All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
Everything Dinosaur’s work with schools and other educational bodies. Articles, features and stories about dinosaurs and their role in education and educating young people.
A team member at Everything Dinosaur has gone back to school. The company has been invited to participate in the last-ever SMART Cheshire innovation programme. SMART Cheshire Digital is a fully funded programme aimed to help small to medium-sized businesses in the north-west of England looking to explore, adopt and implement improvements and business innovations.
The training is provided by the Manchester Metropolitan University. The programme has been running for more than 5 years and over 140 businesses have been through the ten-week course. Sadly, this is the last time this course will be run. Financial support from the European Regional Development Fund has now come to an end.
Everything Dinosaur
Everything Dinosaur are delighted to have been invited to take part. The company can explore new ideas and innovations in a supportive and collaborative environment. With two day’s training already completed, Everything Dinosaur has already met up with like-minded fellow business owners and learned a lot.
As the course is coming to an end in the summer, the Everything Dinosaur team member was given two special promotional mugs. These mugs were produced when the course first started, and stocks are extremely low. We are grateful for our pair of mugs, they shall take pride of place in our kitchen at work. We think the Spinosaurus model approves too.
A pair of SMART Cheshire mugs given to Everything Dinosaur. A Spinosaurus model inspects the two mugs with their Manchester Metropolitan University logos. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
The Spinosaurus model guarding the recently acquired SMART Cheshire mugs is from the Wild Safari Prehistoric World range. To view this range of figures: Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Prehistoric World.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
SMART Cheshire Digital
One of the many benefits of this type of training is that it allows the exploration of ideas. Peers can bounce ideas of one another, explore future collaborations and share experiences.
If the Everything Dinosaur team member is able to complete this demanding course, they can toast their success with a cup of tea.
The Wyoming Dinosaur Centre (WDC) located in East Thermopolis, (Wyoming) will be hosting their first-ever “Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past” event towards the end of June this year. This amazing dinosaur museum is putting on a special two-day event for dinosaur fans of all ages. Headlining the dinosaur extravaganza is British palaeontologist, celebrated author and television presenter Dr Dean Lomax.
The museum is highly respected and regarded as one of the most family-friendly tourist locations in the western United States. Opened in 1995, the museum has world-class dinosaur fossil exhibits and also takes visitors out on active dinosaur fossil dig sites.
A family digging for dinosaur fossils at the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre. Picture credit: (c) WDC.
Dr Dean Lomax
Dr Dean Lomax recently made international headlines when he led the excavation of one of the greatest discoveries in British paleontological history, the huge “Rutland Sea Dragon”, the largest and most complete ichthyosaur fossil ever found in the UK.
Dr Dean Lomax working on the skull of the Rutland ichthyosaur, the largest and most complete ichthyosaur fossil ever found in the UK. Picture credit: Matthew Power.
Dr Lomax will be returning to Wyoming after first visiting in 2008, then just an 18-year-old teenager straight out of high school. Growing up in the town of Doncaster in Yorkshire, England, Lomax did not have the grades or finances to initially go to university and even failed science in high school. When the Wyoming Dinosaur Center offered Dean the chance of a lifetime to volunteer and follow his dreams, he jumped at this opportunity and even sold his possessions (including his childhood Star Wars collection) to fund the trip.
Fifteen years later, Dr Lomax is an award-winning palaeontologist who has discovered and named multiple new species, written best-selling books and appeared on several television programmes. An affiliated scientist at the University of Manchester, Dean’s unconventional journey into the Earth Sciences was begun in Wyoming.
His success epitomises a “can do” attitude and the importance of never letting go your dreams.
Dr Dean Lomax commented:
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the opportunity I was given to come to Wyoming and volunteer at the WDC in 2008. The WDC provided me with the vital experience I needed to get my foot on the ladder and work out how to make it in such a competitive field.”
Why Dinosaurs?
“Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past” will also feature a special preview of “Why Dinosaurs?”, an intriguing dinosaur-themed documentary which examines the appeal of the Dinosauria. Directed, filmed and edited by father and son Tony and James Pinto, the film has taken five years to create and explores various themes concerning the popularity of dinosaurs.
The poster for “Why Dinosaurs?” Picture credit: Tony Pinto, Why Dinosaurs
The Wyoming Dinosaur Centre
Angie Guyon, the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre’s director explained that the staff were proud to have helped launch Dean’s career. Team members were looking forward to seeing the British palaeontologist again and learning more about his adventures.
The Wyoming Dinosaur Centre is committed to teaching the importance of palaeontology and every year staff see the impact on individuals and families as the Centre provides exciting, personal educational experiences to both adults and young people.
The director added:
“Jurassic Fest will provide an opportunity to listen and learn from renowned fossil experts and get your hands dirty.”
The Jurassic Fest poster. Picture credit: (c) Wyoming Dinosaur Centre.
