On Wednesday, our Young Naturalists went on a tour of the wonderful Beneski Museum at Amherst College with Fred Venn. They learned about numerous extinct animals - what they ate, how they died, how their skeletons are preserved, and what scientists can learn from their skeletons.
We learned how different animals walk and tried out what it's like to walk on just two toes. It's hard work!
We learned how animals use their teeth to kill and eat prey.
We learned that scientists don't always solve the mystery correctly the first time. No, this isn't really a cyclops! It's a mammoth.
We learned how mammoths ate and how they ended up in marshes.
We saw examples of bones preserved in rock just the way scientists observed them in the field during excavations.
We observed a skeleton named for our namesake, Edward Hitchcock.
We had lots of fun looking in the drawers!
We learn how and animal might have walked by observing these dinosaur footprints. Was it walking or running? Was it carrying something? Was it dragging it's tail? Did it have claws? How many toes?
We got to try out what it's like to walk like a dinosaur!
We took a look at some local rocks with footprints preserved in them.
We spent time as geologists, quietly noticing color, pattern, and texture in sedimentary rocks and sharing our observations with the group. After we shared, we sang a song that helps us to learn and remember the different types of rocks and how they are formed.
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