ROYAL TYRRELL MUSEUM
VIRTUAL VISIT
A Distance Learning Program
Take your classroom on an interactive, guided tour
of the history of life on Earth.
TEACHER’S GUIDE
© 2011 Royal Tyrrell Museum. All Rights Reserved.
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Program Description
……………………………………………….. 2
Program Outline
……………………………………………….. 3
Activities
Dino Ditties
……………………………………………….. 8
My Little Trilobite
……………………………………………….. 9
Wetlands Word Search
……………………………………………….. 11
Mesozoic Time-Scramble ……………………………………………….. 12
Beastly Bones
……………………………………………….. 14
Build a Pteranodon
……………………………………………….. 16
Designer for a Day
……………………………………………….. 17
Deltas of Doom!
……………………………………………….. 19
Buckets of Time
……………………………………………….. 24
Activities by Grade Level
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12
Dino Ditties
My Little Trilobite
Wetlands Word Search
Mesozoic Time-Scramble
Beastly Bones
Build a Pteranodon
Designer for a Day
Deltas of Doom!
Buckets of Time
1 Thank you for choosing to participate in an ATCO Tyrrell Distance Learning program!
The following guide contains information about your program, as well as accompanying
activities that can be used in your classroom.
The description of your program is as follows:
Royal Tyrrell Museum Virtual Visit
Grades K-12
Take a tour of the Royal Tyrrell Museum without leaving your classroom! Suitable for
all grade levels, you and your students will be guided through an interactive visit to
witness our galleries and exhibits. See the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, puzzle over the
strange creatures of the Burgess Shale, and learn more than you ever thought possible
in a 45-minute journey through the history of life on Earth.
ALBERTA CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Grade 1
Needs of Animals and Plants
Grade 2:
Small Crawling and Flying Animals
Grade 3:
Animal Life Cycles
Grade 4
Plant Growth and Changes. Alberta: The Land, Histories and Stories
Grade5
Wetland Ecosystems
Grade 6
Evidence and Investigation
Grade 7
Interactions and Ecosystems; Planet Earth
Grade 8:
Freshwater and Saltwater Systems
Grade 9
Biological Diversity
Grade 10
Energy Flow in Global Systems
Grade 11
The Changing Earth; Changes in Living Systems
Ecosystems and Population Change
Grade 12:
Change in Populations and Communities
2 PROGRAM OUTLINE
•
Alberta Badlands
o Formed by glacial melt water.
o Rock layers revealed are from the Late Cretaceous Period, 65-68 million years ago.
o Home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
o Over 350,000 visitors a year visit the museum.
•
Palaeontology
o The study of all ancient life, including animals and plants.
o Fossils are the traces or remains of ancient life. These can include actual parts of an
animal or plant (i.e. bones, shells, petrified wood), or things an animal or plant may have
left behind (i.e. impressions, footprints, burrows).
•
Joseph Burr Tyrrell
o Namesake of the museum.
o First scientific discovery of a dinosaur in the area, in 1884.
o He was working for the Geologic Survey of Canada at the time, searching for minerals
and resources in the Red Deer River valley.
o His discovery was named Albertosaurus in 1905, in honour of Alberta becoming a
province of Canada.
•
Cretaceous Alberta
o Features a family pack of Albertosaurs, hunting.
o Plants and animals in the exhibit are known from the fossil record.
o Scientists who study fossil pollen and spores are called Palynologists, which is a specialty
within Palaeontology.
o An Albertosaurus could have travelled at upwards of 24 km/hr.
o Albertosaurs probably hunted in packs.
o Theropods, like Albertosaurus, are equipped with steak knife-like serrations on their
teeth called “denticles”, making them effective for ripping through flesh and bone.
•
Preparation Lab
o In the lab, technicians remove the rock surrounding a fossil, called the matrix.
o What tools do technicians use to prepare fossils?
ƒ Dental picks
ƒ Tooth brushes
ƒ Air scribes
• A miniature jackhammer that is powered by compressed air.
ƒ Vacuum hoods, which remove dust and debris.
•
Lords of the Land
o The name Tyrannosaurus rex means "tyrant lizard king".
o The largest T. rex discovered is 13 meters long, 4 meters tall and would have weight
approximately 7 tons.
o T. rex is also a well known movie star, appearing in films such as "Jurassic Park", "The
Land Before Time" and "King Kong".
