Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Facts About Fossils

By Ferdinand Mekinsy

There are reproductions of actual fossilized shark jaws on display in some natural history museums propped open that are so large that an entire family including dad and mom could stand upright in the open mouth of one of these huge sharks. The variety of sharks that lived in the earth's oceans in the time of the dinosaurs was much more diverse than today. There was even a species of flying shark that could leave the water entirely to hunt or to get away from an enemy. If sharks today could fly out of the water, odds are nobody would be willing to go out on a whale watching cruise.

The television is full of useful specials you can use to take that interest to the next level. When you start to explore how scientists utilised their skills as archeology and paleontology to meticulously excavate dinosaur fossils and preserve them for study and to display at a natural history museum, the kids will be enthralled. An archeological dig is actually a fairly quiet and tedious place. But when the children watch a dig in progress on a television special on one of the science channels, you will be thrilled and astonished how absorbed they will become in the meticulous process that is used to preserve fossils that are millions of years old.

Dinosaurs Fossils

If your kids are not enthralled by fossils yet, it only takes a family movie night to watch a great movie about dinosaurs to get the ball rolling. As the children relish the big computer generated dinosaurs roar on the tiny screen, your son or daughter might turn to you and says, "Daddy how do we know what dinosaurs looked like?" That is a question that can launch a life-long fascination with fossils and creations of the past that will become more fun and engaging for your child with each new discovery.

If you like solving mysteries, you would probably enjoy looking at a newly discovered dinosaur tooth to see what you could conclude just from that one piece of evidence. Scientific connoisseur on dinosaurs are so well acquainted about the teeth of these extinct species that they would make pretty good dinosaur dentists if one dropped by. A sample tooth from the mouth of a dinosaur, for instance, can tell a paleontologist if the beast was a meat eater or a vegetarian. The teeth for killing and tearing flesh are totally different from the teeth for chewing leaves off of trees.

The abundance of simple fossils make it possible for you to buy real fossils if you want to set up a display in your classroom. Any schoolteacher would be thrilled to put such a display out for her students. The sounds of "oh wow", and "that is so cool" is music to the ears of teachers who want to create excitement about science in the students in her class. But there a lots of uses for low cost fossils in the home. You can create fun activities for the kids in the form of a craft where they "discover" fossils in the back yard. Or a nice collection of fossils makes a nice decorating touch in the bathroom or set inside of a tasteful glass vase to position on the mantel of your house.

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