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

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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.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Apart from the number reason others have said I’d expect there one other factor.

Dinosaurs are mostly huge. However one died it’s pretty unlikely any other animal is tearing it to pieces or consuming the bones. Wind and water is unlikely to move it much. Even the biggest human bone (femur) could form a pretty tasty chew for many animals

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