Read Works
Read Works: Vanishing Frogs
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about a skin fungus causing the harlequin frog species to become endangered. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in classifying and categorizing.
Read Works
Read Works: The Ivory Billed Woodpecker Returns
[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text passage shares information about the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that was once perceived to be extinct due to excessive logging. This passage is a stand-alone curricular...
Read Works
Read Works: Living on the Edge
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about four endangered mammals: the golden-crowned sifaka, the long-beaked echidna, the red panda, and the Saiga antelope. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in...
Read Works
Read Works: Saving Hawaiian Monk Seals
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the decreasing population of the Hawaiian monk seals. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
BBC
Bbc: Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
Several articles that trace the chronology of the dinosaur from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. Articles were written to accompany the BBC series, Walking with Dinosaurs.
PBS
Nova: Bone Diggers: Anatomy of Thylacoleo
Thylacoleo or the extinct marsupial lion had an unusual array of adaptations that enabled it to be an effective predator. Explore an interactive fossil of the lion to learn more about each of its' adaptations.
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Fighting Dinos: New Discoveries
A virtual investigation surmising how two fighting dinosaurs died in the Gobi Desert.
BBC
Bbc: Gcse Bitesize: Evolution Aqa
Evolution is the change of inherited characteristics within a population over time through natural selection, which may result in the formation of a new species. Fossils provide a record of organisms that lived a long time ago. They also...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Mammoths vs. Mastodons: What's the Criteria for De Extinction?
There's been a lot of talk and research interest around the possibility of resurrecting certain organisms (or, at least their genomes) from extinction, with Woolly Mammoths being prime candidates for such an endeavor. But what about a...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Biointeractive: The Making of Mass Extinctions
This interactive module explores the environmental factors and species involved in five major mass extinctions.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: News in Science: Piece of Dinosaur Extinction Asteroid Puzzle Recovered
The first meteorite fossil discovered in this period when tests can be run on it, was found at Chicxulub in Northeastern Yucatan, Mexico. Scientists believe it is part of the meteorite which made the dinosaurs extinct.
Other
Catastrophism and Mass Extinctions
An overview of Walter and Luis Alverez's theory that a large meteorite crashed into earth causing huge tidal waves, showers of ash, and an enormous dust cloud.
Other
Who Dunnit to the Dinosaurs?
"One of the great mysteries in science is the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic Era some 65 million years ago. Who (or more likely what) caused it is unknown and a subject of great debate." Many theories are touched...
Other
Dinosaur Extinction: One More Hypothesis
"The survivals and extinctions at the close of the Cretaceous are such as might be expected to result from intensely hot winds such as would be generated by extra large meteoritic impacts." This article suggests that this theory should...
Other
University of Chicago: Dinosaur Extinction
This theory from the University of Chicago of dinosaur extinction revolves around the concept of plate tectonics, the movement of the continents over a sort of liquid around the planet.
Other
Pocantico Hills School: Meet the Dinosaurs
What do other kids know and love about dinosaurs? Here's an exciting place to compare what you know about the "terrible lizards", and to learn more from this school site.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Endangered Animals for Kids: How They Become Extinct
How do endangered species and animals become extinct? Hunting, pollution, loss of habitat, and introduced species all play a part and are discussed on this site.
Other
Dinosaurs' End, the Gravitational Hypothesis
The author of this site feels that there are too many problems with the current theories for why dinosaurs became extinct. He believes that his gravitational hypothesis is the correct answer, the dinosaurs suddenly got too heavy.
Other
Scientists Say Star Collision Caused Dinosaur Extinction
"Israeli scientists have a new theory on why the dinosaurs became extinct: cosmic radiation that bombarded the Earth following the collision of two neutron stars." This article discusses the details of the theory.