All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
7 07, 2015

Teaching About Mary Anning with Year 4

By |2023-04-01T12:01:01+01:00July 7th, 2015|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Teaching About Mary Anning with Year 4

Mary Anning 1799-1847

There are a lot of terrific female scientists around today, but back in Georgian times, women were not treated well in the almost entirely male dominated scientific world.  It was only after Mary Anning’s death in 1847 did her research and meticulous fossil hunting begin to receive the plaudits that it deserved.  When asked by the organisers at a Key Stage Two science conference to provide information on a famous scientist for Year 4 children as part of a competition, Everything Dinosaur jumped at the chance to talk about Mary Anning.

Name Dropping Famous Contributors to Palaeontology

Helping to promote learning in schools.

Helping to promote science for girls by dressing up as Mary Anning.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We hope our work with Year 4 children at the conference, (we took them on a fossil hunt), will help to inspire the next generation of scientists.  Mary Anning may have spent much of her life “on the rocks” but she remains one of the most important early pioneers of the science of palaeontology.

Everything Dinosaur is happy to provide more information to schools about Mary Anning to help enthuse and motivate the next generation of scientists.

To view the extensive range of dinosaur themed toys and models available from Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Dinosaur Gifts and Toys.

7 07, 2015

Super-duper Dinosaur Cooper

By |2023-04-01T11:59:35+01:00July 7th, 2015|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

“Cooper” Australia’s Biggest Dinosaur Awaits Scientific Description

The largest dinosaur discovered to date in Australia is set to go on public display for the first time with the opening of the Eromanga Natural History Museum (Eromanga, south-western Queensland).  The fossilised bones, part of a treasure trove of Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, were found back in 2007, but it has taken years of careful, painstaking research to reveal details of this enormous plant-eating dinosaur, a creature that exceeded thirty metres in length.  The huge dinosaur, a titanosaur which has been nicknamed “Cooper” will go on display when the museum opens in a few months time.

Australia’s Largest Dinosaur

An Illustration of the Giant Titanosaur

Australia's giants.

Australia’s giants.

Picture credit: ABC News/David McSween

Excavating Fossils in Queensland

This part of Queensland has been suffering from severe drought, it is hoped that the dinosaur themed museum will bring in much needed tourist revenue to the town.  At the moment a number of dig sites in Queensland are being excavated, this is the “digging season” Down Under, the slightly cooler weather permits such excavations to take place as scientists and local volunteers strive to uncover Australia’s rich dinosaur fossil heritage.

To read more about current excavations in the Queensland area: Annual Queensland Dig Yields Dinosaur Fossils.

Everything Dinosaur team members did predict that 2015 was going to be an important year for dinosaur discoveries in this part of the world, in fact, we made it one of our New Year predictions, to read more about our predictions for breaking news stories in 2015:

Everything Dinosaur’s 2015 predictions: Our 2015 Palaeontology Predictions.

Commenting on the importance of regional museums, Dr Scott Hocknull (Queensland Museum) stated:

“The opportunity for this small town to actually become a point of real national pride, there’s a great opportunity that we can’t miss.”

Titanosaurs

Titanosaurs are sauropods.  The Titanosauria consists of about four dozen genera and they seem to have replaced the diplodocids and the brachiosaurids that thrived during the Late Jurassic.  Titanosaur fossils have been found on all the continents, including Antarctica, but they seem to have been most successful and diverse in the Southern Hemisphere.  Some titanosaurs are amongst the largest terrestrial vertebrates known.  Dr Hocknull and his colleagues are currently working on the scientific paper which will describe and formally name “Cooper”.

This Australian dinosaur, whose fossils were found on a remote sheep station, will be amongst the largest titanosaurs so far described.  Bodyweight estimates suggest that “Cooper” weighed about as much as ninety Merino rams, that’s around 40,000 kilogrammes (a lot of sheep)!

A Scale Drawing Illustration of Australia’ Biggest Dinosaur Known to Date (2015)

Scale drawing of "Cooper".

Scale drawing of “Cooper”.

