Tracking Dinosaurs - St. Louis Science Center

2012 Learning on Location
St. Louis Science Center Symposium
Title of Activity/Lesson
Tracking Dinosaurs: Studying Trace Fossils
Jeff Conderman, Fort Zumwalt School District
Grade Level(s) thisactivity/lesson is designed for
6 th – 12 th
Objectives / Background Info.
Students will develop an understanding of:
Trace Fossil: A type of fossil that provides evidence of the activities of ancient organisms.
Behavior Trace Fossil: preserved indications of the behavior or activity of an organism. Examples:
(1.) animal tracks and trails, (2.) Burrows, (3.) dwellings, such as bird nests and mammal dens
(4.) feeding indications, such as tooth marks of a predator on its prey’s bones
Somatic Trace Fossil: The term somatic means related to the body. Somatic trace fossils aremolds / impressions and
casts of all or part of the body of an organism but without any actual body hard parts or soft tissues preserved.
1. Internal and external molds and impressions of part or all of a body, such as dinosaur footprint tracks,
impressions of fish scales, molds of clam shells
2. Internal or external casts of part or all of a body, such as casts of a braincase
Materials Used
‣ Lunch trays
‣ Plastic dinosaurs
‣ Play - Dough
‣ Handouts / packets of track examples:
o Hansen, Thor and Slesnick, Irwin. “Adventures in
Paleontology”. Arlington, VA: National Science
Teachers Association, 2006. Pages 24 – 29.
‣ Paluxy River and Valentia Tetrapod Trackway
photo(s) or similar
‣ Document camera
Description of Activity/Lesson
See activity attachments for
detailed information and
handouts / examples.
Possible performance-driven or grade level modifications that can be made for this activity/lesson
Complexity / expectations of student created trackways can be adjusted based on the grade level / ability of students.
Missouri Standards/GLE’s met by this activity/lesson:
State Standard: SC 5, CA I, CA 4 -
State Goal: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 2.1, 2.3
Grade Level Expectation / GLE: Strand 5: 2

Description of Activity/Lesson
Input
1.
2.
Discuss definition(s) of trace fossils
Use Paluxy River and Valentia Tetrapod Trackway photo(s) as examples / discuss:
“The Paluxy River trackway, in Glen Rose, Texas is an excellent example of a real trace fossil. It
shows the trackways of at least five large sauropods (thought to be Brachiosaurs) and three theropod
trackways. The trackway tells us that the sauropod held its legs directly below its body like that of an
elephant, instead of out to the side, like a lizard. There is no evidence of a furrow (tail‐drag) between
the footprints so the very large tail must have been carried off the ground. Because the trackway
does not accurately indicate the time that these events occurred it can only be hypothesized that the
theropods were pursuing the sauropods. It is possible that the tracks could have been made at
different times. FYI: the display at the American Museum of Natural History has only one sauropod
and one theropod trackway… and has an Apatosaurus standing above it.”
“The Valentia Tetrapod Trackway, Valentia Island, Ireland is the oldest in situ record in the world of a
vertebrate walking on land / about 385 million years ago. It shows where a lizard like animal that
was about one meter long dragged itself out of water and walked on wet mud. This trackway
contains both footprints and tail‐drag.
3. Discuss handouts‐‐examples of trace fossils
- Figure 2.8, 2.9, and 2.10:
i. 2 legged (bipedal) tracks are evenly spaced
ii. 4 legged (quadruped) tracks occur in pairs
- Figure 2.13, 2.14, and 2.15:
i. Stride length relates to speed / changes in stride length = changes in speed
ii. Changes in direction
- Figure 2.18 and 2.19
i. Did this animal travel in herds or groups? Solitary?
ii. In general the length of a dinosaur footprint is 1/4 ‐ 1/5 the length of its leg. Since
many dinosaurs walked with their backbones parallel to the ground this is also a
rough estimate of their height.
4. In groups students will spread two cans of Play‐Dough onto a lunch tray.
5. Using plastic dinosaurs, students should create tracks in the Play‐Dough. I usually give each group
about six dinosaurs and within that a mix of carnivores / herbivores, biped / quadruped. Consider
also giving students a piece of plastic plant material to help create traces of nests or burrows.
6. Encourage students to use examples and handouts in order to help them create more realistic
scenarios. Ninja kick flips are very cool but not realistic.
7. Once each group has created their scenario share trays among the class. Use a document camera to
display each tray one at a time so everyone can see them.
8. Each time you display a single tray have the students make inferences about what they feel happened
in each scenario. Then have the group that created each tray reveal what they had attempted to
depict.
Closure / Follow Up Activity
This activity is a great opportunity to reinforce the different between observations (what can be
observed using ones senses) and inferences (an educated guess / hypothesis based on ones
observations). Have students write a paragraph explaining the difference between an observation and an
inference using examples from their group’s tray / scenario.

Paluxy River Trackway Photo #1

Paluxy River Trackway Photo #2

Valencia Tetrapod Photo #1

Valencia Tetrapod Photo #2

Valencia Tetrapod Photo #3

Valencia Tetrapod Photo #4

Trackway Activity Example Photos