’t you try to very carefully give him a pat?”
Arthur was a bit worried about this idea, because he already had a sore finger. But, very carefully, inch by inch, centimetre by centimetre, he put his finger towards the tiger picture. Very softly, he ran his finger down the tiger’s black and orange fur.
What do you think it felt like? It felt like the softest butterfly you’ve ever touched. It felt like a Mummy’s kiss in the middle of the night when you have woken up from a nightmare. It felt like a tiny, shiny spiders web drifting from the doorway.
“It’s beautiful!” said Arthur in awe.
“It must be the paintbrushes,” said Digby. “I think we’ve got magic paintbrushes. Everything we paint, turns into something real. I think Arthur, you’d better paint something for the tiger to eat, because he is probably hungry.”
“But what do tigers eat?” said Arthur.
“I don’t know,” said Digby.
“I think they eat antelopes,” said Arthur. “I’m not sure if I know how to draw an antelope.”
“You could try,” said Digby. “It’s a bit like a horse, but with curly horns on its head.”
“Okay,” said Arthur. So very carefully, he dipped his paintbrush into some lovely yellow paint and beside the tiger, he painted a very nice looking antelope. It ended up with beautiful eyelashes, a long neck, and a little smile at the corner of its mouth.
When he had finished painting the antelope he was very happy with it. He thought it must be a girl antelope, because she was so pretty.
But he had forgotten while he was drawing, the reason WHY he was drawing an antelope.
“Oh no,” said Digby, realising what Arthur, in the excitement of painting a beautiful animal, had forgotten. “Oh the poor antelope! She is going to be eaten by that tiger! What shall we do?”
There wasn’t much time. The tiger seemed to swivel its hungry little eye towards the pretty antelope.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Maybe you could you just put a big squiggle of white paint on her! Rub her out!” said Digby. “Quickly, before the tiger eats her.”
“But if I do that, she will still disappear!” said Arthur. “That will be just the same, won’t it? If I rub her out, I won’t be able to paint her again. I might paint a different antelope, but she wouldn’t be exactly the same one. That would be just like if a dinosaur ate me, and then Mum and Dad thought, well it’s ok, we’ve still got Digby. He’s a little boy too.”
“You’re right. That wouldn’t be the same at all,” said Digby.
They both thought very hard. They were not sure if they imagined it, but the antelope seemed to look a bit scared.
What could they do?
“Quickly! What animal eats tigers?” said Arthur to Digby.
“I don’t know!” exclaimed Digby. “I don’t think there are any animals that eat tigers.”
“But maybe….” Arthur said, then they looked at each other and thought of something. They said together: “Dinosaurs!”
“But how would I get my dinosaur onto your picture?” asked Digby.
“Oh it’s no good, you couldn’t” said Arthur. “It would have to be a different one. But look at my picture. There’s no room on it for another dinosaur. No room at all for any big animals. Look, here’s the tiger, and here’s the antelope, and there’s no more space for another big animal.”
“Oh,” said Digby. Then he had another idea. “Why don’t you eat the tiger, Arthur?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Arthur replied, thinking Digby had gone a bit silly.
“Well, I’ve seen people eating paper before, you know, when they accidentally bite a cupcake wrapper or even a sweet wrapper. It doesn’t taste too bad, you know.
It’s just kind of like eating nothing. So maybe you could do it. Just eat the tiger, and leave the pretty antelope alone.”
“He may only be paper,” said Arthur. “But that tiger still bit me before. What would happen if I put him in my mouth and he scratched my gums? What if he kicked and made one of my teeth fall out?”
Digby shrugged. “That wouldn’t be so bad,” he said. “Your tooth is already a bit wobbly, isn’t it?”
But Arthur’s eyes looked very big and round, like dinner plates, and he didn’t really seem to want to put the tiger in his mouth.
“Could you paint a different kind of food?” said Digby, thinking of something different, because he really didn’t want to make Arthur have a sore in his mouth. “What about sweets? Or porridge? My triceratops liked that!”
Arthur very carefully painted a big bowl of porridge, just like Digby’s, except this time he covered it in strawberries and chocolate sauce. He thought a tiger would not be able to resist a big bowl of porridge, especially when it was covered with strawberries and chocolate sauce.
But once he had painted it, the bowl stayed exactly where it was. Digby put out a finger and felt it – perhaps it was cold? But no, it was steaming and warm and cosy like the nicest dessert you’ve ever eaten on a cold winter’s day. It was impossible that a tiger who liked porridge would not like this bowl of porridge.
The tiger’s little beady eyes seemed to swivel. They seemed to swivel in the direction of the pretty antelope. “I don’t think he likes porridge…” said Digby with dread.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’ve got it!” shouted Arthur! The shout was so loud that the tiger, the triceratops and even the antelope seemed to startle. The bowl of porridge even seemed to wobble in its bowl, that’s how loud Arthur’s cry was, and that’s how good his idea really was.
