Saturday 30 January 2016

Dinosaurs and other fossils

A great recent TV programme was David Attenborough's meeting with the recently discovered giant dinosaur Titanosaurus, which saw the ever youthful 90 year old meet the largest land animal that has ever lived.

It was amazing to see the dinosaur bones been excavated from the earth then light-weight copies being made so that whole skeleton could be recreated. Brilliant TV and if you're in the UK you still have a few days left to catch up with it here on the i-player, if you didn't see it at the time!

The programme reminded me of when I worked at the Edinburgh Science Festival one year on a fake dinosaur dig. When each group of children had dug up the bones of the fake dinosaur (which we then had to rebury once they left, so the next group could excavate them!) they then made fake ammonites to keep. All of us who worked on the dig also made some ammonites, these are mine

plaster of paris ammonite, fake fossil

 These are now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop, you can see them here.

Edited to add: and there's also a dinosaur themed listing in my new Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop (which sells vintage and supplies) - you can view it here

The dinosaurs are extinct now, but they live on in their near relatives the birds. And today, if you're in the UK, you can take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch to spend an hour counting the birds in your garden. If it's too cold to do this outside, make a cup of tea and watch through the window!


7 comments:

eileeninmd said...

The dino dig sounds like a fun time for the kiddies. Good luck with your bird count today. Happy weekend!

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Can't do the watch at work, pity as there have been massive flocks of mixed finches out the canteen windows, possibly including brambling, more likely chaffies and goldies.

Little Miss Titch said...

What a fun thing to do with those kids,xx Rachel and Speedy

Anonymous said...

Interesting - didn't know that dinosaur skeletons were replicated! Haven't been here in a long time, probably because I moved to Wordpress. Am glad I saw your blog's name on someone else's side bar!

A Cuban In London said...

As you say, David looks as young as ever. Good luck with your bird count! :-)

Greetings from London.

Anonymous said...

what fun!

RG said...

I "dig" dinos!