Book to Help Advise Teachers about Palaeontology Careers

Many teachers are keen to encourage their pupils to consider a career in the sciences.  However, knowing where to turn when it comes to finding sensible advice can be a bit of a challenge even for the most dedicated member of the teaching team.  Many students develop an interest in the Earth sciences and there are a lot of exciting career paths to explore.  Help is at hand for any member of the teaching team who gets asked about working as a palaeontologist in the form of this excellent book written by Dr David Penney (Manchester University).

So You Want to be a Palaeontologist?

So You Want to be a Palaeontologist?

Practical advice and guidance.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In this well-crafted publication, Dr Penney explains his own circuitous route into the profession and outlines the various different types of roles palaeontologists have.  The first two chapters provide a definition of palaeontology and explain why palaeontology has so much relevance today.  The rest of the book is dedicated to providing an overview of the various careers available to students and to enthusiasts who have a fascination for fossils.

Siri Scientific Press

For further information and to order a copy visit: Siri Scientific Press.

Topics covered include the roles palaeontologists perform in museums, universities and conservation projects, as well as examining jobs related to the science in the media, the fossil trade and within the arts.  For teachers and members of the careers profession aiming to provide guidance to students who wish to explore working in palaeontology, this book is a must have and it is highly recommended by Everything Dinosaur team members.  It is a most informative read.

Palaeontologists and Everything Dinosaur

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur Website.

Commenting on how helpful the book is, a spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:

“This publication provides an insider’s view on the exciting and diverse career opportunities available to students who want to develop their interest in palaeontology into a full-time occupation.  It really is required reading for any teacher or educationalist wishing to assist aspiring palaeontologists.”

Prehistoric Elephants Once Roamed the Isle of Wight

Giant prehistoric elephants once roamed the Isle of Wight.  Palaeontologists know this thanks to eagle-eyed local resident Paul Hollingshead who spotted a large bone whilst exploring a beach on the western side of the island during an exceptionally low Spring tide.  Mr Hollingshead spotted a brown coloured object sticking out of the sand, he hoped he had found a dinosaur bone, but the fossil is actually part of a scapula (shoulder bone) from a prehistoric elephant identified as Palaeoloxodon antiquus.

A Fantastic Fossil Find

Mr Hollingshead and Family Show Off the Fossil 

Paul and his family show off their fossil find behind an Iguanodon exhibit.

The fossil has been dated to around 100,000 years ago.  During this time, our planet was warming up after the previous Ice Age.  Average annual temperatures were around three degrees Celsius higher in the northern hemisphere than they are today.  In this interglacial period (referred to as the Ipswichian in the UK, or the Sangamonian in the United States), elephants and other animals now associated with Africa roamed as far north as Great Britain.

Prehistoric Elephants

Palaeoloxodon antiquus was about the size of a modern African elephant, unlike the much better known Woolly Mammoth, the Palaeoloxodon elephants had straight-tusks.  The only people who might have seen this prehistoric elephant 100,000 years ago were probably Neanderthals.  Although our species, Homo sapiens had evolved by then, the fossil record suggests that the earliest modern people in Europe did not arrive until some 40,000 years later.

The Eofauna Scientific Research range includes several models of prehistoric elephants.  To view this  range of models and figures: Eofauna Scientific Research Models.

Progressive Oxidation Permitted Life on Earth to Flourish

A new study published in the academic journal “Nature Communications” carried out by a team of international scientists, including researchers from Leeds University, UCL (London) and the University of Washington, suggests that it took about one hundred million years for oxygen levels on our planet to rise to a high enough level to allow a rapid increase in the diversity of life on Earth.

Life on Earth

This study, which involved the use of a novel research technique – analysing selenium isotope concentrations from seven different locations, indicates that there was not a steady rise in oxygen levels over this immense period of time, O2 concentrations fluctuated.  The amount of oxygen increased in fits and starts, but the increase of overall available O2, did lead to a substantial increase in life around 600 million years ago.

The Gradual Rise in Oxygen Permitted a Myriad of Different Types of Animal to Evolve

Life in the Ediacaran.