“What?” said Digby. They were running out of time and they knew it.
“No time to explain!” said Arthur. He dipped his paintbrush into the nearest colour – brown – and before Digby could even ask one sentence more, Arthur had painted a great big cage around the tiger.
He quickly put in the bars, and just in time!
The tiger blinked, and the smallest little piece of the antelope’s foot disappeared. But it was only a bit of the foot, and no more. The antelope herself looked sad, but Arthur very quickly painted another foot right where hers had disappeared, and her smile seemed to return. The foot was a little bit different to how it had been before, but surely that was better than being the tiger’s dinner.
Digby have Arthur a hug, he was so happy for the antelope. But he still worried about the tiger.
“Quick, paint some more food for him. He doesn’t like porridge, but maybe you could paint him some sushi. Everybody likes sushi. And it’s little, so you can fit it here, in the corner of his cage.”
Arthur thought it was a good idea. So he painted some yummy sushi and the tiger must really have been very hungry, because before they knew it, the sushi had disappeared. Arthur had to paint another six sushi before the tiger was satisfied.
So now the boys were left with a triceratops, an antelope and a tiger in a cage to look after. It seemed they should be careful before they painted anything else. Already they had to spend ten minutes painting some nice green grass for the antelope, and then painting some nice bowls of water for all of them to wash their dinners down. Then they had to paint a night time sky, because they thought the animals must be getting tired by now. Then they had to paint pillows, quilts, a bed, and by that time the whole picture on both pieces of paper was getting far too crowded.
“It’s late boys!” said a voice, and Mummy walked in. She looked at the pictures. “Wow! They’re really great pictures!” she said. “Say, Daddy, come have a look at these pictures the boys have painted!”
Daddy came in and looked at them. His smile was huge, because he thought they were so good. “I’d like to put them on the fridge,” he said.
“You can’t do that!” said Arthur and Digby quickly. “We don’t want them on the fridge. We want them in our bedroom.”
“In your bedroom!” exclaimed Mummy. “Where will you put them? All the walls are covered in your pictures already. There’s no more room. No, no, these pictures are really special. Look at what you’ve done with the tiger’s fur! And the cage! And that sushi looks so real, I could almost touch it!” Mummy put out her hand to touch the sushi, but just in time, Arthur whisked the paper away from her. Luckily, because he knew that tiger’s teeth were really sharp.
“Oh,” said Mummy, disappointed.
“We just really like these pictures,” said Digby. “Is that okay?”
“Of course it’s ok,” said Mummy and Daddy, and they gave the boys a kiss and left the room.
“Thank goodness. That was close,” said Arthur. “We can’t tell Mummy and Daddy about the paintbrushes. What if they thought they were too dangerous? No, we need to keep them somewhere safe. Let’s pick them all up now, and put them at the bottom of the toy box.
No one will find them there.”
So they picked up all the paintbrushes and tidied up the paints, and put them at the bottom of their toybox. They though they would be safe there. But how wrong they were!
THE END
(for now, anyway…)
Short Story for Kids by Jade Maitre
Illustrated by Arthur and Digby
Header illustration by Jade Maitre
Let’s Chat About The Stories ~ Ideas for Talking With Kids
Creativity
1. If you had some magic paintbrushes, can you think of some great things you could paint? Why would you paint those particular things?
2. Can you think of some other ways that Digby and Arthur could have stopped the tiger from eating the antelope?
Conversation
3. What is the best painting you ever did? Why was it so good?
Book Information!
The Magic Paintbrush | Short Kids Stories | Bedtime Stories
Digby and Arthur discover that their paintbrushes are magic and make their pictures real!
URL: https://www.
storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-magic-paintbrush-by-jade-maitre/
Author: Storyberries
Editor's Rating:
5
10 Short Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids Online
Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids Online – Read amazing and interesting dinosaur stories. These stories are written for kids. They can enjoy these stories at any time. So, enjoy these stories.
If you want to read this in Hindi then follow this link – Dinosaur Stories in Hindi.
Saving The Jungle – T-Rex Dinosaur Story for Kids
Tyrannosaurus rex is a popular dinosaur because this dinosaur has been used many times in films. In this story, we will see how millions of years ago the animals of the forest saved everyone from Tyrannosaurus rex. It is an imaginary story for kids.
Saving The Jungle – T-Rex Dinosaur Story for KidsMillions of years ago, the jungle’s animals were greatly disturbed by Tyrannosaurus rex, a ferocious dinosaur.
This dinosaur was very ferocious and would eat three to four animals of the forest at once. Sometimes 4 to 5 dinosaurs came together in the jungle to fill their stomach and kill many animals.
