All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
18 07, 2018

It’s Planning Time Again

By | July 18th, 2018|General Teaching|Comments Off on It’s Planning Time Again

Lots of Teachers Already Preparing for the New Academic Year

For many schools in England and Wales, the long summer holidays are about to start.  Although many teaching staff will be taking a deserved vacation, we note from the number of emails, phone calls and general enquiries that we have received that lots of dedicated teaching professionals are well advanced with their planning for dinosaur and fossil teaching the start of the next academic year.

September will soon come around and teachers supported by teaching assistants and other learning support providers will be busying themselves making preparations for the challenges that a new academic year brings.  From the enquiries that we have received so far this month, it seems that the Cornerstones Curriculum “Dinosaur Planet” and the term topic “Jurassic Forest” are going to be popular choices when it comes to Key Stage 1 and Reception term topics.

Lots of Schools are Planning Term Topics Focused Around Dinosaurs and Fossils

Lots of dinosaur and fossil pictures on display.
Lots of dinosaur and fossil pictures on display. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Preparing Prehistoric Themed Schemes of Work

As always, our dedicated teaching team are on hand to provide advice and assistance.  There are numerous downloadable resources available from Everything Dinosaur’s dedicated teaching website, all provided free of charge.  Our handy lesson plans, resource packs, teaching suggestions and information sheets have been downloaded by teachers, educationalists, museums and other institutions hundreds of times.  We are happy to help and we get a large amount of emails from teachers asking for specific information, these are all responded to and we do our best to assist and advise where we can.

For Everything Dinosaur’s educational themed items including toys and games: Dinosaur Toys and Games.

Lesson Plans Helped to Inspire a Poster Making Exercise

Key Stage 2 example lesson plan from Everything Dinosaur.
Example lesson plan (Key Stage 2). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur and Fossil Workshops in School

Our dinosaur and fossil workshops in schools are booking up fast, we already have bookings for the summer term of 2019 and enquiries for the 2019/20 academic year.  We conduct a lot of work with schools and our workshops are built around curriculum teaching aims and objectives including developing writing skills, aiding literacy, exploring ideas, problem solving, working scientifically, building confidence and encouraging an understanding of materials and the wider world.

There is certainly a big “wow” factor with a visit from ourselves but everything we do attempts to reinforce learning and help achieve the teaching outcomes required by the school.  Dinosaurs as a teaching theme lends itself to all sorts of ideas and extension activities and we often provide additional resources to help support the school’s scheme of work.

For further information about our dinosaur workshops in schools and to request details of our science outreach work: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

Our hard-working team members will do all they can to accommodate teaching needs, but, spaces are getting booked up fast.

Thank You Letters Received After Another Successful Dinosaur Workshop

Dinosaur and fossil feedback form.
Feedback from Primary School (EYFS). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

18 07, 2018

The Dinosaur Park and Hell Creek Formations

By | July 18th, 2018|Adobe CS5, Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

The Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF) and the Hell Creek Formation (HCF)

We have been asked to give a brief explanation of the different dinosaurs associated with two famous North America rock formations.  A comment on the different dinosaur faunas associated with the Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF) of southern Alberta and the Hell Creek Formation (HCF), which is mostly associated with the state of Montana but also outcrops in North and South Dakota as well as Wyoming.

The Badlands of the Dinosaur Park Formation (DPF) – Hunting for Dinosaur Fossils

Looking for Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils.
A typical view of the “Badlands” of the Dinosaur Park Formation.  The red arrow in the picture highlights the layer in which the fossils of a new type of horned dinosaur were discovered.

The Badlands

Both the Hell Creek Formation and the Dinosaur Park Formation are referred to as “Badlands”, this term is derived from the French phrase “les mauvaises terres” and dates back to the early years of exploration of these vast tracts of land.  The term describes an area largely devoid of vegetation that is subjected to rapid erosion caused by wind, rain and running water.

The DPF is older, the strata were laid down between 76.5 and 75 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian faunal stage).  In contrast, the Hell Creek Formation is younger.  The rocks were formed at the very end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian faunal stage) and the strata records the transition from the end of the Cretaceous into the Palaeocene, the first Epoch of the Cenozoic.  The HCF spans approximately 66.8 to 66 million years ago and documents evidence of an extra-terrestrial impact event preserved as a thin clay layer that contains large quantities of the rare Earth element iridium, marking the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary, representing an extinction event denoting the end of the age of the dinosaurs and the start of the Cenozoic.

Looking for Fossils – Hell Creek Formation

Looking for fossils - Hell Creek Formation.
Prospecting for fossils – Hell Creek Formation (Montana).

Picture credit: University of California Museum of Palaeontology

The Ancient Environments – Dinosaur Park Formation and Hell Creek Formation

The strata that forms the DPF represents a coastal plan environment, crossed by numerous large rivers.  The majority of the rocks are sandstones and mudstones, although there are layers of volcanic ash (bentonite), which resulted from the sporadic eruptions of volcanoes in the region. In the upper part of the DPF, coal deposits can be found (Lethbridge coal zone), representing deposition in a swampy environment.

The sea gradually encroached onto this coastal plain and the area was eventually flooded, resulting in the deposition of the marine shales that represent the Bearpaw Formation that overlies the DPF.

The Hell Creek Formation was created under similar circumstances.  It too represents clays, mudstones and sandstones deposited on a delta, a low-lying flood plain crossed by many rivers.  The HCF also has peaty, coal-like deposits (lignite), representing deposition in coastal swampy environments.

The Palaeoenvironment of the Dinosaur Park Formation

The fauna and flora of Alberta 75 million years ago
Alberta around 75 million years ago (Dinosaur Park Formation).

Picture credit: Julius Csotonyi

A Chasmosaurus and a Lambeosaurus feeding during the late evening, a typical scene representing the biota associated with the DPF.

The Palaeoenvironment of the Hell Creek Formation

Triceratops dinosaur illustration.
Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs to evolve.  A resident of the Hell Creek Formation.

Picture credit: Julius Csotonyi

A Triceratops grazes next to a palm tree on the coastal plain that is represented by deposits that help to make up the Hell Creek Formation of Montana.

Different Time Periods – Different Dinosaurs

Both the HCF and the DPF are famous for extensive dinosaur fossils.  It is worth remembering that numerous other kinds of animal (and plants) are represented in the fossil record of these two formations.  Although, the dinosaur fauna is similar between the DPF and the HCF, for example the terrestrial large herbivores are dominated by duck-billed dinosaurs and ceratopsians, the genera represented are very different.

In simple terms, the stage scenery might be similar and the cast of characters reminiscent but the actors on the stage are different.

Typical Dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian Faunal Stage of the Cretaceous)

Dinosaur Park Formation dinosaurs.
Typical dinosaur fauna of the Dinosaur Park Formation (Alberta, Canada). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Typical Dinosaurs from the Hell Creek Formation (Maastrichtian Faunal Stage of the Cretaceous)

Dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation.
Typical dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The images in the pictures (above) are based on various dinosaur models sold by Everything Dinosaur. To view the range of models available: Prehistoric Animal Models and Replicas.

We are looking forward to our visit to the Beacon Museum at Whitehaven (Cumbria).  Everything Dinosaur will be taking visitors on a fossil hunt and we hope to be able to give away real dinosaur bones.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

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