Welcome to the National Geographic Kids Dinosaur Atlas Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of the National Geographic Kids Dinosaur Atlas on September 20th, come along on a blog tour that spans the continents as we showcase not only the most awesome dinosaurs, but also highlight the geography, environment, and climate that supported these ferocious, fascinating, and fabulous creatures. This is a blog tour to really sink your teeth into!

Europe

During the Jurassic period, the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart into Laurasia and Gondwana. As these two smaller supercontinents moved farther apart, the ocean rose between them, forming the Tethys Sea. During the Late Cretaceous, today’s Europe was a group of islands in the Tethys Sea called the Tethyan Archipelago.

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Feathered Friends
One of the best-preserved fossils ever found in Europe was a meat-eating baby called Sciurumimus. It was a theropod from Bavaria. Some of its protofeathers, which are early kinds of feathers, were still there! This species of theropod lived during the Jurassic period 150 million years ago.

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SPOTLIGHT ON BAKONYJA´KO´, HUNGARY
FOSSIL FINDS: AJKACERATOPS, HUNGAROSAURUS
WHEN: CRETACEOUS

During the Late Cretaceous, Hungary was part of a group of islands between Africa and Eurasia in the Tethys Sea. The land was warm with lots of plants, including conifer trees and flowering plants. Hungarosaurus and Ajkaceratops lived there. So did pterosaurs and crocodilians. Their fossils can now be found in the Csehbánya Formation. It is at a mining site in the Bakony mountains in western Hungary. Scientists think a lot of the fossils here are of animals that got caught in huge floods.

AJKACERATOPS (AHJ-ka-SEHR-uh-tops)
MEANING: “Horn face from Ajka”
PERIOD: Late Cretaceous
Ceratopsians, like Triceratops, are usually big. But Ajkaceratops was much smaller than horned dinosaurs from other parts of the world in the Late Cretaceous. It was just three feet (1 m) long. That might be because Hungary was an island in the Tethyan Archipelago during the Cretaceous. This meant there was not as much food there as in other places. This could have stopped dinosaurs there from growing very big.

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An Unsolved Puzzle
Europe was a group of islands surrounded by water during the Cretaceous period. Because scientists thought dinosaurs could not swim across this water, they believed European dinosaurs must have been very different from dinosaurs in other places. But the Ajkaceratops looked a lot like Asian ceratopsian fossils. This might mean dinosaurs traveled from Asia to Europe during this time. Scientists don’t know for sure that this happened, or how it could have happened. Maybe dinosaurs swam across the Tethys Sea. Or maybe they walked across the ocean floor after sea levels dropped.

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About the Book

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With more than 75 prehistoric creatures featured, the National Geographic Kids Dinosaur Atlas takes readers on a tour of every dinosaur-inhabited continent, from Pangea to the modern day, revealing which creatures lived there, what their habitats were like and where dinosaur bones are being found today. Special sections introducing the dinosaur family tree, a prehistoric era timeline, the geography of the prehistoric globe, what happened to the dinosaurs, and a dinosaur dictionary  (with phonetic pronunciations) are also included . Readers will find inspiration from profiles of diverse paleontologists from around the world.

The oversized hardcover format showcases stunning, full color dinosaur illustrations on every page and the custom-made, kid-friendly maps were created by National Geographic’s legendary cartography and exploration experts. Vetted and curated by Dr. Steve Brusatte — a paleontologist on faculty at the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburg, a PhD recipient from Columbia University, and the science consultant for the Jurassic World franchise — this atlas contains the most detailed and accurate information not only about dino “fan favorites” but also about the most recent dinosaur discoveries from less explored dig sites around the world.

For more fun information about dinosaurs, visit https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric.

About the Creators

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About the Expert Reviewer, Professor Steve Brusatte:
STEVE BRUSATTE, a paleontologist on the faculty of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, served as the expert reviewer for this atlas. He grew up in the midwestern United States and has a B.S. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, an M.Sc. in Paleobiology from the University of Bristol, and a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University in New York. He has written more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers during his 15 years of research in the field, named and described over a dozen new species of dinosaurs and mammals, and led groundbreaking studies on how dinosaurs rose to dominance and eventually went extinct, and were then replaced by mammals. Among his particular research interests are the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and birds and the rise of placental mammals. He is also a noted specialist on the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. His 2018 book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, was a New York Times best-seller, and he is the science consultant for the Jurassic World film franchise.

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About the illustrator, Franco Tempesta: 
Born in Milan, Italy, FRANCO TEMPESTA has loved drawing animals, dinosaurs, and dragons since he was a child.  Franco specializes in naturalistic illustration, and in the last twenty years has focused his attention on the realization of realistic images of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals.  In April 2014 the Museum of Paleontology of Naples hosted a permanent exhibition dedicated to his illustrations of dinosaurs and in 2016 the Science Museum of Camerino hosted an exhibition of his paleo art.

GIVEAWAY

• Five (5) winners will receive a copy of National Geographic Kids Dinosaur Atlas (ARV $25)
• US/Canada only
• Ends 10/16 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Schedule:

October 3rd — Whirlwind of Surprises
October 4th — Nerdophiles
October 5th — Pragmatic Mom
October 6th — From the Mixed-Up Files… of Middle-Grade Authors
October 7th — Chat with Vera

p.s. Related posts:

Best Dinosaur Books for Kids (ages 2-8)

Dinosaur T Rex: Not the Fiercest!

Dinosaur! ebook app for ages 1-5

The Natural History Museum in London

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BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.

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