Desert Mirage in Cape Verde of the coast of Africa - By Ladislav Luppa via Wikimedia Commons
The Science of Mirages
We’ve all seen that part in the movie where the weary desert wanderer has been walking for hours and is dying of thirst. Then he happens upon a vast body of water on the horizon. He runs towards the water, it grows closer and closer, until he springs himself into the air only to land back down in the sand and no water in sight. You might think the traveler was hallucinating, but mirages are a naturally-occurring optical illusion. In cartoons, a mirage is often depicted as a peaceful, lush oasis lying in the shade of swaying palm trees, but in reality it is more likely to just look like a pool of water.
How do mirages form?
Mirages really have nothing to do with water at all. It’s really all about how light travels through air. Normally, light waves from the sun travel straight through the atmosphere to your eye. But, light travels at different speeds through hot air and cold air.
Mirages happen when the ground is very hot and the air is cool. The hot ground warms a layer of air just above the ground. When the light moves through the cold air and into the layer of hot air it is refracted (bent).
A layer of very warm air near the ground refracts the light from the sky nearly into a U-shaped bend. Our brain thinks the light has traveled in a straight line.
Our brain doesn’t see the image as bent light from the sky. Instead, our brain thinks the light must have come from something on the ground.
You can see from the image above what is going on in order for a mirage to appear. The “bent light from the sky” is refracted as it passes from cooler air into hotter air and back up to your eye. Our brains play a trick on us as it assumes that the refracted light follows a straight path. Because of this, we follow the light back to the source, which appears to be the ground. Combining all of this together, refracted light from the sky is interpreted as straight, letting us see an image of the sky on the ground.
This is why many mirages appear as blue water. We think we have stumbled on an oasis when in reality we are seeing a shimmering image of the blue sky. Since our brains don’t recognize the sky as being on the ground, we imagine the image to be shining blue water.
Where can you spot a mirage?
There’s no need to trek to the desert to see a mirage: they are very common on roadways, airport tarmacs and even on the hot sand at the beach. Mirages can be spotted anywhere where the ground can absorb a lot of heat.
The most spectacular mirages occur in wide expanses of flat land as too many hills, dips or bumps will prevent the refracted light from reaching your eyes.
Take a look at this video for more in depth information on the Science of Mirages and to see a mirage called a Fata Morgana where a city in China experienced seeing a floating city!
People nowadays are turning away from processed sugars and latching onto natural forms of sweeteners. One of the more popular natural sweeteners is maple syrup and it is claimed to be more nutritious and healthier than white sugar. Maple syrup is produced from the sap of the sugar maple tree.
The sugar maple tree grows most prevalent in several of the Canadian provinces, throughout the states of New England and ten other states as far west as Wisconsin and Minnesota. Sugar maple trees are tapped in the late winter/early spring when daytime temperatures rise above freezing and nighttime temperature fall below freezing. Sap continues to flow for around six weeks. Most syrup makers will stop harvesting their sugar maples when buds burst and leaves begin to develop on the trees. The buds start to give the sap a sour taste once its processed into syrup.
The classic method to collect sap involves drilling a hole into the tree, hammering a metal spout, called a spile, into it, and hanging a bucket directly underneath to collect the sap. Some syrup makers may also collect sap with the use of plastic tubing and buckets.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
Image Source: Benjamin Gillis
Turning Sap to Syrup
After being collected in buckets, the sap needs to be filtered and the excess water must be evaporated off to make the sugars in the sap more concentrated. This will eventually turn the sap into syrup. Boiling the maple sap not only evaporates out most of the water, but causes chemical changes that give the syrup its color and flavor. Boiling the syrup is a tightly controlled process, which ensures appropriate sugar content. Syrup boiled too long will eventually crystallize, whereas under-boiled syrup will be watery, and will quickly spoil. Most maple syrup producers use either wood, oil, natural gas, propane or another heat source to boil and evaporate the water in the sap. Be careful not to evaporate your maple sap in your kitchen, as the steam contains some sugar particles and will create a sticky residue on your kitchen walls. This is why having a sugar house is important in the process of making maple syrup!