Picture credit: Dr Scott Hocknull

More Dinosaur Discoveries Likely

Several other dinosaur specimens have been found in and around the Eromanga basin area since this location was first identified as a “hot spot” for Southern Hemisphere Cretaceous dinosaurs back in 2004.    Soon after the first large dinosaur fossils were found, plans were put forward to build a local dinosaur museum (Eromanga Natural History Museum), after ten years and a great deal of fund raising from the locals, the museum is nearly ready to open its doors.

The Enormous Pelvis of “Cooper” will be on Display

Giant Aussie dinosaur bones.

Giant Aussie dinosaur bones.

Picture credit: ABC News/Josh Bavas

“Cooper” may not hold the title of “Australia’s biggest dinosaur” for long.  Over the last few years a number of titanosaurid specimens have been discovered, the majority have been given nicknames such as “Zac”, “Tom”, “George” and “Sid”.   “George,” may be bigger still, but it too has yet to be formally described.

The Giant Femur (Thigh Bone) of “Cooper”

Giant limb bone of Australian Titanosaur.

Giant limb bone of Australian titanosaur.

Picture credit: ABC News/Josh Bavas

Huge Femur

The 1.9 metre long femur (thigh bone) can be seen in the foreground.  Like the pelvis pictured earlier, it is still partially in its protective plaster jacket.  The distal end (articulating with the lower leg bones, is towards the left of the photograph).  The picture is not too clear but the second femur might be just behind.

Palaeontologists think that both Cooper and Sid (titanosaurs) became trapped in mud and subsequently died.  The fossils also show evidence of trampling from other titanosaurs.  As the bones lay on the ground, other titanosaurs walked over them.  This is not the first time that such incidents have been preserved in the fossil record.  In addition, field workers found a preserved tree branch stuck in the femur, the bones of these dinosaurs were so massive that they formed “log jams” in rivers trapping other material and debris.

Planning to Make Three-dimensional Models

Dr Hocknull explained that cutting edge technology such as photogrammetry to make three-dimensional models coupled with CT scans are changing the way palaeontologists work.

He stated:

“All this is completely revolutionising the way we even do our science.  Instead of just taking a happy snap of the actual bone we can recreate the bone in three-dimensions and that gives us more data than we can ever poke a stick at.”

Everything Dinosaur team members would not advise poking sticks at dinosaur bones, no matter how big the fossils might be.  However, we look forward to the grand opening of the Eromanga Natural History Museum as well as learning more about Australia’s ancient and most impressive mega-fauna.

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other dinosaurs: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

6 07, 2015

Teaching Year 4 About Mary Anning

By |2023-04-01T11:35:10+01:00July 6th, 2015|Educational Activities, Famous Figures, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Year 4 Learn All About Mary Anning

When Everything Dinosaur team members attended the Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference last week, they helped organise a competition for the young scientists from the schools that attended.  As well as running a fossil hunting activity and conducting four dinosaur workshops over the course of the conference, team members also provided the school children attending with information on Mary Anning.  By name dropping scientists, the children could make up a list of famous contributors to scientific endeavour.  A prize was awarded to the school which created the longest list.

Mary Anning

Naturally, with a fossil hunting activity as part of our dinosaur workshop, Mary Anning was an easy choice for ourselves.

Posting Up Information on Mary Anning

Helping Year 4 to learn all about scientists.

Helping Year 4 to learn all about scientists.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture above is of the poster we put up on our fossil hunting workshop stand.  We put it in a prominent place so that all the children could easily spot it as they hunted for fossils on our artificial beach.  During the dinosaur workshop, which we especially created for this event, we made sure to mention the competition and Mary Anning so that the children could be encouraged to take part.

To view replicas of ammonites and belemnites, fossils of which Mary Anning collected: Replica Ammonites and Belemnites.

Dinosaur Workshop

The dinosaur workshop that we had prepared for this conference involved looking at real dinosaur fossil bones, exploring how our bodies compare to those of dinosaurs and looking at some of the very latest research.  Teachers were also invited to break a few bones, nothing to worry about though, just a clever experiment that we thought up that helped the children learn what our bones (amphibian bones, reptile, bird and mammal bones) are composed of.  Collagen was indeed the word of the day and helped to link our dinosaur workshop together as well as tying it into important aspects of the Key Stage 2 science curriculum.

