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British Columbia's First Dinosaur Camps The Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation was one of the first organizations to be partnered with the Royal BC Museum's Living Landscapes: Peace River-Northern Rockies initiative. Supported in part through Living Landscapes, the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation organized an excavation of the first significant discovery of dinosaur bones in British Columbia. The Foundation in collaboration with Northern Lights College also coordinated the development and delivery of six one-week dinosaur camps for kids aged 7 through 12. A total of 60 children participated, selling out the program, during July and August. The aim of the dinosaur camp was to be fun, interactive, and educational through classroom, field and computer-based activities. What follows is a virtual tour of the dinosaur camps, activities, and events. The weekly curriculum consisted of classroom instruction, independent research, a mock excavation and field trips to actual dinosaur tracks near Wolverine and Flatbed Creeks (cabin pool site). Lab activities included the creation of a plaster cast of a dinosaur footprint. Subjects and skills developed during the camps included an introduction to geography, mapping, prospecting, and geology. Students studied and learned to identify, dinosaur groups and characteristics, reptiles, trace fossils, and footprints.
The dinosaur camps were based from the campus of the Northern Lights College at Tumbler Ridge, in northern British Columbia. Ten children per camp participated in classroom activities and instruction centred at the college while many exciting fieldtrips were taken to the nearby sites. You too can travel to these sights and see some amazing fossils. Follow along with the dinosaur camp students and you will learn about dinosaur track ways, and the ancient geological history of Tumbler Ridge. Recreate some activities at home or in the classroom or play a fun dinosaur theme games. The first field trip was to the Wolverine site, where footprints of ornithopods, and theropods as well as skin imprints were examined. Fossils of cycad plants, red woods, and clams were also examined at this site. The area is rocky and contains many preserved fossils easily identified by the students. Having been instructed in the methods used to recognize a fossil and identify the plant or animal type on the morning of the trip, students could identify many of the fossils by species. The importance of the morning's classroom lesson was reinforced and better understood by all the students for having participated in the fieldtrip. Each student was also given the opportunity to take a wax rubbing of a footprint from the site. Can you identify the following fossils? Point your cursor to the photo to test your knowledge.
Flatbed Creek, where two boys in the summer of 2000 discovered an ancient track- way representing the fossilized footprints of Ankylosaurs, was a one hour round-trip hike taken by the students from each camp. Students were encouraged to explore the site, view the prints and the environment in which they were formed gaining insight and perspective with respect to the size and movement of the dinosaur that made the tracks.
Did you know that over 1500 dinosaur track-way and footprint sites have been found in the world? And that of all the dinosaur fossils found track-ways and footprints are among the most common - more common than fossil bone? One reason for this is that a dinosaur can leave hundreds of footprints in its lifetime but will only leave behind one skeleton. Some dinosaur fossil remains are so rare that the animal has only been identified from its footprint! Amblydactylus is an example of a dinosaur that is known only from its footprint. While it may seem less important than finding a fossilized bone or part of a dinosaur's body much can be learned from a footprint. The dino camp students learned just how important footprints and track-ways are to the study of dinosaurs through an activity that analyzed the footprints they made themselves in a sandpit. Students were divided into three groups: one running, one walking, and one hopping. Once the sandpit was raked clean each group would take turns traveling across, leaving their tracks in the sand. The prints were then analyzed by measuring the distance of stride and the ground to hip distance of each individual. From this information the speed that the animal was travelling, the mode of locomotion, and even the approximate size (both height and weight) of the animal can be calculated. In understanding this experiment and activity students better understood the significance of the track-ways they examined at both the Wolverine and Flatbed sites.
