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Cretaceous Copycats - Bird Mimics Dinosaurs

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Cretaceous Copycats - Bird Mimics
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Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.27

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		agile, outrun, shovel-like, struthiomimus, swerve, copy, slender, ostrich, easily, barnyard, mothers, also, omnivores, swift, beep, hollow
	content words:		Road Runner

Other Languages
     Spanish: Mimos del Cretáceo: imitadores de aves

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Cretaceous Copycats - Bird Mimics By Colleen Messina

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¹     Mimics copy others. Some dinosaurs were called ornithomimids. Scientists call them "bird mimics" because some things about them seem similar to modern birds. These bird copycats walked or ran on two strong legs. They had long necks. They had small heads. Inside their tiny heads, they had immense brains and large eyes. They also had two arms and long fingers. These arms looked a little like wings. Many of them had no teeth, like today's birds.
 
²     Bird mimics ate a mix of foods. Eating both meat and plants made them omnivores. Ostriches and other large birds today are also omnivores.
 
³     These bird mimics walked on two legs. Some of them could run up to 50 mph! Modern road runners can go up to 15 mph, and ostriches can run up to 45 mph. Bird mimics' slender bodies and long legs made them fast and agile. Their bones were light and hollow. They could easily outrun their predators. They could also swerve to dodge them, like a car swerves to avoid bumps in the road. They used their tails for balance.

Paragraphs 4 to 6:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

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