The Dinosaurs Are Coming!
Tuesday (June 6) the Marcus Public Library had Curt Strutz from Wisconsin give a presentation on Dinosaurs by Dinosaur Dimensions. At the beginning of his presentation, he asked the kids what they knew about dinosaurs. They did know a lot! Dinosaurs are reptiles. The biggest reptiles were the dinosaurs. Some ate plants while others were meat eaters. This is what his presentation was all about and—he had brought some dinosaurs with him!
He had a table upfront with four white jars on it. There were also four large containers that held a different dinosaur in it. Before a container was opened, he held up a white jar that contained something of the dinosaur that he had in the larger container—it may be a broken tusk or a fossil. There was also a spinning circle used before opening a large container.
Curt was a very vivacious speaker and held your attention. He took one of the jars, opened it up and took out a fossil. A fossil is any hardened remains of a plant or animal of a previous geologic period that was preserved in the earth’s crust. (Coal is a fossil fuel.) The fossil he showed the audience was from a dinosaur. Then he went to the big container and took out a pink Triceratops that a volunteer was able to touch. (Triceratops are not pink but the color of pink was more inviting for a volunteer to want to touch!) Triceratops is one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs. It was one of the largest, up to 30 feet long and weighed between 5.5-9.9 short tons in body mass. Triceratops means “three-horned face”. It had a strong, bony plate over its neck as well as horns.
Not all reptiles lived on land. Some lived in the sea. One of these, Ichthyosauraus looked like a dolphin and ate small fish. Plesiosaurus lived in the sea. Instead of legs, it had flippers. Like some of the dinosaurs, it had a long neck and sharp teeth.
Some reptiles could fly. One, Pteranodon had bigger wings than any bird today. The wings could not flap very well, but Pteranodon may have been able to glide over the sea for long periods of time. It had a wingspan of over 20 feet. It could have used its long bill to catch fish. The most distinctive characteristic of the Pteranodon is its cranial crest. The crest consist of skull bones that project upward and backward from the skull. The size and shape of these crests vary due to a number of factors, including age, sex, and species. He had one of these in one of the large containers.
He opened another large container and took out a dinosaur that was the largest of all—Tyrannosaurus. This dinosaur was the biggest meat-eater. It grew to a size more than 36 feet long. It had strong jaws and sharp teeth so it could kill and eat other animals. This dinosaur was so large that Curt wrapped it around himself.
Tyrannosaurus is also known as T. Rex which in Latin means “king”. It has been one of the best-known dinosaurs since the early 20th century and has been featured in film, advertising, postal stamps, and many other media.
He had opened up three of the four containers. What was in the last container? We saw part of a broken egg that a dinosaur was hatching from. The hatching dinosaur was a T Rex! It was very small compared to the T Rex he had taken out of the previous container!
In concluding his presentation, he told the kids that they could find out more on dinosaurs from books right at this Library.
This interesting and informative program was attended by many adults as well as kids.