3 o Black Beauty is the most complete T. rex skeleton yet to be found in Canada.
• Black beauty fossilized in sediments containing very dark minerals, such as
magnesium. That’s why it is an unusually dark colour.
o Ornithomimus means “Bird-Mimic”, and resembles an ostrich.
o Some of the skeletons in the museum are "articulated", which means they are preserved
with the animal's bones still connected together in the same position they would have
been when the animal was alive.
•
Time Tunnel
o Geologic time is split into three eras:
• Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
• The Mesozoic is the "Age of the Dinosaurs".
•
Burgess Shale
o Fossils from the Cambrian period of the Palaeozoic Era.
o 500 million year old fossils, found high in the Rocky Mountains.
o Some creatures of the Burgess Shale:
ƒ Anomalocaris (ah-nom-ah-lo-care-us), the largest predator of its age.
ƒ Canadaspis (caa-nah-daa-spihs), a shelled ancestor of shrimp.
ƒ Pikaia (pih-kye-ah), a flat swimming worm with the beginnings of a backbone.
ƒ Marrella (mah-rell-ah), the lace crab, the most commonly found fossil.
ƒ Odaria (oh-dah-rye-ah), it looks like a hot dog, but is more like a lobster.
•
Devonian Reef
o The Devonian was the fourth period of the Palaeozoic Era.
o 400 million years ago, Alberta was undersea and home to huge reefs.
o Those reefs are now oil reservoirs.
o Creatures of the Devonian reef:
ƒ Nautiloids, predator in a coiled shell with tentacles. Related to modern squid and
octopi.
ƒ Trilobites, three lobed, bottom crawlers with hard shells.
ƒ Coral, communities of filter feeders that grow together.
ƒ Sharks, much like the sharks we know today.
ƒ Brachiopods, clam and oyster family.
ƒ Fish, armoured fish called "placoderms" were common then but are now extinct.
ƒ Dunkleosteus was a huge armoured fish that could grow up to 12 meters long
and had armoured plating up to 3.5 centimetres thick on its head.
•
Life Conquers the Land
o Explores the colonization of the terrestrial environment throughout the last four
periods of the Palaeozoic Era.
o Silurian Period, 443-417 million years ago.
ƒ First vascular land plant, Cooksonia.
ƒ Scorpions emerge from the sea followed by other shelled animals.
o Devonian Period, 417-354 million years ago.
ƒ First ferns and shrubs begin to dominate the land.
o Carboniferous Period, 354-290 million years ago.
ƒ Vast swamps and forests.
4 ƒ Origin of much of today’s coal.
ƒ Huge insects roamed the land, including dragonflies with a two foot wingspan!
o Permian Period, 290-251 million years ago.
ƒ Called the "Age of Amphibians"; it was the period which saw the first deciduous
tree, Gingko, appear.
•
Permian
o The final period of the Palaeozoic Era.
o Eryops was an amphibious predator that resembled a bulldog. It probably hunted much
the way crocodiles do today, using ambush techniques on its prey.
o Is Dimetrodon a dinosaur?
ƒ Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur; it is actually more closely related to mammals than
dinosaurs.
ƒ One of the features that separate dinosaurs from other reptiles is their hip
structure. Dinosaurs walked fully upright on their legs, like birds. Whereas
crocodiles, Dimetrodon and other reptiles walk lower to the ground with their
limbs in "push-up" position.
o The Permian period ended with the worst extinction event in Earth’s history. About 95
percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial life on Earth was wiped out; including
Dimetrodon, trilobites and millions of other species on land and sea.
o However, some animals survived the mass extinction and went on to evolve into the
first of the dinosaurs.
•
Mesozoic Arch
o The word Mesozoic means “middle life”, and is the "Age of the Dinosaurs".
o Composed of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
o Earliest mammals appear in the Triassic period, around the same time as the first
dinosaurs.
•
Dinosaur Hall
o Jurassic Period, 200-144 million years ago.
ƒ Camarasaurus
o Herbivore.
o Members of the sauropod family, which were the largest animals to ever
walk the Earth.
o Swallowed stones, called "gastroliths", to help them digest vegetation.
