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I have been working hard lately on all of our programs and we are very close to having the dinosaur presentation I want us to have. We have a name for this program, Dinos Rock. Yes it is not super creative but for 2nd graders, this is a geology themed program. For 3rd graders, it is adaptation based but the name works. We have added some pieces that gives us more than a few teeth. Nothing museum quality or anything but a few bones help the visual factor. I have been studying the biology, geology and ecology of dinosaurs so the science will be good. my son is working on the art but we wont have any done soon, he has school projects a head of this. We are close to being ready a full 6 months before I thought we would be.

 

Hell Creek was going to be a focus for us because the fossils are available and this is the fauna that most kids will recognize. If you are willing to look hard, you can also find some real bargains from this formation. We turned a lot of early attention collecting attention to Hell Creek dinosaurs and I am actually really happy with where we are at with the fossil material we have. There is a lot of room to add and maybe upgrade in the future but this is a good start.

 

This is the famous T-Rex and Triceratops fauna and we started our collection with those critters. Very early on, we were able to get a few Hell CreekTriceratops teeth. I am very happy that through a purchase from TFF member, we added two frill pieces. They are Lance formation but we are not covering the Lance formation yet so they will be used here. I also added a frill piece from Hell Creek. The kids will get to touch the largest frill piece which is a great bonus. An iconic dinosaur and I think well represented.

 

Also early on, we stumbled into a great bit of a luck. A TFF member saw a post of ours and passed it on to another TFF member who sold us a beautiful Tyrannosaurus Rex partial tooth and gave us a really nice Nano too. It was very affordable and a generous gift was added that gave us nice pieces from the most famous dinosaur ever. The rock star really. I was not sure we would be able to get a decent example at all but to do it right off the bat was HUGE. This would not have happened if not for the members that decided to help us out. We are extremely grateful :)

 

The first dinosaur fossil we got were two Hell Creek Edmontosaurus teeth that were a gift. We acquired a nice jaw fragment in a trade. I am a bargain shopper with a limited budget so I LOVE our Edmontosaurus as it has not cost much at all. I named this display Eddie I like it so much lol  Hadrosaurs are important dinosaurs to talk about and I think a fair amount of kids may not know about them. I would like to add another bone later too. They seem attainable for us.

 

Acheroraptor was behind only T-rex on the my list and we got a really beautiful tooth and it was another bargain pick up. I will talk a lot about this species and I will get deep into the biology/ecology of this awesome dino because I love Dromaeosaurids. Raptors are also an iconic dinosaur that kids love and this is a relatively new species which is another fun thing to discuss with the kids.

 

We will also be introducing the kids to a theropod they have never heard of, Richardoestesia gilmorei. I have told me son to envision a toothed Cormorant type dinosaur as I lean toward them being a fish eater. It is pretty cool to get a Hell Creek dino that they will not know anything about. We have yet to add a Thescelosaurus fossil but we will before we start presenting. I want to add another piece of the fauna and it seems this is the most inexpensive option we will have. It will also give the kids another dinosaur they probably do not know and it will round out the basic Hell Creek fauna.

 

 

There is no shortage of dinosaurs that we can add either. An Anky or Nodosaur scute is way up on the program list of fossils for me and hopefully we can find one from this formation. Dakotaraptor is #1 on my personal list and I will get one eventually. A Troodontid is also very high on the list as well. I know eventually i will also pick up an Ornithominid too. All three of these are more expensive so we will have to save and wait but each one would also make awesome educational dinosaurs. I also really want to add an Avian fossil. I have not researched this but my guess is they are very rare. Leptoceratops is another species I would love to add at some point too. They are really cute and kids will dig them.

 

Anyway, here are some of the fossils. I think we have a good start going to our Hell Creek collection and I am looking forward to taking these to work with me very soon.

 

Pic 1- Triceratops teeth and Eddie

 

Pic 2- T-Rex, Nano, and Hell's Thief. I am so happy to have these fossils.

 

Pic 3- One of the frill pieces. This one will end up in a larger Trike display with more teeth and another frill. Plus we will have nice frill for kids to check out too.

 

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6 hours ago, Troodon said:

Excellent program glad there are individuals like you around to enlighten our children.

 

Thank you. We are doing our best and I think we will be able to provide some great education for the kids. We are certainly having a lot of fun doing this :)

 

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Thanks to an awesome donation, we have more Hell Creek dinosaurs to tell the kids about and we can offer a clearer picture of the fauna from the T-Tex/Triceratops fauna. Thescelosaurus was a dinosaur I wanted to add so I am super happy right now. We got two teeth, a vertebra, and a nice toe bone. My guess is most kids will have never heard of this interesting dinosaur so this will be their introduction.

 

Richardoestesia isosceles is going to be a fun one to talk about because we do not really know what it is so I am excited to talk about the complicated process of identifying fossils. We got some HC croc teeth too so we can expand talking about the entire fauna which is very important.

 

I did not think we would be adding any Ornithomimid fossils any time soon. These are another group of dinosaurs that kids will not know much about and one of the coolest things we are going to be doing is expanding their knowledge. The fossil is a possible Struthiomimus toe bone and I think the kids will connect to this dino becasue of the superficial similarities to a well know modern bird.

 

We also added a gorgeous Trike tooth and our Edmontosaurus display, Eddie, grew a little this week. We got a spitter tooth from @Anomotodon and @Troodon sent us a tendon. Our Hell Creek section got a whole lot better this week thanks to these donations :)

 

I am super excited to get these fossils into classrooms.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Our Acheroraptor tooth was lonely so I found a friend for it :) This beauty was another good bargain too.

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On 3/23/2019 at 5:22 AM, Troodon said:

Beautiful tooth..

Thank you Frank. It really is a pretty one. We have two really nice Acheroraptor teeth.

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We had a busy week. We booked 4 dinosaur programs, a shark program and a large dinosaur assembly program. We also received a great donation of shark teeth from @Pagurus  We also added a fossil I have been working hard to bring home. I am sort of mentally jumping up and down with this one. We got our Avisaurus tooth :) I am pretty snarge happy with this one. It is a nice 7mm tooth and more importantly, this gives us a fossil from a transitional bird to show kids. This was a priority of mine and we are going to get into some serious evolutionary conversations with our students with this fossil in hand.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have found the kids know their dinosaurs. Shows like Walking with Dinosaurs, video games, and google have created a generation of really dinosaur wise kids. This presents a challenge for us. We need make sure that we can present dinosaurs they do not know about and that we can always give them a few strange ones to bend their brains. Leptoceratops fits that very well but had been pretty far down the acquisition list. i had an opportunity to grab one so I did. I am really looking forward to this arriving and getting use in the classrooms. I suspect that kids will really dig this small and strange but oddly cute Ceratopsian. A good get for us I think.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A couple of theropod additions to our Hell Creek program section. I think we have done a very good job of giving the kids a solid overview of this fauna. We lack any Anky/Nodosaur, Pachy, Anzu or Troodontid fossils but outside of those, I am quite happy.

 

We are adding another really nice Acheroraptor tooth. I should say likely Acheroraptor. Our display is coming along nicely. 3 teeth and a caudal vert that is Dromaeosaurid but likely too small for DR so it goes in this display. The kids have really liked this critter and our fossils. We do not need big fossils all the time. Small fossils from cool dinos and sharks do the trick just fine.

 

We added another interesting theropod tooth. Either a DR or Nano pending further analysis. Regardless of the actual ID is, this one will be called a Dakotaraptor tooth in the programs until we get a verified example. I have wanted to talk about the giant raptor of Hell Creek all spring and this tooth will fill that role nicely for now.

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