And now for something completely different… well sorta!

We have covered dinosaurs and reptiles that were NOT dinosaurs but this is our first mammal! With the fossils unearthed earlier this month I just could not resist teaching Emanuel (and in the end Zander as well) about the Woolly Mammoth! You can read all about the rather unusual find in France HERE with a video or a simply textual with the National Post HERE. Either way, a rather amazing find. The only dissapointment I found with the research on this creature is that the main focus of the videos was on a hoax of a debunked image of a so called living specimen (I do believe it turned out to be a bear with a fish or something) and another batch talked about ALIENS being the cause of their extinction… so we stuck with the I’m a Dinosaur video on youTube and the one about the French find.

As well as a rather good but short BBC Science one.

In addition I have a long list of links to share so I figure I should get right to that! Enjoy our information about our last Ice Age mammal! First off there are some AMAZING images of a frozen specimen found in Siberia back in 2009! You can find those HERE. There was actual fur, skin… all of that. What we found most interesting was the smaller ears and tail to keep warmth in and the more nimble trunk and long tusks to allow for food collection!

Discovery has another article on this amazing find but a young boy in Siberia HERE. Apparently this is not an unheard of occurrence, unlike the surprise in France. As the weather at the time of death for the Mammoth was ideal for freezing. National Geographic Kids has a nice printable card and article HERE (if we had colour toner I certainly would have, I plan to return to this site later and do so). eHow.com has a short blurb about the history of the Mammoth HERE.

A site called Interesting Facts has… well… interesting facts about the Woolly Mammoth HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com has their usual 10 questions HERE. Fossil Treasures of Florida has some information and what looks to be an example of fur HERE. AnimalsTime.com has a great article HERE. EnchantedLearning has an article about this late Mammoth HERE. Wiki has the usual article HERE. And you can find out print out that Emanuel coloured HERE. 

Such a cool character with his Woolly friend

Welcome to the slight confusion of a dinosaur that the name we STARTED hunting for turns out to be the less common or even a miss name. So we started with the name Denversaurus (even though skeleton pieces were found in Dakota??) and quickly found out it was another “local to our old home” dinosaur with the better known and accepted name of Edmontonia. (Dinosaur Resource Center HERE)

Another from the late Cretaceous period this is another plated dinosaur with spikes. As Emanuel correctly guessed, an herbivore. With its bulky low slung body it was basically a walking tank and considered part of the Nodosaur family. In fact, if you have 65 thousand dollars and the space you can order your own fossil reproduction of one from the Black Hills Institute HERE.

Now for our links… Animal Planet has a piece under the name Denversaurus HERE. Science Kids has a great picture HERE. Dinonsaurs.about.com has a great fact sheet HERE. Dinosdinosaurs.com has a nice diagram HERE. Cooldinofacts.wikia.com has a great action shot HERE. Kidsdinos has their usual map etc HERE. Wiki has its article HERE. And our colouring page came from THIS site. I could not, for the life of me, find a video that was actually about THIS dinosaur and NOT one in the same family, but I hope these links are helpful! 

Rainbows and all!

Now here is a wickedly cool carnivore with an interesting CURRENT history as well! Now, don’t get your hopes up, that does NOT mean it is alive and well here… rather that WW II affected this dinosaur personally! In fact, the only decent bones found of this dinosaur with AMAZING spine pieces was destroyed in an air raid! What we are left with are the photographs of the display that was on the wall in the museum in Munich. 

This giant carnivore was larger than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and rather unique with its sail like spine and its crocodile-esque head. This predator did not  use its teeth to tear apart its victims but rather flung them around much like a crocodile. Its size was immense, its shape fearsome. What an amazing biped! Though there is some thought that they could have occasionally walked on 4 legs. Add a diet of meat AND fish and you have quite the amazing dinosaur. Our first video is a series of them with Discovery. You have to watch it on the site HERE.

Colourful dino

Discovery Dinosaur has the point form version of the video… you can find that HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com includes information about those destroyed fossils HERE. Jurassic Park has a neat Wikia page HERE. EnchantedLearning has a fact page HERE. BBC has a great picture of the Spinosaur, though the media did not work when clicked on HERE. Science kids has a great illustration of the person to dinosaur ratio HERE. Kidsdigdinos has a nice page BUT their fact question has this dinosaur as SMALLER than the T Rex where everything we read and saw stated otherwise HERE. Kiddinos, as usual has the map and the timeline showing it is a Cretaceous period dinosaur HERE. BigActivities.com has our printout HERE. And of course Wiki has their usual HERE. And now for our second video: