Biologist Ben Garrod has lived with chimpanzees, sharks and polar bears and is proud to be a geek. Norfolk and his dad showed him a long, thin stone, with a hollow centre and a pointed end. When he found out this little stone was over 100 million years old and was the fossilised body of an extinct squid-like animal called a belemnite, he was fascinated. and fossils while growing up helped make Ben passionate about the natural world and led him to become a biologist. Now, his work focuses on evolution and he has worked all around the world, with living and extinct species. After for several years. He lived in a remote tropical forest and ran a large project protecting wild chimpanzees for the world famous researcher Dr Jane There was no fresh water and no electricity... not even for mobile phones! territorial elephants and even a cobra as a neighbour. After leaving Africa, Ben worked with the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans in Indonesia. He has also lived in Madagascar studying sharks and has travelled to remote parts of the Arctic in search of polar bears and walruses. Ben has a Masters degree in Wild Animal Biology and has just completed a doctorate where he studied monkey evolution in the Caribbean. He looked at the genetics and used lasers to study the skull shapes of introduced monkeys to see wh ether he could Ben is still not very sure how he managed to end up as a science presenter it was mostly an accident. After a brief appearance on Springwatch, Ben was given the chance to present his own series on on a treadmill and
even printed out a 3D copy of his own skull and had great fun doing some bizarre science experiments. He also Show and documentaries on the radio. In 2015, Ben was lucky enough to join the incredible David Attenborough in Argentina, as see the fossilised remains of a newly-discovered dinosaur species. Seven sets of titanosaur remains were found and the team soon found themselves in the middle of a prehistoric Ben now lectures at university and teaches conservation, mammal adaptation, human evolution and much more. He is also involved with lots of charities and is the Ambassador for the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Patron for the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) and Linnean Society. a massive self-confessed geek and thinks we should all be geeks and that we should take pride in that. He thinks that being a geek just means that you are really passionate about one topic. Ben is geeky about the natural world in general and always has been, even when he was a kid. When he was at school doing a cross-country on the beach, he found the body of a six-foot shark and carried it over his shoulder back to school to dissect at lunchtime. His PE teacher was not impressed. He is also very geeky about bones and has studied them, teaches about them and has a collection in his home (all with the necessary permits, of course). Right now, his skeleton monkey Lola is in his living room, lying on a branch above his sofa. Ben thinks that being geeky gives you the inspiration and drive you need to push forward and achieve whatever you want. Photo Credit: Darren Williams BBC
FOSSIL FINDING FUN marine reptile? You would probably think that you would need to head to some distant and remote part hunting and there is a good chance you might come back ammonites trapped in small stone nodules, searching for belemnites in rockpools and even four-year-old girl found the fossilized bones of a brand new species of pterosaur on a beach on the Isle of Wight when out on a family stroll and in 2014, two brothers in Wales found the skeleton of a previously undiscovered species of predatory dinosaur, after walking along the beach after a storm. In both these stories, the new species were named after their discoverers imagine having a pterosaur or even a dinosaur named after you! when you go out hunting for a T. rex some are designed to protect you and some are there to never go fossil hunting on your own, even if you know the area well. Always take an adult with you. Many sites that are good for fossils are remote and you could easily get into trouble with rising tides, brightly-coloured clothes, as well as a mobile think about taking a hard hat, too! Think about your safety when looking for fossils check tide timetables if you are going looking in bays and coves and never be done unless you are with a real expert, careful for steep drops, too, and never go fossil hunting in quarries. Winter is often a good time to look for fossils, because heavy rains and big storms often reveal them, so make sure you keep warm and wrap up well. You will need some equipment to make sure you are collecting properly and that you get all the information you can and to prevent any damage to the fossils on your way home. The most important tool for any fossil hunter is a notebook and pencil. You should record where you found the fossil and when. Also, try and draw the scene was it near the sea or in a stream bed? Was it next to any other rocks and what did they look like? Writing down notes and making detailed sketches will not only help you remember but will make you a better scientist. A camera is also a good way of recording lots of information for you to
keep a record of all your some newspaper, so that you can wrap your fossil up and prevent damage. A magnifying glass an actual fossil. Also, if you fancy breaking some rocks apart to see if there are fossils within, then a little hammer and chisel might be a good idea... if you go out fossil hunting, you need to be a that you know is too big or too fragile to remove yourself, then you might want to give your local history museum collections and there are countless museum curators who are friendly and very knowledgeable and would be interested if You should never use a hammer and chisel to rock... this could very easily damage the fossils and the surrounding areas. Instead, stick with some areas are protected, so always check the details of an area before you go collecting and if... collecting should always be done responsibly much information as possible about each fossil and if you do come across anything especially important or weird, you might even consider donating it to a museum, where the fossils can be properly studied and researched. There are lots of groups that organize fossil hunting tours and provide information around you look. The best is Rockwatch which is the (www.rockwatch.org.uk). They organize group trips, provide information and are a great way to learn more about fossils. As long as it is done safely and in a way that hunting for fossils is great fun and is a perfect way to practice being a young scientist or naturalist. weird and wonderful specimens. Happy hunting!
