fexton] AN OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF FOSSILS 263 



fossil represents to them all that is in a shell, except perhaps, the 

 color. But it lived perhaps millions of years ago. That may 

 seem nothing to some folks but it means much to a ten-year old 

 child. When I was four years old, I saw a mounted skeleton of 

 Triceratops prorsus. My parents pointed it out to me, and told 

 me that it lived ages ago, and that it was once a great lizard (I 

 thought it a skeleton of a rhinoceros). I remembered that skele- 

 ton. I remembered it so well that, four years later, I recognized 

 it in a magazine plate, as the Triceratops. And I didn't remember 

 it just as a lizard skeleton, but I remembered it by its name. 



That point of remembering a name is a big one. Too many 

 people are afraid of a name. "Dinosaur" is "one of those awful 

 names" to be avoided. This is an error. A name is the handle 

 for a plant or animal. We take hold of it by the name; we wield 

 it, use it by the name. And once one tries to get along without 

 names, he is lost. Also, a child likes a big word that he knows how 

 to use. Teach him what it means, and he will know how to use it. 

 Don't make the name the end, but make it a means to the end. 



I find the school children have no horror of such a word as 

 'brachiopod' when they are told what it means, and why it is used. 

 A seventh-grade boy whom I have endeavored to teach something 

 of fossils speaks with ease of gasteropods, cephalopods, crinoids 

 and trilobites. He knows what the words mean, and why they 

 are used, and why they should be used. 



(1) The first point I would make then, in teaching a child 

 about fossils, is to teach him whatever technical names are neces- 

 sary, and why they are necessary. And above all, teach him the 

 meaning of the word 'fossil', and show how fossils are found in some 

 of the famous fossil beds, and also how fossils are formed. And 

 above all, also, remember that there is a difference sometimes 

 between a fossil found in one bed and the same species found in 

 another. 



(2) Then, after the child has somewhat of an idea as to what a 

 fossil is, and what some fossils are, how they are found, and how 

 formed, show him a fossil bed. Before this, his knowledge, for 

 the most part, has come from specimens. Now let him see some 

 of these things as they are found. If you can't show him 'a fossil- 

 bed, then use pictures and very few specimens at first, and bring 

 out your specimens at this point. I find this method better than 

 showing everything at the first. 



