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Science // Animals of the World

Explain cladistics: organisms are grouped by shared derived characters, not just similarity; how phylogenetic trees are built using molecular data (DNA sequence…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that dinosaurs were real animals that lived on Earth a very long time ago and are now extinct — none are alive today

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that fossils are the remains of ancient living things preserved in rock, and that scientists called palaeontologists study fossils to learn about…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Recognise and name common well-known dinosaur species: Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus/Diplodocus, describing a basic feature of…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Sort dinosaurs into plant-eaters (herbivores) and meat-eaters (carnivores) by looking at clues like tooth shape — flat teeth for plants, sharp teeth for meat

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Compare dinosaur sizes to familiar things — some dinosaurs were as tall as a house, others were as small as a chicken — and understand that dinosaurs came in a…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Distinguish real dinosaurs from fictional or commonly confused creatures — pterosaurs (flying reptiles) and plesiosaurs (marine reptiles) were not dinosaurs…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that fossils tell us not only about ancient animals but also about ancient environments — for example, marine fossils found on a mountaintop show…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Explain in simple terms how fossils form: an organism dies and is quickly buried in sediment; over millions of years minerals replace the remains and the…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Describe what coprolites are (fossilised dinosaur dung) and how palaeontologists analyse them to discover what dinosaurs ate, including plant fragments, bones…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Distinguish body fossils (preserved bones, teeth, shells) from trace fossils (footprints, trackways, eggs, burrows, coprolites) and explain what each type can…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Use dinosaur trackways (fossilised footprints) to make inferences about a dinosaur's size, speed, and behaviour — widely spaced prints suggest running, closely…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Place the three periods of the Mesozoic Era — Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous — in order and understand that different dinosaurs lived in different periods…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that different dinosaurs lived on different continents and that fossil discoveries around the world show dinosaurs were a global phenomenon, with…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Know who Mary Anning was — a pioneering fossil hunter from Lyme Regis, England, who discovered ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons in the early 1800s and…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Analyse and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and environments that existed long ago

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Evaluate competing scientific explanations about dinosaurs by weighing fossil evidence — understanding that scientific knowledge changes as new fossils are…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Read and create simple cladograms (branching diagrams) that show how groups of dinosaurs are related based on shared features, understanding that species…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that modern birds evolved from a group of small feathered theropod dinosaurs, using evidence such as the fossil Archaeopteryx, feathered dinosaur…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that palaeoart — scientific illustrations and models of dinosaurs — is based on fossil evidence but involves informed speculation about skin colour…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Understand that rock layers (strata) form in sequence with the oldest at the bottom and the youngest at the top, and that fossils found in deeper layers are…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Describe how palaeontologists work in the field and lab: prospecting for exposed fossils, careful excavation with hand tools, plaster jacketing for transport…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Classify dinosaurs into the two major groups based on hip structure: Saurischia (lizard-hipped, including theropods and sauropods) and Ornithischia…

Science // Dinosaurs & Paleontology

Describe the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K-Pg) extinction event approximately 66 million years ago, including the asteroid impact theory and its evidence (iridium…