Table Talk: The Student Who Discovered A Dinosaur Fossil

• October 25, 2013  |
• by The Family Cooks

Each week, The Huffington Post presents a compelling topic to spark discussion at your dinner table.

Can you imagine finding a dinosaur fossil during a class field trip? That’s exactly what happened to Kevin Terris a few years ago, when he was in high school. While exploring a park in Utah called the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, he found a tiny piece of bone. He showed a paleontologist — a scientist who studies fossils — and after looking into it, experts discovered that Kevin had indeed found part of a baby dinosaur skeleton from around 75 million years ago. They nicknamed the fossil — which is apparently “the smallest, youngest and most complete duck-billed dinosaur of its kind ever found” — “Joe.”

To see “Joe” for yourself, click here — or visit California’s Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology.

Questions for discussion:

* What’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever found in nature?

* What can scientists learn from the fossils they find?

* Do you have a favorite dinosaur?