Amber Secrets: Feathers from the Age of Dinosaurs

Amber Secrets

Knowledge Hunt

Amber Secrets: Feathers from the Age of Dinosaurs

Main Level

Dear Educator,

Thank you for downloading the free, online curriculum available at HMNS! We’re thrilled to see that you are including the world-renowned Houston Museum of Natural Science in your educational toolkit.

Here at HMNS our mission has always been to provide exemplary educational opportunities for the community. Providing educators like you with free curriculum is just one of many ways we are fulfilling that mission.

Thank you again, and we hope you enjoy your field trip to HMNS!

Best,
The HMNS Staff

How to use this guide:

Feel free to edit the questions as needed to suit your student group.
The Knowledge Hunt is structured to begin at the main entrance to the exhibit.
Please ensure that one chaperone is with every group of ten students at all times as they complete these activities.
Don’t forget to download our extension activities for use in the classroom when you return from your trip!

Please direct any and all questions to

Science TEKS Objectives:

Elementary:

K.2 (D), K.2 (E), K.10 (B), 1.2 (D), 1.2 (E), 1.3 (B), 1.9 (B), 2.2 (A), 2.2 (D), 2.2 (E), 2.2 (F), 2.3 (B), 3.2 (D), 3.2 (F), 3.9 (A), 3.10 (A), 4.2 (F), 4.10 (A), 5.2 (D), 5.2 (F), 5.6 (C), 5.7 (A), 5.7 (D), 5.10 (A)

Middle:

6.2 (E), 6.12 (C), 7.2 (E), 7.10 (A), 8.2 (E)

Explore 100 of the most exquisite specimens of amber, dating as far back as 99 million years ago. Plants, fungus, vertebrates and invertebrates such as insects, spiders, scorpions, snails, millipedes and centipedes are represented. Each polished translucent gem provides a window to the time of the dinosaurs.

Liquid Band-Aid

Trees produce resins when they are injured. How is this resin like a Band-Aid?

Bubble inclusions within amber disrupt the light passing through the gemstones and cause variations in color. How many different colors of amber are in the first case? List another possible reason amber is found in various colors?

Assorted Animals

Resin can be compared to quicksand. How is the resin produced by trees similar to quicksand?

CT Scanning and 3-D Printing: Paleontology in the 21st century

Pick a microscope and turn the knob on top of the specimen wheel to pick your favorite. Use the wheel on the microscope to sharpen the image. Draw and label what you see below

Carving Amber

The Mohs Scale of Hardness measures a substance's hardness, that is, how resistant that substance is to being scratched. What is the hardness of amber according to the table? Use the following table to determine if amber can be scratched with a knife?

Hardness of amber _____

Amber can be scratched with a knife. True or False – circle the correct answer

Scale / Hardness / Material
1 / Can be scratched easily with a fingernail / Sulfur: 1 - 1-1/2
2 / Can be scratched with fingernail / Amber: 2 - 3
Ivory: 2 - 4
3 / Can be scratched with coin / Pearl: 3 - 4
Coral: 3 - 4
Malachite: 3-1/2 - 4
4 / Can be scratched easily with a knife; cannot scratch glass / Rhodochrosite: 4
5 / Can be scratched with a knife; can just scratch glass / Lapis Lazuli: 5 - 6
Turquoise: 5 - 6
Opal: 5-1/2 - 6-1/2
6 / Can be scratched with a steel file; easily scratches window/bottle glass / Moonstone: 6 - 6 1/2
Tanzanite: 6-1/2 - 7
Peridot: 6-1/2 - 7
Zircon: 6-1/2 - 7-1/2
7 / Easily scratches metal, glass and softer stones / Quartz, Citrine, and Amethyst: 7
Tourmaline: 7 - 7-1/2
Garnet: 7 - 7-1/2
Emerald: 7-1/2 - 8
8 / Scratches quartz and softer stones / Topaz: 8
Alexandrite: 8-1/2
9 / Scratches topaz and softer stones / Ruby: 9
Sapphire: 9
10 / Scratches ruby / Diamond: 10

Amber: Uses in China

Hu-po means ‘tiger’s soul’ in Chinese. The traditional belief was that the soul of a dying tiger sank under the ground when the animal was dying, transforming into amber. What properties of amber may have inspired this myth?

An inclusion is anything foreign contained within the amber. Find the ring with the roach inclusion. Sequence the following steps by placing the numbers 1-6 in the correct order in the spaces provided to the left.

___The tree produces a sticky resin at the site of the injury

___A jeweler makes a ring using the amber with the cockroach inclusion

___The resin hardens with the insect trapped inside

___The hardened resin falls to the ground and is buried for a million years

___Someone discovers a piece of amber with a beautiful cockroach inclusion

___A cockroach crawls through the resin and becomes trapped

___A bird looking for insects pecks a hole in a tree

Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx is an intermediate between the birds that we see flying around in our backyards and predatory dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex. In the following boxes, list how Archaeopteryx is like a bird and how it is different from a bird. Then use the data from this table to complete the Venn diagram.

Likenesses / Differences

Complete the Venn diagram using the data from above.

Birds vs. Archaeopteryx

Feathers

Look at the different pieces of amber in the case that have feather inclusions. Circle the parts of the feather, on the following diagram that you can clearly identify in these specimens.

Read the text panel. There were several uses of feathers that were listed in the panel. Write them in the space provided. Can you think of other uses of feathers? Write your answer in the space provided.

Uses of Feathers / Additional Uses of Feathers

An Extraordinary Find

Find the amber that has the feather and hollow bone inclusions. Do you think these are the remains of a dinosaur or an ancient bird? Give a reason for the answer you provided.

Additional Questions

Locate a piece of amber anywhere in the exhibit that has more than one type of inclusion, for instance two types of insects. What can the specimen you picked tell us about the environment in which it formed?

Pick any piece of amber from the exhibit and any other fossil from the Paleontology hall. Compare and contrast how the fossils look. What do you think accounts for how different the fossils look?

110/30/2018