Read more stories – Stories for kids’ bedtime
Seeing this, the animals of the forest were troubled. They had to face this problem in the coming days. Many times these dinosaurs would also destroy their house.
One day Lion, the king of the forest called a gathering. At that gathering, everyone was going to solve how the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex can be avoided and they can prevent themselves from T-rex? The animals came to the Lion for the gathering. The Lion started the gathering with a strong roar. Lion asked the most, “What to do so that we can prevent ourselves from that dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex?”
The monkey sitting in the assembly said, “I will leap and grab his neck and then he will not be able to eat us.” Everyone mocked him and said, “Are you mad? Have you seen yourself and his body? He is much bigger than you, he will crush you easily.
”
The monkey said, “You don’t know me. I am very powerful. If you don’t believe it, try it.” Biting the monkey’s point, the fox said, “What strength will you show? We must defeat him by using brains, not with force.”
The Lion saw the truth in the fox talk. The lion asked, “Well, tell me what would we have to do?” The fox said, “For this, we have to enlist the help of the eagle and the hawk.” Hearing this, both of them came forward and said, “We both are ready. What is the matter to do? We will give up our lives for this jungle.”
After this, the fox told everyone his plan. Now everyone was ready. Everyone was waiting for when that dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex would arrive.
This happened a few days later. That ferocious dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex came and attacked the forest. But this time everyone was ready. As soon as he arrives, the hawk and eagle attack the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex in the eye.
The dinosaur could not see properly after the attack. Then immediately the monkeys tied his leg with a rope and the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex fell to the ground.
The animals of the jungle attacked him and the dinosaur shouted, “Let me go. Don’t kill me.”
Everyone said, “Well what you did to our people. What about that? Your punishment is that you can no longer be saved.” The dinosaur said, “If you kill me, my companions will come in search of me and bring tremendous destruction here.”
The animals did not listen to him and the king of the forest, The Lion, attacked him directly on the neck. This led to the end of the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. Everyone was happy to see the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex dead. Now it was time to celebrate. People were very happy in the forest. Everyone enjoyed the party with fun.
Now everyone was happy in the forest, no one attacked there for a long time. But everyone remembered the warning of the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.
Time was spent and one day suddenly 5 dinosaurs attacked in the forest together. Everyone got scared in the whole jungle. All the animals started hiding in small caves and tunnels waiting for where the dinosaurs would go from there.
After waiting for a long time, suddenly huge fireballs started raining from the sky. That fireball killed all the dinosaurs.
There are no dinosaurs left in the forest anymore. All the animals came out and started living happily. Now everything was fine in the forest.
Also, Read – Best Brain Development Toys For Kids.
I am a Dinosaur – A Funny Dinosaur Story For Kids
Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids OnlineLong Neck Charlie – The Good Long Neck Dinosaur Story For Kids
Years ago there were various dinosaurs. Some of them ate meat and some lived by eating leaves. In this story, we will talk about a dinosaur whose neck was very long. And such dinosaurs are called Sauropods. So let’s know what happens in this children’s story.
For millions of years, dinosaurs used to live on this earth. There used to be different kinds of animals. But here we are talking about Charlie, whose neck was very long. Charlie was very upset about this. One day Charlie is invited by his friends to their house party.
Charlie was overjoyed to hear the news of the party and spent the whole day getting ready for the party. He was dressed in a black coat and a tie around his neck.
Charlie headed out to his friend’s house dancing and humming the song. Now he reached his friend’s house. However, he could not enter the house because Charlie’s neck was too long. This started making fun of him. Hearing everyone, Charlie became sad and left the party.
Charlie walked towards the forest in a sad way and fell asleep beside a tree.
It was early morning and the rays of the sun began to fall on Charlie’s eyes. Because of this, his eyes were opened. As soon as he woke up from sleep, he listened to the crying of someone. Hearing the sound of crying Charlie started looking around but he did not see him crying.
Charlie calls out, “Who’s crying?”
“This is me, I have to cry like this every day”
“But why are you not seeing me?” Charlie then asked the question.
Then that voice said to look down here.
Then Charlie looked down and saw a small plant talking to him. Charlie asked the plant, “Why are you crying?”
The small plant said, “I am too small, the sunlight does not reach me, due to which I cannot make my food. There are big trees above me, they would stop the sunlight from reaching me. Because of this, I am crying out upset. “
“If I do not get sunlight like this, then I will not be able to grow properly. Now you tell me what to do. Apart from me, there are small trees which do not get sunlight and because of that they are also upset.” Plant told Charlie.
Charlie thought for a long time, about what to do so that the sunlight reaches small plants. After thinking for a long time, he thought why don’t I eat the leaves of these big trees so that light will reach the small plants?
This is what Charlie did. Charlie slowly started eating the leaves of big trees. But he did not eat all the leaves. Otherwise, how do big trees make their food?