Wyoming Dinosaur Centre “Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past”
“Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past” will give prehistoric animal fans of all ages the chance to dig up dinosaurs with Dr Lomax, to hunt for new dinosaur sites and to explore the fossil-rich formations that surround the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre.
The rocks in the area preserve the remains of some of the most iconic dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic, giants like Diplodocus and apex predators such as Allosaurus. Visitors can meet many of these dinosaurs in the famous Dinosaur Hall at the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre.
The amazing Dinosaur Hall at the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre. Picture credit: (c) WDC.
Exciting Speakers
A stellar line-up of exciting speakers will also be sharing their passion for the past, each with a strong connection to the Centre, including Jimmy Waldron of the hit podcast “Dinosaurs Will Always Be Awesome”, author of “Passion in the Bones” Elaine Howard from Florida, Dr Laura Vietti from the University of Wyoming and Dr Brandon Drake from the University of New Mexico.
Families digging up dinosaur bones. Picture credit: (c) WDC.
Behind the Scenes Tour and Cleaning Fossil Bones
As part of the planned activities for “Jurassic Fest” visitors will be offered special behind-the-scenes tours of the museum and given the opportunity to clean dinosaur bones and to converse with leading scientists.
Angie Guyon hopes that Jurassic Fest will deliver an educational, fun, and inspiring two-day event that will highlight the fascinating work of palaeontologists and science communicators which will help to capture the global importance of Wyoming’s prehistoric history.
Angie explained:
“The variety of hands-on activities will provide the public with an opportunity to gain first-hand experience, listen to a series of inspirational lectures and discover more about the research and excavation of local dinosaur finds from the Morrison Formation. This is not to be missed.”
The two-day “Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past” extravaganza will take place on June 23-24, 2023. Tickets and more information can be found at the following address: “Jurassic Fest – Passion for the Past”.
Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of Dr Dean Lomax in the compilation of this article.
A few years ago, Everything Dinosaur visited Sandbrook Community Primary. Team members had been contracted to deliver some dinosaur themed workshops with the Reception classes as a provocation for the start of the term topic. As part of the teaching team’s scheme of work, a large strip of white paper had been laid out on the floor and children had been challenged to create some dinosaur footprints on it.
Using a foam cut which had been dipped in paint, the children were able to walk along a strip of paper and produce some super dinosaur tracks.
Dinosaur footprints created by Reception children. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Dinosaur Footprints
During the lunch break one of our dinosaur and fossil experts was allowed to return to the classroom to take some pictures of the children’s work whilst the children were either on lunch or playing outside. We praised the teaching team for their innovative scheme of work. We also praised the teachers for managing to keep the classroom floor so clean!
Team members were soon back to work delivering the afternoon workshops. The young palaeontologists in the Reception class had a wonderful time, some of the Nursery school staff came in to take a look at the activities. The Nursery school staff were due to have an inspection that week and they wanted to pick up some ideas on lesson plans.
As part of our follow-up work, we set the children a few challenges. Could they produce a dinosaur drawing? Could they count all the green dinosaur feet on the floor? How would they get on with the dinosaur hokey-cokey song we supplied?
A teacher enquired about soft toy dinosaurs helping to reinforce learning. We were happy to supply further information and advice.
Whilst tidying up some files on the Everything Dinosaur database, an old photograph of a set of thank you letters sent into the UK-based mail order company was discovered. When team members conducted school visits lots of pupils sent in thank you letters. The letters from each class were grouped together and photographed. Often a picture of the children’s letters would have been pinned to our office notice board.
Pupils sent in thank you letters to Everything Dinosaur. A school class sent in thank you letters to Everything Dinosaur after a dinosaur workshop at their school. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Dinosaur Workshops in School
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:
“In the past, the company visited schools to conduct dinosaur workshops. Over the years we must have worked with thousands of schoolchildren. We enjoyed our school visits, and the dinosaur workshops were an enormous success. The company has received hundreds of thank you letters from pupils. It was always a pleasure to read these notes.”
Asking the class to produce a thank you letter was a popular extension activity encouraged by Everything Dinosaur team members. These thank you letters helped the children practice their handwriting and helped build confidence with sentence construction, punctuation and grammar.
The spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur explained that the company did not visit schools at present. This service was stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic and other projects have prevented this popular service from resuming.
For educational, dinosaur and prehistoric themed toys, models and crafts: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.
As team members tidy up files and archive more photographs, happy memories will be triggered as old school photographs are seen once more. The archiving and cataloguing of these files are part of Everything Dinosaur’s commitment to GDPR. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection legislation help to protect customer’s data.
Everything Dinosaur team members have come up with a fun and easy chocolate dinosaur nests with eggs recipe. It is our way of providing a little a treat for children. We are also confident that many dedicated teaching professionals will enjoy these tasty cakes too.
