The Great Expedition Series, Book 5

A Million Whys: The Time Expedition for Curious Kids

By Crafty Clover. Published by Million Whys Press.

Why dinosaurs got so big, why fossils turn to stone, why ice ages come and go, and why scientists change their minds. Six expeditions: Dinosaurs and Giants, Fossils and Clues, Ice, Fire, and Changing Earth, First People and Old Tools, How Scientists Know, and Clocks and Your Time.

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All 150 questions

Tap a question to watch its video and read the answer.

Expedition 1: Dinosaurs and Giants

1. Giant Dinos! Why Were Some Dinosaurs So Huge?
2. Tiny Arms, Huge Bite! Why Did T. Rex Have Tiny Arms?
3. Fluffy Fossils! Why Do We Think Dinosaurs Had Feathers?
4. Reach for the Sky! Why Long Necks on Some Dinosaurs?
5. Plates on Its Back? Why Did Stegosaurus Have Them?
6. Horns and a Frill! Why Did Triceratops Have Both?
7. Pocket-Sized Dinos! Why Were Some Dinosaurs So Small?
8. Egg-cellent Question! Why Did Dinosaurs Lay Eggs?
9. Stomp Stomp! Why Do We Find Dinosaur Footprints?
10. Dino Crowds! Why Did Some Dinosaurs Live in Herds?
11. Chomp! Why Did Meat-Eating Dinosaurs Have Sharp Teeth?
12. Munch Munch! Why Did Plant-Eaters Have Beaks or Grinders?
13. Wings Over Dinos! Why Did Flying Reptiles Soar?
14. Sea Monsters? Why Were There Giant Sea Reptiles Too?
15. Hungry Giants! Why Did Dinosaurs Need So Much Food?
16. Oops, Wrong Colors? Why Do Movies Get Dinosaurs Wrong?
17. Cool Crests! Why Did Some Dinosaurs Have Crests and Sails?
18. Fast or Slow? Why Do Scientists Argue About T. Rex Speed?
19. Not Mini Adults! Why Were Baby Dinosaurs Different?
20. Worldwide Dinos! Why Did Dinosaurs Live Almost Everywhere?
21. Cluck Cluck! Why Is a Chicken a Clue About Dinosaurs?
22. So Many Dinos! Why Did So Many Kinds Exist?
23. No Fresh Dino Meat? Here's Why We Never Find It!
24. The Big Goodbye! Why Did Non-Bird Dinosaurs Disappear?
25. Be a Dino Detective! How Do We Think Like One?

Expedition 2: Fossils and Clues

26. Bone to Stone! Why Does a Bone Turn Into a Fossil?
27. Layer Cake Earth! Why Are Fossils Found in Rock Layers?
28. Dig Detectives! Why Use Brushes Instead of Shovels?
29. Cast for a Bone! Why Make a Plaster Jacket?
30. Missing Pieces! Why Are Most Fossils Not Whole Skeletons?
31. Squished Fossils? Why Do Some Look Smashed or Stretched?
32. Tooth Talk! How Can a Tooth Tell What an Animal Ate?
33. Leaf Prints! Why Do We Find Fossils of Leaves and Wood?
34. Time Capsule in Gold! Why Is Amber So Special?
35. Leave It There! Why Not Pocket a Fossil From a Park?
36. Copycat Bones! Why Do Museums Use Casts?
37. Follow the River! Why Do Old River Maps Help Fossil Hunters?
38. Fossil Travelers! Why the Same Fossil on Two Continents?
39. Snap and Label! Why Number and Photograph Every Find?
40. Yes, Really! Why Can Coprolites Be Useful?
41. Follow the Trail! Why Do Trackways Count as Fossils?
42. Save Some for Later! Why Leave a Dig Site Half-Buried?
43. Sparkly Stone! Why Do Some Fossils Sparkle or Change Color?
44. Rock Clock Clues! Why Is Index Fossil a Useful Nickname?
45. Tiny Tools! Why Do Labs Use Tiny Saws and Needles?
46. X-Ray Vision! Why Do CT Scans Help With Fossils?
47. Number One Fossil! Why Is a Holotype Extra Important?
48. Name Change! Why Do Dinosaur Names Sometimes Change?
49. Still Digging! Why Do We Find New Fossils Every Year?
50. Fossil Detective Mode! How Do We Think Like One?

Expedition 3: Ice, Fire, and Changing Earth

51. Ice Sculptors! Why Does Ice Carve Valleys?
52. Scratch Marks! Why Do Glaciers Scratch the Rock?
53. Ice Age Leftovers! Why Are Some Lakes Left by Ice?
54. Mountain Maker! Why Does a Volcano Make a Mountain?
55. Hot Rock Mix-Up! Why Is Lava Different From Magma?
56. Boom or Ooze? Why Do Some Volcanoes Explode?
57. Friend and Foe! Why Is Volcanic Ash Dangerous and Useful?
58. Steamy Surprise! Why Do Hot Springs and Geysers Exist?
59. Shake, Rattle and Roll! Why Does Earth Have Earthquakes?
60. Slow Motion Puzzle! Why Do Earth's Plates Move?
61. Up, Up, Up! Why Do Mountains Rise?
62. Deep Cuts! Why Do Canyons Get Deeper?
63. Rock Breakers! Why Does Weather Break Rock?
64. Wiggle Wiggle! Why Do Rivers Curve?
65. Backward Bound! Why Do Waterfalls Move Backward?
66. More Than Mud! Why Is Soil More Than Dirt?
67. Dry Lands! Why Do Deserts Form?
68. Always Wet! Why Do Rainforests Stay Wet?
69. Crack and Crumble! Another Look: How Weather Breaks Rock
70. Long Journey! Why Can a Pebble Travel So Far?
71. Underground Worlds! Why Do Caves Form?
72. Old Ground, New Ground! Why Is Land Not the Same Age?
73. Frozen Time Capsules! Why Study Ice Cores?
74. Handle With Care! Why Can a Changing Earth Be Dangerous?
75. Earth Detective Mode! How Do You Think Like One?

