Best new dino-themed iPad apps for kids

'Dinorama,' from thesixtyone, Inc. is a new dino-zoo simulation game that lets kids play with dinosaurs as they learn to manage money while running their own business."(Photo: thesixtyone, Inc.)

Story Highlights

• Get your own dinosaur zoo with Dinorama
• Ansel & Clair are back with a new time-traveling game
• Third Ansel & Clair game introduces even more dino facts

If you have a dinosaur lover in your family, here are some new iPad apps that will tickle his or her fossil fancy.

Dinorama. thesixtyone, Inc., best for ages 7-12, $4.99, iPad. Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)

In this simulation game, kids get to open their own dinosaur zoo. Players start the game with just the right amount of money to buy one dinosaur. Housed in a diorama-type display, the cartoony dinosaur appears fully animated to wow your park visitors. With your new dinosaur in place, your park opens and tourists flock in. Since patrons ? all kids ? pay to enter, money also starts rolling in.

As the owner of this expanding park, you must feed the dinosaurs and keep their enclosures clean. You'll attract more patrons if you sprinkle tourist attractions between the dinosaur displays. While everything you add to your park costs you money, you'll quickly discover that visitors love to take commemorative photos, and will gobble up popcorn and buy balloons if you place those stands in your park. Bathrooms and, of course, more dinosaurs are also a good idea ? but you'll have to save to add more items.

While waiting to get flush with money, kids can interact with their patrons by watching the thought bubbles that appear over their heads. One might show you an image of a favorite dinosaur. By touching that tourist, you can pick him up and move him to his desired dinosaur's display. If he is pleased, he will drop a sticker for you to collect. These earned stickers are a separate currency in the game ? one that unlocks more items for you to purchase to place in your park.

While "Dinorama" is a hoot for dino-loving kids, it is also a great simulation game for all children. This app does a fabulous job of teaching kids about money and time management. It even introduces a bank where kids can earn interest.

The key to a good simulation game is that it progresses at just the right speed so that players have plenty to do without being overwhelmed. "Dinorama" expertly arrives at just that right balance. It offers kids quests that teach them about money and budgeting while also constantly introducing new things to keep playing in the dino park fresh and exciting.

Unlike a lot of the free zoo apps, which rope you in with the promise of "free" but then gouge your pocketbook with expensive in-app purchases, "Dinorama" charges you a reasonable price upfront ($4.99) for all of this game's content. Parents don't have to worry about kids wanting to buy more content ? it's all there, waiting to be unlocked by playing this fun game.

"In 'Ansel & Clair: Jurassic Dinosaurs,' the second dinosaur app from Cognitive Kid, Inc., kids join a cute alien and his robot to travel back in time to the Jurassic period.(Photo: Cognitive Kid, Inc)

Ansel & Clair: Jurassic Dinosaurs

From Cognitive Kid, Inc., best for ages 5-12, $1.99, iPad. Rating: 4 stars

This is the second app in the "Ansel & Clair" dinosaur trilogy from Cognitive Kid. It follows the format started in the first app in the series: "Ansel and Clair: Cretaceous Dinosaurs," from 2012. In both apps, players join Ansel, an adorable alien photographer from the planet of Virtoos, and his side-kick robot Clair to travel back in time to when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Before going back in time, Ansel and Clair meet Dr. Lindy Bones, a renowned paleontologist, at a fossil dig site. They dig up a fossil of a dinosaur from the Jurassic period, and then use Ansel & Clair's ship to scan that fossil and travel back in time to when it lived.

Upon arriving in the Jurassic time period, kids see a stunning panorama of seven animated dinosaurs. The ever-curious Ansel walks among and interacts with these giant creatures, while encyclopedic Clair answers all of Ansel's questions. Kids can use a virtual camera to take pictures of an Allosaurus, an Apatosaurus, an Archaelpteryx, a Hybodus, a Brachiosaurus, a Plesiosaurus and a Segosaurus. If they explore all of Clair's offered information, they earn stickers of the dinosaurs for their in-app travelogue.

With cute Ansel in the lead, kids experience playful learning as the little alien does things like slide down the neck of a Brachiosaurus. The app even has an area where kids can design their own dinosaur by mixing and matching different body parts. If you have a dino-loving kid, "Ansel & Clair: Jurassic Dinosaurs" masterfully blends adventure with learning.

Kids can interact with dinosaurs from the Triassic period by playing 'Ansel & Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs,' the third app in the dinosaur trilogy from Cognitive Kid, Inc.(Photo: Cognitive Kid, Inc.)

Ansel & Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs

From Cognitive Kid, Inc., best for ages 5-12, $1.99, iPad. Rating: 4 stars

The third app in the "Ansel & Clair" dinosaur trilogy, this one introduces kids to eight dinosaurs from the Triassic era. As with the two previous apps in this series, kids travel back in time to see the dinosaurs up close and alive.

Kids help the alien Ansel interact with a Plateosaurus, an Eudimorphodon, an Ammonites, a Coelophysis, an Eoraptor, an Eodromaeus, an Eozostrodon and an Ichthyosaur. By tapping on the Eudimorphodon, kids get to see it fly. When fearless Ansel gets too close to the carnivorous Coelophysis, players must rescue him by picking him up and putting him in a tree. They can also tap on a Eozostrodon egg to watch it hatch.

As with the two previous apps in this dinosaur trilogy, kids learn a ton of dinosaur facts by listening to and playing with Ansel and his robot named Clair. The app explains how scientists learn about dinosaurs from examining fossils, including looking at their teeth.

The "Ansel & Clair" trilogy of dinosaur apps is a must-have for any child who is fascinated by dinosaurs. By combining stunning graphics with cute and amusing interactions with these giant beasts, kids can't help but be mesmerized. Adding fun mini-games into the mix, as well as an adventure story means that these apps will quickly become kids' favorites.

Jinny Gudmundsen is the author of the new book: iPad Apps for Kids, part of the For Dummies series. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.

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