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What are the kids asking this week?
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September 18:
Eileen Aldrin and Dolly Shaws Classes
Swift
School
-
What is the lifespan
of a full-grown dinosaur?
Answer:
No one knows exactly. By studying
the rings in their teeth and bones,
we think that most dinosaurs grew
very fast, reaching adult body size
after five to ten years. After that,
probably many lived to 30 or 40 years,
like many large reptiles do today
in zoos. Keep in mind that our lifespan
of about 65 years is much longer than
it would be in the wild. If we had
no doctors or hospitals, we would
live on average, only as long as we
think most dinosaurs did - about 35
years. - Paul Sereno
-
Is the Sahara desert
the hottest desert?
Answer:
The Sahara may not be the hottest
desert in the world, but it is certainly
the largest. It covers more than 3.5
billion square miles of Northwest
Africa, but it is only inhabited by
2 million people, most of whom are
nomads like the Touaregs here in Niger.
It is considered a "high pressure
desert" meaning the reason it is a
desert here is because dry air is
descending. But don't forget, deserts
are not always hot. A desert is defined
based on the amount of rainfall an
area receives. Areas that receive
less than ten inches of rain and have
an evaporation rate that is higher
than the amount of rain that falls
is what makes a desert hot or cold.
So far the hottest temperature we
have experienced in the field was
144 degrees Fahrenheit in a tent and
130 degrees outside. It dropped to
55 degrees Fahrenheit one night, but
most nights it cools off to a chilly
70 degrees Fahrenheit. - Gabrielle
Lyon
- If you retired and have kids of your
own, do you want them to take your place
in the project?
Answer:
I would give my kids - when I have them
- many outdoor experiences. The desert
is a great place to see animals and
plants you'd never see anywhere else.
Of course, there are dinosaur bones,
too. I would like to give my kids the
opportunity to experience different
cultures and hear different languages
so that they know how big and varied
the world is. - Paul Sereno
- How can you tell the difference between
male and female dinosaur bones?
Answer:
Actually, only in very few circumstances
can we tell any difference between dinosaurs
- and even if we can see a difference
only a few cases where we have many
skeletons of the same kind of dinosaur
can we see a difference in shape or
size of certain bones. One is male and
one is female, but there is no way to
say which is which. In many animals
- and especially in mammals - females
tend to be larger than males but there
is no way to know that this would have
been the case with dinosaurs.
- Paul Sereno
- What do you do if you run out of water?
Answer:
When someone runs out of water to drink
in the desert you become pretty desperate.
You can last several additional days
by drinking the water from the radiator
in a car (no one uses antifreeze in
radiators here, just water)! We want
to avoid anything like that and we would
plan to leave the desert for an oasis
before we ran out of water. This year
we had a truck bring a large quantity
of water to us and we've been storing
it in water balloons. The truck was
ten days late, so we made two trips
to get water for camp. We were able
to work without interruption, but we
did get close to leaving once. - Paul
Sereno
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