NSEP Minis: Fossil Detectives 11-12 Day 2
Case reopens, Fossil Detectives.
Yesterday you excavated and classified. Today: examine real fossils, investigate the Permian extinction, and present.
By the end of today: you'll have examined real ancient fossils, investigated the Permian extinction with your case detective notebook, painted your clay specimen, and presented your case in a specimen review.
Welcome back. Your clay specimens from yesterday are dry and hard now — ready to paint after lunch.
Anyone look up a creature last night? What did you learn?
- What's stratigraphy? (Reading the rock layers.)
- Difference between vertebrate and invertebrate?
- What killed the Permian creatures? (The Great Dying, 252 mya.)
Yesterday you dug up real fossils. Today you examine some BIG ones — the curated lab specimens. Real ancient material. Real paleo work.
Use your magnifying glass. Pick up each fossil. Look at patterns, texture, shape.
- Vertebrate or invertebrate?
- Marine or land?
- Does it match any of the 6 creatures from our lineup?
Pick ONE specimen that interests you most. Sketch it in your notebook on the "Lab Specimens" page. Add a note: what category? what era?
Around your table: which fossil did you pick? Why? What did you notice that surprised you?
Your teacher is going to walk you through the biggest unsolved mystery in this rock: what killed everything that lived here? Fill in your Field Detective Notebook as you listen.
The Permian Creature Cards show 4-6 creatures that lived in Permian Hobbs. For each one: what was it, what did it eat, how did it die?
The Permian-Triassic extinction killed ~95% of marine species. What ended this world? Listen to what we know and what we don't.
The dead Permian creatures became the oil under Hobbs. Same rock, two industries. Paleontologists study what lived; petroleum geologists pull out what died.
Take notes in your Field Detective Notebook. Questions you can't answer? Write those down too — real scientists work from open questions.
Decorate with markers and colored pencils. Earth tones for realism (brown, tan, rust). Bold colors if you want to make a statement. Your call.
Fill out the Specimen Tag (cut from your notebook) and tie or tape it to your cast.
- Specimen name (real species or made-up)
- Date found
- Location: Hobbs, NM / Permian Basin
- Classification: vertebrate or invertebrate?
- Detective: (your name)
Final notebook entry. Page 7: "Case Report."
This is the personal record of your investigation. You keep it.
- What did your team find? List your top 3 finds.
- What was your mystery skeleton? How did you figure it out?
- What lived in Permian Hobbs 270 million years ago?
- What ended the Permian world?
Each group presents to the class. About 2 minutes per group. The script is on page 8 of your notebook.
- "We are Group [#], the [team name]."
- "Our team's favorite find was [specimen]. It's classified as [vertebrate/invertebrate, marine/land]."
- "One thing we learned: [insight]."
Hold up your plaster cast. Point at it as you talk.
If you're nervous: let one teammate handle the intro and another handle the evidence. Split it up. You're a team.
You earned this bag.
- Your painted clay specimen — with specimen tag
- The real fossils you dug up — bagged, yours to keep
- Your Field Detective Notebook — everything you investigated
- Your Field Specimen Tag — tied to the bag with twine
- A glow-in-the-dark fossil egg — crack at home, leave in sun to glow
There's a tiny chisel and a fossil-style surprise inside. Crack open at home (it's dusty — outside or over a sink is better). Then put it in the sun for 10 minutes. It'll glow in the dark for hours.
"You're Fossil Detectives now. You know what lived under Hobbs 270 million years ago. You know how paleontologists actually work. Don't lose the notebook."