People from all over the world are drawn to our rafting adventures through Dinosaur National Monument. The monument boasts over 1,500 dinosaur fossils exposed on a cliff face in the exhibit hall. But what draws people—especially young people—to these mysterious creatures from many millions of years ago? We crowdsourced this question to try to get to the heart of the allure. Read on to learn more.
Dinosaurs are cool creatures.
They’re big, they’re scary, and they have cool names. But aside from that, dinosaurs also get to do what they want — and that’s one of the reasons why many kids like them. They’re like the ultimate fantasy and they’re living the dream. Dinosaurs don’t have to follow any rules, they don’t have bedtimes, and they don’t have to eat their veggies before they can eat their dessert. For kids, that’s a pretty bad-ass way to live life.
Kids get praised when they say something about dinosaurs.
When kids mention dinosaur names like Brachiosaurus and Velociraptor, they often get praise from adults. They get things like, “You’re a genius!” or “That’s really impressive!” This reinforces their interests and makes them want to know more about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs are magical yet real at the same time.
Kids love stories and they love fictional characters. But with dinosaurs, kids know that they existed millions of years ago. So while they see cool pictures and animations of dinosaurs, the fact that they were real definitely sparks their interest.
Names are music to a child’s ears
Everyone has seen it. A 5-year-old girl can barely talk in longer sentences but has no problem rolling those big, complicated names off her tongue. They are not just “dinos.” One has to be specific, even if it takes five minutes to spell a name. The mouthfuls such as Micropachycephalosaurus, Huehuecanauhtlus, Propliopithecus, and of course, everyone’s favorite T-Rex – those are music to a child’s ears!
This unbelievable devotion is a result of multiple factors. Ancient, long-extinct species that roamed the earth millions of years ago, some of them bigger than whales, others more ferocious than sharks – what’s there not to love? But it seems there’s more to this passion than just the story of small, bad guys and their big, gentle counterparts. Kids typically love animals because they let them explore the world in an empathetic way. Dinosaurs take this love one step further because they have to do with the deep past that none of us got to see personally.
A child that gets into these majestic creatures can really become an expert, rattling down all the names and periods. Envisioning their features, habits, struggles, and surroundings is so much fun. Plus, it opens up room for other important conversations: what kind of natural world they lived in and how it was different from today’s world. All of that instills a child with confidence and brings their enthusiasm to an even deeper level.
Moreover, with all those fascinating fossils and skeletons, who can say they weren’t real? Lying at the intersection of science and mystery, dinosaurs grow into a symbol of power, freedom, and passage of time. A child can’t articulate it, but they can still feel and admire it!
Janet Ruth Heller, Ph.D.
Janet Ruth Heller, Ph.D. taught English and American literature, composition, creative writing, linguistics, and women’s studies courses for 35 years at 8 colleges and universities. Find her at Janetruthheller.com
Dinosaurs are unusual, large, and powerful
Children like dinosaurs because such creatures are unusual, large, and powerful. Children are small and lack power in our society, so they get attracted to dinosaurs, which are the opposite.
Also, children get a lot of exposure to dinosaurs in the media. There are television shows about dinosaurs, such as PBS’s The Dinosaur Train. There are also movies about dinosaurs, such as the Jurassic Park series. Such media get youngsters interested in dinosaurs.
Museums often have displays of dinosaurs. When I was growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my father would often take my siblings and me to the Milwaukee Public Museum, which had re-assembled dinosaur skeletons. We could imagine what these creatures looked like when they were alive.
Uneaka Daniels
Uneaka Daniels is a 30-year veteran teacher who has taught kindergarten to 4th grade. She currently is a Reading Specialist who enjoys sharing all kinds of books with her students. Find her at Theuniqueblogger.com
Dinosaurs are mystical creatures
Children seem to love dinosaurs so much because there are animals they have never seen and have a mystical appeal to them. The pictures that they have seen of dinosaurs usually show large animals set in environments such as forests and on bare land.
Once they are able to touch replicas of these animals or visit museums such as the Smithsonian [National Museum of Natural History] in Washington D. C. they become totally infatuated. Dinosaurs give them an opportunity to use their imagination to create an unknown world with these animals.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors are not necessarily affiliated with this website and their statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.