After eating the leaves, the sunlight started reaching the bottom and small plants also started taking advantage of the sunlight.
After getting light, small plants started cooking their food and they all became happy. After being happy, they thanked Charlie and considered him his hero.
After seeing all this, Charlie became very happy, and forgetting about the previous night, he started living happily. Now he was happy.
It is not necessarily that bad things will happen every day and good things will happen every day. We must accept that good and bad events will happen in life. But what matters is how we respond at that time.
Also, Read – Best Brain Development Toys For Kids.
The Little Dino – Dinosaur Story For Kids
Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids OnlineA Paleontologist
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who loved dinosaurs. Every night before bed, he would read about all the different kinds of dinosaurs and imagine what it would be like to meet them. One night, he had a dream that he was a T-rex and was chasing after some cars. He woke up feeling excited and happy and decided that he wanted to learn more about dinosaurs.
He started reading books about dinosaurs every day and even began drawing them himself. One day, he saw a documentary about dinosaurs on TV and learned that they were actually really smart animals. That made him even more interested in them and he continued learning everything he could about them.
Eventually, the little boy grew up and became a paleontologist. He studied dinosaurs for years and traveled all over the world to find new fossils. But no matter where he went or how much he learned, he always remembered his first love: the dinosaurs.
The Dream
Once upon a time, there was a happy little dinosaur who went to bed every night with a smile on his face. His mom and dad would tuck him in tight, give him a goodnight kiss, and turn off the light. And every single night, the little dinosaur would drift off to sleep with dreams of dinosaurs dancing in his head.
One night, however, the little dinosaur had a very strange dream. He dreamt that he was walking through a dark forest when he suddenly came face-to-face with a massive T-Rex! The T-Rex was so big and fierce that the little dinosaur was terrified.
He tried to run away, but the T-Rex chased after him and began to gobble him up!
Just when it seemed like the little dinosaur was going to be eaten alive, he woke up with a start. He quickly realized that it was just a dream and that there was nothing to be scared of. He smiled and went back to sleep, safe and sound.
Sleeping Next to a T-Rex
The little boy’s favorite dinosaur was always watching over him while he slept. One night, the little boy had a dream that he was sleeping next to a T-Rex. The T-Rex was so big and powerful that it scared the little boy awake. But the little boy was happy to know that even though the T-Rex was scary, he was also very friendly. And so the little boy went back to bed, feeling safe and sound knowing that his favorite dinosaur was watching over him while he slept.
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Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids OnlineThank you for reading this “Dinosaur Bedtime Stories for Kids” if you like it then share your feedback in the comment section.
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STORIES ABOUT NATURE
On-line crossword about dinosaurs
Encounter with a dinosaur
Amazing, terrible, heavy lizards... Approximately this can be translated from Greek as the name of a group of ancient reptiles.
Dinosaurs. One of the most mysterious creatures that ever inhabited the planet.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, they were practically unknown to man, as if the world in which they lived and ruled had never existed.
It must be said that even after the sensational noise around the first finds subsided, serious scientists did not show much attention to dinosaurs for many years. It seemed that there was no point in studying these bulky reptiles, completely extinct millions of years ago.
But today, not only paleontologists, but also geologists, physicists, chemists, biologists vying with each other declare their discoveries and hypotheses dinosaurs are again in the spotlight.
They lived on Earth from 200 to 65 million years ago. It was then on the planet much warmer. Slowly drifted, changing shape, the continents. Rivers were born, cutting through valleys, jungles and swamps. And along the shores of the warm seas and in the river valleys, overgrown with lush vegetation, life was in full swing. It is hard to even imagine how numerous and diverse were the dinosaurs that ruled this world. Today, reconstructed from the skeletons found, they have received scientific names: brontosaurs, tyrannosaurs, styracosaurs, megalosaurs, iguanodons, triceratops...
And then they were living creatures, often of gigantic size, with powerful tails, crests, shells.
However, let's get to know some of them better.
Stegosaurus came out of the thicket, announcing the surroundings with a mighty roar. It looks like... No, we have never seen anything like it. The ten-meter monster is clad in armor that gleams in the sun. The stegosaurus moves on four legs, although it is extremely inconvenient for him to do this - the forelimbs are much shorter than the hind ones.
A bifurcated crest, consisting of separate lobes, stretches along the back. And finally, the weapon of the stegosaurus is a powerful tail topped with spurs.
And here is Triceratops . It is not so much its size that is striking (length 10 meters, weight 9 tons), but the head of a dinosaur. Framed by a wide bone collar, it formed into a high flattened beak, reminiscent of the beak of a monstrous parrot.
But the Triceratops looks quite harmless compared to one of the ankylosaurs , whose powerful body is covered with a shell. Moreover, the shell is laid in rings, carefully fitted one to the other. And each of the rings is equipped with spikes, bumps, growths. We can say that the ankylosaurus is a multi-ton mace studded with spikes. And this "mace" is crowned with a trapezoidal head with two outgrowths, similar to horns slightly tilted back.
