Teacher Instructions
for
Discovery Guide to
Hall of Ancient Life
for grades 3 through 5
Before Your Visit:
• This activity was developed by the Education Department to help your
students focus on learning while at the museum.
• Please make copies of this activity and bring it with you to the museum. The museum does not provide copies for your students.
• Please remind your students to use pencil, not pen, when completing
this Discovery Guide. Encourage your students to fold this guide in
half so it will be easier to write on. Students should not place their
papers on exhibit walls, cases, or labels, as this can damage them.
• Save paper! Print pages 2-3, and copy them one to two-sided, so that
you have a one piece of paper with questions on both sides.
While at the Museum:
• These questions will encourage students to look closely at museum
exhibits, think critically about what they are seeing, and discuss their
findings with their classmates and chaperones.
• Most of the questions can be answered by reading the labels, but there
are several thought and open-ended questions, and students are encouraged to give an original answer.
• Students may not always come up with the “right” answer, so if this activity is to be used for a graded assignment, we suggest that you grade
more on participation and thoughtfulness than accuracy.
• Volunteers are frequently available in the galleries to answer questions.
Other Information:
• This is one of three Discovery Guides for this grade range. Discovery
Guides are available for three galleries, including the Halls of Ancient
Life, People of Oklahoma, and Natural Wonders.
• Have questions or suggestions? Send us your feedback at education@
snomnh.ou.edu, or Education Department, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, OK, 73072.
Answers
1. circle all four
2. Stromatolites
3. body rolls up - protection, eyes - finding food, exoskeleton - molting
4. C.
5. lower
6. millipede and cockroach
7. mammals
8. Eoraptor, Eoraptor
9. C.
10. birds
11. 6
12. B.
13. Saurophaganax - predator, Apatosaurus - prey
14. water or ocean
15. Protostega - marine turtle, Platecarpus - swimming lizard, Pteranodon flying reptile, Hesperornis - flightless bird, Xiphactinus - bony fish
16. hunted in packs with other Deinonychus; wolves, lions
17. 10.5
18. B.
19. flowering plants; 85 millions years old
20. Mammals
21. grass
22. leaves - Mastodon, grass - Mammoth
23. Arctodus (bear) and Smilodon (cat)
Discovery Guide
Permian Period
6. Captorhinus is the most common fossil at the Fort Sill site in Lawton,
Oklahoma. Its teeth are arranged in multiple rows and are just right for
eating what kind of animals? (circle your answers)
Hall of Ancient Life
for grades 3 through 5
Directions: Questions begin at the entry of the Ancient Life gallery in the
Paleozoic Era and go in sequence through the gallery. Finding the answers will
be easier if you answer the questions in order. To answer the questions labeled
Think, you have to use information on the label, common sense, and talk to
your friends and to the volunteers to think of the answer.
Paleozoic Gallery
1. What are some events caused by continental plates moving on the
Earth’s surface? (circle your answers)
volcanoes earthquakes
larger oceans mountains forming
2. _______________________ are rocks built by bacteria. There are
several in this gallery that you can sit on.
millipede
butterfly
cockroach
mouse
7. In the Permian Period, the top predator was sail-backed Dimetrodon.
Dimetrodon was a synapsid. Synapsids are related to which modern
group? (circle one)
mammals
reptiles
Mesozoic Era: The Age of Dinosaurs
Triassic Period
8. Find the Alligator, Marasuchus and Eoraptor skeletons and models.
Think - which animal could run the fastest? ____________________
Which of the three was a dinosaur? ___________________________
Cambrian Period - look for the models hanging from the ceiling.
3. In the Cambrian exhibits, there are many trilobite fossils and models.
Match the feature with the function:
body rolls up
molting
eyes with many lenses
protection
exoskeleton
finding food
9. Find the moving jaw models and compare the reptile and mammal
teeth. Why can’t an alligator (or a dinosaur) chew gum? (circle one)
Carboniferous Period- look for the tropical forest.
4. Insects like dragonflies were large because the level of ______ was
very high in the atmosphere.
Jurassic Period
10. Look for the gastroliths, “stomach stones” that helped sauropod
(long-neck) dinosaurs grind their food.You can touch these stones, and
you can see how they helped the dinosaur process its food.
A. carbon
B. nitrogen
C. oxygen
5. If dragonflies today are smaller, the levels of this gas today are: (circle one)
the same
higher
lower
A. Alligators (and dinosaurs) have no teeth
B. It’s not cool for an alligator (or a dinosaur) to chew gum
C. Alligators (and dinosaurs) have teeth, but they don’t fit together
What modern animals swallow sand and grit to help digest their food?
____________________________________________________
11. Find the Saurophaganax foot in the case on the wall. Most of the
bones are actual fossils, but some are casts, or carefully-sculpted replicas.
How many foot bones are casts?
1
4
6
10
What modern animal hunts in a similar way?
__________________________________________________
17. The Pentaceratops record breaking skull is _________ feet tall.
12. Why are some bones casts instead of fossils?
A. Paleontologists are lazy.
B. Some bones were missing when the foot was excavated (dug up).
C. The missing bones were used for book ends.
13. Find the two large dinosaurs on the Jurassic Island. Look for the
huge mouth full of sharp teeth and the strong arms with curved claws.
This is the Saurophaganax. Look for the long neck and large leg bones of
the Apatosaurus. Match the dinosaur to its role.
Saurophaganax
Prey
Apatosaurus
Predator
Cretaceous Period – Marine Community
14. Large swimming reptiles and other marine animals were able to live
in Oklahoma during this period because a large portion of the state was
covered by ______________.
15. Match the animal name with the type of animal.
18. Pentaceratops and other ceratopsians had specialized teeth for
chewing:
A. meat
B. plants
C. pizza
19. What kind of plants take over the world at the end of the Mesozoic
Era (age of dinosaurs)? Circle your answer.
flowering plants
ferns
How old are the flower specimens in the case? _______________
Cenozoic Era
20. The Cenozoic Era is called the Age of ______________________.
21. What new type of plant spreads out and changes Oklahoma’s
landscape? ______________________
Protostega
marine turtle
Platecarpus
flying reptile
22. Feel both the mammoth and mastodon teeth.
Pteranodon
flightless bird
Which tooth would be better for crushing leaves? ________________
Hesperornis
bony fish
Which tooth would be better for grinding grass? _________________
Xiphactinus
swimming lizard
Cretaceous Period – Coastal Community
16. Look at the diorama with Deinonychus and Tenontosaurus.
Deinonychus was a light weight but vicious predator. How did Deinonychus
attack a large, heavy animal like Tenontosaurus?
__________________________________________________
Pleistocene Community
23. Circle the animals that are predators.
Arctodus
Bison latifrons
Mastodon
Smilodon
Created by Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Education Department, 2011