Our recipe for dinosaur chocolate nests will provide a dozen or so little chocolate cakes. For a healthy, balanced diet, we suggest that would-be chefs are reminded by the grown-ups about the benefits of fruit and vegetables when it comes to eating sensibly.
Super dinosaur chocolate nests which are fun and easy to make. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
A Simple and Inexpensive Recipe
Here is a list of ingredients to make 8 to 12 chocolate dinosaur nests.
Plain or Milk cooking Chocolate 225 grammes (8oz)
Packet of Breakfast Cereal Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat variety
Packet of Sugar Coated Mini-chocolate Eggs
Pack of Small Cake Cases
With our recipe there is some measuring involved. There is some mixing too, so this is a good exercise to help little ones with number confidence and manual dexterity. Please take care when supervising children when it comes to melting the chocolate.
These chocolate nests also make super cakes for a dinosaur themed party. They are simple to create, require no baking and are very tasty. If you are having a dinosaur party, please, don’t forget the fruit and vegetables. After all, palaeontologists calculate that around seventy percent of all the Dinosauria were herbivores!
You can be quite imaginative, laying out a “Stegosaurus salad”, or perhaps some crunchy “Cretaceous cucumber” or “Camarasaurus carrots”.
A colourful dinosaur wall display was spotted in a classroom when Everything Dinosaur team members conducted a dinosaur workshop at the school. The Year Two pupils had been learning all about prehistoric animals and fossils. The wall display had been produced during the term topic exploring “Would a Dinosaur Make a Good Pet”?
Everything Dinosaur team members are always impressed by school displays that feature dinosaurs and fossils. For example, Oakdene Primary pupils produced a colourful dinosaur wall display during their term topic studying prehistoric animals. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
A Colourful Dinosaur Wall Display
Children at Oakdene Primary produced fact sheets featuring their favourite prehistoric animal. There were fact sheets on Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. The eager, young palaeontologists had illustrated their dinosaur data sheets. The pictures and fact sheets were then posted up onto the “Wow Wall” in the classroom. The dinosaur facts and other learning materials made an attractive and most informative display.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“We visited Oakdene Primary some years ago to deliver a dinosaur themed workshop. Everything Dinosaur had been invited into the school to support the children’s learning. At the time we praised the colourful wall display, and we were given permission to take a photograph.”
Learning About Dinosaurs
The spokesperson explained that Everything Dinosaur team members always tried to encourage children and to help them with their studies. Team members were quick to praise the teaching team for their hard work and dedication.
Many schools in England and Wales introduce a dinosaur and fossil themed term topic. Foundation Stage pupils as they transition from Nursery to Reception can find a dinosaur topic helpful. Year 3 pupils often learn about fossils and dinosaurs when studying rocks and soils.
A dinosaur term topic is also enjoyed by the teaching team. It certainly brings out plenty of creativity in the pupils that Everything Dinosaur team members have met.
We have frogspawn in the office pond. This morning (February 28th, 2023), the first batch of frogspawn was spotted in the Everything Dinosaur office pond. The eggs had probably been laid just a few hours earlier in the very early morning. It had rained in the night and there was extensive cloud cover. The night had been chilly with temperatures around 4 degrees Celsius, what would normally be expected in our area at the end of February.
This is the first time that we have recorded frogspawn in February.
The first frogspawn has been laid in the office pond. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Frogspawn in February
We have not recorded frogspawn in the office pond being laid in February before. Last year, we recorded the first frogspawn on March 2nd, this was the earliest we had recorded spawn, until a new record for early spawning was set this year.
Over the last few years, Everything Dinosaur team members have noted the date of the first frogspawn being laid. The trend is for the frogs (Rana temporaria) to spawn earlier each year. Is this caused by the impact of global climate change?
Earliest recorded spawning dates for Common frogs in the office pond:
February 28th 2023
March 2nd 2022
March 11th 2021
March 20th 2020
March 22nd 2019
March 17th 2018
March 11th 2017
March 20th 2016
March 12th 2015
Other dates when we have recorded the first frogspawn in a year:
March 19th 2013, March 11th 2012, March 18th 2011 and the first ever frogspawn in the office pond was laid on March 16th 2008.
Team members at Everything Dinosaur have spotted frogs in the office pond. This is the first time this year (2023) that the amphibians have been recorded. The pond has been recently cleaned, lots of pond weed and other plants have been removed. Pebbles have been added to one side of the small pond to make it easier for small animals to enter the pond and for birds to bathe.
In the photograph (below), the group of frogs are in a “knot”, located in the shallows at the edge of the pond.
