Summary:
As you watch the video, think about:
Captions:
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Dr Paul Willis: Who here likes dinosaurs?
In that case I've got a good audience.
How many of you know how we know about dinosaurs?
Do we walk down the park and look at them?
Year 2: No.
Paul: We don't.
How do we know about dinosaurs?
Student: Because you can see their bones.
Paul: We can see their bones but do we find them out the back of a butcher's shop?
Where do we find dinosaur bones?
Anybody know?
This little girl down the front.
Student: Out in the country and underground.
Paul: Underground.
That's right, correct. Well done.
We dig them up.
And does anyone know the name of the people that go out and dig up dinosaurs?
Student: Palaeontologist.
Paul: Well done.
I am a palaeontologist.
I dig up dinosaur bones and other fossils.
That's how we know about dinosaurs is through fossils.
Fossils are like ordinary bones just that they're so old they've turned to stone.
Do you want to see a dinosaur bone?
Students: Yes.
Paul: Look, I've only got a few little bits here.
I picked these up last month in Queensland.
These are little pieces of a dinosaur that they're still digging up in the ground because it's so big.
It's fifteen metres long this dinosaur.
Now to give you an idea this room's about eight metres across.
So this dinosaur, if this was a bit of it's leg, it would be about here, and that dinosaur would be twice the width of this room.
So it's a big dinosaur.
You can pass these around and have a look at them.
Now the other thing is, you might wonder how we know these are bits of dinosaur bone.
And if you look very carefully you can see on the inside there's lots and lots of little holes.
Just like you see inside the bone of a chop or something like that when you're looking at a living bone.
And so that's how we know it's dinosaur bone.
And there is a little trick that we palaeontologists use if we're not quite sure if we've got a fossilised bone or not.
But the way if we think it's bone and we're not quite sure, we put it on our tongue.
Student: How did you find out how long it has been dead for?
Paul: That's an excellent question.
How do we know how long it's been dead for?
OK.
If I had three books and I put them on a stack on the table, one after the other would you be able to tell me which book went down first?
Which book did I put down. the first?
Student: The bottom one.
Paul: Correct.
The one on the bottom has to go first and then the one above it has to go down next, and the one above it has to go down after that.
When we look at rocks around the world, rocks are also laid down like a stack of books.
And the ones at the bottom have to be older than the ones at the top.
And so by working out whereabouts our dinosaur fits in that stack of rocks we can work out how old it is.
Does that answer your question?
Thank you.
Summary:
Listen to Paul talking about different dinosaurs and think about:
Captions:
Dr Paul Willis: Anyone know what dinosaur skeleton this is?
Student: Allosaurus.
Paul: Well done. Allosaurus.
This is Allosaurus, it's a meat-eating dinosaur that we know from a number of places around the world.
Allosaurus lived about 120 to 140 million years ago.
Very, very long time.
But by finding the dinosaur bones even though this animal's no longer alive we can find out what it was
like, how it moved, how it lived, what it ate.
It's a meat-eating dinosaur we find around the world.
We do actually have a type of Allosaurus here in Australia.
It's found in southern Victoria but it's only a small one.
This guy was nine metres long from North America but the Australian one was only two metres long.
So if his tail was against the corner of the room there I could probably pat him on the head here.
I'd probably lose my arm because he's a meat eater and he'd probably bite me arm off.
So it's probably a good thing that we don't have him in the room today.
Down the front.
Student: How long did it take you to put all them bones together?
Paul: How long did it take me to make the models?
The models take various lengths of time to make.
The skeleton was the most complicated it took me about 20 hours to put it together.
Now then does anybody recognise this dinosaur?
It's a tricky one this one.
How many of you've seen Jurassic Park?
Your mums and dads let you watch Jurassic Park?
Students: Yes.
Paul: But that's a scary movie.
In that case, you might know which dinosaur this one is.
Student: Tyrannosaurus.
Paul: That's a very good guess.
But no, it's not a Tyrannosaurus.
In the movie this guy was different because he had a big frill around his neck.
Can you remember that?
Student: A frill-necked lizard.
Paul: Frill-necked lizard, it looked like a frill-necked lizard, but its actual name is ...
Student: Velociraptor.
Paul: No, we'll get to him in a moment.
This is actually a dinosaur called Dilophasaurus.
Remember it was the one that spat venom in the movie.
Now all we know about from dinosaurs are the bones and their footprints.
But when it comes to putting a dinosaur like this together and you see it in a movie it's got a big frill
on its neck and it's spitting venom, well that frill around its neck and that spitting we're just making that bit up.
We don't really know that happened but it made for a very exciting scene in the movie didn't it?
Now then, someone said Velociraptor and here is a model of a Velociraptor.
Well it's not exactly Velociraptor, it's like Velociraptor's brother.
This one is called Deinonychus and it was about twice the size of a Velociraptor.
Who remembers what they got up to in the movie?
Did they go around by themselves?
Down the front.
Student: In a gang.
Paul: They got around in a gang.
These guys we have various lines of evidence to suggest that these guys hunted like wolves do in packs,
they wouldn't go out by themselves to go out hunting.
They'd get together as a group so that that way it was easier to attack big animals.
And one of the reasons why we know that is because we've found a couple of carcasses of big dinosaurs much
much bigger than Deinonychus or Velociraptor and we've found a number of Deinonychus and Velociraptor
skeletons around them so it looks like they're acting as a group rather than acting alone as lone hunters.
Summary:
Watch the video and consider these questions:
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Dr Paul Willis: Who recognises this dinosaur?
Student: A Triceratops.
