Real Animals Behind Monsters: teacher key

Dragons and Mythical Creatures, grade 5 edition, written for 5th grade. How fossil bones, a narwhal tusk and sea creatures may have shaped old stories, and how the real Komodo dragon got its name.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What is a narwhal's long spiral horn?
   • A bone
   • A tooth (answer)
   • A claw
2. What did traders sell narwhal tusks as?
   • Dragon teeth
   • Mermaid combs
   • Unicorn horns (answer)
3. What animal were sailors most likely seeing when they told of mermaids?
   • Manatees (answer)
   • Giant squid
   • Komodo dragons
4. Why might people have thought huge fossils belonged to dragons?
   • They had seen living dragons
   • They found them in castles
   • They did not know about extinction (answer)
5. Where does the English word dragon come from?
   • The Chinese word for rain
   • The Greek word drakon (answer)
   • The Latin word for lizard

Words

• fossil: old bones
• extinction: gone forever
• tusk: long tooth
• zodiac: 12 animal signs
• serpent: snake