Sugar Maple Sap collected. Image Source- Benjamin Gillis
Filtering out any impurities. Image Source: Benjamin Gillis
Using a propane stove to evaporate water out of the sap. Image Source: Benjamin Gillis
The sap being boiled down. Image Source: Benjamin Gillis
Fun Fact: It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of finished syrup.
What Grade is my Syrup?
In January 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new maple syrup grading system to match guidelines set by the International Maple Syrup Institute (a group representing both U.S. and Canadian maple producers) to help clear up any confusion among consumers. The new classification system has four new grades: “Grade A Golden and Delicate Taste,” “Grade A Amber and Rich Taste,” “Grade A Dark and Robust Taste,” and “Grade A Very Dark and Strong Taste.”
Canning jars used for finished maple syrup. Image Source: Benjamin Gillis
Fun Facts
The tree must be 10 inches in diameter and 40 years old before it can be tapped to collect sap.
Once a tree has been tapped, that same hole can’t be used again. Trees have a natural healing process called “walling-off” that prevents a hole from being used a second time. The tree can be tapped again, but in a new spot.
Tapping a maple tree does not harm it and some have been tapped for more than a century.
The journey of honey from the bee hive to your kitchen table starts with the honey bee. There is a total of around 20,000 separate species of bees in the world but only about 7 of those are different types of honey bees.
Honey bees collect pollen and nectar from blooming flowers and plants. These honey bees that collect pollen and nectar are called worker bees. Worker bees are exclusively all females. Worker bees are able to reach the nectar that is in the flower by using their tongue, also known as a proboscis (pro·bos·cis). The bees’ tongue works like a straw, she unrolls her tongue and dips it into a flower. She then sucks up the nectar like you would when drinking from a straw.
Easily see this bee’s tongue!
A worker bee drinks the liquid nectar and stores it in a special stomach called the honey stomach. The bee continues to forage, visiting hundreds of flowers, until its honey stomach is full. Within the honey stomach, enzymes break down the complex sugars of the nectar into simpler sugars. With a full honey stomach, the worker bee heads back to the hive and regurgitates the already modified nectar to a hive bee. The hive bee ingests the nectar and further breaks down the sugars. It then regurgitates the nectar into a cell of the honeycomb.
Once the liquid honey is in the comb the bees go to work to get all that extra water out. Failure to reduce the extra water in the nectar would result in fermenting and spoiling. They evaporate the water from the nectar by fanning the honeycomb with their wings in an effort to speed up the process of evaporation. When most of the water has evaporated from the honeycomb, the bee seals the comb with a secretion of liquid from its abdomen, which eventually hardens into beeswax.
So how does the beekeeper know when the honey is ready for harvest? The beekeeper will look for a few signals in the hive to let him know if the honey is ready. The first signal is if there are open combs (not capped with beeswax) with nectar leaking out. If all the frames in the beehive are all filled with capped honey, the beekeeper can then uncap the combs and start to harvest. Another good way to tell if the honey in your hive is ready to harvest is the season. Usually once the last major nectar flow of the season is complete, your hive’s honey will be ready!
Beekeeper tending to her "super".
So what happens after your beehive is full of honey and ready to be harvested? Well a beekeeper will remove the frames from the beehive box – called a super – and uses a heated knife or scraper to shave off the waxed caps sealing the honeycomb. He places the frames, heavy and oozing with honey, into a hand-cranked centrifuge and spins them, forcing the honey onto the walls of the drum, where it drips to the bottom. As the drum fills, the beekeeper will open a spigot and strain the honey through cheesecloth to remove stray bits of wax or other debris. Then it gets bottled in sanitized canning jars. According to urban beekeeper, Don Eidam of the San Francisco Bay Area, says that
“Harvests vary from year to year and colony to colony, but a typical hive of 60,000 bees will produce, on average, 40 to 60 pounds of honey.”
Once your honey is bottled it can last for years without any sort of refrigeration. It naturally resists molds, bacteria, and other fungi’s that commonly spoil other foods.
So the next time you buy a jar of honey from your local farmer’s market, just think about all the work that went into making that sweet delicious treat! From the bees bringing the nectar into the hive and processing the nectar into honey. To a beekeeper processing the honey from the honeycomb. Then straining out any beeswax or impurities and then the bottling process. There is a lot of work involved to bring that sweet golden honey all the way to your own kitchen table!
Bonus Honey Facts:
Honey is the only food product created by an insect that humans eat.
