Dustin says: I decided to draw the lion because people are trying to kill it for carpets and to make bed spreads and mats made out of the lions fur.

Ms. R-M replies: Helloooo Dustin! The lion's main prey is antelope. What do you think would happen to the herds of antelope if many more lions are killed. Do you remember the game we played, "Oh Deer"? WHat happened to the deer when they couldn't find food, water or shelter? The antelopes need lions to help keep the balance in their habitiat. Ms. R-M

Dustin replies: Hi Ms. R.M. I am not really sure what would happen to the antelp population, but I think that if more lions are killed that there would be more antelopes because the lions would be less and there would only be a few lions left to kill the antelope. They could hide in the woods and the few lions wuldn't be able to find them. Dustin.

Dustin says: I think that extinction is things that are not here anymore, like the dinosaurs. I wonder about the insects that we don't have anymore. I wonder what other animals lived with the dinosaurs but we don't know much about them? Can we find out who they were and what they were? Were there any dragonflies alive during the dinosaur times? I would like to research snakes and I wonder if there were any snakes alive during the dinosaur times? If there were, what did they look like? I think that they must have looked different then today's snakes. What happened to them?

Sean Bell replies: There were a lot of animals around with the dinosaurs, even mammals. It would be impossible to list them all, but some are entirely extinct and some of them have modern relatives. The dragonflies were definitely around with the dinosaurs, and even earlier. When the first amphibians were crawling up onto beaches, dragonflies were probably already humming around in the air. There were snakes around at least during the Cretaceous as far as I know, but I'm no expert on snakes (can't know everything, sorry!). Snake paleontology is actually very recent, and fossils are harder to come by thean other groups such as fish, crocodiles and turtles. As for what happened to them, you can see today--snakes are very common and well-adapted, and probably looked similar to their modern form.

Dustin asks: I am studying sharks. I now know that sharks eat anything that is like meat. Sharks are endangered because people are killing them for their skins. Is it illegal for people to kill sharks for their skins? If it is illegal, what is the punishment for getting caught. If it is not illegal, how can we stop people from killing the sharks?