Students unearth Maiasaura fossils

Educational activity allows children to become paleontologists for a day

By Julie Stevens

C & G Staff Writer

     Students at James Rodgers Elementary School uncovered 60 million year old dinosaur bones inside their multi-purpose room last week.

     As it turns out, the bones actually belonged to a young Maiasaura, a duck-billed species of dinosaur that existed in the central and western United States in the late Cretaceous period.

     Though they weren’t real bones, an expert from the Dinosaur Recovery Bureau in Shelby Township brought in the fossil replicas to help complete a two-hour educational activity to help second-grade teachers commence their science curriculum for the school year, which will include the study of dinosaurs.

     Teacher Rachel Barrer said she found out about the DRB and the educational “dino dig” from a fellow teacher, who was impressed with the hands-on activity and the response from the students.

     “It’ll help me lead in to my science curriculum,” she said.

     “This is a baby one,” said DRB Director John Ribbing during a presentation prior to the excavation exercise Nov. 23.

     Maiasaura was discovered in the 1970s by paleontologist Jack Horner in Montana. Ribbing said that Horner named the dinosaur Maiasaura, meaning Good Mother Lizard, because of the unique way the herbivore raised its young.

 “Some dinosaurs would lay their eggs and take off and some dinosaurs would eat their young,” he said. “The Maiasaura would take care of their young and feed them while they were in the nest.”

     The students surrounded the 12 portable dig site boxes filled with sand, and bones, and with their hands, carefully searched for the bones. Once a bone was found, the sand was gently moved aside and students used a brush to dust off the sand from each — just like professional paleontologists.

     Each box contained a sign reading “Official Dig Site,” dig sit coordinates and the number of bones buried inside.

     DRB also conducts outdoor “dino digs” at schools.

     “Be very, very careful and go very, very slow,” Ribbing told the students. “There is a very good chance that it will break.”

     After all of the bones were removed from the sand, the students carefully carried them to Ribbing at the front of the multi-purpose room. Ribbing then explained to the students each bone as he pieced them together to form the entire dinosaur.

     Pieced together, the Maiasaura was 8 feet long and 4 feet tall. Ribbing said the Maiasuara likely weighed between 500 and 700 pounds.

“Even though it’s only 2 or 3 years old, it’s pretty big,” he said.

     Christina Wark, 7, found the biggest dinosaur bone in her group; it was two bones pieced together at the joint, forming what appeared to be a hind leg.

     “It was the biggest bone in my whole group,” she said, adding that she was surprised to learn that dinosaurs lived so long ago.

     Danielle Kukulski said she was happy to learn about excavating and more about the Maiasaura.

     “It was really fun,” said Kukulski, 7. “The bones weren’t heavy, but it was hard to get the dirt off the bones with the brush.”

     You can reach Julie Stevens at jstevens@candgnews.com