University of Wyoming Geological Museum

The Stunning Cenozoic

The Petrifying Paleozoic

The Radical Rock Cycle

The Mysterious Mesozoic

Official Swearing In

View of the UW Geological Museum from the inside

How can you become a Wyoming Junior Paleontologist?

We're getting ready to go on a dig! Help us pick out and circle 5 things we will need. 

Challenge #4: Excavation Tools

Connect the dots by counting up to reveal an ammonite, a relative of a modern day squid or octopus that was common in the Paleozoic!

Challenge #5: Who lived in the Paleozoic?

These are shapes of dinosaurs or reptiles that lived in the Mesozoic Era. Based on their shape, circle in white animals that you think are dinosaurs, draw a blue square around swimming reptiles, and draw a green triangle around those you think are flying reptiles. Use the shape of the body to give you clues. Does it have wings? Swimming paddles? Walk on two feet?

Challenge #6: Dinosaur vs. Reptile

Help Nip the Columbian Mammoth, one of our fossils at the UW Geological Museum from the Cenozoic, by 1. drawing in his missing tusks, and 2. by helping him find his way through the maze?

Challenge #7: Help the Columbian Mammoth

Sketch a red circle around the body fossils and a blue square around the trace fossils, including those that might be traces of human life (even though that’s part of archeology)! 

Challenge #2: Body vs. Trace Fossil

Use the Paint Tool and match the different fossils with their fossilization type, answers are based on those given in the previous slide show. 

Challenge #3: Fossilization Types

Now that you're a rock expert, can you draw a line to where you think each rock in the rock cycle would be made?

Challenge #8: The Rock Cycle

Slideshow on what is a fossil and the six ways in which they can form

What are fossils and how do they form?

Fill in your name on the top line with the text tool, and use the draw tool to add your signature to the bottom left. Congratulations!

Wyoming Junior Paleontologist Certificate

UW Geological Museum Paleontologists and Students Excavating an Eocene Crocodile

Paleontologists & Geologists

Join us on a fun journey to explore what a paleontologist does and follow along with a series of activities to learn about Wyoming’s Paleontology and Geology. 

This Resource kit is aimed at grades K-5, and offers very basic explanations and 8 challenges that are fast paced, visually interesting,  and not too challenging.

Wyoming Junior Paleontologist MDL Kit Answer Key.pdf

Become a Wyoming Junior Paleontologist

Earth and Space Science

Science

Life Science

As scientists, we recognize that fossils are the preserved remains of animals or plants that are over 10,000 years old! There are two important types of fossils, body fossil and trace fossils. Body fossils are the remains  of animals or plants. Trace fossils are the reamains of an animal’s activity, like footprints or poop!

Sometimes, if an animal dies and gets buried quickly by dirt, sand, mud, or ash, it might turn into a fossil. As time passes, more and more sediment covers the remains of the animal. Uusually squishy parts rot away or are eaten by other critters, but hard things like bones and teeth often fossilize. 

There are six ways that a critter can turn into a fossil:

Bones and wood have pore spaces. Thos spaces can get filled in with minerals, forming a fossil that looks sort of like a bone-shaped rock!

Hard parts like bone, teeth, or shells slowly dissolve over time and get replaced by other minerals. 

Only a thin carbon film is left in the cirtter or leaf fossil. All other elements like oxygen, nitrogen, collagen, and hydrogen vanish. 

The really small crystals in the animal's hard parts turn into large crystals. the minerals of the fossil can change from heat and pressure without replacement. 

The original material disappears, leaving a space behind that can then get filled in to make a cast, just like dinosaur tracks or worm burrows. 

Critters can get preserved without change, like woolly mammoth hair or insects and leaves trapped in amber. 

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Become a Wyoming Junior Paleontologist

What are fossils and how do they form?

Background Knowledge

What are Fossils?