Coprolite Happened: Poo, Poop, Do, Dung, Scat; Do-Diddly-Be-Bop-Scat

        Coprolite happened! Not happens. Ah, but we quibble.

     Fossil excrement is a thing of the past. Coprolite, meaning dung stone, did indeed happen all over the world. And not just dinosaur scat although dinosaur poo gets the most notoriety.

        Most coprolites are primarily composed of calcium phosphate with minor quantities of organic matter. Dung beetles did enjoy their dinosaur dung. These trace fossils were a big hit with kindergartners at Dinosaur Ridge Tuesday. They uncovered an herbivore dinosaur skeleton, as well as the carnivore dinosaur tooth in her spine, her nest, and, of course, the coprolite.

        There are coprolite cabochons or cabs:

          And there's Cab Calloway, an early jazz scat singer:

           Jazz scat is a humorous, non-word way of singing, wonderfully sung by Cab, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others.

            Dinosaur scat is a humorous trace fossil. Right?

            Scat. Scat. Cab. Cab. A coincidence? I think not. . .What do you think?

          And, finally, a coprolite controversy: Is this a coprolite or Faux Poo?

                           The END.

Scat-o-logically,
Steph

P.S. I am bracing myself for Close Encounters of the Turd Kind and other poo puns. Pun on if you are feeling fair to midden. . .

                    The BEGINNING

     Zoe's Peace Corps Swearing-in Ceremony on Friday in Ethiopia:

"We use what we have, where we are, while we can."

True North and Week 51: Using Maps as Spatial "To Do Lists"

     It's Week 51 (not Area 51) of Partial Ellipsis of the Sun. WOW! What a year! Thanks for your support, your puns, your funny stories, your intellect, and yes, thanks, too, for sharing your heartbreaks.

     For the past two weeks, I have been exploring creating a daily map of my day, as I tend to think spatially anyway and to do lists are so tedious. 

      And I always start with a NORTH ARROW:

     True North. Not True South. Not True West. Not True East. True North is always the way I align myself to the day. There are many ways to represent that north arrow. . .

        Whichever north arrow one uses, the path leading up to the tip of the arrow is generally straight, unlike the path we usually follow in a day. The kindergartners and I each have our own MAP BOOKS, replete with a TRUE NORTH arrow on each internal page:

             After just one session with the map books the kids drew those north arrows first, like map-making pros, and then drew the playground with the dinosaur nest with 13 dinosaur "eggs" and mom and dad dinosaurs on or near the nest.

            [They also made "business cards" to hand out to friends:]

           Here's an example of a TRUE NORTH map for last Sunday:

       The kids already know that the north arrow may not be pointing up but may point to the left or right or even down but knowing true north is a critical part of the map. 

         One more piece of art from the festival on the playa. . .That's True North, too, especially on the journey I traveled with my son in the extensional Basin and Range topography of Nevada.

      

     Where is your True North? Have you tried making a map of your day instead of a to do list?

Steph

(Burner)

      

     My son teaching the kindies ;-) :