ƒ Allosaurus
o Carnivore.
o An ancestor of T rex.
o Can be differentiated from Albertosaurus and T. rex by the bony, hornlike ridge on its head and its three clawed hands.
ƒ Stegosaurus
o Herbivore.
o The name means "roofed lizard".
o Scientists think that they may have been able to force blood up into their
plates and make them flush with colour to confuse and intimidate
predators, or impress possible mates.
5 o
o
o
o
o
o Stegosaurs have the dubious distinction of having the smallest brain
cavity, compared to body mass, of any dinosaur.
o The spiked tail of a stegosaur has been nicknamed “The Thagomizer” by
cartoonist Gary Larson.
Cretaceous Period 144-65 million years ago.
ƒ Euoplocephalus
o Herbivore.
o An ankylosaur, a type of armoured dinosaur.
o Outfitted with a tail club that likely weighed approximately 50 pounds.
Ceratopsian Exhibit
ƒ Horned dinosaur family, all herbivores.
ƒ Chasmosaurus
o Had a frill with gaping holes in it. Too delicate to fight with, so
presumably it was used for display.
ƒ Styracosaurus
o Had multiple horns coming off the edges of its frill.
o A partially articulated specimen is on display in the exhibit.
ƒ Pachyrhinosaurus
o A ceratopsian with a blunt brick-like lump on its snout.
ƒ Ceratopsian localities
o Most species of ceratopsians are found in Canada, the United States and
Mexico.
Lambeosaurus
ƒ From the Hadrosaur (Duckbill) family
ƒ Named after palaeontologist Charles Lambe.
ƒ Hadrosaurs are nicknamed, the “cows of the Cretaceous” because they were so
numerous and travelled in herds, like modern cows.
ƒ They are often found in bonebeds, which are mass fossilization graves, containing
the remains of many individuals.
ƒ Sometimes modern animals such as wildebeest drown in huge numbers, creating
future bonebeds.
Bear Paw Sea
ƒ An inland sea which spread from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico during
the Cretaceous period, essentially splitting North America in half.
ƒ Marine reptiles are not dinosaurs.
ƒ Mosasaur, which looks like a crocodile was the largest ever, “true lizard.”
ƒ Plesiosaur, looks like the fabled “Loch Ness monster.” There is a long-necked and
a short-necked variety.
Triceratops
ƒ The name means “three horn face”.
ƒ The largest member of the Ceratopsian family at the end of the Age of
Dinosaurs.
6 •
Dinosaur Extinction
o The most widely accepted theory among scientists is that a large extraterrestrial object
(meteor / asteroid) collided with the Earth and wiped out a significant amount of life,
including the dinosaurs.
o Scientists have found an impact crater on the Yucatan peninsula, which projects into the
southern end of the Gulf of Mexico, that is the right age and size.
o There is a worldwide layer of Iridium at the same time as the dinosaur extinction.
Iridium is rare on Earth, but is found in extra terrestrial objects.
•
Cenozoic Arch
o Split into two periods; the Tertiary and Quaternary.
o Means the "Age of New Life.”
o With dinosaurs out of the way, mammals took over to become the dominant group on
Earth.
•
Brontotheres
o Herbivore.
o Lived on Earth from approximately 50 - 30 million years ago.
o Looks similar to a rhinoceros, but is more closely related to modern horses.
o Had a two pronged horn on its snout for display and combat.
•
Woolly Mammoth
o Lived on Earth from approximately 4.8 million year ago to 11,000 years ago.
o Being attacked by a pair of Smilodons, commonly known as sabre-toothed cats.
o There is evidence of humans hunting mammoths.
7 DINO DITTIES
Recommended for Grades K through 2
Sing some songs about ancient creatures, and learn a little
more about them at the same time! All sung to the tune of
"I’m a Little Teapot".
TYRANNOSAURUS REX
I’m Tyrannosaurus rex the king,
I like to eat most anything!
With my great big teeth and scary roar
I’m the king of the dinosaurs!
(Fingers make a crown on head)
(Look around hungrily)
(Fingers make teeth and jaws)
(Walk in a circle proudly)
TRICERATOPS
I’m Triceratops the three-horned face,
I'm eating ferns all over the place.
