Skip to content
Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Appomattox County, VA

Why I love dinosaurs

The historic quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument, built over steeply tilted Jurassic rock layers that hold a dinosaur bone bed. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Dinosaurs" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.
The historic quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument, built over steeply tilted Jurassic rock layers that hold a dinosaur bone bed. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain
  • They were real and they were enormous.
  • We only know them from what they left behind.
  • People are still finding new ones.

You can love dinosaurs in Appomattox County.

What it really is

Dinosaurs are known entirely from bones, tracks, eggs, and careful reasoning.

Three things to try today

  1. Pick a dinosaur and find out how we know its size.
  2. Find out what it ate and how we know.
  3. Find one that was named in the last ten years.
A USGS field crew stands at an overlook above the Marsh-Felch dinosaur quarry while flying a drone to map the site. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Dinosaurs" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.
A USGS field crew stands at an overlook above the Marsh-Felch dinosaur quarry while flying a drone to map the site. U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Appomattox County is one of 134 counties in Virginia. Interest comes first and skill comes second, in that order, always. This page is for the first part.

How we know is the better question than what we know. It teaches evidence.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Appomattox County, VA →

Love something else too

Hurricane Juliette photographed from the Terra satellite as a huge white spiral of cloud with a clear eye at its centre. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Weather" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love weatherThe branching channels of the Godavari River delta meeting the Bay of Bengal, photographed by the crew of space shuttle Endeavour. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rivers" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love riversThe dark ragged skyline of a Douglas fir forest at Point Reyes, California, silhouetted against a pale grey sky. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Forests" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love forestsA honeybee queen marked with a yellow dot on her back, surrounded by worker bees on the honeycomb. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bees" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love beesA cultivated agricultural field stretching to the horizon with a wetland strip along its edge. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Farming" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love farmsAn alligator moving through a brackish waterway at Kennedy Space Center, only its eyes and back above the water. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Animals" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love animalsRed leaf lettuce, mizuna mustard and green lettuce growing under pink-white LED lights in the Veggie plant growth hardware. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Plants" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love plantsA pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page — read by families in Appomattox County, VA.Why I love birds

Near Appomattox County

Why I love dinosaurs, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Appomattox County