To contact Everything Dinosaur about Mary Anning: Contact Mary Anning.

5 07, 2015

“Jurassic World” and the Velociraptor Called “Blue”

By |2023-04-01T11:36:10+01:00July 5th, 2015|Movie Reviews and Movie News|3 Comments

 Papo Velociraptor Model Turns “Blue”

With the release of “Jurassic World” last month, a whole new generation of young dinosaur fans were introduced to prehistoric beasties such as Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex and Apatosaurus.  Whilst chatting with fans of the film over the last few weeks we have discovered that one of the favourite dinosaurs from the whole movie is the Velociraptor known as “Blue”.  We don’t want to spoil the plot for those of you who have not seen it yet, but the pack of Velociraptors does play a pivotal role in the film and “Blue” the beta animal in the pack is a bit of a heroine (all the prehistoric animals in the film are female).

Papo Velociraptor Dinosaur Model

Now we know there has been a lot of discussion about how the “raptors” have been portrayed in the franchise.  After all, they tend to be somewhat oversized (the Jurassic World website states that they are five metres long), they also lack feathers and most palaeontologists agree that the two species of Velociraptor so far described probably were covered in a coat of feathers.  If we put these points aside for the moment, then one of the next questions Everything Dinosaur team members get asked is, “can you recommend a dinosaur model that looks like the Velociraptors from the movie?”

The Papo Velociraptor with its articulated jaw and scaly skin was nominated as a suitable model for anyone wishing to recreate their very own “raptor pack”.

The Papo Velociraptor Dinosaur Model Gets Our Vote

Papo Velociraptor

Papo Velociraptor dinosaur model.

A Blue Velociraptor

It seems that other discerning dinosaur model fans are in agreement with us.  One of our Facebook chums Tong from Taiwan very kindly sent us a picture of a Papo Velociraptor that had received a customised paint job to make it look even more like “Blue” from the film.

Papo Velociraptor Dinosaur Model Turned into “Blue”

Customising a model dinosaur.

Customising a model dinosaur.

By Taiwan 小模王 “

Tong told us that he purchased this customised model and what a splendid job the artist has done.  The Papo Velociraptor skin tone really lends itself to having a bespoke paint job.  We have seen a number of re-painted Papo dinosaur models over the years and it is great to see one of the dinosaurs from “Jurassic World” created this way.

“Blue”  Even Has an Articulated Lower Jaw

A "blue" dinosaur.

A “blue” dinosaur.

By Taiwan 小模王 “

Marvel at the Skills of Model Makers

We always marvel at the skill of the artists who dedicate their time to creating iconic dinosaur figures and models.  The Velociraptors have appeared in all four of the “Jurassic Park” films and we suspect that they will also have a pivotal role to play in the sequel to “Jurassic World”.  Our thanks to Tong from Taiwan for helping us with this article.  The film “Jurassic World” has taken something like $1.3 billion USD in box office sales since its world-wide release on June 12th, it will very probably end up one of the top five highest grossing films of all time.  It will certainly be vying with the new “Star Wars” film due out later on this year for the most successful film of 2015.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s collection of Papo prehistoric animal models: Papo Dinosaurs.

4 07, 2015

New Oviraptorid from the Late Cretaceous of Southern China

By |2023-04-01T06:54:09+01:00July 4th, 2015|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Huanansaurus ganzhouensis – Demonstrating the Diversity of the Oviraptorids

Some very peculiar things can turn up at railway stations, just ask anyone who works in a lost property office.  However, for one group of construction workers helping to build the new Ganzhou Railway Station in Jiangxi Province (southern China), they got rather a big surprise when they unearthed the partial remains of a new type of theropod dinosaur.

A New Dinosaur Species

The new dinosaur has been identified as a member of the Oviraptoridae family, an extremely bird-like group of dinosaurs, it has been named Huanansaurus ganzhouensis and it suggests that there were many different types of oviraptorids living in the same environment but each type may have evolved a different feeding and foraging habit.

An Illustration of H. ganzhouensis (Male and Female)

A new feathered dinosaur from China.

A new feathered dinosaur from China.