If you try to eat me, I’ll poke you
Don't you try it, if I were you!
(Put up three fingers on head)
(Bend down and nibble around)
(Poke three finger horns out)
(Shake finger at T Rex)
SAUROPOD
I am a gigantic sauropod,
I’ve got a big long neck and bod.
I could squish you with my great big feet
Go find somebody else to eat.
(Walk around like a giant)
(Hold out arm for a long neck)
(Stomp feet)
(Shake finger at T Rex)
MAMMALS
I’m a little mammal underground,
I hope there are no dinos around.
They are way too big for me to fight,
So I'll go eat their eggs at night.
(Be small and hide)
(Look around scared)
(Turn around)
(Sneak a dinosaur egg)
8 MY LITTLE TRILOBITE
Recommended for Grades K through 3
Build your own trilobite, and learn more about these
ancient creatures that lived in the seas 500 million
years ago.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Provide a copy of the trilobite on the following page to each student.
Have each student write their name on the back of the trilobite.
Students then cut out their trilobite along the outside edge.
Have each student decorate their trilobite however they please, gluing on appendages,
antennae, horns, spikes, tentacles or whatever they wish. Some recommended supplies include:
a. markers
b. crayons or pencil crayons
c. glitter
d. construction paper
e. tissue paper
f. pipe cleaners
g. googly eyes
h. glue
5. Have each student introduce their trilobite to the class and tell them a little more about it. Or,
create a sea-scape on the wall for the trilobites to live on!
TRILOBITE FACTS
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
The name trilobite means “three-lobed”; as you can see, they have three distinct “rows” in
their bodies that run from tip to tail.
Trilobites first appear in the fossil record 520 million years ago and they went extinct at the
end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago. That’s 30 million years before the first
dinosaur appeared.
Trilobites were early arthropods, which are creatures with an exoskeleton. That's a skeleton
on the outside of their body! We are familiar with arthropods today such as insects, and
crustaceans like lobsters and crabs.
There were over 17,000 different species of trilobites that evolved over millions of years. Some
were the size of a dime, and some were over half a metre long.
All trilobites lived in the oceans and their fossils have been found all over the world, with the
best specimens being found in Russia and Morocco.
A few species of trilobites swam, but mostly they walked along the sea floor.
The closest living relative to the trilobite is likely the bizarre “horseshoe crab”, though some
palaeontologists think they may be more closely related to spiders or scorpions.
A trilobite had to shed its shell, or “moult”, to grow larger. Much the same way that scorpions,
snakes and tarantulas do.
9 10 WETLANDS WORD SEARCH
Recommended for Grades 3 through 6
Millions of years ago, many parts of Alberta were covered by
vast swamps, not entirely different from some of the wetlands
today. Look for the words below related to ancient wetlands.
Remember, they can run vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and
even backwards!
I
S
R
U
A
S
O
R
D
A
H
O
L
R
E
T
A
W
H
S
E
R
F
C
AMPHIBIANS
CYCADS
FERNS
FRESHWATER
OXYGEN
SWAMP
W
E
T
L
A
N
D
S
D
T
E
N
A
M
P
H
I
B
I
A
N
S
A
S
A
N
A
T
L
D
C
N
T
E
S
W
M
E
T
S
Y
S
O
C
E
L
D
A
U
G
N
O
S
S
E
C
I
I
A
M
COAL
DELTA
FISH
HADROSAURS
SOIL
WETLANDS
D
Y
C
L
C
S
N
O
O
T
C
P
E
X
A
I
N
H
S
R
L
R
Y
D
G
O
F
I
S
H
I
E
E
E
C
S
C
H
T
D
T
O
D
H
N
F
O
E
CROCODILES
ECOSYSTEM
INSECTS
MUD
WATER
FERTILE
11 MESOZOIC TIME-SCRAMBLE
Recommended for Grades 3 through 7
The animals of the Mesozoic are in a scramble! Figure out
which animals belong to which time period, and in the process
create your own Mesozoic timeline.
Fossils found in the Badlands of Alberta come from the Cretaceous period, the last of three periods in
the Mesozoic Era. The word "Mesozoic" means "middle life", and stretched from about 250 million
years ago to 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the "Age of Dinosaurs".
