Book 5, Question 15
Hungry Giants! Why Did Dinosaurs Need So Much Food?
A big body needs a lot of energy to move and grow. Giant plant-eating dinosaurs probably spent much of their day eating, because leaves do not have much energy in each bite. That is why food was such a big deal for the biggest dinosaurs.
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 5
More fun facts
- Most dinosaurs ate plants, but not grass, because grass had not evolved yet.
- Their menu included pine trees, redwoods, ferns, mosses, horsetails, cycads and ginkgos.
- The last dinosaurs had fruit available too, from flowering plants.
- Some meat-eating dinosaurs ate lizards, turtles, eggs or early mammals.
- Fossil dinosaur poop suggests food moved through their bodies quickly, so they needed to eat a lot.
- Scientists found that some dinosaurs had bird-like metabolisms, while others were more like crocodiles.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, Smithsonian Magazine
Questions kids ask
Did dinosaurs eat grass?
No. Grass had not evolved yet for most of the dinosaur age. They ate ferns, conifers, cycads and other plants.