When very small dinosaur bones were found in a Germany mine, people thought they were from baby dinosaurs. ____ Martin Sander's work shows that they were probably fully ____ (grow) and belong to the smallest giant dinosaur species ever found.
Growth marks on dinosaur bones are similar ____ growth rings on trees. The rings are far apart while the animal is young and growing quickly. ____ get closer as growth slows. "It is ___ (exact) these tight ring marks that we found in the fossil bones," says Sander. So the fossils must have been from adult animals.
____ was this German dinosaur so much smaller than other giant dinosaurs, which grew up to 45 metres long and weighed as much as a thousand humans?
150 million years ago, most of Germany was underwater. Scientists think that ____ water levels rose, there was less and less land and food available. The dinosaur ___ (need) less space and food.
Since 1998, scientists have dug up more than 1,000 dinosaur fossils in the mine. It is one of the few places in the world ___ the bones and footprints of dinosaurs have been found together.