FastCounter by bCentral
Our Mission
Thecodontosaurus: The Science
The Bristol Dinosaur Project has been running now for three years. But it all began back in 1834 when the first fossils of the Bristol dinosaur were found.
The official name of the Bristol dinosaur is Thecodontosaurus antiquus - the name Thecodontosaurus means `socket toothed reptile", which doesn't say very much special about it since all dinosaurs had their teeth in sockets - just as you do. The name antiquus means `ancient'.
The Bristol dinosaur is one of the most important in the world, since it is perhaps the oldest plant-eating dinosaur, and it is close to the origin of the huge plant-eaters like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus. Learning about Thecodontosaurus will tell us a great deal about the origin of the dinosaurs.
The Bristol Dinosaur Project aims to develop an interactive exhibit, displaying the dinosaur and the environment in which it lived. Running alongside the exhibition will be an education programme to encourage wider understanding of the evolution of the environment and the ecosystems through the 'Dinosaur Age'. As part of the educational aspect of the project, school children in Bristol will be encouraged to either visit the laboratory or to see the work involved in reconstructing Thecodontosaurus and its environment in their own school. In order to do this the palaeontologists at Bristol University must discover as much about their local dinosaur as possible.
The exhibit will explain the palaeontology of Thecodontosaurus and the tropical island it inhabited. Reconstructing the surrounding environment (flora and fauna) is an important element of the exhibit as it is an invaluable tool for explaining ecosystems and how palaeontology looks at the wider picture, rather than just one animal or specimen.
The skeletal reconstruction of Thecodontosaurus will form the centerpiece of the exhibition, where a herd of dinosaur skeletons will be mounted from casts of the bones that have been extracted from the rock. In addition to the skeletal reconstruction, there will be a life model of what the dinosaur would have looked like and this will stand alongside models of other animals with whichThecodontosaurus shared its environment. The exhibit will also feature a display of what Bristol looked like when Thecodontosaurus was first discovered.
The Bristol Dinosaur Project has been running now for three years. But it all began back in 1834 when the first fossils of the Bristol dinosaur were found.
The official name of the Bristol dinosaur is Thecodontosaurus antiquus - the name Thecodontosaurus means `socket toothed reptile", which doesn't say very much special about it since all dinosaurs had their teeth in sockets - just as you do. The name antiquus means `ancient'.
The Bristol dinosaur is one of the most important in the world, since it is perhaps the oldest plant-eating dinosaur, and it is close to the origin of the huge plant-eaters like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus. Learning about Thecodontosaurus will tell us a great deal about the origin of the dinosaurs.
The Bristol Dinosaur Project aims to develop an interactive exhibit, displaying the dinosaur and the environment in which it lived. Running alongside the exhibition will be an education programme to encourage wider understanding of the evolution of the environment and the ecosystems through the 'Dinosaur Age'. As part of the educational aspect of the project, school children in Bristol will be encouraged to either visit the laboratory or to see the work involved in reconstructing Thecodontosaurus and its environment in their own school. In order to do this the palaeontologists at Bristol University must discover as much about their local dinosaur as possible.
The exhibit will explain the palaeontology of Thecodontosaurus and the tropical island it inhabited. Reconstructing the surrounding environment (flora and fauna) is an important element of the exhibit as it is an invaluable tool for explaining ecosystems and how palaeontology looks at the wider picture, rather than just one animal or specimen.
The skeletal reconstruction of Thecodontosaurus will form the centerpiece of the exhibition, where a herd of dinosaur skeletons will be mounted from casts of the bones that have been extracted from the rock. In addition to the skeletal reconstruction, there will be a life model of what the dinosaur would have looked like and this will stand alongside models of other animals with whichThecodontosaurus shared its environment. The exhibit will also feature a display of what Bristol looked like when Thecodontosaurus was first discovered.
