Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 104: Prehistoric Monsters of the Deep by Whizz Pop Bang

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

ta f a Cr ming swim don megalo

Monster myths! G N I Z A M A E H T MEE T MARY ANNING

Make a paper plate sea monster

WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 104

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WELCOME!

Come for a swim with some ancient sea creatures! Emmi

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Dive into the de pt hs of preh ist creature s ruled the se as – oric times where colossal from se a cows to tiny te rrors with gigantic plant-munching fe arsome claws – there’s so much to discove r! Ge t bu ple siosaurs, crafting monste sy creating pape r plate r te et smile, snipping out a swimming h to make a prehistoric me ga finge r armour inspired by an lodon and making cie nt se a animals.

Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Assistant Editor: Tara Pardo Designers: Rachael Fisher and Simon Oliver Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Staff writer: Joanna Tubbs Contributors: Sarah Bearchell, Anna Claybourne, Joe Inglis and Owen Inglis

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Welcome to WHIZZ POP BANG – the magazine bursting with enticing articles, mind-boggling facts and hands-on experiments to get your child hooked on science! Whizz Pop Bang is a gender-neutral magazine with plenty of inspirational male and female scientists and content that appeals to all children.

The magazine is ideal for home educators and it’s linked to the National Curriculum too, for use in schools. Whizz Pop Bang will help with literacy development as well. Transform science teaching in your school with our hands-on science and reading resources. Our downloadable lesson packs link fun science experiments and reading with key curriculum topics for years 2-6. Subscribe at whizzpopbang.com/schools

All experiments have been tried and tested by our team. The activities should be done under close adult supervision and are done at your own risk. Launchpad Publishing Ltd cannot accept liability for damage done.

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CONTENTS

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Mind-control computer chips, flesh-eating fish and the crabs making homes from plastic rubbish!

SEA MONSTER SAFARI

Dive in and meet the creatures of the prehistoric ocean! Make a paper plate sea monster and more…

ANIMAL ANTICS

The amazing megalodon was the biggest shark that has ever lived.

SILLY SCIENCE

Have you heard of the Loch Ness monster, the Kraken or the Hydra? Learn the truth behind some monster myths! ck .c om

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Use scraps of string, thread and ribbon to weave ‘jellyfish’ bracelets!

to rs te ut h S

PULLOUT

Craft a swimming megalodon – turn a handle to see it leap!

Atom

INTERVIEW WITH A SCIENCE HERO

Davide Foffa is a palaeontologist who has discovered and named ancient marine creatures.

HOW STUFF WORKS

Discover how enormously heavy boats float on the sea.

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

Underwater mini-monsters! Some of these prehistoric tiddlers had fearsome claws and teeth!

SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

The amazing Mary Anning discovered fossils that made people think differently about the history of Earth.

©C Y CB

2. 0

Ja m

Jo h n

I’d love to see pictures of your experiments! Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

Y’S WONDER CLUB

Ask our robot, Y, your burning science questions and share all of your adventures in science with the club.

32 34

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win a sea creatures game.

JOKES AND ANSWERS

Laugh out loud at some awesome jokes and find the answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

See an incredible fossilised skeleton of a magnificent mosasaur.

FIND THE SCIENCE EQUIPMENT Hidden on each double page is a piece of science equipment. Tick each one to find the complete kit!

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa © sruilk / Shutterstock.com

Fungi growing in a petri dis h

Australian scientists have made the surprising discovery that playing loud noises to teabags buried in soil caused fungi to grow inside them much faster than teabags exposed to very little sound. After two weeks, the teabags exposed to loud noise had increased in weight because of the fungi that had grown in them, whereas the control teabags were the same weight. They also tested fungi growing in a petri dish and found the same thing – the petri dishes exposed to loud sounds had millions more fungal spores after five days, compared with those exposed to very little sound. The scientists think that the fungi might be converting the energy in the sound waves into growth – but how they’re doing this remains a mystery. They hope this observation could lead to ways to speed up composting and restore habitats.