Paul: Excellent it's a Triceratops.
Triceratops we know lived in North America and it lived there about 70 to 65 million years ago towards the end of the Age of the dinosaurs.
Now this is a plant eating dinosaur but they're pretty fierce looking horns on that isn't it?
What do you think a Triceratops used those horns for?
Student: To defend themselves with it.
Paul: That's an excellent answer and they probably could use them for defence but we know now by looking
at the way that the skull's been injured and attacked by another animal that what these guys were doing was
they were using them to fight against each other.
And so another Triceratops would come and lock horns with this Triceratops and they would push and they
would shove until one of them beat the other one in a wrestle.
How many of you have see pictures of bulls doing that today?
You know they lock horns and mountain goats and they push backwards and forwards.
Who knows what they think they're doing?
Why are they wrestling?
Student: Playing.
Paul: It's a bit more serious than playing.
Up the back.
Student: Like to sort of like the boss.
Paul: To figure out who's the boss and why would you want to be the boss dinosaur of your group?
Student: Because you fight so they can be the boss.
Paul: They fight so they can be the boss, yeah.
The reason why these guys wanted to be the boss dinosaur is because the boss dinosaur, the boss Triceratops got all the girlfriends.
And so he would have more babies, he would be a successful dinosaur.
And we can see this because of the damage that one Triceratops does to another.
Doesn't look like there's much damage there from being attacked by a meat eater such as Tyrannosaurus but
there is damage there from one set of horns locking into the other set of horns.
So, even though this happened millions of years ago and no-one saw it happening we can figure out from the
way these bones are damaged that that's the sort of thing that went on.
Naughty little dinosaur.
OK, have a look at the feet of this Tyrannosaurus and think about this as a question.
Have any of you ever eaten a dinosaur?
Student: Actually I don't know.
Paul: Good answer.
Have a look at the feet and think what animals today have feet like a Tyrannosaurus?
Student: A bird.
Paul: Excellent answer. Well done.
Birds have feet like Tyrannosaurus with three big toes pointing forward and one toe pointing back.
The reason why their feet are the same or very similar is because birds are sort of like cousins of meat-eating dinosaurs.
So how many of you have ever eaten chicken?
In that case, you've all eaten dinosaur.
And next time you're having roast chicken for dinner you can say, hey mum we're having dinosaur for dinner.
Next time you see a not just chickens but any other birds, even pigeons.
Student: I eat pigeons.
Paul: If you have a look at any birds, except for budgerigars and parrots but that's another story, if you
have a look at most birds you'll see that they've got three big toes pointing forward, one toe pointing
backwards just like our Tyrannosaurus here.
Summary:
As you watch the video, think about:
Captions:
Dr Paul Willis: Which dinosaur this one is.
Student: A Brachiosaurus.
Paul: Well done.
This is a Brachiosaurus.
Now these were the types of dinosaurs that were the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived.
Those pieces of bone that you've got floating around in the audience there, they are from a dinosaur very similar to a Brachiosaurus.
When this guy was alive, this Brachiosaurus grew up to 23 metres in length.
So that's about three times the width of this room from the tip of his head to the end of his tail.
We do know of some guys that are very closely related, look very similar to Brachiosaurus that were 32 metres
long and weighed in at almost 100 tonnes.
And who knows where the biggest dinosaur in the world comes from?
Where in the world would you go to see the biggest dinosaur?
Student: Western Australia.
Paul: Thank you very much. Western Australia.
In Western Australia in Broome up on the coast of Western Australia we've got footprints of one of these
types of dinosaurs that are over a metre across.
So that's a footprint that's that round.
And if you want to find out how big a dinosaur makes a metre-wide footprint and you can scale this guy up
you cannot make an animal any bigger and let it walk on the land.
Because you can't make bones strong enough to support an animal to do that.
So that's the biggest dinosaur that we know of in the world.
It would have weighed a 100 tonnes.
Elephants weigh in at about 5 or 6 tonnes.
So the biggest dinosaur that we know from Western Australia would weigh in at around about the weight of 20 elephants.
Wouldn't want one of them round your place for a BBQ would you?
Student: No.
Kind of ruin the place wouldn't it?
Student: How long is the Brachiosaurus' neck?
Paul: How long is the Brachiosaurus' neck?
Brachiosaurus' neck clocks in at just under 8 metres in length.
So its neck, if its head was over there its shoulders would be down the back end of the room there.
Student: How big would the tail be of the Brachiosaurus?
Paul: The tail of the Brachiosaurus clocked in just under 4 metres.
Sorry just over 4 metres.
So about half the width of the room.
From here, if I was standing at the tip of the tail the back of the tail would be there.
Another question there.
Student: How long ago did you get them?
Paul: How long ago did I get them?
I found my first fossil when I was six.
How old are you guys now?
Students: Eight, seven.
Paul: And how many of you have found fossils?
See there's budding palaeontologists here in our midst already.
I found my first fossil when I was six.
I didn't get to find my first dinosaur fossil until I was like in my twenties.
I've been on excavations for dinosaurs and other creatures all the way around the world including Antarctica.
And before I go any further can I have my bits of bone back please?
Who else has got a piece of bone?
There you go.
And I tell you what, how about as a souvenir for the class, would the class like a piece of dinosaur bone that you can show around the school?
There you go, let's give that to your teacher.
Teacher: Thanks very much.
Paul: There you go that's 98 million years old give or take a couple of days.
Thank you very much for listening.
You guys have been terrific this morning, you've been really well behaved and you've asked some great
questions and given me some fantastic answers.
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