Children in the Foundation Stage at Almondbury Community School have started a term topic all about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. The budding young palaeontologists in the Nursery and Reception classes took part in some dinosaur-themed workshops today to help kick-start their summer term topic.
The walls of the well-appointed and tidy classrooms at the Greenside Centre were already crammed full of lots of colourful and creative artwork. Our dinosaur expert who visited the school, spotted some beautiful drawings of monsters that had been created by the Foundation Stage 2 children. There was some very imaginative artwork on display and many of the drawings were accompanied by a sentence or two. The vibrant posters highlighted the children’s development of fine motor skills, they must have had lots of practice holding pencils and forming recognisable letters and words.
Spotting Drawings of Monsters in the Foundation Stage Classrooms
Dinosaur drawings and illustrations of monsters spotted outside the classroom. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Dinosaur Drawings
As part of the work with the children, our dinosaur expert set a challenge – could they draw him a dinosaur? As a further extension for the Reception-aged children, could they label the body parts of their dinosaur including its skull? During the workshop with the Reception class, it was explained that palaeontologists call your head a skull and when working with the Nursery children, the eager, young learners confidently asserted that the helmet that a palaeontologist wears fits on their head!
At this school, there is a strong emphasis on giving every pupil access to a stimulating and balanced curriculum, lots of tactile activities were being prepared for the children by the dedicated teaching team. In one part of the spacious classroom, a cargo net had been brought in and facts about dinosaurs posted up on the walls, as this area was soon to be turned into a “dinosaur den” for the children to explore.
All Set to Build a “Dinosaur Den” in the Classroom
Dinosaur drawings feature in the dinosaur den. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Dinosaur Footprints and a Dinosaur-themed “Hokey Cokey”
The Foundation Stage wing of the Greenside Centre was very busy with lots of activities for the children set out and the during the workshops the pupils demonstrated some super listening skills and they were very enthusiastic ammonites catching fish. When pretending to be a giant, armoured dinosaur moving through the forest, our dinosaur expert witnessed super-sized steps, but slow moving dinosaurs keeping very quiet in case a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex came by.
The handy pronunciation guide we provided for the teachers should help with the scheme of work, along with the dinosaur footprints to measure and a special prehistoric animal-themed “hokey cokey” song for the children to learn. Can they remember how many figures T. rex had? How did a T. rex move its arms?
Jaw Fossil Indicates Denisovans Occupied the Tibetan Plateau
Denisovans, occupied the Tibetan Plateau long before Homo sapiens arrived in the region. Furthermore, the ability to cope with less oxygen at high altitudes may have been passed onto our species when ancient members of Homo sapiens, bred with Denisovans. The analysis of a fragmentary lower jaw bone reveals the presence of Denisovans at least 160,000 years ago at the Baishiya Karst Cave complex in Xiahe, China.
The ability to survive in such extreme climates had been thought to be a unique trait of H. sapiens, that is now not the case and what is more, the enigmatic and poorly known Denisovans seem to have passed on a gene that helps modern people cope with living at high elevations.
A Digital Reconstruction of the Fossil Mandible
View of the virtual reconstruction of the Xiahe mandible after digital removal of the adhering carbonate crust. The mandible is so well preserved that it allows for a virtual reconstruction of the two sides of the mandible. Mirrored parts are in grey.
Picture credit: Jean-Jacques Hublin (MPI-EVA)
The Enigmatic Denisovan People
The study, undertaken by a team of international researchers including Shara Bailey (New York University), as well as scientists from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, has been published in the journal “Nature”.
Using a technique known as ancient protein analysis, the researchers found that the mandible’s (lower jaw) owner belonged to a Denisovan population from Siberia. This population occupied the Tibetan Plateau, regarded as the “Roof of the World” because it rises three miles (five kilometres), above sea level. This suggests that the enigmatic Denisovans were adapted to a low oxygen environment.
In contrast, evidence of Neanderthals is rarely found above 2,000 metres and what evidence there is, probably indicates that Homo neanderthalensis populations only occasionally climbed to such heights, perhaps for the purpose of a special hunt or ceremony. They do not seem to have persisted at high altitude.
The research team state that Denisovans had already adapted to living in this high-altitude setting significantly prior to the appearance of Homo sapiens. Previous genetic studies found present-day Himalayan populations carry the EPAS1 allele in their genome, passed on to them by Denisovans, which helps with adaptation to their specific and demanding environment.
A Posterior View of the Fossil Mandible
Digital reconstruction of the Denisovan jaw bone. Reconstructed area is shaded grey.
Picture credit: Jean-Jacques Hublin (MPI-EVA)
Who Were the Denisovans?
Denisovans are members of a hominin group currently only known directly from fragmentary fossils, the genomes of which have been studied from a single site, Denisova Cave in Siberia. They are also known indirectly from their genetic legacy through gene flow into several low-altitude East Asian populations and high-altitude modern Tibetans. The presence of a new species of ancient human was confirmed when a research team led by Svante Pääbo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), conducted a genetic study on a single fossil finger bone from the Denisova Cave site.
Commenting on the significance of linking a fossil to the Tibetan Plateau, one of the paper’s co-authors Jean-Jacques Hublin (MPI-EVA), stated:
“Traces of Denisovan DNA are found in present-day Asian, Australian, and Melanesian populations, suggesting that these ancient hominins may have once been widespread. Yet, so far, the only fossils representing this ancient hominin group were identified at the Denisova Cave.”
A Photograph of the Actual Fossil Jaw Bone (Lateral View)
Xiahe Denisovan jaw bone from the Baishiya Karst Cave (Gansu Province, China).
Picture credit: Dongju Zhang (Lanzhou University)
Discovered by a Monk
In this newly published paper, the researchers describe a hominin lower mandible that was found on the Tibetan Plateau in the Baishiya Karst Cave in Xiahe, Gansu Province, China. The fossil was originally discovered in 1980 by a local monk who donated it to the 6th Gung-Thang Living Buddha who then passed it on to Lanzhou University.
Since 2010, researchers Fahu Chen and Dongju Zhang from Lanzhou University have been studying the cave site from where the mandible originated in a bid to find more human remains. In 2016, a collaboration began with the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and although no DNA has been recovered, the team did manage to extract proteins from one of the large molars within the jaw. These proteins were then categorised using a technique called ancient protein analysis.
The Reconstructed Denisovan Jaw Bone
A view of the Denisovan jaw bone from China. The grey area represents reconstructed elements.
Picture credit: Jean-Jacques Hublin (MPI-EVA)
Piecing Together the Face of a Denisovan
The fossil record of the Denisovans is particularly sparse, it is limited to just some teeth and part of a finger. This is the first fossil of its kind to be found and perhaps, if more Denisovan fossils can be discovered, then it hints at the possibility that anthropologists might be able to reconstruct the skull.
Co-author Shara Bailey explained:
“Although we still do not know the shape and size of the Denisovan skull, now with a lower jaw we can start to piece together the puzzle of what they actually looked like”.
Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of a press release from New York University in the compilation of this article.
