What the heck is Dinovember?!
Dinovember doesn’t only take place in living rooms and playrooms… your local library or museum may be participating! From Santa Cruz, California to Shreverport, Louisiana, public institutions across the country are rallying around Dinovember to promote early literacy and teach kiddos more about the long-gone beasts that used to rule the planet.
Another way to celebrate Dinovember is to bring your kiddos into the wonderful world of these majestic prehistoric beasts. When your little one finds a dinosaur causing a ruckus in the laundry room, what better time to uncover some dinosaur history?!
Dinovember goes waaaaaaaay back... to the Cretaceous period!
They happily co-existed with many other dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, including some headliner names you may recognize, including Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus Rex (the perfect trifecta of dinosaurs to wreak some havoc in the bathroom, perhaps?!) They’re thought to have lived in the Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, which is known as the world capital of dinosaurs! Although the area is quite dry now, it was once a tropical region that had the ideal conditions for dinosaur life, including lots of other creatures and lots of plant diversity.
Horseshoe Canyon is the original site of Dinovember? Where even is that?!
Freshwater from storms washed the dinosaur bones into lakes and rivers, which would have preserved the fossils much better than being in open air. Dust and dirt swept in from the mountains would have covered the remains, securing them under layers of rock and protecting them from further decay. Thanks to this weather cycle, we know of dozens of species that lived in Horseshoe Canyon, and have learned much more about them, including what periods they were from, what they ate, what their skeletal structures were like, and how big they were.
Up next... dino-mite dino scenes!
