Microwear Teaching Materials
Now it's your turn to be a microwear researcher and investigate the diets of extinct animals! Download the activity sheet and get started! A version with the answers are also provided.
Activities include:
Activities include:
- Introduction to microwear research and thinking about why palaeontologists prefer this to 'traditional' methods to work out extinct diets (e.g. fossilised stomach contents)
- Comparing the anatomies of modern and extinct animals via models on SketchFab (example below) to make predictions on the possible diets of extinct diets, and testing whether microwear analyses verify these predictions
- Understanding the differences between 2D and 3D analyses and the strengths of the latter
- Plotting microwear data from real case-studies to interpret the diets of extinct animals. This will be aided by 3D models of tooth microtextures from case-study animals (see below)
microwear_teaching_materials.docx |
microwear_teaching_materials_answers.docx |
Further info:
- Aimed at biology and geology students at GCSE and A-level and for geology/palaeobiology undergraduates, but suitable for anyone with a keen interest in palaeo
- Practical is best completed with a computer/laptop for viewing 3D models of skulls and microwear textures and for plotting texture data
- Approximate completion time: 45 minutes
If you have any feedback on the activities, please feel free to email me your thoughts as I'm always looking to improve and develop new activities