The end of the Mesozoic Era is marked by the "KT Extinction Event", or "KT Boundary". K stands for
"Cretaceous" (the letter C was already being used for another time period), and the letter T stands for
"Tertiary", which is the first period in the "Age of Mammals". Before the KT boundary we find dinosaur
fossils, after the boundary we do not.
Each animal below lives in one of the three periods, but it's up to you to discover where they belong.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cut out the timeline on the following page.
Glue the timeline together, matching the tabs for the time periods correctly.
Cut out the dinosaur silhouette boxes below.
Read the hints beside the boxes, then glue each animal onto their appropriate
place on the timeline.
5. Colour your timeline however you'd like.
parasaurolophus
stegosaurus
plateosaurus
albertosaurus
coelophysis
archaeopteryx
12 13 144 MYA
Cousin of
Tyrannosaurus rex
From the Theropod family
Name means
"Alberta lizard"
208 MYA
The size of a magpie
glue picture here
Crest on head was lik ely
used for c ommunic ation
A member of the
hadrosaur family
Name means
"near-c rested lizard"
Usually travelled alone
or in pairs
A well-armoured
vegetarian
Transitional spec ies
between dinosaurs and
birds
A bipedal vegetarian
A primitive sauropod, or
"long-nec k ed" dinosaur
Name means
"roofed lizard"
glue picture here
glue picture here
Name means
"flat lizard"
Name means
"anc ient wing"
251 MYA
Anc estor to
Tyrannosaurus rex
A small, primitive
Theropod
Name means
"hollow form"
65 MYA
glue picture here
144 MYA
glue picture here
208 MYA
glue picture here
BEASTLY BONES
Recommended for Grades 3 through 8
Below is a photograph of a dinosaur specimen at the Royal
Tyrrell Museum called Gorgosaurus. It's a very rare specimen
because it is "articulated", which means all the bones are in the
same place they were when the animal was alive.
Over 95% of the animal's bones are present, which is highly unusual even in articulated skeletons!
This particular Gorgosaurus was discovered in 1991 in Dinosaur Provincial Park, in southern Alberta. It
was found by Dr. Phil Currie who, at the time, was one of the research scientists at the Royal Tyrrell
Museum.
The dinosaur is in a position called the “classic death pose”. Carnivorous dinosaurs are often found
fossilized in this position, though there is some speculation about why this happens. Some
palaeontologists think its tendons shrinking and pulling the animals head back as the carcass dries out,
while others are now thinking it may be caused as the animal is in its final "death throes".
SKULL
JAW
VERTEBRAE
HUMERUS
RIB
RADIUS
ULNA
SACRUM
FEMUR
PELVIS
FIBULA
TIBIA
GORGOSAURU
S
HOMO
SAPIENS
1. Cut out the pieces on the next page.
2. Reconstruct the skeleton by gluing the pieces onto a separate
sheet of paper.
3. Many of the bones in Gorgosaurus' body have the same names
as bones found in a human body. Compare the skeletons, then
label as many of the dinosaur's bones as you can.
14 GORGOSAURUS
15 BUILD A PTERANODON
Recommended for Grades 4 through 8
All you need is a sheet of paper, some glue, and a popsicle stick!
1
2
3
6
5
4
7
8
9
10
Gather the materials you need:
ƒ 1 sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper
ƒ glue
ƒ 1 popsicle stick
Follow the instructions above to construct your
glider.
Palaeontologists believe some pterosaurs used
air currents to glide. Their bones were hollow,
adapted for flight, and some species were also
capable of moving on all fours on the ground!
How far can your pterosaur glide?
16 DESIGNER FOR A DAY
Recommended for Grades 5 through 12
Create your own exhibit for the Royal Tyrrell Museum! One of
the old exhibits needs to be replaced, and you've been
commissioned to design a new gallery space. Can you come up
with an exhibit that is educational, entertaining, and welldesigned?
Split the class into groups of three or four. Each group will choose, or be assigned, a topic to
investigate. Some suggested topics can be found below. Each group will create a plan for a new exhibit
for the museum, to be presented to the class.
Designing a new gallery space consists of three major steps:
ƒ Research evidence and information on your topic.
o Where will you find your information?
o How do you ensure the information you use is accurate and reliable?
o What information will you include, and will you divide it up into subtopics?