HERMIT CRABS

MAKE HOMES FROM PLASTIC WASTE Hermit crabs have been spotted across the world making their homes in our rubbish. Instead of growing tough shells like true crabs, hermit crabs usually use discarded snail shells to protect their soft bodies from predators. But recently, wildlife photographers have spotted crabs with more unusual armour, made from plastic bottle lids and even broken lightbulbs. Scientists think this new behaviour could impact the evolution of hermit crabs in the long run.

A recent study estimated that there are at least 171 trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans, and that could triple if no action is taken.

But things are looking up! In 2022, 175 countries agreed to make a global treaty to end plastic pollution – and it’s due to be completed this year. Watch this space!

SOUND MAKES FUNGI GROW FASTER

FLESH-EATING FISH Reconstruct ion Jurassic lam of a prey

MIND CONTROL

robot

Engineers have made a robot that grows like a vine, winding itself around things. Plastic stored in the robot’s base is fed through a hose to a 3D printer at the top. The robot’s design was inspired by climbing plants. Like a plant, the robot’s tip can sense gravity, light and shade and use this information to direct its growth, allowing it to navigate through unpredictable environments like disaster zones. © Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Imagine if you could control a computer using your mind! That’s what a company called Neuralink is trying to achieve. And they’ve just implanted a computer chip onto the surface of a person’s brain! It’s still very early days for this technology, but scientists hope that one day these ‘brain-computer interfaces’ could help people who are paralysed to walk and help blind people to see. Scientists at Stanford University in California have already created a brain-computer interface that allowed a paralysed man to type by just thinking about handwriting.

Self-growing

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Two superbly preserved Jurassic lamprey fossils, from around 160 million years ago, suggest that these fearsome predators used their toothed suckers to feast on the flesh of their prey, allowing them to grow bigger than ever before. Lampreys are an ancient group of jawless fish. Some of their living ancestors still feed on flesh and blood, but they rarely attack humans.

SEA MONSTER SAFARI!

Journey back in time to meet some of the most monstrous and By Anna Claybourne mysterious sea creatures that ever lived. Don’t forget your snorkel! These creepy creatures of the deep lived in the ancient oceans long, long ago, even before the dinosaurs.

Ammonites could grow to 3 m across. Answer on page 34

Dunkleosteus

(say dun-kul-OST-ee-us) Fossils show that this big, fierce fish had thick, bony armour plates all over its head and neck. Instead of teeth, sharp bone plates in its mouth sliced through animals with shells, such as ammonites.

Lived: Devonian Period,

382-358 million years ago

Size: Up to 4 m long Type of animal: Fish

Jaekelopterus

(say yee-ka-LOP-ter-us) Look out, it’s a GINORMOUS sea scorpion! Jaekelopterus was bigger than a tall human. It roamed around warm, shallow estuaries (where rivers meet the sea), grabbing fish and other prey with its powerful pincers.

Lived: Devonian Period,

410-402 million years ago

Size: Up to 2.5 m long Type of animal: An arthropod, related

to spiders and insects

How many words can you make out of Dunkleosteus. See some examples on page 34.

Tully monster The Tully monster, or Tullimonstrum, was just a mini-monster! Scientists still aren’t sure what this small but bizarre beast was. It had eyes on stalks and a long snout with a snapping jaw on the end for grabbing food.

MAKE FINGER ARMOUR

Dunkleosteus couldn’t ha ve survived if its armour was all in one pie ce. To see how it worked, try making some finger armour.

Yo u will need Lived: Carboniferous Period,

311-306 million years ago

Size: Up to 35 cm long Type of animal: Nobody knows!

Armour plates

hin card T Scissors Ruler Sticky tape

W h a t y o u do

1. Measure the length of your index finger, then cut a rectangle of card that is the length of your finger and measures 10 cm across. 2. Wrap the strip around your finger, using sticky tape to fix it in place (you might need someone to help you!). Try bending your finger. 3. Take the finger armour off and measure the three segments of your index finger. Each finger has three segments Your thumb has two

4. Cut a strip of card about 10 cm wide. Snip it into three segments that match the lengths of your finger segments. 5. Now wrap the strips around your finger segments, using tape to stick them together. Repeat for your other fingers and thumb.

Yo u should find

What’s a sea monster’s favourite meal? Fish and ships!

