Dino Connections

Purpose: To understand the difficulty paleontologists have in assembling fossil
bones

Materials (Per student)

• 3 animal shaped cookies
• small plastic baggie
• napkin

Procedure

Teacher Prep: Place 3 different dinosaur or animal shaped cookies in a small baggie and gently break the cookies apart into several pieces. Discuss what a paleontologist does.

1. Empty the “fossil bones” (cookie pieces) onto a napkin.
2. Try to figure out how the “bones” go together until the bones are correctly positioned.
3. Share your success with your teacher and then enjoy your fossil!

Conclusion

1. Why was it so difficult to put your fossil together correctly?
2. How does this help you to understand the difficulty in putting real bones together?
3. Research the Apatosaurus and find out why he was misnamed a Brontosaurus

Extensions

1. Remove several pieces from the bag of “fossil bones” and try to put them back together again.
2. Become a paleontologist and go on a fossil dig using chocolate chip cookies. Use toothpicks to “dig” the chips out of the cookie without destroying the chip. Hard cookies work best.