DINOSAUR BIOGEOGRAPHY BIOGEOGRAPHY same thing, then there would not be a huge behaviour within these animals. But when there biogeography is. super-continent Pangea meant lots of change across the world. As the movement of tectonic plates caused continents started to look as they appear today. This global land break up led to major increased regional between the northern and southern continents. Between the Jurassic and Cretaceous geography meant more habitats and more opportunities for species. As Pangea separated between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous the supercontinent split into two major landmasses, the creation of these new landmasses meant more coastline, which then meant the climate was transformed from dry and desert-like to humid and Cretaceous meant even more variation in regional climates and then more habitats. Cretaceous period around 125 million to diversify (and produce lots of species) about 100 million years ago. At about the same time as the arrival of grasshoppers, wasps and ants. Bees, which were essential to the survival of this time. With more broken up land-masses came more habitats. These new habitats allowed more species to evolve, making each one more suitable to its groups of insects meant that more and more dinosaurs could evolve to take advantage of all the new habitats and types of food.
HOME SWEET HOME You would not expect to see a lion walking around the Arctic or a penguin living in the Sahara desert. Dinosaurs were the same and certain species Match the dinosaurs to the locations on the Cretaceous world map. Ankylosaurus Gigantoraptor Tyrannosaurus A B C G F D E Iguanodon Argentinosaurus Abeliosaurus Spinosaurus
TRIASSIC TROUBLES The dinosaurs were present across three periods massive changes. land mostly massed together, the climate was generally hot and dry. Rather than ice at the poles, these regions were actually moist and temperate, making them good areas for the presence of forests and also vertebrates. Mostly, the Earth experienced a mixture of very hot summers and very cold winters. The start of the Triassic saw the event. It is not fully understood of terrestrial vertebrates were lost. It is also the only known mass extinction of insects and died out. After taking as long as 10 million years for life to really recover, the very earliest dinosaurs appeared towards the end of the Triassic, alongside the ancestors of frogs and early examples of turtles and crocodilians. Some of the early dinosaurs appearing in the Triassic included some less wellknown species such as Eoraptor, Plateosaurus and Camelotia. The start of the Triassic saw a huge extinction event but if this another mass extinction just over 50 million years later, at the end of the Triassic. Luckily, the dinosaurs survived this particular extinction, the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Nyasasaurus Illustration Credit: Charli Vince
THE TRIASSIC BRISTOL DINOSAUR known was Thecodontosaurus statements to learn more about this Triassic dinosaur. Thecodontosaurus Although it was a sauropod and related to Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus, Thecodontosaurus walked on just two legs. lizard in Greek. So the name Thecodontosaurus Thecodontosaurus sharp but Thecodontosaurus was a herbivore. Although Thecodontosaurus British Isles and Europe, the Bristol
JURASSIC JOY to split into two major landmasses, Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. The creation of these new landmasses meant more coastline, which then meant the climate was transformed from dry and desert-like to humid and lush. Now, there were tropical forests and jungles around the world. More habitats meant more species could evolve and it was during the Jurassic that the dinosaurs really started to succeed, with hundreds of species evolving. placental mammals all appeared during the Jurassic, this period was dominated by dinosaurs. This was a very good time for like and, as well as the large plant-eating sauropods - which included Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus, and. lived during the late Jurassic Period, about 155.7 million to 150.8 million years ago, in what is now western North America. There are possibly four species, with from he Natural History Museum in London) being the most wellknown. They were one of the longest dinosaurs, reaching approximately forward-pointing, peglike teeth were used for eating plants and according to one study, were lost and replaced every 35 days. With so many herbivores, there was suddenly lots of opportunities for new predators and the Jurassic was also a golden age for large carnivorous theropods, such as Ceratosaurus,, and Allosaurus. They were one of the longest dinosaurs, reaching approximately
Going on a Dino Hunt dinosaurs. Suddenly, dinosaurs were everywhere. S T E G O S A U R U S S Y U S E K I C L F P G A A S R A G S A Y L S X H U U U U I G U A N O D O N R R R A T U C H U S H J E O U U S H S O S R A A B E P S A O E F D T X U R G D O S S T R H O R G R A S I D C O A O U L E K U Y S N F A V R P R P X I S F C O K R R E O W I Z H D G W S N Y O C D Q D D I N O T F G I T M E G A L O S A U R U S D Search through the dinosaur words. STEGOSAURUS ALLOSAURUS IGUANODON CERATOSAURUS DIPLODOCUS DINOSAUR SAUROPOD THEROPOD MEGALOSAURUS TORVOSAURUS
CRETACEOUS CRITTERS the Earth. Although this was the last of new groups still appeared during this time, such as and its horned relatives (the ceratopsian dinosaurs), as well as well-known species such as. It was also during the Jurassic that allowed lots of other species to then evolve. Some new dinosaur species would have eaten the plants themselves and others would have eaten the insects that fed on these species during this time was because of a competition between predators and prey, both trying to evolve quicker than the other. This evolutionary species evolved larger teeth and a greater bite force, for example, prey species evolved things such as horns for predators. If a predator evolved to run very quickly over short distances, then maybe a prey species could evolve better vision and the ability to run for longer distances, meaning that they could spot possible predators and outrun them. This competition meant lots of new species could evolve. The end of the Cretaceous was marked by the most famous of the mass extinctions. When a huge asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs (well, most of them) died out.
BECOME A BONE BOFFIN T. rex skeleton with the labels provided. A C F B D E G H I Femur Cranium Scapula Phalanges Fibula Vertebrae Mandible Ribs Humerus
DINO QUIZ They say the troodon was brain compared to its small just as intelligent by taking the Dino Quiz? 8 How many horns did Triceratops have? Did Theropods such as Allosaurus and Carnotaurus Apatosaurus is also widely known by what other name? Spinosaurus or Deinonychus? as dinosaurs is known as a what? Pentaceratops Ankylosaurus Diplodocus a carnivore or herbivore?
JURASSIC JUMBLE A