Dinosaurs...... Again

More dinosaurs in the news today, but this time, it's a good story. A boulder has been found on the Isle of Wight that contains 3 DIFFERENT types of dinosaur footprint- An adult iguanodontid, a baby iguanodontid and a theropod. This offers a rare glimpse into the palaeoecology fo the area. Now I remember ecology lessons at school, and the food web and all of that but only because I chose to follow that area of science for a career path. You ask the other that were in my class and they probably won't remember. But I can gaurantee you that if you taught it using this boulder and dinosaurs as an example, many more children would remember what ecology was all about. This boulder would also make a fascinating documentary, all about the cretaceous eco-systems of the South East of England. The dinosaur heritage of our little Island is huge, but so little is known about it by the publice, as so much hype is given to the American and Chinese dinosaurs. So how can we go about communicating the dinosaur history of the UK to the general public? Well short articles on the BBC website probably aren't going to cut it. One way probably would be to make a documentary or a mini series (this was attempted by fossil detectives, but this programme didn't concentrate soley on dinosaurs), better promotion of the Lyme Regis fossil fair is another way of going about it, but then Lyme Regis is a long way to travel for the day if you live in Edinburgh. The other way, which I think would be fantastic, is for the British Science Association along with the Geological society of London, to set up a national fossil festival, celebrating Britains Dino History at key localities all over the UK. GF