Saturday, March 17, 2012

How are fossils made? - Museum conversation

Louisa started our museum session by showing the children a fossilised crab.

?: How did the crab get in there?

Emelia: The crab slipped in

Bradley: It found a door to get in.

Alicya: It might have slipped in and made its home.

Louisa: Like a Hermit crab?

Keira: It turned into rock because it was old.

Quinn: the sand got on it and it dried up.

Louisa: The crab died because a fossil can’t be alive, then the sand washed over the crab and covered it up. Over time it became layers and layers of sand. It got very heavy and pushed the water out of the crab just leaving salt and sand. Over time the sand turned to stone around the crab.

Keira: How did the rock open?

Louisa: Well the sea moves and palaeontologist looks for certain types of rock where they know fossils will be found and then they hit it with a hammer.

Ashtyn: How did they know it had a crab in it?

Louisa: Fossils are only found in certain types of rock. You might have to break open 1000 rocks and only find one fossil.

Sean: What happens if he cracks the rock and the fossil cracks.

Louisa: Sometimes that happens and there are people in the museum who can put them back together. This fossil was found at Motunau.


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