Dinosaurs word search
From Tyrannosaurus to the plesiosaurs that swam in the seas over Zealandia. Twenty prehistoric words for young palaeontologists, and a nod to Joan Wiffen, who found the first dinosaur fossil in New Zealand.
- Carnivore
- Claws
- Cretaceous
- Eggs
- Extinct
- Fossil
- Herbivore
- Joan Wiffen
- Jurassic
- Mosasaur
- Plesiosaur
- Pterosaur
- Raptor
- Skeleton
- Stegosaurus
- Teeth
- Tracks
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Zealandia
This is the same puzzle as on the printable sheet. Every word you find turns green and is crossed off the list.
Make your own versionDinosaurs
Name
| Z | E | A | L | A | N | D | I | A | H | O | H | P | Y |
| R | J | U | R | A | S | S | I | C | G | T | E | T | T |
| H | X | F | P | E | L | O | F | A | E | Y | R | E | V |
| C | S | R | E | L | G | N | O | R | U | R | B | R | J |
| S | R | T | A | X | E | G | S | N | M | A | I | O | O |
| T | K | E | E | P | O | S | S | I | O | N | V | S | A |
| E | C | E | T | G | T | T | I | V | S | N | O | A | N |
| T | X | L | L | A | O | O | L | O | A | O | R | U | W |
| R | D | T | A | E | C | S | R | R | S | S | E | R | I |
| A | M | N | I | W | T | E | A | E | A | A | F | X | F |
| C | T | S | N | N | S | O | O | U | U | U | U | Y | F |
| K | P | H | R | N | C | I | N | U | R | R | R | R | E |
| S | M | K | T | E | E | T | H | I | S | U | W | H | N |
| T | R | I | C | E | R | A | T | O | P | S | S | N | N |
Find these words
- Carnivore
- Claws
- Cretaceous
- Eggs
- Extinct
- Fossil
- Herbivore
- Joan Wiffen
- Jurassic
- Mosasaur
- Plesiosaur
- Pterosaur
- Raptor
- Skeleton
- Stegosaurus
- Teeth
- Tracks
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Zealandia
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Dinosaurs
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All words found!
About this word search
For a long time people thought New Zealand had no dinosaurs at all. That changed in 1975 when Joan Wiffen, an amateur fossil hunter, found a dinosaur bone in northern Hawke's Bay. Back then the land was part of Zealandia, a continent that now lies mostly under the sea, and the waters around it were home to huge reptiles like the plesiosaurs. Her name is on the list because without her stubborn digging the story would have started much later.
The grid is fourteen by fourteen and the words run across, down and diagonally, never backwards. Tyrannosaurus is the longest at thirteen letters, and its Y is the only one on the board. It shares the ending SAURUS with stegosaurus, while pterosaur, mosasaur and plesiosaur all end in SAUR, so check the start of each one carefully. Eggs is the shortest at four letters. Joan Wiffen runs together as JOANWIFFEN, and its double F is easy to spot. The Z of Zealandia appears nowhere else.
After the puzzle, children can sort the dinosaurs into meat eaters and plant eaters using the words herbivore and carnivore from the list. Drawing a dinosaur next to a person for scale is always a hit.
Ways to use this word search
In the classroom
Print it as a task for early finishers, or to open a lesson on this topic. With the QR code on the sheet, students check their own answers.
At home and on the go
Pack a few printed sheets for the car, the ferry or the bach. A pen is all you need, no screen required.
Play together
Print the sheet twice and race each other. Whoever finds all the words first wins. Or play it online and see who is fastest.
Try it in Spanish too
The same theme also exists in Spanish, French, German and Italian, each with its own word list in that language. Handy if you are learning a language: you already know the topic, now just the words.
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