There is a 15,000 year old cave painting in Spain which depicts a human figure robbing honey out of a beehive.
There were 2,000 year old vats of sealed honey found in King Tut’s tomb. The honey is believed to be still edible.
Male bees are called “Drones” and they do not have stingers, their only purpose is to mate with the queen bee.
The average honey bee’s wings flap over 183 times per second.
Bees have an excellent sense of smell which allows them to find their hive.
Have you ever wondered what the The Etch-A-Sketch® is really made of? Here at High Touch High Tech, we just figured the iconic toy was driven by magnets. But that is not the case at all! So how does an Etch-A-Sketch actually work?
Image Source: Pixabay.com
An Etch-A-Sketch has a thick, flat gray screen in a red plastic frame. There are two white knobs on the front of the frame in the lowercorners. Twisting the knobs moves a stylus that displaces aluminum powder on the back of the screen, which when scraped off by the moving stylus, leaves a dark line on the light gray screen. The left control moves the stylus horizontally, and the right one moves it vertically. Turning both knobs simultaneously makes diagonal lines. The Etch-A-Sketch employs a fairly sophisticated pulley system that operate the rails inside the red frame that move the stylus around when the knobs are turned. To erase the picture, the user turns the toy upside down and shakes it. Doing this causes polystyrene beads to smooth out and re-coat the inside surface of the screen with aluminum powder. The “black” line merely exposes the darkness inside the toy. What were you able to draw using the Etch-A-Sketch? Your name possibly, or maybe just some lines? I know all that I could really pull off was something that looked slightly like my name!
Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
Andre Cassanges, A French electrician, had the idea for the toy come to him while installing a light switch plate that was coated in aluminum powder. After making some pencil marks on the powder, he noticed that the marks were also visible on the other side of the plate. He took the idea of making electrostatic designs to entertainment, developing what he called the L’Écran Magique (the Magic Screen). Ohio Art bought the design from Cassanges in 1959 for $25,000, which is the equivalent of nearly $200,000 today.
The Etch A Sketch was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York in 1998, and in 2003, the Toy Industry Association named it one of the 100 most memorable and creative toys of the twentieth century.
Not only was the Etch-A-Sketch a toy, but for some it was a way to make creative and amazing pieces of art! Jeff Gagliardi is one of the original, and one of the best known Etch-A-Sketch artists. He grew up never owning an Etch-A-Sketch and it wasn’t until he was a college student before realizing he had a great talent for using this toy to make masterpieces of art! To see more amazing Etch-A-Sketch drawings check out this link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/12/etch-a-sketch-anniversary_n_3581395.html
Image Source: By Ieatflower, via Wikimedia Commons
Can you tell the difference between a frog and a toad? Let’s put these two species of amphibians into an ultimate battle of comparisons! Frogs and toads may look similar but there are many differences between them! In this article we will discover the many differences and even some similarities between frogs and toads!
Frogs and toads are classified under the same Order within the animal kingdom; Anura. Under that Order frogs are considered the family Ranidae or “True Frogs”. Toads are in the family of Bufonidae and are considered “True Toads”. But they are both similar in that they first hatched from eggs that are laid in water.
One of the biggest differences that make it easy to distinguish a frog from a toad is what their skin looks like. A frog tends to have moist and smooth skin while toads have dry, bumpy, and usually warty skin. Don’t fret, you cannot get warts from touching a toad!
Another really easy way to tell a frog from a toad is when you look at a frog’s legs! Their legs are long and very powerful for jumping. Toads’ legs in comparison are usually shorter and stumpier. Toads will hop around rather than jump far distances.
So how do you know if you have frogs or toads living in your pond if all you can see are eggs? Easy! Frogs lay their eggs in more of a cluster under the surface of the water, while toads actually lay their eggs in long chains. Some toads do not even lay any eggs but will actually give birth to LIVE young!
A Cluster of Frog Eggs
A chain of toad eggs
The habitat of these two amphibians are fundamentally very different as well. While they are both hatched from eggs out of the water, a frog and toad change their habitats when they grow legs. A frog needs to live near some body of water, while a toad can survive in a drier climate. Frogs are most abundant around bodies of water with many of them living at the water’s edge. The highest population of frogs can be found in tropical forests reaching nearly 5,400 different species! Tropical rainforests stay moist all the time making it the perfect environment and home for all sorts of frogs.