But the dinosaur deinonychus is quite a baby. "Only" two and a half meters in length with a weight of 45 kilograms.
But unlike many of its counterparts, Deinonychus is a predator. It has sharp carnivore teeth, powerful hind legs, prehensile forelimbs, and long toe claws. With these terrible claws, a mobile, dexterous predator killed the victim.
Far less mobile ultrasaurus . But he, as they say, took another. Ultrasaurus is by far the largest dinosaur ever discovered. It weighed almost 80 tons, the body length reached 24 meters.
Interest in the fate of dinosaurs is growing all over the world. And this is not at all a craving for the unusual, for the exotic.
It's just that humanity has accumulated a lot of questions, the answer to which we could get from... a dinosaur.
What happened on Earth 65 million years ago?
Space catastrophe? Dramatic climate change?
Was the death of dinosaurs the result of their physical and mental limitations, or the result of environmental hostility?
It is possible that the answers to these questions will help improve the conditions of life on our planet in the future, play a role in the preservation of living beings, if we again have to face something like the dinosaurs faced 65 million years ago.
The question of whether the dinosaurs were sufficiently adapted to life on Earth should disappear by itself. Insufficiently adapted creatures would hardly have been able to reign almost completely on the planet for about 140 million years. Another thing is that it is not entirely clear to us how exactly they managed to do this. Let's take, say, such a handsome man as an ultrasaur. With a body length of 24 meters and a weight of 80 tons, he would not only take care of food, but in general would have to move with great difficulty. True, the opinion was expressed that for some time he could "rest" in the water. But in this case, it became incomprehensible what the eighty-ton giant could oppose to the pressure that arose during the bath. However, this is not clear to us. Ultrasaurus, apparently, did not experience any particular inconvenience.
While studying dinosaur footprints preserved in the rocks of Texas and Connecticut, the American paleontologist J. Ostrom noticed that chains of footprints usually run parallel to each other.
Maybe the terrain forced the ancient lizards to walk only along convenient paths? But then the traces would mutually overlap. Ostrom suggested that dinosaurs moved in small groups, that is, they were herd animals. The "herd" traces of dinosaurs were also found here, in Turkmenistan, in the mountains of Kugitangtau.
An equally interesting discovery was made during excavations in the US Glacier National Park. Paleontologists who discovered the fossilized "dinosaurs" found that the cubs remained in the nest in the care of their parents until they grew to about one and a half meters in length.
These and other facts indicate that dinosaurs were well adapted to the environment, successfully multiplied and evolved. They proved their right to be considered the masters of the planet, without any competition dominating it for 140 million years. And yet they were doomed. So what happened 65 million years ago?
To date, there are at least eighty (!) serious hypotheses expressed in this regard.
Here are just a few explanations for the death of dinosaurs.
Possibly an overflow of the land-encircled Arctic Ocean, whose fresh waters rushed into the North Atlantic, forming a sheet of ice over a heavier layer of salt water, killing marine life. The climate around the world has changed, disrupting the food supply. Dinosaurs could not adapt to these changes.
Another explanation. Powerful explosions of stars, the formation of new luminaries also sent streams of radiation to our planet, which literally burned out the layers of the atmosphere, making the Earth vulnerable to radiation. Something similar could have happened at the end of the Cretaceous.
One of the most popular hypotheses is the hypothesis about the collision of the Earth with a large asteroid. The collision caused earthquakes and powerful tidal waves across the planet. Dust and debris rose into the atmosphere, and darkness shrouded the Earth for several years. The lack of sunlight caused the temperature to drop and photosynthesis to stop.
Food disappeared on land and in the sea.
Even here there are different options. So, quite recently, the English geologists Prinne and Fegley published an article in which they argue that the cause of the death of dinosaurs was the widespread acid rain that hit the Earth as a result of its contact with a large comet.
So, despite the abundance of hypotheses, the nature of the catastrophe that broke out is still not completely clear. It is not clear to scientists and how mammals managed to survive during the catastrophe.
Questions, questions, questions...
Only one thing is clear (and, however, this is debatable) life for other animals without the neighborhood of dinosaurs has become much more pleasant.
G. Grigoriev
But let's go back from the distant past of our Earth, from the world of dinosaurs in our time, to the year 1988. In the year of the Dragon. Maybe in the year of the dinosaur!
Hypothesis about the dragon
An interesting hypothesis that the images of dragons, known to all of us from folklore sources, are nothing but portraits of dinosaurs, was put forward by the Irkutsk scientist V.
LUZIN.
It would seem that the hypothesis is easily broken by an indisputable scientific fact: dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, and the ancient human ancestor (according to the most daring estimates) appeared only 4 million years ago.
