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    Home » Early Years Science » What Did Dinosaurs Eat? – Dinosaur Poop Investigation

    What Did Dinosaurs Eat? – Dinosaur Poop Investigation

    August 24, 2019 By Emma Vanstone 1 Comment

    We’re all a bit dinosaur crazy in our house at the moment and like most small children Charlie is fascinated by poop. He loved the idea of making poop for his toy dinosaurs while the older children put a lot of thought into how and why different dinosaurs might have different poop.

    Dinosaurs had to eat hundreds of pounds of plants or flesh each day so you can imagine back the there was a lot of poop around. Dinosaur faeces were a source of food for smaller animals and bacteria and helped keep the vegetation lush and green by adding nutrients back to the soil.

    What did dinosaurs eat? Fun dinosaur activity for kids. find out what dinosaurs ate using thier poo!

    Dinosaur Poop Recipe

    You’ll need brown play dough or salt dough for the poo.

    Leaves and/or seeds for the herbivore poo

    Salt dough bones for the carnivore poo.

    We made ours like play dough using this play dough recipe from The Imagination Tree.

    boy with dinosaur poop

    If you want to bake the poo to demonstrate fossilised poo ( coprolite ) you need to make it more like salt dough.

    Easy Salt Dough recipe

    1 cup of plain flour

    ½ a cup of salt

    ½ cup warm water

    Brown food colouring

    Simply mix all the ingredients together to make a smooth dough you can mould into shapes. We made dinosaur bones ( salt dough with no food colouring ) to add to our carnivore play dough poo.

    when you’re ready to bake the salt dough, place in an oven at 150 degrees for about 2 hours or until hard.

    Herbivores

    Herbivore dinosaurs ate plants and seeds. Examples of herbivore dinosaurs are Triceratops, Apatosaurs, Ankylosaurus and Maiasaura.

    We added leaves to our herbivore poop.

    Herbivore dinosaur poop
    Herbivore dinosaur poo

    Carnivores

    Dinosaurs that ate meat are called carnivores. Examples of carnivores are Herrerasaurus, T- Rex and Utahraptor.

    We added salt dough bones to our carnivore poop.

    Carnivore dinosaur poop
    Carnivore dinosaur poo

    Omnivores

    Dinosaurs that ate plants and meat are called omnivores. An examples of an omnivore is the Oviraptor which ate small plants, eggs and insects.

    Piscivores

    Dinosaurs that ate fish are called piscivores. An example of a piscivore is the Plesiosaur which ate fish.

    Famous Fossil Collector

    Mary Anning discovered fossilised dinosaur poo in Dorset. She could tell where the dinosaurs lived and what they ate from studying the coprolites.

    Do Coprolites smell?

    They don’t! Over time the organic matter is replaced by mineral deposits. It’s actually quite hard to tell a coprolite from from a rock. Coprolites are actually very rare as usually animal faeces decay rapidly.

    Apatosaurus dinosaur poop
    What did dinosaurs eat?

    More Dinosaur Poop Ideas

    Make a game where friends have to match the poo to the dinosaur. Change the things found in the poo and the size of the poo.

    Image of Schleich dinosaurs and play dough poo with either bones or leaves in to show the difference between herbivores and carnivores.

    Last Updated on April 30, 2021 by Emma Vanstone

    « Snackable Science – Kitchen Science for Kids
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    Safety Notice

    Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

    These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

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