You now have an armoured hand! Can you still move your fingers around? It’s a lot easier when the armour is in sections. Like all animals with an exoskeleton, Dunkleosteus’s armour was made of separate plates, which meant it could move its head and jaws to catch its prey.

Try writing your name or playing a board game! All Sea monster images © Shutterstock.com

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AGE OF THE DINOSAURS While the dinosaurs were roaming the land, what was lurking beneath the waves? These monsters were!

Shastasaurus

(say shas-tah-SORE-us) Like the dinosaurs themselves, these sea monsters were reptiles, and some grew VERY big. Shastasaurus was one of the biggest of all, growing as big as two buses. It was an ichthyosaur, a kind of fish-shaped reptile.

Lived: Triassic period, about 210 million years ago

Size: Up to 21 m long Type of animal: Ichthyosaur

Yikes!

Archelon

(say ARK-el-on) The biggest sea turtle ever, Archelon was the size of a large car! Its huge, powerful front flippers pulled it through the water in search of tasty shellfish and jellyfish.

Elasmosaurus had the longest neck of any animal ever. Answer on page 34

Lived: Cretaceous period,

80-74 million years ago

Size: 4 m long, with a 5-m front flipper span

Type of animal: Turtle, a member

of the reptile family All Sea monster images © Shutterstock.com

PAPER PLATE PLESIOSAUR

Elasmosaurus

(say Ee-LAZ-mo-SORE-us) Plesiosaurs were another type of sea

reptile, with four flippers and long necks. Elasmosaurus was a plesiosaur with a neck that was longer than the rest of its body! It had a small head and sharp teeth for snapping up slippery fish.

Lived: Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago

With just a bit of cutting and sticking, a single paper plate (or a circle of card) can become a beautiful plesiosaur! Use a pen or pencil to mark the plesiosaur parts on your plate, like this: Neck and head

Body

Size: Up to 13 m long Type of animal: Plesiosaur

What do you call a stretchy sea monster? Elasto-saurus! Tail

Four flippers

Fishy prey

Cut them out, then assemble into a plesiosaur and stick together with glue or sticky tape. Decorate with pens or paints. If you like, you can add a fish in its mouth!

Mosasaurus

(say mow-zuh-SORE-us) Mighty mosasaurus swam fast near the surface, using its strong snapping jaws to munch up fish, squid, sharks, turtles and even seabirds. Though it doesn’t look much like them, it was related to today’s lizards and snakes.

Activity adapted from Darrell Wakelam. See darrellwakelam.com for more great projects!

Lived: Cretaceous period,

70-66 million years ago

Size: Up to 13 m long

See if you can make some other sea monsters too!

Type of animal: Mosasaur (a lizard-like sea reptile)

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MONSTER MAMMALS!

Giant sea reptiles died out along with the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. Over time, some mammals evolved to replace them, becoming the sea monsters of their age.

Lived: Eocene epoch,

40-34 million years ago

Basilosaurus

How do you get a Basilosaurus off a beach? With a whalebarrow!!

Around 40 million years ago, wolf-like land animals started to live in water. Over a long time, they got bigger and eventually evolved into whales with flippers instead of legs. Basilosaurus was a prehistoric hunting whale who would have snapped you up in a second!

Matching monsters

Size: Up to 20 m long Type of animal: Whale (a type of mammal)

Livyatan (say LIV-i-uh-tan) By 10 million years ago, Livyatan had evolved, with its massive mouth and teeth, similar to today’s sperm whales. It was big and fierce enough to hunt other whales and giant sharks!

If you think Basilosaurus (a mammal) looks a lot like Mosasaurus (a reptile), you’re right! Sea creatures often evolve into a long, streamlined shape to help them move easily through the water. So they can look very similar, even if they’re from completely different animal families – a process called convergent evolution.

Lived: Miocene epoch,

10-5 million years ago

Size: Up to 16 m long

The biggest Livyatan tooth ever found was 36 cm long!

Type of animal: Whale Answer on page 34

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Livyatan was named after a mythical sea monster called the Leviathan.