Nevertheless, the scientist gives interesting arguments in favor of his hypothesis. Indeed, one of the main occupations of our distant ancestors was hunting. Surely they were well versed in the bones of animals. After all, these bones became building material, turned into tools. And when ancient man found a variety of bone remains of dinosaurs, teeth, bizarre beaks, huge bones, skulls, and, possibly, larger parts of skeletons, he could not attribute them to any of the known living creatures. And then fantasy came to the rescue and arose ... a dragon.
T. Kramarenko
Is there really no chance to meet a dinosaur?
My friends gave me a keychain with a picture of a dragon for the New Year (the year of the Dragon!).
My keychain dragon surprisingly resembles a tyrannosaurus rex the largest predator (length 15 meters, weight 9 tons) of the Jurassic period (180 135 million years ago).
In general, wherever you turn, there are dinosaurs everywhere.
Having become the heroes of science fiction films, prehistoric monsters have been terrifying moviegoers for several years now, and their drawn and puppet brothers entertain kids with might and main in numerous "cartoons".
Yes, and in the newspapers, no, no, and there will be a report about encounters with outlandish animals. Someone "saw" them in the almost impenetrable wilds of Central Africa or South America, someone only chance prevented them from catching a living dinosaur in the Scottish Loch Ness.
Sensations arise, excite the imagination of the reading public, and are successfully debunked. It cannot be otherwise: all scientific evidence suggests that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.
Scientific data is a serious thing.
Half a century ago (if we are simply talking about millions of years, then some 50 years this is just yesterday) it was believed that lobe-finned fish died out 50 million years ago.
But in 1938, the ancestor of land animals, a miracle fish called coelacanth, was caught off the coast of South Africa. An exact copy of the sixty-eighth instance of the coelacanth (length 164 centimeters, weight 65 kilograms), caught in 1971 by a resident of the Comoros Said Mohamed, is stored in the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. The name "zoological sensation of the 20th century" has firmly stuck to the coelacanth.
A few years after the return of the coelacanth, the research vessel Galatea was trawling the seabed off the coast of Mexico. Among the many interesting finds, ten snail-like creatures, neopilins, were taken on board the ship. These mollusks, according to all the scientific data available at that time, were considered extinct 350 million years ago, that is, long (although "long" is probably not quite the right word when it comes to one hundred and fifty million years) before the appearance of the first dinosaurs.
So let's assume that we still have some, even the most microscopic chance of meeting a real dinosaur. Although, hand on heart, we admit: this chance is most likely zero.
Published in the magazine "Koster" for August 1988
Answers to the crossword "Dinosaurs":
Horizontally: 1. Tyrannosaurus. 2. Ultrasaur. 3. Triceratops. 4. Diplodocus. 5. Deinonychus.
Vertical: 1. Stegosaurus. 2. Albertosaurus. 3. Oviraptor. 4. Iguanodont. 5. Pteranodon. 6. Ceratopsids.
Dinosaurs for kids - interesting facts about dinosaurs
Inexplicable but true: many children love dinosaurs. Perhaps because these are semi-fabulous giant creatures and they no longer frighten at all, since they have long since died out. What is known about dinosaurs: what were they like, when and how long did they live, what did they eat and why did they disappear from the face of the Earth? So, in order.
Who are dinosaurs and what did they look like?
"Dinosaur" is translated from Greek as "terrible lizard".
These are scaly creatures that walked on two or four legs and laid eggs. Dinosaurs lived on the planet for 160 million years. They lived everywhere: from Asia to Antarctica. The remains of dinosaurs were also found in Russia - in the Urals, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in Yakutia.
Before them, more than 4 billion years ago, the Earth was inhabited by more primitive organisms: algae, mollusks, later - fish.
In total, scientists have studied more than a thousand species of dinosaurs. They were very different from each other: some - with sharp claws and spikes on the body, others - with horns.
Many people mistakenly think that all dinosaurs were huge. Indeed, some reached the size of a five-story building, but there were also tiny ones - the size of a chicken. It is customary to depict dinosaurs as gray or green, but in fact, scientists do not know exactly what color these creatures were. This is because dinosaur skin is extremely rare. It is believed that their color merged with the colors of the environment - so it would be easier for dinosaurs to hide from enemies.
Dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. The fact that they once existed, it became known only in the 17th century. Dinosaur bones were first discovered by English scientist Robert Plot in 1677.
Why did dinosaurs become extinct?
Science does not know. There are several versions. The most common: the climate is no longer suitable for dinosaurs (became too cold or hot) or volcanic eruptions have poisoned the atmosphere.
What did dinosaurs eat?
Despite their formidable appearance, many of them were not predators - they ate ferns, leaves, cones, flowers and fruits from trees. In those days, the Earth was humid and hot and favorable conditions were created for the growth of numerous plants, so that herbivores did not have to starve.