ƒ Draft a plan for the exhibit, using the provided template.
o How will you arrange the exhibit, given the information you have?
o What sort of displays will you have? Will they be interactive, or static?
o What sort of technology might you include in your exhibit?
ƒ Present the new exhibit to the class.
o Outline the information you chose to include and why.
o Explain the more unique elements of your design.
o Be prepared to answer questions!
Suggested Topics:
1. Ice Age Survivors
What animals evolved and lived during the last great ice age? Which ones died out and which
ones are still with us today? What do scientists think caused the ice ages? What adaptations
helped animals survive the extreme changes in conditions?
2. Dinosaurs at Large
What do we know about dinosaurs? What different kinds are there? How do we think they
lived, and what was their environment like? Where do we find fossil remains of dinosaurs?
What did they eat and who ate them?
3. The Bear Paw Sea
During the Cretaceous Period, much of North America was covered by a shallow sea. What
evidence is there to prove this? What animals used to live in the Bear Paw Sea? How did they
interact with one another, and are any creatures still around that resembled them?
17 18 1 square
metre
DELTAS OF DOOM!
Recommended for Grades 7 through 12
A reader's theatre script for a junior or senior high class. Learn
more about ancient environments in Alberta, and the animals
who lived in them.
There are four speaking parts in this script. Choose one student to read each part, while the
remainder of the students can be split up into the rest of the cast and silently act out the stage
directions written in italics, which the teacher can read aloud.
Cast:
Speaking roles:
NARRATOR: An omnipotent, disembodied voice that speaks across the ages.
THE SEA: A middle aged lady with wild mood swings and identity issues.
THE RIVER: A surfer dude who is very laid back and easy going.
GRANDPA: A grouchy old Edmontosaur who’s seen it all.
Non-Speaking roles:
GIANT SHARK
SEDIMENTS, group of three: mud, sand and clay.
MUSEUM VISITORS, at least three
HERD of Edmontosaurs, at least four
TREE
SCAVENGERS; at least two
Follow-up questions for classroom discussion and review:
What is a delta?
How can we tell where deltas formed millions of years ago?
Why are deltas likely to flood?
What conditions are necessary for fossilization?
What happened to the Bear Paw Sea?
Do you think events like those that occurred in the story still
happen to animals today? Why or why not?
Æ What do you think the environment was like in Alberta 68 million
years ago? Was it warmer or cooler? Wet or dry? Why do you
think it was different from today?
Æ
Æ
Æ
Æ
Æ
Æ
19 DELTAS OF DOOM!
by Kevin Flesher
NARRATOR:
It is dawn; the sun rises over a vast swampy land. It is 68 million years before the
first shopping mall will open. Here on the shores of the Bear Paw Sea, dinosaurs play
out their parts and live their lives, never dreaming that one day, some of their bones will
be on display in a museum.
(Enter; the SEA)
SEA:
I am the Bear Paw Sea. I cover what will become Saskatchewan and most of Alberta. I
am shallow, tropical and home to huge reef communities that hum with life like
underwater cities. Usually I am sweet and gentle, but sometimes I rage and froth with
giant hurricanes or Tsunamis that pound the shoreline! Hahahahaha! Oh pardon me, I
got excited there. Many rivers feed me with fresh water. Places where the rivers join
me are called deltas; they are wide channels that deposit many types of sediment. I just
love sediments, they make me so…sedimental.
(Enter; the RIVER)
RIVER:
Dude man, I am the river. I always take the path of least resistance to my ultimate
destination, the sea. I cruise down from the newly forming Rocky Mountains and on the
way I like, carry all kinds of sediments. I usually like to take it easy and check out the
scenery as I flow along, but when there’s a lot of rain, whoah dude! Being a river can be
totally intense!
(The HERD of Edmontosaurs rise, yawn and stretch.)
GRANDPA: I am Grandpa Eddie. I’m the oldest dinosaur in my herd of Edmontosaurs. I’ve seen
some crazy stuff in my day, you bet your boots! One time a T. rex bit me right on the
tail, but I got away. Our herd has lived in this area for generations. Every year we come
up here to lay eggs and raise our young, then after 6 months we head down along the
beach to our other feeding grounds. And today is the day we get going.