Steller’s sea cow Here’s a sea monster that would still be around today if humans hadn’t hunted it. Steller’s sea cow lived from prehistoric times until 1768, when it went extinct from being hunted for food by sailors. It was a vegetarian, feeding on seaweed and sea grass.

MAKE MONSTER TEETH! Make some fossil monster teeth using this easy recipe.

Yo u will need

20 g plain flour 1 2 tablespoons salt ½ tablespoon cooking oil 60 ml water Baking tray lined with foil or baking paper

W h a t y o u do

Lived: Miocene-Holocene epochs, 6 million-255 years ago

Size: Up to 10 m long, bigger

1. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and knead them together into a smooth dough.

Type of animal: Not a cow, but a sirenian,

2. Shape the dough into model fossil teeth. Choose from…

than an elephant

related to dugongs and manatees.

Circle these words in the grid. They might be written forwards, backwards, horizontally or vertically. Check your answer on page 34.

Reptile Mammal Livyatan

Plesiosaur Ichthyosaur Archelon L N O R

Tully monster Ammonite Mosasaur

N O

H C

N O M M A

N R

Y H T H C

E M F M O

A N H

O G

N Q

A M M A M

Livyatan Elasmosaurus

Basilosaurus (a bit trickier!)

3. Put the teeth on the baking tray and bake at 100 °C (gas mark 1 or 2) for about three hours, then leave to cool.

B M K

Or make them all!

Mosasaurus

O C

If you make a hole through each tooth with a straw or chopstick before baking, you can hang them on strings or make a monstertooth necklace!

All Sea monster images © Shutterstock.com

whizzpopbang.com 11

Megalodon

AL ANIM S TIC

This month, our vet Joe Inglis travels back in time over three million years to meet one of the biggest and most fearsome marine beasts the planet has ever seen.

Back in the ancient seas, great marine animals stalked their prey in warm, shallow coastal waters. Among these vast underwater predators were megalodons, a species of shark that lived between twenty and three million years ago.

Big tooth Megalodons were members of an extinct line of the shark family, distantly related to modern sharks like the great white. Their name means big tooth – they are thought to have had the largest teeth of any shark species, reaching a whopping 18 cm in length!

Monsters of the deep No complete megalodon fossils have been found so scientists have had to work out what they looked like from fossilised teeth and vertebrae (back bones), as well as studying their modern relatives. From using these techniques, we know that these ancient sharks could grow to about 16 m long and over 50 tonnes in weight – that’s nearly three times the size of a great white shark!

Great sharks evolve alike Megalodon © Shutterstock.com

Great white Human 12 whizzpopbang.com

Although megalodons probably looked very similar to modern sharks like the great white, they were only distantly related. The similarities between them are due to a process known as convergent evolution. This is when two different species evolve to be very similar because they are living in the same environment, rather than by being closely related.

Fearsome force One thing we do know for sure is that these animals were fearsome predators. They hunted large sea creatures, such as seals, large fish, turtles and even whales. Some studies have suggested that a megalodon could bite with up to ten times the force of a great white shark.

100,000

The estimated number of calories that a large megalodon would have needed every day. That’s about as much food as two whole classes of schoolchildren would eat!

Going, going, gone

Pleased to eat you!

Megalodons ruled the seas for millions of years, with no predators and plenty of prey to feed on in the warm prehistoric oceans. However, about three million years ago the world was changing, with ice caps forming at the poles. This led to lower sea levels and colder waters. Scientists think that these environmental changes, combined with a drop in the number of prey animals for them to feed on and more competition from new species like the great white, led to them becoming extinct.

How many megalodon teeth can you spot below?

Megalodons had more powerful jaws than a T. rex Write your answer here and check it on page 34. Answer on page 34

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For thousands of years, people have told stories of terrifying sea creatures and freshwater monsters, but where could these legends have come from? Could any of them be true?!

Monstrous myths THE KRAKEN

The story says: The Kraken is a giant tentacled creature that terrorises sailors off the coast of Norway and Greenland. Sometimes the massive monster even pulls ships down to the depths! These stories were probably inspired by sightings of giant squid (Architeuthis dux), which can grow up to 13 m long! It is rare for humans to see them as they spend most of their time in the deep ocean.

