NSEP Minis: Fossil Detectives 11-12 Day 1
Welcome, Fossil Detectives.
We have a 270-million-year-old cold case. Strange creatures lived in Hobbs. Then something killed almost all of them. Today the case opens.
By the end of today: you'll have excavated and classified your finds, recorded everything in your Field Detective Notebook, and molded your own 3D clay fossil that dries overnight.
270 million years ago, this place was a warm, shallow sea.
Strange creatures lived here — fin-backed predators, ancient sharks with spiral teeth, spiral-shelled cephalopods, armored sea bugs. Then something killed 96% of them. We call that event The Great Dying.
The Permian Timeline:
- 299 mya — Permian period begins. Hobbs is underwater.
- 270 mya — Dimetrodon and friends are alive and well.
- 252 mya — The Great Dying. Largest mass extinction in Earth's history.
- 230 mya — Dinosaurs FINALLY evolve (after the extinction).
- 66 mya — Dinosaurs die out. Different extinction (asteroid).
- Today — us. And the oil rigs pulling Permian-era organic matter out of the ground.
The lineup — who lived in Permian Hobbs:
- Dimetrodon — sail-back, apex predator, not a dinosaur
- Edaphosaurus — Dimetrodon's plant-eating cousin (also had a sail)
- Trilobite — armored sea bug, like a giant roly-poly
- Ammonite — spiral-shelled cephalopod (squid relative)
- Brachiopod — clam-like marine creature, most common Permian fossil
- Helicoprion — ancient shark with a SPIRAL of teeth (real, look it up)
📺 Quick watch — what does a paleontologist actually do?
Real paleontologists carry a field notebook everywhere. Every find gets documented. Every depth, every observation, every guess.
Today, that's you.
Grab your Field Detective Notebook. It's yours for the rest of the workshop — and to take home.
- 🖌️ Brush — gentle. Sweep, don't poke.
- 🤏 Tweezers — lift like a surgeon.
- 🔍 Magnifying glass — bring your eye to it.
- Time (1:32 PM)
- Bin / location (Group 3)
- Depth (top layer or deep layer)
- Description ("spiral shape, gray, thumbnail-sized")
- Sketch (rough drawing — doesn't need to be art)
Get to your group. Find your bin. Tools out. Notebook open.
Everything you find is REAL — real fossils, real gem stones. You keep what you dig up.
Brush the top sand carefully. Find what's near the surface. Most finds here will be gems and surface fossils.
Document every find in your notebook before you remove it. Time, depth ("top"), description, sketch.
Your teacher will call "Deep layer." Now you can dig down into the colored sand — the older layer.
This is where the plaster fossils are hiding. Deeper means older.
Mark each find as "deep" in your notebook.
Real paleontologists sort their finds. So do you.
- Vertebrate — had a backbone (you, fish, Dimetrodon, sharks)
- Invertebrate — no backbone (bugs, clams, squid, trilobites)
- Marine — lived in the ocean
- Land — lived on dry ground
The Classification Chart (it's also on page 4 of your notebook):
| 🌊 Marine | 🌵 Land | |
|---|---|---|
| 🦴 Vertebrate | Helicoprion (shark) | Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus |
| 🐚 Invertebrate | Trilobite, Ammonite, Brachiopod | (rare in Permian) |
Your teacher will introduce the fossil categories at the start. Use the Real Fossil Lab specimens at the front table as visual reference. Some you'll know right away. Some you'll have to guess. Guessing is allowed.
Place each find into the right quadrant on your chart. Record what you classified in your notebook, page 5: "My Classified Specimens."
- Which quadrant has the MOST finds?
- What does that tell you about Permian Hobbs?
- If it was mostly ocean, where did Dimetrodon live?
Real museums make casts of fossils using silicone molds. They press soft material into the mold and let it harden. Today you do the same thing.
- 1 portion of air-dry clay (per kid)
- Shared silicone mold tray (group takes turns)
- 1 wooden skewer for your specimen tag
- 1 paper plate (per kid)
Choose one mold cavity. Take your portion of clay.
Push clay all the way in. Press firmly into every corner — details matter.
Bend the silicone gently. Peel your clay specimen out. Set it on your paper plate.
In the bottom of the clay (or on the plate label), use your skewer to scratch your initials + the year (like "AB 2026"). Real museum specimens have these. Now yours does too.
Quick group circle. Each group answers ONE question:
You'll get a bag of mystery bones — pieces of a real Permian creature. Your job: figure out what it is.
You'll examine REAL ancient fossils up close in the lab.
Then you paint your clay specimen and present your case. Specimen review.