Denver Museum of Natural History

Sept 19, 1998

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When we were at the Petrified Forest National Park we picked up a great book,"Prehistoric Journey--A History of Life on Earth," written by the curators of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Natural History. The book fit our Natural History study plan so well, that we decided to change our plans and go into Denver to see the museum. Even though the museum has many different exhibits, we spent all our time in the "Prehistoric Journey" section.

Harrison and Amanda loved discovering things they had seen and learned in the book and pointing out scenes from the exhibits that were pictures in the book. Having gone through the book, the museum experience was even more meaningful and will be remembered.

Links: (See below for resources you can buy online)

• Denver Museum of Natural History
• Royal Tyrell Museum, Canada. Great virtual tour.
  We wanted to visit, but weather was uncooperative.

Amanda with trilobite model. She said it was very realistic and it was interesting to learn about. "Trilobites are kind of like a big version of roly-polys." They have segmented bodies.

H & A attend a lecture. The scientist showed us many fossils and let us touch them. He told us trilobites were around for about 300 million years (over 60 times longer than humans have been on the earth). Amanda learned that fossilized bones are much heavier than normal bones because minerals that turn into rock fill up the holes where the marrow used to be. He also told us about ammonites, petrified wood, and volcanic rock.

H & A play the Natural Selection game. Harrison says natural selection means nature choosing which creatures survive. In this game there were moths that had different characteristics (fast/slow, bright/camoflauged). The fast camoflauged moths survived best, then the fast bright ones next, then the slow camoflauged, with the slow bright ones being eaten most.

Amanda looks at a model of a Meganura, a huge dragonfly, It was almost as big as an eagle and lived during the Carboniferous Period (of the Paleozoic Era). It was so big it was almost scary. The first flying animals were the insects.

Harrison looks at a sailback. It is called dimetrodon. The sail was probably like a big solar panel to warm up his blood. He was not a dinosaur, but a reptile that lived during the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era (just before the Mesozoic Era, the time of the dinos.)

Color Me! Click on this picture for a full size one that you can print and color.

Harrison measures up to a t-rex and a brachiosaurus. Who is bigger? Harrison says in comparison to the brachiosaurus, the ratio is 4:14.

In the Mesozoic Era section there were many complete skeletons of dinosaurs, big and small. Most of the skeletons were assembled with actual fossils, and the plaques listed the percent of real fossil content, and the location from where they came. It was a great museum!

Color Me! Click on this picture for a full size one that you can print and color.

Resources
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Prehistoric Journey--A History of Life on Earth," curators of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Natural History
This excellent book is based on the displays at the the Denver Museum of Natural History. The journey begins with the crazy creatures of the Cambrian period to the giants of the Jurassic. Superb illustrations, fossil photographs and intelligently written narrative make this a highly recommended book. It had a huge influence on our Natural History Tour.

Companion coloring book to the exceptional Prehistoric Journey book from the curators at the Denver Museum.