In the words of one famous frog, “It’s not easy being green”. Although green is a common color for most frogs, they can range from any color of the spectrum. Some of the most eye-catching frogs are brightly colored and dressed in vivid yellows, blues, reds, oranges and purple, some with lovely patterns of spots or stripes. These beauties have much too visually admire, but they can’t be touched. Their noticeable coloration serves as a warning to predators to stay away. The most poisonous animal on earth is probably the Golden Poison Frog from Central and South America: There’s enough poison in just one of these frogs to kill 10 people!
Golden Poison Dart Frog
Some frogs are considered a delicacy by some cultures! Records show that frogs’ legs were a common foodstuff in southern China as early as the first century AD. It wasn’t until the 12th Century when they started to appear as a delicacy in French cuisine. Toads cannot be eaten in the same way that frogs are. A toads skin will actually give out a bitter taste and a smell that burns like a skunk. This is the reason why toads don’t have many predators!
The end of the frog versus toad battle has come! So who wins this ultimate battle of comparisons? Neither one! Frogs and toads equally as cool and fun to learn about. So now when someone says “what are the difference between frogs and toads” you’ll be able to tell that person all that you have learned from this article!
Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live. In honor of this science icon and to say ‘Happy Birthday Einstein,” we thought we’d share one of our favorite archived e-news articles from March 2013!
Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.
Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.
But, you don’t have to be a physicist or an elite research scientist to take away from what Einstein had to offer. We don’t tap often enough into the words of wisdom Einstein shared with the world. From the simply stated to the profoundly put, there’s a lot we can take away from Einstein’s words.
Everyday brings a new opportunity to put his teachings to good use in our personal lives. In celebration of Albert Einstein’s birthday, we bring you 5 Amazing Lessons You Can Learn from Albert Einstein!
These quotes are just a few of our favorites that show how Einstein reached people all throughout walks of life – Do you have a favorite lesson from Albert Einstein? We want to know which of them resonates with you in your life!
Leave us your thoughts below – We always look forward to hearing what our readers have to say!
Christmas lights are the most recognizable sign of the season. These lights warm up the coldest of December nights – giving a nostalgic glow to our homes & communities. Even though we are so familiar with these traditional holiday lights, there is a bit of background science that you may not know.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
The Curious Evolution of Holiday Lights!
During the Holidays, we see all types of colorful lights! People decorate the outside and inside of their homes with lights that are switched on ceremoniously in neighborhoods across the globe. This tradition dates back to the 17thcentury when people first began putting lights on their Christmas trees by attaching small candles to the branches using wax or pins, according to the Great Idea Finder. But, it wasn’t until the late 19thcentury, that decorating with small glass lanterns with lit candles really took off. As a result of using candles, most people didn’t put up their lights until Christmas Eve due to the risk of fire.
In 1882, one of Thomas Edison’s apprentices, Edward Johnson, created the first lit Christmas Tree for the Holiday Season. This tree was in New York City and had 80 small electric lights he called “dainty glass eggs.” Edward Johnson invented the first string of electric lights.
These electric lights; however, posed a danger as they heated up tender Evergreen branches and needles. Albert Sadacca created safe electric Christmas lights in 1917. The first year, the lights were all white. But, the following year, he made colorful Christmas lights that became a sensation in homes across the country.
Lights are also an essential Hanukkah tradition. A candelabrum (lamp stand) with nine branches, called a menorah, is lit during the 8-day Hanukkah holiday. In the Jewish tradition, the menorah brings light to this time of year.
Modern LED Holiday Lights
For decades, incandescent light bulbs have decorated Christmas trees, window panes, and the outside of homes with bright colors during the Holidays. However, older incandescent light bulbs pose some problems. These strings of lights actually use a lot of energy, the older bulbs can also get very hot after running for long periods of time, and we’ve all taken part in the greatest holiday mystery of all time…”Which bulb is causing the strand of lights to go out?!”
Fortunately, scientists have invented LED light bulbs that solve these problems. LED stands for Light-Emitting Diodes. These modern bulbs use 10% of the electricity needed for incandescent light bulbs! LED bulbs are much cooler so they are much safer. For an extra bonus, LED bulbs last for an extremely long time & eliminate the search for the string outage culprit! For the holidays, you will see all colors, shapes, and sizes of LEDs decorating homes for the season.
