Dinosaur Walk Gallery Guide

Prepare students for a visit to Melbourne Museum’s Dinosaur Walk gallery with this overview of the species they will encounter in the exhibition. Behind the scenes videos with curators expand on key themes of the gallery. A fact sheet for each species provides a useful way to compare and contrast prehistoric animals.

In this activity students will  

• Observe that dinosaurs have features that perform different functions that help them survive.
• Explore the structural features of dinosaurs that enabled them to thrive in their habitat.
• Find out about dinosaurs from their fossils.

Suggested questions to engage students

• How did the body of each dinosaur species help it to survive?
• What were some of the structural features and behaviours of dinosaurs that enabled them to thrive in their environment?
• How can scientists tell what prehistoric animals ate
• Which animals have crests or horns? What did they use them for?
• What can we learn from dinosaur eggs?

What to do

The Dinosaur Walk exhibition guide contains information about all the prehistoric species you will see during your visit.

Visit the Dinosaur Walk page

Please see the following age specific activities drawing on this information.

Foundation to Year 2

Print a selection of colouring fact sheets. Ask the students to compare the bodies of the dinosaurs.

• Are their legs the same?
• Are their skulls the same?
• How did the body of each dinosaur help them to survive?

Students can also construct their own hadrosaur hand puppet.

• Hadrosaur.pdf|  630.93 KB .pdf file

Year 3 and 4

Watch the video about the dinosaur eggs. Explain that all dinosaurs laid eggs.

• What other animals do they know they lay eggs?
• Ask students to draw the life cycle of a long-neck dinosaur. 

Year 5 and 6 

Watch the video about Tarbosaurus.

Ask students to recall some of the structural features and behaviours of the Tarbosaurus that enabled it to thrive in its environment. 

Fact sheets

• Inostrancevia.pdf|  587.04 KB .pdf file
• Gallimimus.pdf|  564.45 KB .pdf file
• Deinonychus.pdf|  577.31 KB .pdf file
• Tarbosaurus.pdf|  593.55 KB .pdf file
• Hadrosaur.pdf|  630.93 KB .pdf file
• Tsintaosaurus.pdf|  654.24 KB .pdf file
• Hypsilophodon.pdf|  557.41 KB .pdf file
• Mamenchisaurus.pdf|  620.06 KB .pdf file
• Talarurus.pdf|  805.38 KB .pdf file
• Protoceratops.pdf|  836.68 KB .pdf file
• Genyornis.pdf|  572.35 KB .pdf file
• Diprotodon.pdf|  737.83 KB .pdf file