ديناصورات في القرية

Welcome to BBC Xtra English.

Today Anna and Rasha talk about dinosaurs.

Imagine you live in a village in rural Yemen, and one day you find yourself under the international media spotlight.

The home of Yahir Saleh Arshami from Madar, a village 50 kilometres north of the Yemeni capital Sana'a, is now at the centre of a major investigation into some dinosaur footprints.

The footprints which are 150 million years old, and half a metre wide, are outside Mr. Arshami's front doorstep!

He told the BBC: "Luckily I built my house around the footprints so as not to disturb them. It's something good for the country and many people have come to see this site. For scientists and tourists, it's very good".

Before scientists examined the footprints, people in the area believed they were made by giant camels.

Now it is has been established that they were made by the largest and heaviest dinosaurs, called sauropods.

Other species of dinosaur were also thought to roam the area.

Why do you think we are so interested in dinosaurs? Are you?.

لماذا يهتم العالم بآثار الديناصورات؟ وهل أنت من المهتمين بها؟ اكتبوا لنا بالإنجليزية.

أنقر هنا للاستماع للكلمات

dinosaur

ديناصور

media spotlight

محل اهتمام وسائل الإعلام

footprints

آثار أقدام

giant camels

إبل عملاقة

largest and heaviest

الأكبر حجماً والأثقل وزناً

species

أنواع من الكائنات الحية

roam

تجول

Suhaib, Amman, Jordan
i think we are so interested in dinosaurs because it's animals that we haven't seen ,and any thing you haven't seen you be curious to know more about it.

Ammar, Baghdad, Iraq
I think its amazing thing when you find footprint to dinosaurs in your house and am more interested on your home since this moment how come this happen when and maybe more where I sleep or where I eat so is so cool to thing all these and stop on it.

Hameed, Sana'a, Yemen
I think We are so interested in dinosaurs because they lived in the past and We didn't know more about it.

Mohamed, Al-Mansoura, Egypt
We must be interested in dinosaurs because we need to know how the Earth was millions of years ago and how were the creatures able to live . This will leads us to discover the great changes which made giant creatures like dinosaurs die out. I think the main reason is our curiosity.

Farand in Iraq says:
Dinosaurs, one of the most successful groups of animals (in terms of longevity) that have ever lived, evolved into many diverse sizes and shapes, with many equally diverse modes of living.

Samia Al-Hrbee from Saudi Arabia emailed:
Regarding this subject I'm not surprised as there is much research are carried out on our Arbian Peninsula that proves there was a life quite different and there were a lot of rivers and woods, and one day all that will come back again.Thanks for your interesting program. Hi everyone.

شروط وبنود الاستخدام