A Long Way From Candles
The basic foundation of the Christmas light, the incandescent bulb, hardly changed for nearly a century, and is only now undergoing its first major revolution as we start replacing our old tungsten lights with energy-efficient LEDs. Yet in that same time, we’ve gone from sticking burning candles in a tree to creating massive, computer-controlled – and completely excessive – light displays like this:
One thing’s for sure: No matter what the technology at hand, no matter what the reason to celebrate, the human desire to light up trees and houses in December will forever be a source for amazing – and often hilarious – innovation.
So, where do the old Christmas lights go?
Around this time every year, millions of American households not only toss out their Christmas trees, but also, millions of strands of burnt-out Christmas lights. While they are supposed to be placed in the recycling bin, most would end up at the garbage dump if it were not for a tiny town all the way across the world called Shijiao located in Southern China.
That’s because, while there is no market for the lights in the USA, there is a great demand for the raw materials that spring from these discarded decorations in China, an opportunity that the small town of Shijiaohas capitalized on, for almost twenty years. Today, over 20 million pounds of discarded lights make their way to the town’s nine recycling facilities.
Once there, they go through a rather complicated process that separates the flecks of precious metals (copper from the wire and brass from the light sockets) from the plastic and glass that the insulation and bulbs are made from.
The strands are first manually untangled and then placed into a shredder that chops them up into tiny pieces. These are then mixed with water and shaken – upon which the heavier metal flecks flow in one direction, while the lighter plastic and glass flow in another – similar to how old miners used to pan gold. The respective materials are then accumulated and sold to Chinese manufacturers who turn them into all kinds of different products including, slipper soles!
So the next time you buy a product made in China, be sure to look at it closely – For somewhere in them you may see a glimmer of your tossed Christmas lights.
As the days get shorter and the nights get darker, we welcome colorful Holiday lights! As you decorate around your home with lights, don’t forget that you, too, can create a fun, colorful magic light box to wow your friends and family with this month’s at-home experiment!
This year, as you begin to string the lights around the Christmas tree remember that you are continuing a tradition that goes back hundreds of years! In addition to holiday lights, some of our other favorite holiday products, from decorations to toys, have surprising origins, too! Ever wondered where tinsel comes from and why we drape it over the trees? Or have you ever asked yourself when people started to wrap their presents in paper? Learn the history of these and other interesting holiday inventions here.
Have you ever wondered how scientists can know so much about things that happened thousands of years ago? For example, how do they know what certain dinosaurs looked like? After all, those dinosaurs have been extinct for thousands of years, right?
Fossils are the actual remains or impressions left by plants or animals that were once alive hundreds or thousands of years ago. Over time, the organic (living) material left behind is replaced with minerals, leaving a fossil that is like a stone but looks like the original plant or animal. When scientists find these imprints — like an ancient x-ray — they can learn a lot about the animals or plants that left their mark.
Not all plant and animal remains become fossilized over time. Certain conditions have to exist for fossilization to take place. For example, many fossils form when plant and animal remains are buried — and thereby preserved — by mud, sand or soil. Fossilization also takes a lot of time. How long? How about 10,000 years or more. So if you go and bury a plant leaf under a pile of mud in the backyard, don’t expect a fossil to form in your lifetime!
Despite the requirements of time and preservation, fossils can be found just about anywhere. From the tops of mountains to the depths of the seas, fossils can be found all over Earth. Some sit on top of sandy beaches while others stay hidden deep underground. Fossils are often unearthed during construction or new mining projects. As the ground is dug up and moved about, fossils once hidden deep underground suddenly come to light. In a similar way, you can often find fossils in shallow stream beds, as the constantly flowing water cuts through the old earth to reveal what’s hidden below.
School of Hard Rocks: Fossil Collecting for Beginners You may ask, why do people collect fossils? Think of fossil collecting as ancient antique hunting, a way to connect with the past. There’s something mysterious and powerful about holding a 400-million-year-old creature in the palm of your hand.
People have countless reasons for fossil collecting:
A love of modern nature and a desire to know and understand how it came to be.
