Who hasn’t dreamed of discovering and reconstructing a T-rex fossil like real paleontologists do? Do you know the hard work involved in searching for the remains of what were the largest animals to ever live on Earth? In this post, we explain how paleontologists work, and if you make it to the end, we have a little challenge and game for you.
Paleontology
Their hard work isn’t just about excavating and cleaning the bones of extinct creatures, as you might think. It goes much further. Some of the paleontologists are in laboratories, preserving and safeguarding what field paleontologists extract from the stone. The sites aren’t exactly located at street level. Instead, they are often difficult to access and quite risky areas.
Spain is one of the most attractive destinations for paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts, as the first records of dinosaurs found on the Iberian Peninsula date back to the transition period between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous.
Thus, in Spain, we find the Costalmo site in Burgos, home to 200 giant reptile footprints, highlighting the so-called “Attila” footprint, where even the sharp claws of the great animal can be seen. We also find the fabulous Ichnite Route site in Soria, where you can see one of the best-preserved dinosaur footprint trails, along with scale recreations of the animals that left their traces in the stone. Cuenca is another place of great paleontological interest, known by paleontology enthusiasts as the “Atapuerca of the dinosaurs.” The latter has exhibition centers open to the public. Castellón, Alicante, Teruel, and Barcelona are also under the paleontological spotlight.
Now we have a challenge for you! Would you be able to reconstruct a complete T-Rex fossil? Below we offer a fantastic craft that will test your paleontological skills. Grab a pencil and paper and follow the instructions below.
Craft: Make Your Own T-Rex Fossil
Materials
- Download T-Rex Image
- Sheet of tracing paper
- Pencil
- White permanent marker
- Brown cardstock
- Scissors
- Glass bottle
- Cutter
- White clay block
Trace
After printing the sheet, we need to trace it onto the brown cardstock using the tracing paper.
Retrace
Go over the bone drawing with a white permanent marker.
Cut
Next, we need to cut out the bones from the index card that we’ll use to mark the white clay.
Model
If you’re a skilled paleontologist, you can model the bones with your own hands using the index card as a guide. If not, you can stamp the cut bones onto the clay using the bottle as a rolling pin.
If you do this, you can cut the bones with a craft knife and smooth the edges with a little water.
T-Rex Fossil
After letting it dry, you can become a paleontologist and rediscover the great T-Rex fossil.