(GRANDPA leads the HERD of Edmontosaurs in a procession along the beach.)
NARRATOR:
They call to each other as they lumber along with cow like voices. The young
Edmontosaurs bounce along with enthusiasm on their first great migration. The adults
keep a careful watch on the forest in case predatory raptors or theropods are lurking
there. Others keep the youngsters away from the sea, which is home to other
dangerous predators.
GRANDPA: Okay everybody, try to keep up! Soon we’ll be crossing a river where we can get a
drink of water and have a rest.
-1-
NARRATOR:
The sky begins to darken with storm clouds and a strong wind picks up. Heavy
rains falling in the mountains begin to swell the river.
RIVER:
Whoah! Dude! All this rain is making me go all psycho! I’m turning into a swollen
monster! I’m bursting over the banks and uprooting trees! I’m out of control man!
Somebody stop me!
(TREE and SEDIMENTS; clay, sand and mud get washed downstream by the raging
RIVER.)
NARRATOR:
But instead of calming down, the rains get worse and worse. The herd of
Edmontosaurs begin to panic as the ground beneath their feet gets soggy and turns to
mud.
GRANDPA: Okay everyone back there! Stop pushing! We just need to get past the river and there’s
a safe rocky area where we can rest!
NARRATOR:
But the herd cannot hear wise old Grandpa Eddie over the roar of the ocean
that is starting to pound the beach with huge waves.
(Several young from the HERD of Edmontosaurs are caught in a wave and washed out to
SEA where they are devoured by a giant SHARK.)
SEA:
I am really rocking now! Hahahaha! Rock you like a hurricane! Hahahaha!
NARRATOR:
Trapped between the pounding waves on one side and an impassable swamp on
the other, the wet, frightened herd has no choice but to slog on. They are almost at the
delta where the river flows into the bear paw sea.
GRANDPA: Now just hang in there folks, we’re almost at the river. Whoah Nelly! I ain’t ever seen
the river like that before, it’s out of control! Slow down! Pull back! Turn around!
(GRANDPA Eddie frantically tries to turn the herd around but he is pushed toward the
RIVER by the surging HERD of Edmontosaurs.)
RIVER:
Whoah duckbilled dudes! Back off, I’m outta control right now, I can’t slow down, and
you don’t want to mess with me right now! Run, save yourselves! There’s no way you
can make it across me, I’m a big muddy mess!
NARRATOR:
Grandpa Eddy and the dinosaurs at the front of the herd try to stop, but the
stampeding multitudes behind them push them into the swirling vortex of mud, water
and death!
(GRANDPA and most of the HERD are pushed into the RIVER, where they drown.)
GRANDPA: Help me! Blub blub!
RIVER:
Oh no! My totally raging waters have swallowed over half of the herd and now their
drowned bodies are like floating in me. That’s so sick, man!
-2-
(The SEA sends waves crashing relentlessly onto the beach.)
SEA:
Destroy! Yes! Yes! Yes! Hahahaaha!
(Over half the HERD is swept up in the raging RIVER, their bloated bodies are piled up in the
delta, covered with the SEDIMENTS, mud, clay and sand.)
NARRATOR:
The panicked bellows of the survivors are drowned out by the crashing waves,
thunder claps and pounding rain. The survivors manage to huddle on patches of high
ground as the world around them turns to mud…
(After the storm passes, SCAVENGERS gather to pluck out the guts and eyeballs of the
rotting carcasses. GRANDPA’S corpse has sunk deep into the SEDIMENTS, where minerals
have already begun to seep into his remains The SEA and the RIVER are calm once more,
almost apologetic.)
SEA:
Oh my good gracious, I don’t know what comes over me sometimes, really. As I said,
I’m normally sweet and gentle, but I do occasionally lose my temper. Mmmm, the
water’s nice today; would you like to come for a little swim?
RIVER:
Dude man that was crazy. I hardly remember what happened, what a party! I think I’m
gonna take it easy now and just go with the flow.
(Buried beneath the SEDIMENTS, sand, clay and mud, GRANDPA’S dead body speaks its
last.)
GRANDPA: Well, doesn’t this just beat all. I live for 50 years, survive all kinds of predators and
disasters just to end up dead and packed into the mud. Now I’ll never roam no more.
Sigh.