A love of history.
A love of the Earth and the mystery of its creation.
A desire to inspire a child to learn and to share your passion for geology and earth science.
Even wanting a hobby, one that will keep you in good physical shape while exercising your mind, is a great reason for becoming a fossil collector.
Plus,FOSSILS ARE COOL! So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
It’s easy to get started with a fossil collection: just keep your eyes open the next time you walk along a dry creek bed or along a washed out ravine. Depending on your location, you might spot the remains of an ancient creature.
Don’t want to leave your fossil finding to “Lady Luck?” Pick up a rock-hounding book for your locale. The authors of rock-hounding books let you in on lots of tips for success. They also let you know where you can hunt, how to ask permission of landowners and places to avoid.
Parks are a great place to kick off a fossil hunt, many are home to impressive collections, while others are untapped treasure chests, waiting to be pried open. The type of fossil you may find at a park will of course be dictated by the area’s geographic features, meaning that chances of finding fossilized sea life in the mountains are less common than if the park is nestled beside a major body of water. Don’t forget to take your camera! Nothing beats the thrill of the find! You’ll want to have at least a few pictures in the field to document the location and the moment.
Paleontologists—professional fossil finders—break fossils down into two main groups: trace fossils and body fossils. Trace fossils are records of an animal’s life, they can include footprints, trackways, and coprolites (fossilized poop!), and tell a story about how the creature lived, and give a relatively accurate idea of their size. Body fossils, the most sought after type of fossil, are fossilized remains of a plant or animal, and can be as tiny as an insect or as large as a mammoth, obviously the latter finding is rare and less likely to be found in a US park, but finding small fossilized wildlife and plants is still an amazing discovery.
Here are a few tips to get you on your way to a stellar fossil collection of your own!
#1: When searching for fossils, know they only form in sedimentary rocks.
Sedimentary rock is a type of rock formed by the deposition of minerals and other materials at the Earth’s surface or within bodies of water. Sedimentary rocks are formed over a long period of time in the accumulation of debris or sediments. Such materials you’ll likely find fossils in include clay, limestone, shale, and sandstone.
#2: Do a search for fossil websites and fossil documents for your state, region, locality.
With a little research, you can find pictures of local fossils in your area & perhaps even a map of where to find them. Check out this site that breaks up fossils found in the United States by region: Teacher Friendly Guide to Geology: Fossils by US Region,
Familiarize yourself with what you are likely to find, and remember that the fossils will probably be in matrix (rock) and you will only find a small portion peeking out. Local museums are a great way to find out what fossils are native to your locale & are available for public viewing. This will also teach you what kind of fossil hunting you will be doing – beach combing, sifting for sharks teeth, breaking shale, or walking road cuts and dry washes.
#3: Do a search for local rock, mineral and fossil clubs in your area.
Mentoring from experienced members is invaluable! And they may even have group field trips and digs that you can attend! While you are at it, see if there are any fossil parks near you.
#4: Your first outing – what do you need?
Something to carry your fossils in, such as a bag, pail or backpack with a handle is good for carrying your finds. Other tools you’ll want to bring along include: a field guide to record your findings, pencil, compass, trowel or small shovel, paintbrush to sweep away the debris, a sieve if looking for sharks’ teeth, etc. in creeks and a hammer to knock away excess rock if desired. You can also include some graphing paper & a measuring tape to take note of your dig site if you’re planning to return.
#5: Identifying your Fossils:
Bring home anything that looks like it may be a fossil, you just never know. What you may initially believe to be a strange looking rock could be a real fossil! Fossils come in many shapes and sizes. Paleontologists classify and identify fossils based on their shapes and appearance.
Thousands of different fossils can be found in the United States. Identifying all of the types requires experts; however, many of the most common types can be easily identified. If you think you know the kind of fossil (eg., trilobite, brachiopod) do a quick Google search to find out what types of fossils can be found in your locale or area the fossil was found. Use the resources you find and compare the information with what you have. If you don’t know what kind of fossil you have, check out this site that can try and point you in the right direction: Identifying Unknown Fossils (by shape).
Differences between some fossils are subtle and are easily missed by the amateur collector. Also, some fossils are poorly preserved, broken, or partially covered in the matrix of the surrounding rock so that their true size and shape is hidden. But the most commonly found fossils can usually be classified to their group with just a few observations.