Expedition 4: First People and Old Tools

76. Stone Age Toolkit! Why Did Early People Make Stone Tools?
77. Sharp Idea! Why Is a Sharp Flake a Big Invention?
78. Fire Power! Why Did Fire Change How People Lived?
79. Let's Cook! Why Did People Start Cooking Food?
80. Ancient Fashion! Why Did People Wear Skins and Plant Fibers?
81. Follow the Herd! Why Did People Follow Animal Herds?
82. Cave Artists! Why Did People Paint on Cave Walls?
83. Hello From the Past! Why Are Handprints in Caves a Clue?
84. Home Sweet Home! Why Did People Start Staying in One Place?
85. Seeds of Change! Why Did Farming Change Everything?
86. Best Friends Forever! Why Did People Domesticate Dogs?
87. Grain Gains! Why Did People Grow Grain?
88. Pots, Baskets, Big Deal! Why Did They Matter?
89. Stitch by Stitch! Why Did People Make Needles?
90. Buried Treasures? Why Bury Tools With the Dead?
91. Camp by the Water! Why Do We Find Old Camps Near Water?
92. Colorful Clues! Why Did People Use Ochre?
93. Row, Row! Why Did Boats Matter?
94. Seashells Far From the Sea! Why Did People Trade Them?
95. Trash Talk! Why Is a Midden Useful?
96. Great Minds Think Alike! Why Did Groups Invent Similar Tools?
97. Show Respect! Why Treat Burial Sites With Respect?
98. Look, Don't Touch! Why Use Replicas Instead of Real Artifacts?
99. Many Groups! Why Were First People Not One Single Tribe?
100. History Detective Mode! How Do You Think Like One?

Expedition 5: How Scientists Know

101. More Clues, Better Answers! Why Use More Than One Clue?
102. It's Okay Not to Know! Is "We Don't Know Yet" an Answer?
103. Mind Changers! Why Do Scientists Change Their Minds?
104. Half a Skeleton? Why Is a Fossil Not Always Whole?
105. Copies Help! Why Do Museums Use Casts?
106. Dating Rocks! Why Date the Rock Around a Fossil?
107. Label It! Why Are Indexes and Catalogs Useful?
108. Sharing Is Caring! Why Do Scientists Share Their Finds?
109. Sketch It! Why Is a Drawing Useful in a Photo World?
110. Measure Up! Why Measure Instead of Just Looking?
111. Just a Pinch! Why Do Scientists Take Tiny Samples?
112. Friendly Disagreement! Why Can Two Teams Disagree?
113. Double Check! Why Is Peer Review a Filter?
114. Back to the Dig! Why Return to the Same Site?
115. Where It Was Found Matters! Why Is Context So Important?
116. X Marks the Spot! Why Do Maps of Finds Matter?
117. One Tooth Tells All? Why Can a Single Tooth Be Enough?
118. Tiny Details! Why Use Microscopes on Old Dirt?
119. Famous Fossil? Why It's Not the Whole Story!
120. Team Earth! Why Work With Local Communities?
121. Keep Out? Why Are Some Sites Closed to the Public?
122. Stop, Thief! Why Is Looting a Science Problem?
123. Big Questions! Why Do Kids' Questions Still Matter?
124. Write It Down! Why Is a Notebook a Tool?
125. Detective Mode On! How Do You Think Like a Detective?

Expedition 6: Clocks and Your Time

126. Happy New Year! Why Do We Count Years?
127. Sun Up, Sun Down! Why Do We Have Days and Nights?
128. Hot, Cold, Repeat! Why Do Seasons Change?
129. Moon Shapes! Why Does the Moon Change Shape?
130. Counting Years! How Do People Keep Track of Them?
131. Time Travelers? Why Are There Time Zones?
132. Tree Rings! Why Do Rings Count Years?
133. Swing and Sand! Why Do Some Clocks Use Swings or Sand?
134. Deep Time! Why Can't We Wear a Clock for It?
135. Tick Tock, Body Clock! Why Does Your Body Have Rhythms?
136. Ring Around the Tree! Another Look at Tree Ring Time
137. Before and After! Why Does That Order Matter?
138. Be Patient! Why Do Some Answers Take Time?
139. Yesterday vs. Tomorrow! Why Do They Feel Different?
140. Why Does History Use Different Clocks Than Homework?
141. Same Age, Different Look! Why Can Two Fossils Differ?
142. A Tiny Slice! Why Is Your Life a Small Part of Earth Time?
143. Save It for Later! Why Do We Save Finds for the Future?
144. You're a Timekeeper! Why Can You Be One Too?
145. Tick, Tock, Ding! Why Are There So Many Kinds of Clocks?
146. Bonus Day! Why Do Some Years Get an Extra Day?
147. Layer by Layer! Why Are Older Layers Usually Lower?
148. Are We There Yet? Why Does Waiting Feel So Long?
149. The End Is Yours! Why Does This Book End With You?
150. Time Detective Mode! How Do You Think Like One?