Label: DInosaurs

January 6, 2013

Scientists think that feathered, two-legged dinosaurs called Oviraptors may have used their muscular tails to shake their feathers as part of a mating dance, just as some male birds do today. One of the researchers who analyzed 75-million-year-old oviraptor fossils said, "I think like peacocks, oviraptors were strutting their stuff by shaking their tail feathers to show off."

Oviraptor tails were short, but were made of many tailbones attached by very strong muscles. This suggests that their tails were both very flexible and very strong, enabling these prehistoric animals to do eye-catching dances and hold powerful poses. The mating dance has apparently been with us through the ages!

Drawing by Sydney Mohr

November 15, 2011

Look at this great image from Vienna, in Austria. My stepdaughter, Jules, who is a college student studying abroad this semester, sent it with this note:

"At the Natural History museum in Vienna (a converted Hapsburg Palace) they had scientific stained glass! Of course, I thought of you." 

Thanks, Jules. I love it! Look at the replica of the sea anemone, the delicate glass sculpture with many tendrils, like a flower, hanging from the ceiling in front of the window. Isn’t it just magnificent?

I decided to learn more about this museum, and discovered that it is the third-largest natural history museum in the world, after New York’s American Museum of Natural History and London’s British Museum. I love natural history museums, probably because when I was a teenager, I was the President of the U.S. Junior Astronomy Club, which had its office in the basement of the American Museum of Natural History. I spent many hours there, wandering through the exhibits, and I’ve loved natural history museums ever since.

One of the main attractions of Vienna’s Natural History Museum is their newly just-opened, modernized dinosaur hall. And I discovered that they have made a very exciting CGI animated movie that includes a life-sized animated model of an Allosaurus and a recreation of the giant asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs! The film is on YouTube and I’ve put a link to it here because I think my readers will like it as much as I do. Check it out and let me know what you think.

July 24, 2011

Wow! Seymour Simon’s SILLY DINOSAUR RIDDLES book app is today’s "Free App of the Day" on the Amazon homepage. Even if you already own this eBook app, go ahead and download it again today, because we have added fun new features like a Dinosaur Quiz (take it to check your dino knowledge!) and word highlighting.

Click here to get it for your Android phone, and tell your friends!

May 4, 2011

Did you know that Seymour Simon’s new eBook, SILLY DINOSAUR RIDDLES, is now available as a single app that you can buy for your iPhone, iPad, iTouch, or Android phone? And it has "Read to Me," too! Click here to see and hear a video preview of the eBook.

Better yet, it is on sale, this week only, for just $1.99.

Can you guess the answer to this riddle?

Click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this story to tell us what you would call a scared Tyrannosaurus!

December 17, 2010

Now you can see a preview of one of the original eBooks that you can download from Seymour’s new SCIENCE FUN TO GO app. At only $3.99, it’s fun and it builds early literacy skills for your favorite elementary schooler! CLICK HERE to view a sample of how the "Read to Me" functionality works for younger kids.

We’ve also heard rumors that there may be some price discounting before Christmas. Keep checking back here (or on the app itself) for details!

October 20, 2010

People often ask me how I choose the subjects for my books. Titles come about in all sorts of ways.

Sometimes it is simply a topic that I am very passionate about (hence all my books about Space and exploring our universe - this has been a fascination for me since I was a little kid). At other times, my editor and I decide what is needed to "fill out" an existing series. For example, my recent Collins/Smithsonian books have been dealing with environmental topics like Global Warming and Tropical Rainforests, and now I’m just beginning research on a third topic for that environmental strand, about Coral Reefs.

Back in 2002, I wrote two books that I knew my young grandsons would love  — Seymour Simon’s Book of Trucks, and Seymour Simon’s Book of Trains. One of the very nice things about writing for children is that books have long lives. Every three or four years, you get a new crop of kids who grow into the topic or reading level, and fall in love with your book all over again. 

That happened this week with my Book of Trains, when I discovered this lovely review by Frances Loving, a librarian who writes a thoughtful blog called Quiet Ramblings. The book may be almost ten years old, but it’s clearly still relevant for her students! Click here to read her review.

I always like to hear from readers, parents and teachers. If there is a topic that you’d like to see me cover, drop me a note here and let me know!