Detailed worksheet helping students learn about extinct species like the Dodo and Golden Toad through reading and writing exercises.

Let’s go step by step to solve this task.

The instruction says:
“Read about the extinct animals and then write about them using the Past Simple tense.”

First, we need to identify which animals are extinct (not just endangered). Looking at the “When” column:

- Sabre-toothed Cat → 40 million years ago → Extinct
- Helicoprion → 250 million years ago → Extinct
- Golden Toad → 1989 → This is recent, but it’s listed as extinct now → Extinct
- Dodo → 1600s → Extinct
- Giant Monitor Lizard → 40,000 years ago → Extinct

All five animals shown are extinct. So we will write sentences about each one using the Past Simple tense.

What is Past Simple?
It’s used for actions that happened and finished in the past. For regular verbs, we add “-ed” (like “walked”). For irregular verbs, we use the past form (like “was”, “lived”, “ate”).

Now let’s write one sentence per animal using facts from the chart — all in Past Simple.

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Sabre-toothed Cat:
→ It lived in North America.
→ It weighed between 160 and 280 kilograms.
→ It was 1 metre tall.
→ It ate meat.

We can combine into one sentence:
*The Sabre-toothed Cat lived in North America, weighed up to 280 kg, was 1 metre tall, and ate meat.*

But since the task says “write about them”, maybe one short sentence per animal is better.

Let’s keep it simple and clear for a student.

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Final plan: Write one short sentence for each animal using Past Simple.

Check verb forms:
- live → lived
- weigh → weighed
- be → was/were
- eat → ate
- exist → existed

Let’s draft:

1. The Sabre-toothed Cat lived in North America 40 million years ago.
2. Helicoprion swam in the China Seas and Pacific Ocean 250 million years ago.
3. The Golden Toad lived in Monteverde, Costa Rica until 1989.
4. The Dodo lived on Mauritius in the 1600s.
5. The Giant Monitor Lizard lived in Australia 40,000 years ago.

Wait — the task says “write about them using the Past Simple tense”. We don’t have to include every fact — just write something true about each in past tense.

Also, note: The Golden Toad’s “When” is 1989 — that means it went extinct then, so we say it *lived* until 1989.

Let me double-check if any of these are not actually extinct — but according to the worksheet, they’re all under “Extinct & Endangered Animals”, and their “When” shows they no longer exist.

So our sentences are correct.

Now, let’s make sure we’re using only Past Simple — no present perfect or other tenses.

Yes — all verbs above are in Past Simple.

We can also mention diet or size if we want, but the task doesn’t specify how much to write. Since there are lines provided, probably 5 short sentences (one per animal) is perfect.

Let’s finalize:

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Final Answer:

The Sabre-toothed Cat lived in North America 40 million years ago.
Helicoprion swam in the oceans 250 million years ago.
The Golden Toad lived in Costa Rica until 1989.
The Dodo lived on Mauritius in the 1600s.
The Giant Monitor Lizard lived in Australia 40,000 years ago.