Picture credit: Chuang Zhao

Although no feather impressions have been found with the fossils, it is assumed that this lithe dinosaur was indeed feathered.  The illustrator has also assumed that the males had different colouration when compared to the females.  In this imagined scene, one of a breeding pair approaches the other which is sitting on a nest of eggs.  More than two hundred oviraptorosaurian nests have been found in the Ganzhou area and this part of the world seems to have been a hot bed of oviraptorid evolution with a total of five genera now known from the strata around the city of Ganzhou.

Huanansaurus ganzhouensis

Size estimates vary, but based on skull measurements and comparisons with other Asian oviraptors, Everything Dinosaur’s team members estimate that Huanansaurus would have measured around 1.5 metres long and stood over a metre tall, making this dinosaur about half the size of its closest relative Citipati (C. osmolskae), fossils of which come from the Gobi Desert (Djadokhta Formation), that lies some 1,800  miles to the north-east of Jiangxi Province.

It is analysis of the beautifully preserved skull material that has permitted the research team to conduct a phylogenetic analysis placing Huanansaurus close to the Citipati genus in the Oviraptoridae family.  Huanansaurus is distinct from the other four other types of oviraptorid discovered to date from the Upper Cretaceous rocks (Nanxiong Formation),  located around Ganzhou city.

The four other types of oviraptorosaurs found in this area are:

  • Banji long (named and described in 2010)
  • Ganzhousaurus nankangensis (named and described in 2013)
  • Jiangxisaurus ganzhouensis (also named and described in 2013)
  • Nankangia jiangxiensis (named and described in that bumper year for southern Chinese oviraptorosaurs, 2013)

A Line Drawing of the Skull and Cranial Material (HGM41HIII-0443)

Left side (lateral view) of the skull and jaws.

Left side (lateral view) of the skull and jaws.

Picture credit: Journal Science with additional annotation by Everything Dinosaur

Edentulous – Lacking Teeth

Like most of the later oviraptorosaurs, Huanansaurus lacked teeth, the shape and size of the skull along with the morphology of the jaws suggests that lots of different types of feathered oviraptorid dinosaur were able to live in the same environment.  These little dinosaurs co-existed as they probably had different foraging and feeding strategies.  The prevalence of oviraptorosaurs in southern China indicates that other parts of Asia may have had different types of oviraptorid present within their biota, but these fossils may not have been found as yet.

The researchers involved in this study include scientists from Japan, South Korea, Uppsala University (Sweden), Henan Geological Museum and the Chinese Academy of Scientists.  The fossils are currently stored in the vertebrate fossil collection of the Henan Geological Museum.

To view a selection of feathered theropod models: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

Everything Dinosaur Comments on the Fossil Find

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur explained:

“In simple terms, the jaw shapes and sizes are different in the Jiangxi Province oviraptors.  Although these feathered dinosaurs all lived at the same time, the very late Late Cretaceous and they shared the same environment, they probably specialised in eating different types of food.  For example, the lower jaw tip of Banji long is very strongly curved downwards, whilst the same part of the jaw found in Nankangia jiangxiensis is not.  Both Jiangxisaurus and the newly described Huanansaurus come somewhere in between these two extremes.  It is likely that each type of dinosaur occupied a different ecological niche in the Late Cretaceous palaeoenvironment.”

More Research Required into Oviraptorids Like Huanansaurus ganzhouensis

What did oviraptor-like dinosaurs eat?  That remains a bit of a mystery, we suspect that they were omnivorous with perhaps each animal adapted to eating different types of seed, fruit and nuts as well as catching and eating amphibian, small mammals and insects.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a range of oviraptors within the Papo model range: Papo Oviraptor Models and Dinosaur Figures.

3 07, 2015

Celebrating Science with Blackpool School Children

By |2023-04-01T06:49:40+01:00July 3rd, 2015|Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference 2015

Another busy day yesterday as team members at Everything Dinosaur took part in the Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference (BCSC2015).  Schools from all over the Blackpool area attended the event which was held at Unity Academy, with the conference taking place in the Academy’s spacious hall and the various science activities organised in nearby classrooms.  Everything Dinosaur was located in Mr Goldie’s classroom, we are grateful to Mr Goldie and his class for letting us use their room for the four dinosaur themed workshops we conducted with Year 4 and Year 5 pupils over the morning.

Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference

“Tyrannosaurus Sue” took charge of our conference stand and organised a fossil hunting activity for the children.  She had a very busy day with lots and lots of enthusiastic young palaeontologists exploring the fossil trays looking for ammonites, belemnites, brachiopods, petrified wood and coral.

Everything Dinosaur provides replicas of iconic animals from the geological record: Dinosaur Replica, Models of Fossils.

Preparing the Everything Dinosaur Stand at the Start of the Conference

Getting the stand and fossil hunting activity for the conference.

Getting the stand and fossil hunting activity ready for the conference.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Lots of Fossils to Discover

We posted up some pictures of the fossils the children could find, they were really impressed with the shark teeth and loved looking at their fossil discoveries with the large magnifying glasses we provided.   We also included lots of information about Mary Anning, as one of the competitions on the day for the children was to collect as many names of famous scientists as they could.

In the meantime, in the classroom we had been looking at animals with backbones and exploring the vertebrae of dinosaurs.  In the second part of the workshop, Everything Dinosaur explained some of the aspects relating to new research into the Dinosauria.  Our well received workshop involved “Jurassic World” and breaking some bones, the activities and experiments delighted teachers and children alike.   We were very busy with the workshops and did not have a lot of time to organise feedback from the eight schools we were scheduled to work with.

Feedback from Teachers

However, we did get two teachers to provide some feedback on the workshops that we delivered.  It seems we got 5 out of 5 stars for our workshop.  This feedback is extremely helpful as the short lesson we provided was one that we had developed especially for the conference.

Feedback from Teachers after the Everything Dinosaur Workshop

5 stars for Everything Dinosaur.

5 stars for Everything Dinosaur. Top marks for Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

More Feedback from Everything Dinosaur’s Workshop

Everything Dinosaur gets rave reviews for workshop.

Everything Dinosaur gets rave reviews for workshop.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

All to soon it was time to pack up, after all, we have to prepare for some more dinosaur themed workshops in schools.   Our thanks to Unity Academy for being such gracious hosts and for Cheryl Langley and Jane Walpole for organising the Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference.  We really appreciate the “tweeted” pictures of us as well.

To learn more about Everything Dinosaur’s work: Email Everything Dinosaur.

3 07, 2015

Dinosaurs to Help Use of Language and Communication Skills

By |2023-04-01T06:47:26+01:00July 3rd, 2015|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Dinosaurs to Help Use of Language and Communication Skills

Dinosaurs Developing Communication and Language Skills

As part of a term topic on dinosaurs, teaching professionals can use this subject area to encourage children with their reading, writing and speaking.  Whilst conducting their dinosaur themed workshops in school, Everything Dinosaur’s team members are happy to discuss extension ideas and activities.   As many children are excited by dinosaurs and as these prehistoric animals are rarely out of the media these days a teaching topic all about life in the past can really motivate and enthuse schoolchildren (and their teachers).

Language and Communication Skills

Classroom Displays Demonstrating Use of Adjectives

Language and communication skills.

Lots of examples of transcription and composition.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Eight Simple Ideas to Help Develop Communication Skills and Language

Everything Dinosaur team members have compiled a set of simple exercises that can be incorporated into the classroom to help children develop appropriate communication, listening and language skills.  These exercises can be used as extensions with Foundation Stage 2 up to Lower Key Stage 2, with perhaps modified forms being applied to Year 4 classes and beyond.

  1. Story writing – encourage creative composition by having the children imagine that they could go back in time to visit some dinosaurs.  Can they write a story about their adventure?
  2. Spilt the class into small groups and have them prepare their own term topic newspaper that summarises the learning.  Photographs from the Everything Dinosaur workshop can be incorporated along with drawings, illustrations and lots of examples of class writing.
  3. A variation on the above is to have the class write a dinosaur themed comic strip. What stories can they come up?
  4. Dinosaur inspired poems – another simple idea is to challenge the class to come up with a dinosaur or prehistoric animal poem. This is a great way to develop vocabulary and more confident learners could present their work in front of the class.

