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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.A Hilltop Elementary School student showed Dr. Dino, of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the fossil she ‘uncovered’ during The Spinosaurus Encounter assembly on March 7.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Dr. Dino, of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, showed a Hilltop Elementary School student a life-size replica of the fossil she ‘uncovered’ during The Spinosaurus Encounter assembly on March 7.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Dr. Dino, of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, introduced Spiny the Spinosaurus to Hilltop Elementary School students during The Spinosaurus Encounter assembly on March 7.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Two Hilltop Elementary School students got an upclose look at Spiny the Spinosaurus, especially her teeth, during the school’s Spinosaurus Encounter assembly on March 7.
By ABBY SLANKER
Hilltop Elementary School students received a visit from two very special guests - and one of them is extinct - on March 7.
The students were visited by Dr. Dino and Spiny during a dinosaur-themed assembly called The Spinosaurus Encounter, courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Spiny is the museum’s 10-foot tall, 15-foot long mechanical Spinosaurus puppet. Volunteers from the audience helped Dr. Dino ‘dig’ for fossils in the Egyptian desert and hypothesize about Spiny’s habitat.
“Today we are going to talk about fossils. Any living thing could leave a fossil. There are scientists whose job it is to dig up fossils and they are called paleontologists. We are also going to talk about Spiny’s habitat. We think she lived in the Bahariya Oasis. We think she’s a desert dinosaur because bones have been found in the desert,” Dr. Dino said.
Dr. Dino then asked for volunteers to help him on his ‘dig.’
“When you go on a dig, you find new stuff on the top and old stuff on the bottom. Digging down in the earth is basically going back in time,” Dr. Dino said.
The first volunteer found a coin on the top layer. The next layer of rock was limestone and that volunteer found a hip bone from a whale.
“We don’t know how that got there since we are digging in the desert,” Dr. Dino said.
Next, the volunteer found petrified wood from a weischselia.
“Remember plants can be fossils, too. But the weischselia didn’t grow in the desert, it grew on beaches,” Dr. Dino said.
The next layer produced a fossil of a crab and the next layer produced a fossil of a gill cover from a giant fish.
“Crabs and fish live in the ocean. What is this fossil doing in the desert? So far, we’ve only found stuff from the ocean,” Dr. Dino said.
In the next layer, the students got a big surprise - a foot from Spinosaurus.
“We’ve uncovered a foot from the Spinosaurus. It tells us the Spinosaurus was bigger than the T-Rex. The T-Rex may have been the king of dinosaurs, but Spinosaurus was the queen,” Dr. Dino said.
Lastly, a tooth was uncovered. A pointy tooth meant for a meat-eating carnivore dinosaur.
“Think about what we’ve found so far. There are lots of clues that point to Spinosaurus not living in the desert. She actually lived on the beach. Bahariya Oasis was right next to the sea. This teaches us about the adaptations and sort of tools she had to use to survive. If she lived right next to the ocean, she was a very good swimmer and her favorite food was fish. She was a fish-eating dinosaur,” Dr. Dino said.
Much to the delight of the students, Dr. Dino then introduced them to Spiny.
“Here she is boys and girls. I’d like to introduce you to Spiny,” Dr. Dino said.
Dr. Dino, also known as John Itsura, Carnegie Museum of Natural History outreach coordinator, and Spiny, also known as Leslie Wilson, Carnegie Museum of Natural History outreach manager, thanked the students for being a great audience.
Dr. Dino and Spiny visited C.H. Campbell Elementary School earlier in the day to present The Spinosaurus Encounter.
“This was a fun assembly for our students where science and entertainment came together for education,” said Travis Lavery, C.H Campbell principal.
Patti Hockensmith, Hilltop Elementary School and C.H. Campbell Elementary School media specialist worked with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to arrange the assemblies. Hockensmith was inspired by the dinosaur theme of Hilltop’s book fair the following week, and Itsura and Wilson continued their dinosaur education at the school’s KISS book fair event that evening.