But there were also carnivorous dinosaurs, who hunted animals and ate their eggs. Some of them could not chew and swallowed stones so that the food itself was ground in the stomach.
The main task of dinosaurs was to get food and at the same time protect themselves from predators.
Herbivores defended themselves with horns and spikes, carnivores had teeth and claws.
How long did dinosaurs live?
There is no exact answer to this question either. Scientists think that large dinosaurs lived for a relatively long time - up to 300 years, and small ones - up to about 20.
In any case, even long-lived dinosaurs did not catch the appearance of man on the planet: people began to inhabit the Earth only 64 million years after their extinction.
Who studies dinosaurs and how?
This is done by paleontologists - people who specialize in studying the remains of extinct organisms. They work both in excavations - in places where fossils were found - and in laboratories. These scientists search, extract from the ground, and then carefully study the bones of ancient animals.
In laboratories, paleontologists find out how the creatures that own the found bones lived and hunted, and determine their age. Sometimes conclusions have to be drawn with only a couple of bones, or even one at all.
In addition, specialists make copies of bones, from which skeletons are then assembled and exhibited in museums.
Paleontologists also study fossilized footprints left by dinosaurs. To understand what kind of animal left the footprint, scientists find out the “age” of the rock where they found this print, and compare the shape of the fingers and feet with the appearance of the dinosaurs that lived in that era.
Paleontologists give names to dinosaur species, often based on the name of the area where the bones were found.
What types of dinosaurs are there?
As already noted, there are more than a thousand species. Let's take a closer look at the most famous ones.
Tyrannosaurus
One of the biggest carnivores of all time. He walked on two legs with two clawed toes on each, had a large skull and a long heavy tail, teeth the size of bananas.
Some scientists believe that the Tyrannosaurus rex could not run and was clumsy, so it did not hunt, but ate only dead animals.
However, the more common view is that these dinosaurs were both predators and scavengers, stealing prey from others whenever possible. Tyrannosaurus was able to eat up to 150 kilograms of meat in one sitting, but then starve for several days.
The skeleton of the largest tyrannosaurus rex was found in 1991 in the province of Canada. The length of the skeleton reached 13 meters, weight - almost 9 tons.
Ichthyosaurus
These are aquatic dinosaurs that look like dolphins: a head fused with the body, very large eyes, fins. There are many teeth in the mouth. Ichthyosaurs weighed mainly up to 2 tons, reached several meters in length. Although species are known, the length of which reached 24 meters, and body weight - 40 tons.
The first ichthyosaur was found in Russia in 1821, while the largest accumulation of dinosaur bones of this species was found in Germany.
Ichthyosaurs were carnivorous - they ate fish and shellfish and hunted in packs.
The cubs were born in the water and immediately knew how to swim. Ichthyosaurs did not go to land.
Stegosaurus
Distinctive feature - bone plates and spikes on the back and tail (to protect against attacks). These dinosaurs walked on four legs. They ate only tender leaves, because they had poorly developed jaws. Stegosaurus teeth were almost unsuitable for chewing. In order to assimilate even delicate plant food, the stegosaurus was forced to swallow stones - they frayed the plants in its stomach.
Stegosaurus reached 9 meters in length and weighed up to 9 tons - about the size of an elephant. The bones of these dinosaurs were first found in the United States in 1877.
Triceratops
Distinctive feature - three horns (one at the tip of the nose, two - above the eyes), bone "collars" on the head and a beak on the muzzle. "Collars" served to protect the head and shoulders, males scared off enemies with their horns and fought, including for females in the mating season, and cut branches of shrubs and ferns with their beaks.
Outwardly, Triceratops are similar to rhinos, only larger - up to 3 meters in height and 9 in length, with an average weight of about 12 tons. Only the head reached a length of 2 meters. These dinosaurs had several hundred teeth in their mouths.
They ate plants, moved on four thick legs, lived in small groups.
Triceratops are one of the last dinosaurs on Earth. And their bones were first found in the United States in 1899.
Diplodocus
The most tailed dinosaur - with an 11-meter thin tail, he drove away predators. And he also had a long neck, a small head with big eyes and long teeth, four paws. In length reached 30 meters.
Diplodocus ate plant foods. To cut off tall trees, they stood on their hind legs. And they also swallowed stones.
Diplodocus were herd animals, swam well and preferred to live in swamps - they came out on land only to eat and lay eggs.
Diplodocus lived on the territory of modern North America.
Fossilized dinosaur vertebrae of this species were first found in the USA (Colorado) in 1877.
Velociraptor
These tiny, turkey-like creatures by dinosaur standards were about 1 meter 80 centimeters long, and weighed like a child only 20 kilograms. Velociraptor bones were first found in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) at 1924 year.
