Duck-Billed Dinosaurs

Children's Literature

This is a group of dinosaurs that I did not know much about until I read this book. For the most part, they lived in Western North America. A timeline shows the reader the estimated time that these creatures roamed earth. Scientists know that their bodies were very much alike but that their heads were very different. Babies were fed in much the same way that baby birds are fed. It is believed that they migrated in herds and used certain patterns to protect themselves and their young when attacked by meat-eating dinosaurs. Duckbills were among the last of the dinosaurs to become extinct. As each book in the series explains, a giant asteroid may have struck the earth causing thick clouds which killed plant life—and the dinosaurs' food source. A mummy of a duckbill dinosaur was found in Canada and the mummy showed how the beak, scaly skin and toenails appeared. The book is concise and small and would fit in a classroom situation where dinosaurs are studied; it is part of the "Meet the Dinosaurs" series. 2005, Lerner Publications Company, Ages 6 to 10.
—Barbara Youngblood