Reptiles survived the largest extinction event on the planet and then they grew into the most dominant class of the Mesozoic Era. They quickly evolved into giants on land, sea, and air. In an episode of the PBS Eons series viewers learn how dinosaurs rose to power and why they couldn't adapt to a changing environment.

Concepts

reptiles, evolution, the mesozoic era, mass extinction, dinosaur extinction, extinction

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Discuss in more detail why the t-Rex and other large dinosaurs are pictured with feathers
• Create a timeline for each of the animals mentioned in the video to understand when we know they existed and which animals overlapped

Classroom Considerations

• Relies on some prior knowledge of different eons and eras, the dinosaurs, and extinction events

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Provides references for those wanting to know more
• States all measurements in metric units but lists the corresponding measurements in imperial measurements on the screen
• Offers closed captioning for visual learners

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.6.2 SL.7.2 SL.8.2 SL.9-10.2 SL.11-12.2 RST.6-8.4 RST.9-10.4 RST.11-12.4