News Puzzle
FirstNews
Issue 431
19th - 25th Sept 2014
Can you complete this crossword?
All of the words are from this week’s four news
stories and can be found at the bottom of this page.
ACROSS
3) These yellow and black insects can
sting you and they look like bees but
don’t have a hairy body and legs
4) The remains of an animal or plant preserved in rock
5) What season is missing: Spring,
Autumn and Winter?
11)The bones in your body which hold
you up!
12) A plant or creature which lives off
another for food or protection from it
DOWN
1) One side of the coin has the Queen’s
head on it, so is called ‘heads’. What’s the
other side of a coin called?
2) This is a yellow, fossil stone which comes from tree resin
6) Different, special, extraordinary
7) A drawing
8) A smaller number of something
9) A flat and round piece of metal, which is used for money
10) Caught
Issue 431 19th - 25th September 2014
A shop owner from Batley has received two letters
from a mystery person apologising for shop-lifting.
in the letters, the person says sorry for stealing from
the shop when he or she was a child. the person
included £30 to cover what was stolen.
ismail Patel was very surprised to receive the letters
and cash. he said: “he’s definitely forgiven.”
Mr. Patel plans to donate the money to charity.
Insect experts are worried that there haven’t been many wasps in the UK
this summer.
ireland
uNiteD kiNGDoM
New £1 design
A competition has been launched
to find a design for a new £1 coin.
the design will feature on the
“tails” side of the coin. Anyone can
enter the competition. the new
coin will have 12-sides and will
come into use in 2017. you can
enter at www.royalmint.com by
30 october.
BerkShire
Caught on camera
Matthew Myatt/
Airbourne Aviation
Spacecraft from Star wars: episode Vii have been
caught on camera from a plane. Matthew Myatt
was taking pictures of another aircraft for a flying
club when he unexpectedly
found he had spaceships
in his pictures. the film
is currently being shot at
Pinewood Studios. the
photos have caused huge
excitement among Star
wars fans.
Learning through news
A model of Spinosaurus’ skull. The
blue bones are the ones that have
been found in fossils
The first bones of Spinosaurus were discovered more than 100 years
ago, by a German expert. These fossils were destroyed by a bomb in the
Second World War. The discovery of new fossils in Mexico has
helped experts finish the puzzle. A report on the skeleton has just
been released.
Natureexpertsandpest-controlexperts
are all scratching their heads about the
lack of wasps. Some people are blaming
the UK’s changing weather.
Spinosaurus is also the only dinosaur known to have lived on the land
and in the water. In fact, it would have found walking on land quite
difficult. Moving through the water would have been much easier.
www.FirstNews.co.uk/forschools
Issue 431 19th - 25th September 2014
Together Forever
This amazing picture shows an ant and a
mite which have been preserved in amber for
about 46 million years.
The two creatures became trapped and died in
sticky tree resin. This moment in time has been
captured forever because the resin became a fossil.
Not only is amber a beautiful stone which is often
used in jewellery, it can also contain prehistoric
insects, like this.
There are many other reasons why experts think that Spinosaurus
hunted in the water. Its nostrils are high up on the skull. This meant it
could breathe, even if part of its head was still underwater. The shape of
its teeth and claws would have helped it to catch slippery fish.
“Working on this animal was like studying an alien from outer space,”
said one of the experts who wrote the report. “It’s unlike any other
dinosaur I have ever seen.”
FirstNews
Resin is the sticky substance that some trees and
plants make when they are cut, or a branch is
snapped. Over millions of years, this blob of resin
turned into a fossil. Fossilised tree resin is called
amber.
When the skeleton was completed it turned out to be almost 3
metres longer than the largest T.rex skeleton. That makes
Spinosaurus the largest predator ever known.
Wasps are cold-blooded animals. This
means they need warm weather to help
them grow in the nest. In the past few
years the UK has had several cold snaps.
The cold might mean that fewer wasps
survive in the nest, so fewer appear in
the summer. Good news for picnics, but
bad news for wasps.
Have you seen any wasps this
summer? Do you think there have been
more or fewer wasps than last year?
www.FirstNews.co.uk/forschools
Issue 431 19th - 25th September 2014
science
Experts have finally worked out how the bones of a
very unusual dinosaur fit together.
Summer picnics and barbeques are often ruined by pesky wasps. This year however, there have
been far fewer of these insects about to
bother us. Why have their numbers gone
down?
Learning through news
FirstNews
Science
Unlike any other!
Where are the wasps?
Jason Dunlop
FirstNews
animals
Scotland
Davide Bonadonna, Ibrahim et al.,
Science/AAAS
Issue 431 19th - 25th September 2014
Northern england wales
ireland
colours
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Conroy,
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Tyler Keillor,
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and Erin
et al., Science/A
FirstNews
HOME NEWS
weSt yorkShire
Shop-lifting apology
A maple syrup tree
Learning through news
?
Resin is
when it
nt to its sap.
is differe further damage like a
of a plant
plant from the cut – a bitsugars
The resin
seals
protect the
made to cut. It hardens and . It carries water, plant.
d the
has been is a bit like our blood
nces all aroun
!
scab. Sap important substa
maple syrup
and other
to make
trees is used
of maple
The sap
DID YOU KNOW
Experts have been examining this fossil closely.
They think that the mite is living on the ant, just
like a flea lives on an animal. A creature which lives
on another creature like this is called a parasite.
This tiny mite is the oldest known parasite ever
discovered.
www.FirstNews.co.uk/
coin
fewer
unusual
parasite
design
wasps
skeleton
trapped
tails
summer
fossil
amber
Learning through news
www.FirstNews.co.uk/forschools