This is a must see for all dinosaur fans out there! Viewers learn alongside the Pteranodon family (a family of pterodactyls, and one toddler T-Rex) all about undersea animals from the prehistoric ages. The DVD contains eight different computer animated stories focusing on dinosaurs and the undersea creatures that lived during their time. The train conductor leads us through a time tunnel and under the oceans, while using charts, songs, and questions to teach us about sea creatures as small as a hermit crab, as strange as a Michelinocera, and as big as a Pilosaurus, nicknamed "The T-Rex of the Sea." The sea creatures and dinosaurs studied also share facts about themselves. For instance, Carla Cretoxyrhina explains that sharks have excellent eyesight and smell; and Elmer Elasmosaurus says that he can hold his breath for long periods of time in order to live under the sea.
In each episode, the curious toddler T-Rex, named Buddy, makes a hypothesis about something. Throughout the DVD, it is explained that a hypothesis is "A guess that can be tested." The pteradactle children try to figure out why Elmer Elasmosaurus has such a long neck. Buddy points out that land animals with long necks eat tall plants, so perhaps Elmer eats tall plants under the sea. Even though this hypothesis is incorrect, it shows viewers how to practice deductive reasoning. They later learn that their long necks help them eat fish traveling in schools. Encouraging your little one to also make their own hypotheses about why something looks as it does, or how something came to be, will start developing their analytical thinking skills. The Dinosaur Train episodes also demonstrate numerous examples of great teamwork, which you can point out to your child. For example, the pteradactyle children offer to hold Buddy's arms so he can fly alongside them while looking for fish, or when they work together to test Buddy's hypothesis, or even when they are simply polite and friendly to each of the new animals they meet.
My three year-old friend Sam LOVES dinosaurs, and was already familiar with the Dinosaur Train cartoon before I brought him this video. His favorite character is Buddy, the young T-Rex. Like Buddy, Sam is always asking questions and wanting to know how things work. I asked Sam which animal was his favorite to learn about on the video, and he picked the Michelinoceras Brothers, which look like squid with a conical shell. They also only move backwards, and are very fast. Sam even said he planned to look for them in the bathtub during his next bath, and in the pond at the park.
--Audra