Picture credit: John Sibbick

Explosion of Life

The researchers examined the period in Earth’s history from around 720 million years ago to prior to the Cambrian geological period.  During this time at least three extensive glaciations occurred.  As global temperatures fell, so the conditions for life that did exist at the time became extremely harsh.  It is likely that a number of different types of fauna became extinct.  However, when the temperature of the Earth rose, the ice sheets melted and released vast quantities of minerals and other nutrients into the oceans.

The scientists suggest that the ice melt and the subsequent increased nutrient mix in the sea helped cause oxygen levels to rise in the deep ocean.

CollectA have produced a range of replicas of ancient invertebrates including cephalopods and arthropods: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models.

This rise in O2 levels had huge implications for life on Earth.  The scene was set for the Cambrian explosion.

Children Write Poems About Dinosaurs

In the new national curriculum (England), teachers have quite a variety of scope in terms of how they can help children to articulate ideas.  When it comes to comprehension, the curriculum for Year 2 children (Key Stage 1), encourages teaching teams to discuss poems, this leads on to the Lower Key Stage 2 comprehension section which has a statutory requirement to: “prepare poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action.”

This can be quite a tough task, especially amongst boys who have become disillusioned and unenthusiastic when it comes to hand-writing.  For these pupils (girls as well as boys), why not inspire them to write a poem about a dinosaur?

Taken from a caption in an animated short made in the 1920s and recently restored.  Here is a poem about dinosaurs:

Can You Inspire Your Class to Write a  Dinosaur Poem?

Here is a poem sent into Everything Dinosaur, by a young dinosaur fan (age 8) who wrote a poem about his favourite dinosaur Triceratops.

Triceratops and Theropods Inspires Year 3 Poetry

Fantastic dinosaur artwork. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

 A fascination for dinosaurs can help and encourage young children with their writing and comprehension.

Everything Dinosaur – Dinosaur Themed Toys and Games

Everything Dinosaur stocks a huge range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed toys and games.  All the items that we stock have been tested and approved by our dedicated teaching team. To view the range of educational items, including replicas of iconic animals from the fossil record: Dinosaur Crafts for Kids.

Scientists Describe New Species of Marine Reptile – A New Mosasaur from Japan

Scientists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the University of Alberta (Canada), the University of Cincinnati (USA), Hobetsu Museum, Fukuoka University (Japan) and the University of Cincinnati (USA) have published a scientific paper announcing the discovery of a new species of a type of marine reptile known as a mosasaur.  This new mosasaur has been named Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans. The huge eye socket in the skull suggests that this animal, distantly related to  modern snakes and lizards, hunted in low light conditions.

Mosasaur from Japan

An Illustration of the Newly Described Mosasaur

The first Japanese Mosasaur to be identified.

Picture credit: Tatsuya Shinmura / Ashoro Museum of Palaeontology / Trustees of the Natural History Museum, (London).

There are a number of mosasaur models in stock at Everything Dinosaur, for example, PNSO stocks a mosasaur replica: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Models.

A Three-metre-long Carnivore

Scientists have suggested that this three-metre-long carnivore may have specialised in hunting in deep water.  Perhaps it evolved to fill a specific ecological niche, that of a night time hunter preying on bioluminescent fish and squid.  Fossils of such fish along with cephalopods have been found in the same Upper Cretaceous strata on the island of Hokkaido (northern Japan), where the mosasaur fossils were found in 2009.

A Picture of the Prepared Fossil Skull of Phosphorosaurus Showing the Huge Eye Socket

The skull in lateral view showing the huge eye-socket.

Picture credit: Takuya Konishi et al.

Teaching Ideas/Extension Ideas

1. Note that the photograph above has a scale bar showing below the fossilised skull (line of black and white squares).  Why do palaeontologists put a scale bar on their photographs?
2. Approximately, how long is the skull of this marine reptile (note each black and white square in the scale bar equals one centimetre)?
3. How wide is the eye socket in centimetres?
4. Why would a carnivorous marine reptile need big eyes (link to the environment/habitat)?
5. What does it mean when scientists think an animal fitted a “specific ecological niche”?

Everything Dinosaur stocks a variety of mosasaur models and other replicas of marine reptiles: Marine Reptiles and Sea Monster Models.