Make a Dino Fossil Snack

In this edible science activity, kids learn how paleontologists can tell a plant-eating dinosaur from a meat-eating dinosaur by simply looking at fossils of their teeth.

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies things that lived a long time ago -- like dinosaurs. Kids can be paleontologists too: a 12 year old found T. Rex skin and a 3 year old found a dinosaur egg!

Fossils are evidence of animals or plants that lived a long time ago.  Examples include bones, teeth, shells and leaf imprints.  Paleontologists study fossils for clues about what life used to be like on Earth.  They measure the fossils and take pictures of them, and are very careful with their tools so they don’t break or damage what they've found.  Many museums have wonderful examples of fossils that you can go see, and maybe even touch.

Most dinosaurs were plant-eaters (“herbivores”), but some were meat-eaters (“carnivores”).  Dinosaurs that ate both plants and meat are called "omnivores."  Paleontologists can tell a lot about what dinosaurs ate by fossils of their teeth. Herbivores usually had blunt, flat teeth that were good for stripping leaves and twigs from trees and chewing up tough plants, whereas meat-eaters had very sharp teeth.   Examples of herbivores are Stegosauruses and Triceratopses.  Examples of carnivores include Tyrannosaurus Rexes (T-Rex) and Velociraptors.