Another tool that scientist's use when studying dinosaur tracks is to create a cast of the dinosaur footprint or the impression of the print as was found. The process of taking a cast is simple and much can be learned from a relief cast of the impression or footprint left by a dinosaur. Details, such as the bone structure of the foot, can be studied from a cast back at a museum or in a lab leaving the fossil as found for further research or study. Dinosaur camp students were able to pour their own cast of a theropod footprint similar to the ones they had seen at both the Flatbed and Wolverine sites. Each student produced their own cast and kept the cast to remember the experience of having early visited the fossils at both sites. The excavation of a fossil from a site can also reveal much information and clues to understanding the life of a dinosaur. Excavation is much more than just digging a pit in the ground to get at the fossil however and must follow a series of steps. Layers of material are carefully and precisely removed from the surrounding fossil. Before excavation can even begin the site's boundaries must be established and a site map is drawn, a grid is laid out and general soil or rock conditions are analyzed and recorded. A simulated dinosaur excavation was created in a sandpit for dinosaur camp students. This fun activity was an exercise in mapping, measurement, and record keeping put to a practical purpose of locating and removing "dinosaur fossils" from the sand.
First wooden cutouts of dinosaur fossil bones were buried in the sand for students to excavate. Next each student was assigned to work a one square meter section of the grid using tools such as trowels and brushes to carefully work away and remove sand from around fossils. If a fossil was located and before it was removed from its location, the coordinates of the fossil, the location, date, time, weather conditions, and soil type were carefully logged. The fossil was then sketched in position and once excavated was catalogued. The mock excavation carefully replicated the same process a palaeontologist follows so that the students would have a better understanding of the expertise required and importance of excavation techniques.
Once the excavation was complete and all the fossils were recovered the students returned to the classroom with their findings. Working as a group, the fossil skeleton was reconstructed as it would in a lab. Identification of the animal species was made and discussion of the animals behavior, the time period in which it lived and its general appearance were discussed with the group. Other activities and field trips that the students participated in included a trip to Hudson's Hope. Each Wednesday of the five day camp the group traveled by bus first to tour the Peace Canyon Dam where many dinosaur foot prints and tracks had been discovered and studied when the dam was built. There they viewed fossil displays. At the Hudson's Hope Museum students were given a tour of the exhibits helping to define the differences in geological formations and palaeo-environments. A tour of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and the underground facility completed the day.
Each day's activity and tours included classroom instruction. Geology, biology, zoology, climatology, botany, and palaeontolgy were all presented in an interactive format with students invited to participate in all discussions. Dinosaur guidebooks were provided to each student with all classroom learning designed to provide a foundation for the activities and fieldtrips to be based on. Finally each camper was expected to choose a dinosaur species, research and write a report on the animal as an individual research project. Suggested resources were provided including encyclopedias, books, and Internet web sites. Students were encouraged to illustrate the report with images from the Internet as well as to paint a large scale likeness of the dinosaur for the oral presentation to the group. Dinosaur camps wrapped up with a graduation ceremony, attended by parents, at which time the graduates received a diploma and exclusive Dino Camp T-shirt.
Other Resources Definitions Ankylosaur - armoured dinosaurs with a club-like tail measuring 7-10 metres long (25-35 feet). Ankylosaurs were plant eaters and lived during the cretaceous period, 140-65 million years ago. Footprints of ankylosaurs have been found near Tumbler Ridge. Cycads - woody stemmed plants with leaves resembling those of ferns and palms. Cycads have existed since the Jurassic period (206-144 million years ago), which is often referred to as the "Age of Cycads". Often described as "living fossils" hundreds of species of Cycads grow in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Central America, Africa and parts of Asia. Hadrosaur - the name meaning 'duckbilled dinosaurs', hadrosaurs were plant eaters that lived during the cretaceous period, 140-65 million years ago Ornithopod - the name ornithopod means 'bird-feet' and ornithopods make up the suborder Ornithopoda, a major group of herbivorous (plant-eating) bird-hipped dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs and Iguanodonts are both bird-footed dinosaurs whose tracks have been found in the Tumbler Ridge area. Theropod - the name meaning 'beast - footed', these dinosaurs were fast moving, bi-pedal carnivores (meat-eaters) with grasping hands and clawed digits. They ranged from tiny chicken size to include the largest terrestrial carnivores ever to have walked the earth. Theropods lived from the mid-Triassic period approximately 200 million years ago until the Cretaceous period 140 to 65 million years ago. Footprints of some Theropods have been found near Tumbler Ridge.
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