About this puzzle
Kids who can already pronounce Ankylosaurus deserve a puzzle that keeps up with them. This dinosaur word search mixes the famous names with the words paleontologists use every day: the three time periods dinosaurs lived in, the fossils we find them in, and the asteroid that wiped most of them out. It even includes a pterosaur, a flying reptile that was not a dinosaur at all.
It fits nicely into a classroom fossil unit, a dinosaur-themed birthday party, or a museum trip with a long car ride. The notes below are checked against what scientists know today, including the fact that the real Velociraptor was feathered and about the size of a turkey. Reading them together after the puzzle is a quick way to clear up a few movie myths.
The 24 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Asteroid
- About 66 million years ago, an asteroid roughly six miles wide struck near what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The impact is linked to the extinction of all non-bird dinosaurs.
- Bones
- Dinosaur bones are fossils. Over millions of years, minerals from water underground filled in or replaced the bone, turning it into something like stone.
- Carnivore
- A carnivore eats meat. Meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex and Allosaurus were theropods, which walked on two legs and had sharp, curved teeth.
- Claws
- Many meat-eating dinosaurs had sharp, curved claws for grabbing. Velociraptor had a large, sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each foot.
- Diplodocus
- Diplodocus was a long-necked sauropod that could reach about 85 feet in length. Much of that length was a long, whip-like tail.
- Eggs
- All dinosaurs hatched from eggs. Some built nests and cared for their young, like Maiasaura, whose name means good mother lizard.
- Extinct
- A kind of animal is extinct when none are left alive anywhere. All dinosaurs except birds went extinct about 66 million years ago.
- Fossil
- A fossil is any preserved trace of ancient life, including bones, teeth, eggs, and footprints. Most form when remains are buried in sediment that slowly hardens into rock.
- Herbivore
- A herbivore eats plants. Many dinosaurs, including Triceratops and Diplodocus, were herbivores with teeth shaped for snipping or grinding tough plants.
- Jurassic
- The Jurassic Period lasted from about 201 to 145 million years ago. Giant long-necked sauropods, Stegosaurus, and Allosaurus all lived during this time.
- Museum
- Natural history museums display dinosaur skeletons. Sue, one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons ever found, is at the Field Museum in Chicago.
- T Rex
- Tyrannosaurus rex lived in western North America about 68 to 66 million years ago. It had one of the strongest bites of any land animal ever studied.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Allosaurus
- Allosaurus was a large meat-eater in Late Jurassic North America. It lived roughly 80 million years before T. rex, so the two never met.
- Ankylosaurus
- Ankylosaurus was covered in bony armor plates and swung a heavy club at the end of its tail. It was a low, wide plant-eater from the Late Cretaceous.
- Iguanodon
- Iguanodon, named in 1825, was one of the first dinosaurs ever described. Early scientists placed its thumb spike on its nose before better skeletons showed where it belonged.
- Pterosaur
- Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs but were not dinosaurs. Their wings were sheets of skin stretched from an extremely long fourth finger.
- Spinosaurus
- Spinosaurus had a tall sail on its back and a long, narrow snout suited to catching fish. Scientists still debate how much of its time it spent swimming.
- Stegosaurus
- Stegosaurus had two rows of tall plates along its back and four sharp spikes on its tail for defense. It lived in the Late Jurassic, about 155 to 150 million years ago.
- Triceratops
- Triceratops was a plant-eater with three horns and a large bony frill. It lived at the very end of the Cretaceous, in the same time and place as T. rex.
- Velociraptor
- The real Velociraptor was about the size of a turkey and had feathers, as shown by quill knobs on a fossil forearm. It lived in what is now Mongolia.
Added in Hard (4)
- Cretaceous
- The Cretaceous Period ran from about 145 to 66 million years ago. Flowering plants spread during this time, and it ended with a mass extinction.
- Paleontology
- Paleontology is the science of ancient life. Paleontologists dig up, clean, and study fossil bones, teeth, eggs, and footprints to learn how dinosaurs lived.
- Sauropod
- Sauropods were huge plant-eaters with long necks, long tails, and four thick legs. Some, like Argentinosaurus, were among the largest land animals that ever lived.
- Triassic
- The Triassic Period lasted from about 252 to 201 million years ago. The earliest known dinosaurs appeared in its later part, and most were small and fast.
A few facts to share while you solve
- Birds are living dinosaurs: they descend from small, feathered meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods.
- More time separates Stegosaurus from T. rex than separates T. rex from us.
- The word dinosaur was coined in 1842 by British scientist Richard Owen, from Greek words often translated as terrible lizard.
Four versions of this puzzle
Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.
| Version | Words | Grid | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 | 12 × 12 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 15 × 15 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 24 | 16 × 16 | Every word, in all eight directions including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. |
| Large print | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words on a small grid with big letters. No backwards words. |
Hard and large print versions
Hard dinosaur word search: all 24 words on a 16 × 16 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.
Large print dinosaur word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.
Printing this word search
Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.
How to play online
- Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
- Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
- Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.
Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.
Questions and answers
Is a pterosaur a dinosaur?
No. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles and close cousins of dinosaurs, but they belong to a separate group. The same goes for swimming reptiles like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. We included Pterosaur on purpose because it is one of the most common mix-ups, and it makes a good talking point after the puzzle.
What age is this dinosaur word search for?
It is aimed at kids around ages 5 to 10. Preschoolers and early readers can hunt for short words like T Rex and Fossil on easy mode with help, while older kids who love long names can take on Velociraptor and Ankylosaurus at the harder levels.
Did T Rex and Stegosaurus live at the same time?
No. Stegosaurus lived in the Late Jurassic, around 150 million years ago, while T. rex lived at the end of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. The gap between them is longer than the time between T. rex and today.
Is there an answer key for this dinosaur word search?
Yes. Choose Print / PDF above the puzzle and keep “Add an answer key page” ticked. The key prints on its own page, with every word highlighted. While playing online, Show answers outlines any words you haven’t found yet.
Can I print copies for my class or group?
Yes. Every puzzle on BetterWordSearch is free to print for personal, classroom, library and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need. To change the words or make several different versions of the grid, use the word search maker.
What changes between Easy, Medium, Hard and Large print?
Easy hides the 12 most familiar words, reading left to right and top to bottom. Medium uses 20 words and adds diagonals. Hard hides all 24 words in every direction, including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. Large print uses the same words as Easy on a small grid and prints with big letters.