The fun doesn’t stop here! Once you’ve started your fossil collection – check out these other ways you can Celebrate National Fossil Day by exploring these incredible resources:
All That Remains: Fossil Finds: Check out this awesome slide show of the most recent discoveries in Paleontology, as recent as September 2013! Which is your favorite? Let us know on our Facebook Page!
The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California:Did you realize you can take a trip back in time to the Ice Age in the heart of one of America’s largest modern cities? It’s true! The urban heart of Los Angeles is the site of a fascinating scientific treasure. Since the early 1900’s, scientists have unearthed the fossilized remains of several different species including saber-toothed cats, mammoths, wolves, bears, ground sloths, bison and horses.
FOSSILGUY.COM: A fantastic resource for future paleontologists & fossil collectors in and around the mid-Atlantic region. This site includes virtual tours of fossil sites, and fossil identification.
10 Weird & Unusual Archeological Finds: Just in time for Halloween – from a saber-toothed squirrel to an ant of prehistoric proportions, check out these weird & spooky finds recently discovered from across the globe!
10 Famous Fossils that Changed Dinosaur History:Not all dinosaur fossils are equally famous, or have had the same profound effect on paleontology. Here are 10 famous fossils that changed, sharpened, or completely altered the views of working scientists (and the general public) about dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles.
National Geographic Education: Fossils: This collection contains a selection of content from NG Education about fossils. Users have the option to use the site search tool to find out more on a variety of fossil & archeology topics.
Way back in 1841, Richard Owen first classified a group of related fossils as “Dinosauria,” which translates to “terrible lizard” in ancient Greek. But dinosaurs aren’t terrible, they’re wonderful! And since 1841, these planet-ruling, long-extinct creatures have been exciting our imaginations, changing what we know about Earth’s history, and giving pop culture its most popular and beloved monsters.
And so, in celebration of the 252 millionth anniversary of the first dinosaur taking its inaugural step, give or take a few million years, we give you best of the best in the prehistoric popularity contest. Lucky for you, it’s just in time for International Dinosaur Month!
The Heaviest Dinosaur
The heaviest dinosaur ever discovered is the Brachiosaurus weighing in at a whopping 80 tons. It was the equivalent to 17 African Elephants. Brachiosaurus was the equivalent to 17 African Elephants measuring 16m tall and 26m long.The excavation of Brachiosaurus in Tanzania, Africa, during the early part of the century involved hundreds of local workers who carried the enormous bones by hand for many miles to the seaport. They were then shipped to Germany and mounted inside of the Humboldt Museum in East Berlin. This museum was custom designed to fit the skeleton of Brachiosaurus. That skeleton is still on display, and it is still the most impressive dinosaur mounted in the world. It is as staggering to visitors today as when it was unveiled many decades ago.
The Smallest Dinosaur
The smallest fully-grown fossil dinosaur is the little bird-hipped plant-eater lesothosaurus, which was only the size of a chicken. Smaller fossilized examples have been found but these are of baby dinosaurs.
The Smallest Dinosaur Egg
Current evidence suggests all dinosaurs laid eggs of a wide variety of shapes and sizes—from 1 inch (3 centimeters) to 21 inches (53 centimeters), round or elliptical. Dinosaur eggs were perforated with tiny holes, which allowed life-giving oxygen to enter. The smallest dinosaur egg so far found is only a little over 1 inch long (3 centimeters.) Scientists have yet to solve the mystery of which species of dinosaur laid the tiny egg. Once the egg has been fossilized it will become hard like rock, but it will retain a structure of its own.
The Most Brainy Dinosaur
One of the most intelligent dinosaurs was Troodon. It was a hunting dinosaur, about 2 meters long, and had a brain size similar to that of a mammal or bird of today, stereoscopic vision, and grasping hands.
The First Dinosaur to be Discovered in North America
The first discovery of dinosaur remains in North America was made in 1854 by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden during his exploration of the upper Missouri River. He discovered a small collection of teeth which were later described by Joseph Leidy in 1856 as belonging to Trachodon, Troodon, and Deinodon.
