GUIDED TOURS ‐ Museum am Löwentor 1. Time Travel – 250 mio.y. South‐Western Germany Minimum age: 6‐7 years South‐Western Germany has been a dry landscape, it has been covered by swamps and several times it became a sea. Giant amphibians, giant reptiles like the dinosaurs and giant mammals like the mammoth inhabited it during the last 250 mio.y. This ‘time travel’ shows their skeletons as well as models of these extinct life forms and the spectacularly reconstructed landscapes they lived in. 2. Mesozoic Reptiles – ‘Giants’ from the past (Adaptations to water, land and air) Minimum age: 5‐6 years South‐Western Germany has a rich fossil record, especially regarding the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic Era. Extinct reptiles and their habitats, food and locomotion get introduced, for example Arizonasaurus from the Early Triassic desert, the dinosaur Plateosaurus from the Late Triassic and ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and sea crocodiles from the Jurassic period. 3. Fossils: witnesses of the past Minimum age: 8‐9 years Fossils are long gone life forms turned into stone. But not everything can become a fossil. Students learn how fossils were formed, which parts get fossilised (e.g. shells, bones) and which parts usually do not last (e.g. skin, colour) as well as the things we will never know (e.g. sounds). They experience the how much information fossils can yield and how life‐like models and whole landscapes from the past can be reconstructed. 4. People and Animals of the Ice Age Minimum age: 5‐6 years Since the last Ice Age modern humans (Homo sapiens) live in South‐Western Germany. Their world, the climate and the animals and plants of this age will be explained during this tour. The main focus can be laid individually on different aspects of life in the Stone Age. 5. Ichthyosaurs, Ammonites and other Animals of the Jurassic Sea Minimum age: 8‐9 years The Black Jurassic rocks from the bottom of the Swabian Alb are known worldwide because of their many and well preserved fossils of Jurassic Sea animals. There were pterosaurs in the air and ichthyosaurs, sea crocodiles and other water reptiles in the sea and sometimes even their skin and the contents of their stomach is preserved. A lot of invertebrate fossils like ammonites, belemnites, corals and sponges are also to be seen. 6. ‘Fossilised’ Life in Amber Minimum age: 10‐11 years Insects can only be preserved under very special conditions, mainly in Baltic and Dominican amber. The tour explains how tree resin becomes amber and how small animals can be trapped and preserved in it (max. 15 participants, larger groups can be split). 7. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Mesozoic Era Minimum age: 10‐11 years This tour is about the fossil relatives of amphibians and reptiles from the Triassic and Jurassic Periods. Similarities and differences to modern animals are discussed, as well as morphology, habitat and food. Adaptations to different habitats and food sources can be seen in giant amphibians and reptiles of the land, water and air. 8. Introduction to Evolution – Extinct Animals of South‐Western Germany Minimum age: 11‐12 years Land, water and air: extinct animals were just as well adapted to their habitat as the modern ones. Passing through 250 mio.y. of Earth History in South‐Western Germany giant amphibians, dinosaurs, sea reptiles and flying reptiles as well as the first mammals and their impressive descendants like mammoths and deinotheres can be examined. Characteristic traits and special adaptations of the vertebrate clades are the centre of this tour. 9. The Swabian Alb: Origin of Rocks and their Fossils Minimum age: 10‐11 years Black, Brown and White Jurassic rocks: the colour is used to subdivide the Jurassic Period in South‐Western Germany. How these rocks and the many fossils within originated is what this tour is about. 10. What Teeth Can Tell Minimum age: 11‐12 years Show me your teeth and I will tell you what you eat! Dentition types of fish, amphibians, reptiles and early mammals and their food are discussed, the morphology and rotation of teeth is examined and differentiated mammalian teeth, from mammoth and wolf up to the human dentition round off the tour. The tour can complement lessons about teeth and dental hygiene. 11. Fossilisation and Preparation Minimum age: 14‐15 years Very few organisms got embedded after their death, fossilised and were preserved for millions of years. How fossils originate can be seen in invertebrate animals like ammonites and corals as well as in bones, teeth and skeletons of reptiles and mammals. Which were the conditions that could preserve even skin and soft tissues in the Jurassic sea? And what happens after a fossil is found and before it gets exhibited? They have to be prepared by technicians very carefully and this tour explains how that works. Graduating classes may also ‘look behind the scenes’ in workshops and laboratories. 12. From Thomasia to Mammoth – 220 mio.y. of Mammals in South‐Western Germany Minimum age: 14‐15 years The oldest known mammal of South‐Western Germany is the mouse‐sized Thomasia. It lived 212 mio.y. ago literally in the shadow of the large dinosaurs. The tour starts with this animal and its direct ancestors, the therapsids and covers mammals up to the Ice Age mammoth. Their adaptations in tooth and body morphology are one of the main topics of this tour. 13. Vertebrate Evolution Age: 14‐16 years The evolution of vertebrate animals during Earth’s History, their systematic classification and the characteristic trades of each clade are the main focus of this tour. The origin and adaptations of amphibians, reptiles and mammals are discussed following a timeline which is true to scale. Scientific terms like mutation, natural selection homology and analogy are introduced using examples in extinct animals including the ‘urvogel’ Archaeopteryx and the minuscule ancestors of horses. 14. Evolution Minimum age: 16‐17 years The exhibition of the Museum am Löwentor offers an ideal possibility to explore the evolution of vertebrate animals. Numerous extinct members of amphibians, reptiles and mammalians serve to explain scientific terms like convergence, divergence, homology, analogy, vestigiality, preadaptation or the biogenetic law. The evolution of birds, the origin of feathers and flight and the ‘urvogel’ Archaeopteryx are discussed as well as the adaptive radiation of mammals after the extinction of nearly all dinosaurs. Characteristic trades of each clade as well as the eco‐geographical rules can be explained in the mammoth and other Ice Age mammals. Human evolution can also be addressed by looking at some fossil humans like the Steinheim skull – a comprehensive tour about human evolution can be booked in the Schloss Rosenstein. 15. Geology of South‐Western Germany Minimum age: 16‐17 years South‐Western Germany is part of the South German Scarpland which extends from the Upper Rhine Plain to the Swabian‐Franconian Alb. It is the result of a geologic process which has been going on for millions of years and still continues. During the Mesozoic Era sediments were deposited onto a crystalline basis under various different conditions. Tectonic movements during the following Cenozoic Era and the resulting erosion and sedimentation processes built the Scarpland we see today. Apart from these geological processes the interpretation of rocks, their depositional environment and climatic conditions at the time are explained. Fossilised animals and plants and their adaptations to these conditions round off the tour.