Students hunt for fossils

Students from Karen Buck and Jenny Tanner's first-grade classes explored the terrain near their classrooms at Piñon Hills Elementary to hunt for fossils on June 12.

The dinosaur dig was the culminating activity of their study on the animals and habitat of the Mesozoic Era. Armed with brushes and spoons, the junior paleontologists uncovered bones, fossils, shells, petrified wood and rocks.

There were six dig sites for the 32 students where "fossils" were salted. The students measured and tried to identify each excavated piece.

The young scientists fit the animal bones into partial skeletons and analyzed teeth and jaws to decide whether they were from meat or plant eaters.

Each student received a junior paleontologist certificate signed by Dr. Jack Horner, curator of the Museum of the Rockies. Their discoveries were to be shipped to experts to determine if any new species were uncovered.