Children Compose Poems/Write Sentences  Inspired by Dinosaurs

Developing Language and Communication Skills

“Three horned Face” has a poem written about it.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Inspired Poems

Dinosaur inspired Poems – a really easy to implement idea that can spark imaginations and provide the classroom with a colourful dinosaur themed wall display.

  1. Write an autobiography on Mary Anning, Sir Richard Owen or another famous scientist involved with dinosaur research.  This encourages independent learning.
  2. Explanation texts, either themed around a single dinosaur species or perhaps writing an explanation as to how the dinosaurs became extinct (exploring ideas, scientific working).
  3. Play scripts – an opportunity for creative writing and composition. Can the class work together to produce a small play about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals?
  4. Reporting on the topic for a school assembly.  This activity can help bring the dinosaur term topic to a close and to help reinforce learning.

To see the range of educational toys available at Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

In total we have provided eight simple ideas that can help the classroom to focus on developing communication and language skills.  Everything Dinosaur team members are happy to help further by providing free downloads of teaching resources and lesson plans as well as emailing drawing materials and fact sheets to assist teachers and home educators.

For further information including dinosaur workshops in schools: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

2 07, 2015

Everything Dinosaur A Roaring Success at Blackpool Conference

By |2023-04-01T06:44:20+01:00July 2nd, 2015|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Everything Dinosaur A Roaring Success at Blackpool Conference

Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference Welcomes Everything Dinosaur

A busy day for Everything Dinosaur team members as they attended the Blackpool Science Conference (BCSC 2015), at Unity Academy.  Team members had prepared a series of dinosaur and fossil themed workshops to conduct with Year 4 and Year 5 children.  In addition, a member of the Everything Dinosaur staff had agreed to run a stand in the main conference hall and conduct a fossil hunting activity, in which the eager young scientists could hunt for fossils on an artificial beach.

For dinosaur models and replicas: Dinosaur Models and Prehistoric Animal Replicas.

Early in the morning, Everything Dinosaur Team Members Prepare the Stand

Blackpool Science Conference stand.

Getting the stand and fossil hunting activity for the conference.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Blackpool Science Conference

The workshops involved lifting the lid on the new movie “Jurassic World” and explaining all about some new research into dinosaur soft tissue.  The children handled real dinosaur fossil bones and got to grips with measuring and weighing different fossils as well as learning about what their own bones were made of.  Some teachers even got to break a few bones – but all in the interests of science of course.  Our thanks to Unity Academy for being such amazing hosts and to Jane Walpole and Cheryl Langley for organising the Blackpool Celebrating Science Conference.

To view the dinosaur themed learning materials including replicas of iconic animals from the fossil record: Dinosaur Games and Crafts.

Everything Dinosaur’s work did seem to go down very well, with teachers and children alike.  We got five stars out of five in our workshop feedback.

An Example of the Teacher Feedback Received by Everything Dinosaur after a Dinosaur Themed Workshop

Feedback from Blackpool Science Conference

5 stars for Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To read additional testimonials from customers: Customer Testimonials.

Sue Judd from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“It was fun helping the children to find fossils and to identify their discoveries for them, we were kept extremely busy.  I included some information about Mary Anning on the Everything Dinosaur stand, so that Year 4 and Year 5 children could learn all about Mary and her contribution to the science of palaeontology.”

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

2 07, 2015

Carbon Dioxoide Emissions Threaten Ocean Ecosystems

By |2023-04-01T06:40:22+01:00July 2nd, 2015|Animal News Stories, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

Marine Life Could Be Irreversibly Damaged

Increased carbon dioxide emissions will cause great damage to oceanic ecosystems that cannot be reversed warns an international team of scientists.  In a new paper, published in the academic journal “Science”, researchers, which include Dr Carol Turley OBE, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory state that unless CO2 emissions are curbed, the temperature of the oceans will continue to rise, oxygen levels will continue to fall and more seawater acidification will occur.

Carbon Dioxide

The scientists paint a very gloomy picture for the Earth’s oceans declaring that CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels was increasing the acidity of the oceans at a faster rate than at any time since the End Permian extinction event some 250 million years ago, that led to the greatest mass extinction known in the fossil record.  Something like 95% of all the life on Earth died out during this extinction event.

