David Boyd, age i5, of Ottawa, Ont., Canada, for his question:

Did the dinosaurs eat flesh or vegetables?

In the Age of reptiles, almost all the land animals and some of the marine animals were dinosaurs. There were thousands of different dinosaurs, and they were as varied as the animals in our modern world   for it takes all kinds of animals to maintain the balance of nature. The food was parceled out among the dinosaurs much as it is among our animals.

Most of the dinosaurs dined on plants. The whopping brontosaurus of the swamps fed on water Weeds and numerous big and little dinosaurs fed on shrubs and ground plants. Some dinosaurs ate carrion and some a mixed diet of plant food and meat. A few dinosaurs killed and ate fresh meat. One of the world's most awesome carnivores was tyrannosaurus, a toothy dinosaur who stood 18 feet high on his mighty back legs.