Could you outrun a dinosaur

William I. Ausich

Ohio State University

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This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

Initial Publication Date: June 4, 2009

Summary

Hands-on measurements of a dinosaur trackway, calculation of dinosaur speeds, etc.

Paleoecology | College Introductory, College Lower (13-14)

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate non-major course in History of Life on Earth

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

using a calculator

How the activity is situated in the course

The final laboratory exercise

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Types of information that is preserved in the fossil record

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

analysis of data

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

After looking at vertebrate skeletons and viewing videos dealing with vertebrates, this is a hands-on exercise with data the students can gather from simulated dinosaur trackways. To scale footprints (cut from poster board) are taped to the hallway floor; one of a bipedal theropod and one a quadrapedal sauropod. Students make the appropriate measurements directly from the simulated trackways. These data, plus additional data provided, are the basis for calculations necessary to calculate speed. With this information, various questions are answered.