Eli5 why do we find so many dinosaur skeletons but so few skeletons of our own ancestors like Lucy?

423 views

An actual 6 year-old asked me the question today. I was at a loss.

**Edit**: a lot of interesting answers, food for thought, and ideas on how to explain it to a child. Many thanks to the community!

If I summarize:

* Dinosaurs lived for a very (very) long time, all over the earth, and there were countless different species of them.
* There were few of our ancestors, from just a few species, and most of their existence was confined to limited geographical areas.
* The conditions for a fossil to form are extremely rare, and they may have been even rarer for our ancestors than they were for dinosaurs.

In: 819

39 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Could it be previous humans were eaten by creatures pre and post mortem? Through the digestive process there weren’t many bones left intact or in the same area to be discovered.

You are viewing 1 out of 39 answers, click here to view all answers.