The researchers looked at a number of scenarios and models and the scientists stated that the two degree Celsius maximum temperature rise as agreed by governments is not enough to stave of the damaging effects of increased CO2.  In a very pessimistic outlook, the scientists claim that the range of options is decreasing and the cost of coping with the implications will rocket.

Marine Scientists Urge Politicians to Act

The team of twenty-two leading marine scientists report that politicians are not responding as quickly as they should to the approaching crisis.  The oceans of the world are at risk and more must be done to deal with the impact of global climate change.

The World’s Oceans are Under Threat

Lyme Regis

Photograph taken in 2009.  Coastlines under threat.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Nearly 30% of the carbon dioxide produced since 1750 has been absorbed by the ocean.  As CO2 is slightly acidic it is changing the chemistry of the water and making it more acidic.  This is disastrous for those organisms that use calcium or argonite to build shells or to construct colonies.

Dr Turley stated:

The ocean is at the frontline of climate change with its physics and chemistry being altered at an unprecedented rate so much so that ecosystems and organisms are already changing and will continue to do so as we emit more CO2.  The ocean provides us with food, energy, minerals, drugs and half the oxygen in the atmosphere, and it regulates our climate and weather.  We are asking policy makers to recognise the potential consequences of these dramatic changes and raise the profile of the ocean in international talks where, up to now, it has barely got a mention.”

A Sixth Mass Extinction

Recently, Everything Dinosaur reported on the research conducted by scientists at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, the University of California, Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of Florida that concluded that our planet was entering a sixth, global mass extinction phase.

To read more about this research: Study Suggests Sixth Mass Extinction Event in Earth’s History.

Ammonite Extinction Due Acidification of the Oceans

The Bullyland ammonite model next to a polished section of an ammonite fossil.
The Bullyland ammonite model is often used in museum displays to depict the living animal next to fossil material. It is thought that acidification of the oceans in part brought on by high CO2 levels led to the extinction of these cephalopods. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture (above) shows a Bullyland ammonite model: Bullyland Range of Models and Replicas.

1 07, 2015

Summer Term Draws to a Close

By |2023-04-01T06:35:07+01:00July 1st, 2015|Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page, Teaching|0 Comments

More Dinosaur Workshops Prior to the End of the Summer Term

There may be a little under three weeks or so to go before the end of the summer term, but Everything Dinosaur team members are still working hard preparing for the dinosaur workshops that they have planned between now and the end of the school year.  Team members will be travelling to Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, Lancashire and into Yorkshire as well as the West Midlands as they strive to complete their assignments.  The focus will be on exploring fossils and dinosaurs in a kinaesthetic way, with lots of tactile fossil handling experiments and other activities, all designed to meet the learning needs of the classes.

Dinosaur Workshop

As with all our work in schools, we will be keen to support literacy and numeracy initiatives with lots of extension ideas and supplementary teaching materials that we can email over to teachers to help them with their schemes of work.

Dinosaurs Encouraging Children with Writing

Lots of examples of transcription and composition.

Lots of examples of transcription and composition.  Typical extension activities resulting from a dinosaur workshop.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur Working Hard

Already this week, Everything Dinosaur team members have supplied primary schools with resources to help measure different types of dinosaur (a novel use of toilet paper, even if we say so ourselves).  In addition, we have replied to the many thank you letters we have received.  These letters have been sent to our offices as part of an agreed extension activity with a number of schools whereby we help to encourage the children to practice punctuation and sentence construction.  It’s all part of a day’s work for our dedicated teachers and dinosaur experts.

With the end of the school year drawing near, the pressure is on when it comes to replying to the questions that we have had emailed into us.  All these need to be answered in super quick time to help the teaching teams complete their term topics.  Naturally, we strive to respond to all the questions we get sent as rapidly as possible, we know just how keenly anticipated our replies are.

To contact Everything Dinosaur to request further information about our science outreach work: Contact Email.

Fossil Excavations

Over the summer, we hope to get out into the field to do some more work on fossil excavations as well as exploring a couple of new potential dig sites.  On top of all this, we have also got plans to add further free downloads to our “dinosaurs for schools” website.   Looks like it is going to be a very busy few weeks.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s specialist website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

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