A fascinating day of dinosaurs for Prep 2

There is nothing quite like a trip to the museum to inspire our children in their latest topic – dinosaurs!

We had a very informative talk about the evolution of dinosaurs, and we were able to handle dinosaur bones and teeth. We found out so many interesting facts such as an individual tooth from a T Rex was bigger than a human head and that birds evolved from dinosaurs as they share common features such as scaly feet, feathery wings and both lay eggs.

We also had time to explore the museum and we looked closely at different types of fossils and learnt that they are the remains or traces of animals or plants that were once alive. Mary Anning was an English fossil collector and palaeontologist and through studying fossils found out a lot about what Earth used to be like and the animals and plants that used to live on Earth.  Prep 2 found this explanation very useful to help us understand the process of fossilisation:

“After an animal dies, the soft parts of its body rots away. This leaves the hard parts behind, such as the skeleton and over time this is buried by small pieces of rock. Over the years more and more pieces of rock, called sediment, form on top and gradually the sediment around the skeleton compresses down and turns to rock. The skeleton bones are then dissolved by water that washes through the rock and eventually the bones are replaced by minerals in the water and the fossil is formed.”

When you’re next out and about for a walk or at the beach, perhaps have a look at the rocks and stones and see if you can discover any traces from the past. You might like to have a go at making your own fossil! To find out more information, please Click here.