Introduction Some dinosaurs were giants These giant dinosaurs weighed more than a heavy cement truck They were longer than your school lunchroom They were taller than an apple tree
The largest of all the dinosaurs belong to a family named Sauropods which means lizard feet They were given that name because their feet looked the way lizards feet do today There were other large dinosaurs but none were as large as some of the sauropods A sauropod's body was very large Each of its four legs was as thick as a tree trunk Its leg bones were very strong and heavy But its backbones were hollow and very light in weight Sauropods had small heads and long necks and tails With their long necks they could raise their heads high above the ground Some of these giant dinosaurs had heads smaller than a horse's and brains no larger than a kitten's Sauropods had small brains for such large bodies All sauropods ate plants They did not eat other animals Sauropods lived for millions of years in North America Africa and China This book is about these large dinosaurs It tells how they lived in their surroundings and how they used their size to survive
How Sauropods Lived Scientists are not exactly sure how sauropods lived That's because no one has ever seen a real sauropod The last sauropods died many years before people lived on Earth But the sauropods left clues to what they were like Some of the clues are fossils Bones that change to rock are called fossils Other clues are tracks in mud that hardened into rock Scientists have also found hardened sauropod eggs and nests Scientists look closely at the clues they find They think about the clues and form ideas about the way these dinosaurs looked and lived Sometimes they change their ideas At one time scientists believed sauropods lived in shallow water in lakes They thought the water helped support the weight of their heavy bodies But now scientists believe that sauropods lived mostly on dry land