Frogs have been spotted in the office pond for the first time this year (2023). Will there be some frogspawn soon? Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Rana temporaria
The frogs are Common frogs (Rana temporaria). The name is a bit of a misnomer as frogs are becoming less common in the British countryside. Small ponds are a vital resource for wildlife and this morning we spotted a “knot” of frogs, possibly three frogs altogether. No frogspawn was spotted, perhaps this was a group of over enthusiastic males, fighting each other prior to the arrival of a female.
Frogs in the Office Pond
Although the winter has been quite mild, it is still a little early to expect frogspawn. In 2022, the first frogspawn in the office pond was spotted on the 2nd of March.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“We had stored some rainwater over the autumn which we used to top up the water level in the pond. We have removed a lot of the weed which was choking the pond and tidied up the area in the hope that we could attract more wildlife including frogs. Perhaps we might even see a newt or two this year.”
Everything Dinosaur are passionate about dinosaurs and prehistoric animal models. The award-winning, UK-based company exports to over a hundred countries and recently they were interviewed about their export success as part of a project to help inspire others to follow their dreams.
Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub wanted to highlight local businesses that could help to inspire other companies to export their goods and services. Everything Dinosaur team members were interviewed, and a short video produced. The aim of this project is to help and inspire others to export. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Everything Dinosaur Helping to Inspire Others
Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub wanted to help support the drive for exports during International Trade Week and contacted Everything Dinosaur to see if team members were willing to be interviewed about how they sell dinosaur and prehistoric animal models to customers based overseas. Lauren and Emily from Prickly Peach Films were despatched, and they made a short video about Everything Dinosaur’s export success.
Lauren and Emily from Prickly Peach Films with a representative of the DIT preparing to shoot a video at Everything Dinosaur’s warehouse. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
The aim of this video, one of a series of promotional activities organised by the Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub in collaboration with the Department of Industry and Trade (DIT), is to help encourage other companies to open businesses and to export their goods and services.
Passionate About Dinosaurs
Sue of Everything Dinosaur was reluctant to be interviewed but she helped with the shooting of the B-roll as she was filmed and photographed preparing and packing an order for a customer. Mike was given the task of answering the questions posed by the interviewer and hopefully the video will help to inspire others to pursue their passions and develop sales overseas.
The Everything Dinosaur Exporting Case Study
Everything Dinosaur Exporting Case Study – Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub
Mike and Sue hope their short video helps to inspire other companies to explore export markets. Perhaps it might even encourage young people just beginning their careers to start their own business dealing with something that they too care about passionately in the same way that Mike and Sue are passionate about dinosaurs.
At this time of year, as we approach the run up to the festive season, team members at Everything Dinosaur receive emails asking for book recommendations, here is a trio of ideal dinosaur books for Christmas.
All three books have been written by Dr Dean Lomax. Dr Lomax is an English vertebrate palaeontologist and science communicator, a world authority on ichthyosaurs and their close relatives.
Dean has recently completed three books – “Locked in Time” (left) which is illustrated by Bob Nicholls. “Prehistoric Pets” (centre) and (right) “Dinosaurs 10 Things You Should Know”. All three books make ideal gifts for the festive season. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
“Locked in Time”
Fossils have provided scientists with a unique insight into life in the past. The book “Locked in Time – Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils” takes the reader on a journal through deep geological time and highlights fifty of the most incredible fossil discoveries ever made. Illustrated by Bob Nicholls, fossils discussed include brooding dinosaurs, prehistoric fish entombed in giant clams, predator death traps and Jurassic crocodilians with broken jaws.
One of the dramatic illustrations from the book “Locked in Time”. A pair of Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) that died together when their tusks became locked together during combat. Picture Credit: Bob Nicholls.
“Prehistoric Pets”
“Prehistoric Pets” is aimed at the younger reader. It links animals alive today with their prehistoric ancestors. Favourite pets had prehistoric animal ancestors and Dr Lomax provides fun facts on fish and their 500-million-year evolutionary history, demonstrates that budgerigars are dinosaurs and that guinea pigs are distantly related to a rodent the size of a horse!
This colourful and well-written book takes the reader on a journey back in time, linking common household pets today with their prehistoric ancestors. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Templar Books.
Published by Templar Books and available as a hardcopy format, this eye-catching and humorous book makes an ideal Christmas gift for young readers.
“Prehistoric Pets” by Dr Dean Lomax and illustrated by Mike Love can be purchased here: Waterstones Book Store.
Search for author Dean Lomax to discover the books.
“Dinosaurs Ten Things You Should Know”
Dr Lomax builds on his extensive experience as a science communicator and presents ten bite-sized essays that brings the Dinosauria to life in the 128-page “Dinosaurs Ten Things You Should Know”. He tackles big ideas about the dinosaurs, their evolution, their diversity, how they behaved and their ultimate demise.
Published by the Orion Publishing Group, “Dinosaurs Ten Things You Should Know” can be found here (just search for author Dean Lomax): Orion Publishing Group.