NARRATOR:
But it’s not really the end for Grandpa Eddie, actually, his new adventure is just
beginning. His soft tissues like skin, brains and muscles rot away, leaving just his bones
lying under the sediments. Slowly, over thousands of years, minerals in the earth around
him seep into his bones and replace every molecule with minerals in a process called
perminerialization. Eventually an exact replica of his skeleton but made of stone lies in
the ground. He has become a fossil. Now let’s fast forward to 2007 and see what has
become of our players who first met in the Cretaceous Period, millions of years ago…
SEA:
As for me, I dried up millions of years ago. The shifting of the North American plate left me
high and dry. What used to be the Bear Paw Sea is now, sniff sniff, the prairies of North
America. Boo hoo it’s just not fair, I was so sweet and gentle. All that’s left of me are fossils of
marine reptiles and shells of ammonites found across the Great Plains. The beautiful reefs that
used to live in my warm waters are now oil reservoirs deep underground where oil and gas
are drilled. It’s too much to bear. But who knows, maybe if global warming melts the ice caps
and the sea level rises, there could be an inland sea here again. Hahahahaha!
RIVER: Dude, take it easy, living and dying and coming and going are all just part of the cosmic flow
man. I don’t exist as a river any more, but traces of where I used to flow are still found in the
-3-
layers of sedimentary rock that I helped shape millions of years ago, cuz, like nothing ever
really goes away man, we just leave our mark and move on. Yeah. How about you Grandpa
Eddie, what are you up to these days?
(GRANDPA Eddie is now a mounted skeleton on display. Several MUSEUM VISITORS stop to look
at him.)
GRANDPA: I’ve got a career in show business, can you believe it? I’m on display at the Royal Tyrrell
Museum of Palaeontology! Every day, lots of them little hairless apes come and look at me. I
was shy at first, what without my skin and all, but I’ve gotten used to it, I’m happy to teach
them young upstarts a thing or two about us dinosaurs. You know, we ruled this here Earth
for over 160 million years! We figured out a thing or two. First of all, don’t mess with
Mother Nature; and number two, look out for asteroids.
(ALL CHARACTERS freeze.)
NARRATOR:
The sun goes down on the fossil of Edmontosaurus mounted in the museum.
The Badlands glow with a rosy hue as the prairie sky goes to sleep once more.
THE END
-4-
BUCKETS OF TIME
Recommended for Grades 7 through 12
In Dinosaur Provincial Park, one of the Museum’s
Palaeontologists dug up three fossil-rich buckets of sediments in
the same spot. How can we use the data from these buckets to
learn about the ancient past?
The first bucketful was taken from sandy sediments dated at 68 million years old.
The second bucketful was taken from the silty deposits below dated at 70 million years old.
The third bucketful was taken from deeper, muddy sediments dated at 72 million years old.
First Bucket: muddy, 72 million years old
4
Crocodile teeth
4
Fish vertebrae
2
Fish scales
1
Duckbill dinosaur bone fragments
0
1
49
0
Turtle shell fragments
Theropod (carnivore) teeth
Shark teeth
Salamander bone fragments
Second Bucket: silty, 70 million years old
8
Crocodile teeth
20
Fish vertebrae
21
Fish scales
18
Duckbill dinosaur bone fragments
18
7
20
5
Turtle shell fragments
Theropod teeth
shark teeth
Salamander bone fragments
Third Bucket: sandy, 68 million years old
10
Crocodile teeth
7
Fish vertebrae
7
Fish scales
32
Duckbill dinosaur bone fragments
26
16
1
65
Turtle shell fragments
Theropod teeth
Shark tooth
Salamander bone fragments
Using the charts on the following page, build a bar graph for each of the buckets to illustrate the total
amounts of the different kinds of fossils.
The evidence reveals that there was a change in the populations and communities in that area over a
period of several million years. Based on the evidence charted, respond to the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
1 2
12
What do you think caused the changes in the populations represented?
What kind of changes do you think occurred in the environment?
What can we learn about ancient life from fossils?
What can we learn from the sediments fossils are found in?
11
10
24 60
50
BUCKET ONE (72 mya)
BUCKET TWO (70 mya)
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
0
BUCKET THREE (68 mya)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
11
10
1 2
12
25 60
50