Dinosaurs: Recent Finds and Theories

Grade Level: High School
Science Content Standard: 10.5
High School Biology Enrichment Standard: Evolution
Language Arts Content Standard: 1.2

Description: Why do many scientists consider birds to be dinosaurs? What does this mean for understanding how dinosaurs lived? The exhibits in the Yale Peabody Museum's Great Hall and hands-on fossils specimens and casts provide a focus for these questions and other recent theories about these incredible animals, along with the topics of fossilization, extinction, evolution and behavior. While this program focuses mainly on the fascinating prehistoric world of the dinosaurs, it also covers early birds, marine reptiles, and flying reptiles.

Photo/Image (top): The discovery of Deinonychus antirrhopus in the 1960s by Yale’s John Ostrom made the relationship of birds among theropod dinosaurs a central theme in late 20th century paleontology and changed the way we think about dinosaurs.