A Walk Through Time

A few weeks ago we had a field trip with a man named Steve Poitras.  Steve is a paleontologist and has spent his entire life on digs and studies all over the world.  Where he couldn't get original fossils, he made casts of the originals.  The result is a lifetime of stories, of learning, and TONS of fossils.  I met him at Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary a couple of months ago where he had some of his stuff on exhibit.  He is going to to an Earth Week assembly for our school in a couple of weeks and I also asked him if he would help our Webelos scouts with their Scientist Pin.  They had to meet with a scientist, who had to show them what he/she did, etc.

Steve took us out to Watkins Mill Park where he talked about genetics and why things grow the way they do.  For example, locust trees only have thorns up to about 15 feet high and then they are thornless higher up.  This came about because the mastodons that lived in the area could only reach up that high.  The trees developed thorns as a protection against the mastodons.  Cool, huh?  He also explained why certain rocks are located in certain spots and how they were made.  There was one rock that looked far different from any others.  Steve explained that it was a glacial rock, carried down in a glacier originating in Minnesota and ending at the Missouri river.  Geologists and paleontologists have even mapped the rocks from that particular glacier!

After our hike Steve brought out the fossils.  They were so neat!  Here are some pictures.  They were taken from my phone and aren't the best quality but, at least it's better than none at all!!

 Saber Tooth Tiger and Neanderthal Skulls

 

 

 Logan, Campbell Condiff, Jorja, Carson Adams, and Layton Patterson

 Steve, Jason Adams, Jillian, Brad, and Logan

 A reconstructed Saber Tooth Tiger head, based off the skull.

 

Top to bottom: a mastodon tooth, (in the box) various teeth, early human tool (the handle was reconstructed), largest shark tooth on record, fossil of a leaf. 

 My Jorja!

 My Jilly!

 Campbell Condiff

 Layton Patterson

 Our Webelos!  Campbell, Carson, and Layton

 Carson Adams with Steve Poitras

My Logan