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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Santa Maria, CA

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 Santa Maria, CA.
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 Santa Maria.

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 Santa Maria, CA.
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

This page is written to the child, not about them. If a kid in Santa Maria, CA loves dinosaurs, here is the grown-up version of what they already feel. The Santa Maria–Santa Barbara, CA metro area has about 442,065 residents, ranking 124th in the country.

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 — Santa Maria, CA →

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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.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 Santa Maria, CA.Why I love birds

Near Santa Maria

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