Novel Teaching Exercise (Key Stage 2)

With the announcement of the discovery of clearly preserved theropod hand prints, our innovative teaching team have come up with an exciting class room activity involving the very latest scientific thinking about dinosaurs fore-limbs and hands.

Theropods, are a diverse group of lizard-hipped (saurischian) dinosaurs.  They walked on their hind-limbs, trace fossils of their footprints and trackways are quite well researched but evidence of the posture adopted by their hands and fore-limbs, well that is a different matter.

Thanks to some new fossil data from a site in Utah, USA, scientists have gained further insight into the posture and position of these bipedal dinosaur’s fore-limbs.  Interpretation of trace fossils from the site indicate that one particular dinosaur left resting hand prints in the Early Jurassic mud next to a lake, some 198 million years ago (Sinemurian faunal stage).  The prints made in the sediment indicate that these dinosaurs may have held their hands differently to ours, the prints demonstrate a link to the evolution of the wings of birds.

To read the article about this discovery: Dinosaur Hand prints Reveal Link to Birds.

It is from theropod dinosaurs that birds (Aves) are believed to have evolved.  Although much is known about the anatomy of theropod arms due to the fossil bones found, this new evidence indicates that they held their fore-limbs very differently to ours.  Being humans, we have very sophisticated arms and hands, long since adapted to other tasks rather than locomotion.  For example, we are able to pronate (twist) our arms very effectively and we have much more mobility in our arms and hands in general, when compared to a bipedal dinosaur.

It is not known for sure which type of dinosaur left the prints, but scientists suspect that this 4.5-metre-long animal was some sort of dilophosaur.  This new research has enabled us to develop a lesson plan in which we can carry out simple experiments to prove that the “bunny” position for theropod fore-limbs, seen on many models and even in museum exhibits could be wrong.

An Illustration of A Dilophosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view a model of a Dilophosaurus along with figures and replicas of other theropod dinosaurs: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Yet another teaching activity to add to our repertoire.

Summer Holiday Activities – Baking with Dinosaurs

A little summer holiday fun – baking with dinosaurs.

I am sure many young Dinosaur fans would have watched the ground breaking BBC Television series “Walking with Dinosaurs” first aired on BBC1 in 1999.  This ground-breaking television series used CGI imagery and animatronics coupled with the latest scientific research to bring back to life dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

In total, six episodes were made, starting with “New Blood” which depicted the Late Triassic and showed the rise of the dinosaurs to “Death of a Dynasty” which covered the extra-terrestrial impact that marked the end of the Cretaceous.  This work was a collaboration between a number of universities, museums and designers to recreate as accurately as possible the world as it was during the Mesozoic.

The subsequent TV rights, merchandise, video and DVD sales have helped to swell the coffers of the BBC to a considerable extent.  The “Walking with” programmes have provided the BBC with very welcome revenue, these programmes have been some of the best-selling of all the BBC’s output.

Unfortunately, even the most avid home movie fan is unlikely to be able to recreate the BBC TV series, at least we at Everything Dinosaur can offer an alternative that might keep your little ones occupied for a part of the long summer holiday – Baking with Dinosaurs.

Baking with Dinosaurs

Our team has carried out a great deal of research and testing of home baking products in the late winter and early spring and they recommended several types of dinosaur shaped cookie cutters – ideal for making simple dinosaur shaped snacks or biscuits.

As well as testing the cookie cutters and such like, the team have published a number of recipes for making dinosaur themed biscuits.  This blog has published lots of recipe ideas including making dinosaur gingerbread and birthday cakes.  All the recipes have been tried out by our team members and our weblog provides pictures of the finished biscuits along with ingredients and instructions.

The recipes are simple to follow and are ideal to help pass a little bit of the summer holiday time, with a grown up supervising the cooking activities.  The biscuits are a great addition to any dinosaur party food and they are fun and easy to make.

We have also used dinosaur shaped cutters for modelling work using clay and other materials, the cutters work equally well whether making food or simply having fun with plasticine or other materials.

The dinosaur puzzle cookie cutter is a particularly clever product.  Made from robust, sturdy plastic, it consists of several pieces that fit together to make a large motif for a long-necked dinosaur (Sauropod).  You can make your own edible dinosaur puzzle.  The set even comes with a smaller long-necked dinosaur biscuit cutter that allows you to make smaller, dinosaur shaped biscuits and snacks.

The Dinosaur Puzzle Cookie Cutter

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

When some of our team members organised tests with this particular product, shortbread biscuits were made.  The young children we were working with found the cutters easy to use and had great fun decorating the biscuits once we had allowed them to cool.

As I recall, we simply made up some small amounts of icing sugar in several pots, a few drops of food colouring enabled our young chefs to colour the icing sugar and we had red, green, yellow and even pink dinosaurs.  These biscuits were then decorated in a variety of ways.  It was certainly a fun way to spend an afternoon, and once washed the biscuit cutters were ready to use again.  There were plenty of recipes for us to try in the little recipe book that was provided in the box.

Some of the Results of our Labours

Baking with dinosaurs, a fun activity for the summer holidays.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur is a UK-based supplier of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed models, toys and merchandise, check-out our website: Everything Dinosaur.