It is not known exactly what these dinosaurs looked like: they were previously depicted as lizard-like, with green scaly skin, now it is believed that they had plumage like birds. Some even suggest that the feathers were multicolored. Surely scientists know that the Velociraptor had three fingers with sharp claws on the front limbs and four on the back.
Despite their modest size, velociraptors were dangerous and agile predators. They jumped on the victim, grabbed with their teeth and stuck their claws into it, inflicting mortal wounds.
Velociraptors became "trendy" after the 1993 Jurassic Park movie. By the way, there they look huge and hunt in packs.
Both are inventions.
Pterodactyl
Many consider pterodactyls to be dinosaurs, and they are wrong. Pterodactyls are pterosaurs, or winged lizards, relatives of dinosaurs. Unlike dinosaurs, pterodactyls could fly. Of modern animals, they were similar in appearance and habits to birds and bats.
The forelimbs of pterodactyls turned into wings (span reached 8 meters), the body was covered with fur. Some had a tail, not all had teeth. Pterodactyls were distinguished by long clawed limbs.
These lizards lived like modern birds: in flocks, they flew during the day and looked for food, at night they slept upside down, clinging to the branches of trees.
The method of subsistence depended on the size of the pterodactyl. Small ones, the size of a crow, ate insects, larger ones - fish and lizards. Some pterodactyls were two meters long and one and a half meters high and weighed more than 75 kilograms.
It is believed that pterodactyls had a good brain and excellent eyesight.
They lived in the territories of the USA, East Africa, Western Europe, Australia, Russia. Their bones were first found in Bavaria (Germany) in 1784.
Other "prominent" dinosaurs
Largest : seismosaurus. It weighed over 50 tons and reached 36 meters in length. Found in what is now the United States.
The heaviest : titanosaur (up to 80 tons!)
The smallest : compsognathus. Its average length was only 60–100 cm, and its weight was about 2 kilograms, but this baby had more than 60 sharp teeth. Found in what is now Germany.
The very first : Of those currently explored, either Herrerosaurus or Eoraptor. Both bipeds lived approximately 230-225 million years ago.
The longest necked : according to modern data, this is a Mamenchisaurus. Its neck reached 14 meters in length.
The fastest : Ornithomemmosaurus. He ran at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour.
The most big-eyed : Dromiceiomyom. His eyes were on the sides of his head. Thus, this dinosaur created an excellent overview - and an advantage over enemies.
The most toothy : Hadrosaurus. He had 980 teeth!
The "longest-named" : micropachycephalosaurus (meaning "small fat-headed lizard"). Most often, his bones are found in China.
Possibly the smartest : Troodon. His brain was the size of a bird—comparatively large. Most dinosaurs had small brains, about the size of a walnut.
Interesting facts about dinosaurs
- The closest living relative of dinosaurs is the crocodile. Birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.
- The first dinosaurs were small. Larger ones appeared much later. In addition, the first dinosaurs were predators.
- Dinosaurs are believed to have excellent eyesight and a good sense of smell. They had large eye sockets and nostrils and large areas of the brain responsible for sight and smell.
- Some dinosaurs built nests. But not for life, of course, but for laying eggs. Scientists do not rule out that small dinosaurs could sometimes hide in caves.
- Experts still don't understand how dinosaurs slept. Perhaps herbivores are standing, and predators, which the structure of the skeleton allows, are lying down.
- Dinosaurs lived in an era when there were about 22 hours in a day. As you know, the rotation of the Earth is gradually slowing down.
- Dinosaurs were unknown in ancient China. And their bones were considered the bones of dragons and used in medicine! One of the Indian tribes thought that these were the remains of the larger ancestors of the buffalo, and the British did not even rule out that these were the bones of giant people. Or, well, elephants.
- Dinosaurs did not have to wash themselves: the dried mud fell off the scales by itself or was thrown off along with them.
- Dinosaurs in search of food and places to live could migrate great distances - to entire continents.
- Huge dinosaur bones weren't as heavy as we think. Because most of them were hollow inside, like modern birds.
- Many dinosaurs went hunting at night.
- The largest dinosaur eggs were the size of a basketball. At a time, a dinosaur could lay from one to four dozen eggs.
- The very name "dinosaur" was born in the 19th century. In 1824, the president of the Royal Geological Society mentioned huge bones discovered in 1815 in Great Britain. In the future, experts found other huge animal bones, and in 1842, biologist Richard Owen identified a suborder of "terrible lizards" (dinosaurs).
- A relatively new species of dinosaur was discovered in 2015. Because of the short horns above the eyes, this species was called "hellboy" (as a comic book hero).
- Most likely, the dinosaur is not the largest creature on Earth. The weight of a blue whale can reach 170 tons - this is more than the weight of even the largest dinosaur.
- In the state of Colorado (USA) there is a City of Dinosaurs.
