An Experiment to Demonstrate how Gastroliths Help a Dinosaur Digest its Food

Last week in our dinosaur unit we learnt that Stegosaurus, our dinosaur of the week, was a herbivore and ingested stones known as gastroliths (a bit like hens ingesting gravel), which helped to break down the tough plant material.  This was a glaring opportunity to experiment and investigate a bit further.

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Equipment for each child

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  • two Ziploc bags, one labeled with stones and one labeled without stones
  • Seven good sized stones from the garden
  • Lots of vegetation from the garden
  • Timer
  • Water (2 cups)

Hypothesis

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Method

  • Place an equal amount of vegetation in each of the two bags.
  • Add a cup of water to one of them, zip it up.
  • Set the timer at 3 minutes.
  • Have the child agitate the bag as much as they can during that three minutes.

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  • Add a cup of water to the second bag and place the seven stones inside and do the same, agitating it for three minutes

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Results

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Conclusion

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For lots more inspiration feel free to visit my dinosaur pinterest board: