All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
18 11, 2015

Jack Horner Announces Retirement (Well Almost)

By | November 18th, 2015|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Famous Figures|0 Comments

Jack Horner Calls it a Day

Jack Horner, one of the world’s most famous palaeontologists, has announced his retirement from the post of Curator of Palaeontology at the Museum of the Rockies after thirty-three years in the post.  John “Jack” Horner, the Regents Professor of Palaeontology at Montana State University has enjoyed a sparkling career having been thrust into the scientific limelight with the discovery of Maiasaura (M. peeblesorum) and the implications on dinosaur nesting behaviour and how dinosaurs raised their young which subsequently arose.

The Very Influential Jack Horner

Palaeontologist John "Jack" Horner.

Palaeontologist John “Jack” Horner.

Picture credit: Montana State University

Jack Horner Announces Retirement

The scientist who advised on the Jurassic Park franchise and is credited with being the inspiration behind the character Dr Alan Grant (at least in part), will not be hanging up his geological hammer just yet.  Although he is retiring from some of his commitments, he has lots of other projects which are going to keep him busy well into his seventies.

Commenting on the announcement of his retirement, the Professor stated:

“You can be assured that I’ll not be slowing down any time soon.  I will be pursuing a number of projects, including helping another museum amass a large dinosaur collection and finishing a couple more books.  I also have a very exciting project that I’m not yet ready to announce.”

Jack Horner’s official retirement date is June 30th 2016, just shortly after his seventieth birthday.  Montana State University intends to hold a special public event on the campus to celebrate the Professor’s contribution to vertebrate palaeontology.

Shelley McKamey, (Executive Director of the Museum of the Rockies) stated:

“Jack and his team of staff and graduate students have amassed the largest collection of dinosaur fossils from the United States.  He opened the science of palaeontology to the general public and sparked the imagination of countless aspiring palaeontologists.”

A Famous Palaeontologist

Professor Horner, has championed the theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, he has also courted controversy in his rich and varied career, playing a pivotal role in the Tyrannosaurus rex “scavenger versus hunter” debate.

The discovery of “Good Mother Lizard” – Maiasaura, in the late 1970’s brought about a complete revision of theories relating to dinosaurs and their parenting strategies.  Jack Horner and his colleagues demonstrated that some dinosaurs provided extensive parental care (Maiasaura young were altricial – incapable of feeding themselves).

Maiasaura – Described by Jack Horner and Robert Makela in 1979

"Good Mother Lizard"

“Good Mother Lizard”

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of ornithischians and other prehistoric animals: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models and Figures.

Long-time collaborator and University of California, Berkley professor Kevin Padian, wrote:

“It is difficult to imagine someone who, rising from such considerable obstacles, has achieved so much, given back so much to the profession, stimulated so much new investigation and supported so many younger colleagues and students.”

The search to replace John “Jack” Horner has started in earnest, however, finding a replacement with the same charisma and with the same high regard in this field of scientific endeavour is going to prove difficult.

Everything Dinosaur is grateful to Montana State University for the compilation of this article.

18 11, 2015

Sun Class Learn All About Dinosaurs

By | November 18th, 2015|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Sun Class Learn All About Dinosaurs

Year 1 at Camelot Primary Study Dinosaurs

It was a busy day for Everything Dinosaur yesterday, as one of the team members visited Camelot Primary School (part of the Mayflower Federation), Peckham, London to work with the Year 1 classes which had been learning all about dinosaurs and fossils.  Under the tutelage of the enthusiastic teaching team, the children had produced some wonderful examples of writing and some very colourful dinosaur themed artwork.  Sun class had been making dinosaur footprints and decorating them, these were on display just outside the well-organised and tidy classroom.

Dinosaur Footprints on Display

Learn about dinosaurs and dinosaur footprints.

Dinosaur footprints and learning about dinosaurs. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Camelot Primary School/Everything Dinosaur

The dinosaur footprint extension activity that our fossil expert had brought with them should help the children appreciate the size and scale of the feet of some dinosaurs.  The extension activity provides the teaching team with an opportunity to help reinforce confidence with numbers and simple subtraction.  Another extension activity that Everything Dinosaur provided involves a very novel method of measuring the length of some dinosaurs.  This should prove to be quite a visual learning experience for the budding palaeontologists in the three Year 1 classes (Sun, Apollo and Moon).

Let’s Learn About Dinosaurs

One of the “pinkie palaeontologist challenges” set involved measuring the size of Tyrannosaurus rex.  Can the children work together to make an accurate measurement of this fearsome dinosaur?

Tyrannosaurus rex is certainly a very popular dinosaur with the children.  Miss Driver (teacher of Sun class), explained that for the children’s half-term work they had been asked to create a model or a drawing of their favourite dinosaur.  The class had created some wonderful prehistoric animals.  One young dinosaur fan, Zayne, had made a fantastic model of the “King of the Tyrant Lizards”.  Well done Zayne!

Zayne’s Super Dinosaur Model (Tyrannosaurus rex)

Let us learn about dinosaurs.

Zayne’s wonderful Tyrannosaurus rex model. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Camelot Primary School

To learn more about the team members at Everything Dinosaur: About Everything Dinosaur.

This is a very creative dinosaur model.  We particularly like the way that Zayne had used white triangles for the teeth of this famous, meat-eating dinosaur.

In what was a very busy morning, we challenged the Year 1 children to produce a piece of dinosaur themed artwork, but this time, could they add labels to it naming the various features of their dinosaur?  In addition, could the class think of some wonderful adjectives which could describe the dinosaur that they had created?

Children in Year 1 at Camelot Primary School  certainly enjoyed the dinosaur workshops delivered by Everything Dinosaur.

To view the range of prehistoric animal themed gifts and toys available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Gifts and Toys.

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