Building the Dinosaur Program- North African Dinos

[fossilsonwheels]

I have this evening and tomorrow to get up a bit more of the dinosaur collection before it is back to sharks. We have programs starting soon so my focus will be well away from dinos for a few months probably. Prepare to be underwhelmed lol I thought we would be heavy on the Moroccan dinosaurs because they are so abundant. Surprisingly, we are pretty light on African dinosaurs. I found a path to getting us deeper into North American animals. It is a bonus that an area we will need to fill is the most abundant and affordable. The dinosaur program will have a different scientific concept behind than sharks. The best state science standard we can hit for 1st-3rd graders is geology so some of the dinosaur program will focus on the formations in goelogical terms. I am looking forward to learning more about the paleoecology of this region and talking about how we can get clues about the habitats from the rocks. It is an interesting collection of animals to learn about.

 

We have a "raptor" tooth from Kem Kem. You know, one of those "raptors". Is it Deltradromodeus or is it an abelisaur?  The question can not be answered so we are presenting it as it is, a Theropd indet from North Africa. No need to go much further. It presents a great opportunity to discuss with the kids how difficult it is to describe dinosaur species. We know it is a Theropd tooth and it was carnivorous. We know there are several different dinosaurs it could be but we can not say for sure.

 

I can not tell if my sauropod tooth is a Rebbachisaurus or not but i know you can ID them. I also know there is another sauropod in Kem Kem. If we were presenting tomorrow, it would be Rebbachisaurus. They are one cool looking dinosaur. With some more education, i will be able to tell. Either way, this tooth is the only sauropod fossil we have so this becomes the first dinosaur we really can really expand on. These teeth are inexpensive and this is the only sauropod we are likely to have fossils for. The long-neck dinosaurs are the biggest land animals ever and kids know them so we will be adding more teeth to bulk up the presentation.

 

I have yet to pick up Spinosaur teeth but they are next on the list. I am still learning about Spinosaur teeth and have been cautious. We want to make sure we get some of the inexpensive teeth for the kids to handle and a nice example for the presentation. Carcharodontosaurus is one we will add but not until I have studied them better. There is a wide range of prices and quality.

 

Pic 1- Theropod indet, Kem Kem.

Pic 2- Sauropod indet, Kem Kem.

[TyBoy]

Can you take a photo of the other side it not a raptor  but can be a Carch and the partial sauropod tooth are there any facets on the other side or smooth and oval.

[Runner64]

Neat ones  really like the colors.

[fossilsonwheels]

54 minutes ago, TyBoy said:

Can you take a photo of the other side it not a raptor  but can be a Carch and the partial sauropod tooth are there any facets on the other side or smooth and oval.

Here are some additional photos. The other side of theropod tooth and a couple of different views of the sauropod. It looks more oval shaped to me but I am not 100% sure what to look for. This is why I have not gotten much from Kem Kem. I still need to learn more about the diagnostic traits to look for. I do not have putty at home either but a crumpled paper towel seemed to do the trick so I am not holding it lol

 

[fossilsonwheels]

18 minutes ago, Runner64 said:

Neat ones  really like the colors.

Thank you. They can be very beautiful fossils. They can also look awful. It is quite the mixed bag We'd have more if I had not found such good deals on Hell Creek stuff honestly.

[TyBoy]

My vote says juvie Carcharodontosaurid not Abelisaurid due to the widith vs height ratio of the tooth.

The other tooth is an Titanosaurid indet. not Rebbachisaurus based on the new findings published late last year.

All moroccan teeth are very affordable.  Nothing in the Kem Kem, dino wise can be identified closer than to a family level.

[fossilsonwheels]

21 minutes ago, TyBoy said:

My vote says juvie Carcharodontosaurid not Abelisaurid due to the widith vs height ratio of the tooth.

The other tooth is an Titanosaurid indet. not Rebbachisaurus based on the new findings published late last year.

All moroccan teeth are very affordable.  Nothing in the Kem Kem, dino wise can be identified closer than to a family level.

Really? That is super interesting information on both counts. I am happy to get to the family level. It gives us the opportunity to expand beyond simply theropod and sauropod. I just started reading some stuff from @Troodon about the sauropod teeth. Now I can focus on a Rebbachisaurus tooth. I have an idea at least know of what I have and how to proceed. I am quite surprised that the other one could be Carcharodontosaurus. That would be really cool and a real steal at what I paid. Thank you Ty.

[fossilsonwheels]

Since we were given some really helpful information on the Kem Kem dinosaurs,  I know I need to find a Diplodocid tooth to go with the Titanosaur indet tooth we have so I am working on that. I plan on getting some nice Spino teeth but in the meantime I did pick up a few of the inexpensive teeth. These are ideal for the kids to handle and they were a couple of bucks each. I think they will like getting to check out teeth from the largest carnivorous dinosaur and they wont care if they are not high quality fossils.

[fossilsonwheels]

Our African Dinosaur program grew quite a bit this week. We really rounded out the fauna a little more and added another type of dinosaur. We added an additional Spino tooth and it is a nice one. We had a gorgeous Titanosaur tooth donated to us and we get to add a Ceratosaur to our program thanks to a donated Abelisaurid indet tooth. We do not have a ton of dinosaur fossils to present but we a diversity of dinosaurs, we have very cool dinosaurs, we have some newly discovered dinosaurs to talk about and we can get them thinking beyond North American dinosaurs which is why the African dinosaur fossils are so important.

 

The Kem Kem dinosaur stuff was very unknown to me when I started but once you study it a little and take the time to gain some knowledge, you can find some really beautiful fossils. It also allows us to talk more about unknown dinosaurs and I think the kids will like knowing they are checking out dinosaurs not yet scientifically described.

[fossilsonwheels]

We actually added quite a bit to our North African Dinos since I last updated this collection. The kids have been really enjoying these fossils. They already know Spinosaur but much of what they learn about from the Kem Kem bed fossils is new to them. The Abelisaur tooth and image we use has been a good introduction to Ceratosaurid dinosaurs and they like the tiny arms.

 

Our latest pick up is a 2" Carch. We have not talked too much about this animal as our only tooth was a tiny juvenile tooth. This week will be our first chance to give the kids a better visual fossil and more information in the program. It is a nice tooth and Carcharodontosaurus is one big theropod the kids will like getting to know better.

 

We added a 3" Spino tooth a while ago too and our display is looking nice.

 

Earlier in the school year, we got a great donation from @Flx that I have mentioned. Included with the Morrison fossils were two Kem Kem pieces. A partial limb bone from a theropod has gotten a lot of work. We use it during our Spino section though I have no ID what ID might be. Does not matter as the kids love getting to handle it. The other Kem Kem item we got has not been used much. It is a theropod vert and this week we are going to use it to introduce the kids to Deltadromeus. We are rotating some stuff for our final programs of the school year and that vert is in the line up. I have no clue on the possible ID. I never bothered to attempt to get an ID. Deltadromeus is an interesting dinosaur and I think it will be fun to present.