A short two years later, Leidy had the honor of describing the first reasonably complete dinosaur skeleton the world would know, Hadrosaurus foulkii. Named after its discoverer William Parker Foulke, this specimen was recovered during quarrying of a sand pit in Haddonfield, New Jersey. This specimen, is now on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
The Tallest Dinosaur
The tallest dinosaurs were the Brachiosaurid group of sauropods. Their front legs were longer than the rear legs giving them a giraffe-like stance. This combined with their extremely long necks, which were held vertically, meaning they could leaf through even the tallest trees. Brachiosaurus – the most well known of the group – was 13 meters tall. Sauroposeidon was massive and probably grew to 18.5 meters tall making it the tallest dinosaur.
The Fastest Running Dinosaur
The speediest dinosaurs were the ostrich mimic ornithomimids, such as Dromiceiomimus, which could probably run at speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour.
The Oldest Dinosaur
In January 2013, Science Today published the discovery of a new dinosaur species that lived around the same time as Eoraptor in the late Triassic, some 230 million years ago. Dubbed Eodromaeus, it was discovered in the Ischigualasto Formation, a geological basin in northwestern Argentina that is riddled with some of the oldest dinosaur remains known.
The Eodromaeus has been a hot debate among Paleontologists & has taken the top spot in the oldest Dino category previously held by the Eoraptor, meaning “dawn thief,” whom had held the title at 228 million years.
The Longest Dinosaur Name
The dinosaur with the longest name was Micropachycephalosaurus meaning “tiny thick-headed lizard”. Its fossils have been found in China, and it was named in 1978 by the Chinese paleontologist Dong.
Even eons later, the world is still just as into dinosaurs as it was 251,000,000 years ago. In fact, there are countless ways to get the kids (and/or yourself) even more in touch with these beloved prehistoric pals, this side of the Stone Age.
All month long, we invite you to celebrate your love of dinosaurs with us. Make this month’s celebration one of prehistoric proportions with a HTHT fan-favorite Paleontology Party that is sure to WOW all of your fellow Dino-lovers.
Looking for even more ways to celebrate? Check out these other great ideas & resources:
Archeologists in training can hone their skills by digging for Dino bones online.
If this dinosaur expert doesn’t have all the kids’ questions (“Why are dinosaurs so big?”) answered, this video from National Geographic surely will.
If a natural history museum is within reach, pack a lunch, and make a family day of it! Larger-than-life skeletons will put the ancient beasts’ grandeur in full perspective. While you’re there, take the time to get to know the species of dinosaurs & study their bones. You can show off your new Dino-knowledge with all your friends at your Dino party!
Dress as a dinosaur for Halloween. Million-year-old reptiles always get more candy!
Have a Dinosaur Movie Marathon. You know what we’re thinking… JURASSIC PARK!!!! But for the younger audience, there are plenty of other incredible dinosaur movies out there. Check out the ‘Dinosaur’ category on Netflix & find a movie that will entertain your friends of all ages. Prepare some dinosaur snacks, like sandwiches cut into to Dino shapes and Dino shaped cookies too. Try icing cakes to look scaly or even check out this Dino egg cake recipe. Now all you need is some friends, Dino movies and of course POPCORN!
And don’t forget to join the Mesozoic Madness conversation on Twitter @HTHTWNC & Share your favorite highlights with us on Facebook!
A neuroscientist by day, Dave Sulzer explores synapses formed by the midbrain dopamine projections that underlie reward, learning and voluntary motor control. But by night, as Dave Soldier, he’s an avant-garde musician.
Should we be surprised, then, that he has such an appreciation for the artistic accomplishments of elephants? Or that he conducts an orchestra of multi-ton retirees from the logging industry? An orchestra that, boasts his partner in the enterprise, Richard “Professor Elephant” Lair, is “three-times the weight of the Berlin Philharmonic”?
Without a score or elaborate cueing and with few limitations beyond Dave’s deliberate gestures to start and stop them, these lucky instrumentalists play pretty much what they want and have a ball improvising on cymbals, gongs, renaats and harmonicas. Dave says some of the players don’t stop when he tells them to do so—even when they KNOW that’s what they should do—just for the fun of it! What teases! Read More Here >
These quotes are just a few of our favorites that show how Einstein reached people all throughout walks of life – Do you have a favorite lesson from Albert Einstein? We want to know which of them resonates with you in your life!
