Palentology ~ Terrible Lizards

The last 2 weeks, in our zoo class, we have been learning about "Palentology"... one of DS's favorite topics...We have a great teacher who covered the high points of the subject without touching on the subject of evolution which is very difficult to do. I was pleased with this since we believe in the creation theory of the Earth... 

The first day we learned that the word "DINOSAUR" was actually coined by an Englishman named Sir Richard Owen in 1842 meaning "terrible lizard"... This group is a large and very diverse group of reptiles and were once the dominant animal species on the planet...

So many people are fascinated with these creatures, and tons of research has been done on them, though no one has ever seen one, which brought us to the topic of "how do scientists know what they are like?"

A brief segment from Jurassic Park was shown and of course the kids were thrilled.  I found the same clip on Youtube with the verses from the bible that discuss the "BEHEMOTH"... you can look at it here... The bible verses can be found in JOB 40: 15-24....

We discussed what a dinosaur was... we looked at fossils and what it takes to make a fossil...

      we made our own fossils....

 We got the opportunity to look and touch ~ a dionychus skull and claw, a T-Rex tooth... and the kids learned that fossils are only the remnants of the dinosaurs and the only proof that they ever roamed the earth... 

   a dionychus claw        T-rex tooth

Some facts about dinosaurs: 

1. bones were used by early Chinese in traditional medicines, thinking they were dragon bones...

2. descriptions first began in the 1600's when in 1676 a bone (now known to be a Megalosaurus femur) was found in a limestone quarry... It was thought at that time to have been the part of a "large human" giant...

3. the Iguanadon was discovered by Mary Ann Mitchell, and named such because the bones were similiar to those of an iguana...

4. the first American dinosaur was discovered in 1858...

 5. the bone wars ~ a fierce rivalry between 2 dinosaur hunters that lasted for 30 yrs. leading to the discovery of 142 new species of dinosaur...

Following all this great information was a tour where we went out to look at the elephants and talked about the conclusions that scientists have made regarding how the large 4 legs of creatures like the "brachiosaurus" worked based on the movement and work of an elephant's legs... and how they have special adaptations to deal with their large weight and how the brachiasaur would likely have needed to do the same thing... 

Finally we learned how dinosaurs are simliar to today's birds... and by looking at the skeletal hip movements of modern birds, scientists can use computer simulations to attempt to figure out how dinosaurs moved...  

Some great resources to use are:

A dinosaur lapbook / unit from HSS  (click here)

a pdf file from "Answers in Gensis" on what happened to the Dinosaurs...  (click here)

free online books (can be ordered also) on explaining evolution for kids and dinosaurs... (click here) 

a great dinosaur book list (click here)

another great source for lesson plans and ideas on dinosaurs (click here)

a DINO kit...  

and a fun Excavation Kit  

  and a great unit that you buy too...   from Teacher Created Materials 

Have fun with Dinosaurs and Happy Learning!!!