LOCH NESS MONSTER The story says:

A large monster dwells in the freshwater Loch Ness in Scotland. Lots of people say they have spotted ‘Nessie’, a creature similar to a plesiosaur (an extinct marine reptile) with a long neck and large flippers.

Some of the ‘sightings’ have turned out to be other animals or objects, like seals, swimming deer or floating tree trunks, while others have been hoaxes! Scientific surveys of the loch have failed to find any unusual creatures.

HYDRA & LEVIATHAN The story says: These dangerous and mischievous sea serpents lurk under the water. Sometimes, the snakelike creatures cause chaos for unsuspecting sailors! Sightings of giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) could be to blame for some of the many tales of sea serpents and sea dragons. It is the world’s longest bony fish, growing up to 11 metres long, with a red crest and dorsal fin.

14 whizzpopbang.com

The story says: This sea monster of the Greenland Sea opens its mouth wide and emits a strange perfume to entice prey. Whole shoals of fish swim into its mouth and are swallowed up. Sometimes unlucky boats are swallowed too!

The story says:

Sirens are female creatures who live near the surface of the water. Their singing enchants passing sailors, drawing their ships towards the shore, where they are shipwrecked. Sirens are said to be a combination of a woman and a bird. © Shutterstock

It is believed these ancient Norse stories originated from sightings of a feeding technique by whales known as trapfeeding. Whales rise to the surface with their jaws open at right angles and shoals of fish swim into their mouths!

Find a way for the ship to get safely to port, avoiding all the ‘monsters’ on the way! Check your answer on page 34.

Wikimedia Commons

SIREN

HAFGUFA

These ancient Greek myths could have been inspired by wailing winds caused by natural coastal formations or by sightings of strange, exotic birds by early sailors.

CHARYBDIS The story says: Charybdis is a

ship-swallowing sea monster in the Strait of Messina. It sucks in and spews out the water three times a day, creating a massive whirlpool! The hero king Odysseus survived by clinging to a tree when his raft was swallowed and was saved when it floated back to the surface hours later.

This ancient Greek legend was probably inspired by treacherous whirlpools caused by the tides rushing in and out through the strait.

b... clu O C E WEAVE JELLYFISH BRACELETS

Emmi’s

This clever way of weaving looks a bit like a jellyfish!

Yo u will need

Pencil Cup Old cereal box or similar Scissors Protractor (optional)

Draw around a cup, . then cut out the circle Make eight marks around the edge (either by eye or by using a protractor to e mark every 45°). Mak of re nt ce a hole in the a the circle by pushing pencil through.

3 Empty slot Third thread

16 whizzpopbang.com

Count back three slots from the empty slot. Pick up the thread in the third slot and move it into the empty slot. Now, starting at the newly empty slot, repeat the same process. Tug the cord down through the hole regularly.

selection of narrow A materials, each about 50 cm long (e.g. scraps of yarn, embroider y thread, narrow ribbon, twine, strips of plastic bag or old clothing cut to about 0.5 cm wide)

Knot the seven lengths of thread (and other materials) together at one end. Push the knot through the hole in the circle so that the knot is below it and the long lengths of thread are above it. Put one thread in each slot, leaving one empty.

When the cord is long enough to fit around your wrist, pop three threads that are next to each other out of their slots and plait them together until the plait is about 3 cm long. Pop the plait into a spare slot.

Continued on page 21 ➜

PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making! SWIMMING MEGALODON Make a mighty megalodon that dives through the waves!

Yo u will need Scissors

The templates over the page Glue Sticky tape

W hat yo u do: 1. Glue template 1 onto the cardboard. When it’s dry, cut it out and use the pencil or skewer to make holes through the two dots.

Sticky tack

2. Fold along the dashed lines and glue the tabs to the Thin cardboard (a cereal box is ideal) inside to make a box shape. Blue paint Paint the inside of the box blue to look like water. A 5 cm paper clip or some wire 3. Cut out template 2, A paper straw making sure to cut the solid A sharp pencil or a wooden line at the tail. Fold along the centre line and unfold. bamboo skewer

Find a printable version of the pullout here: bit.ly/3I0W39P

4. Fold along the other two dashed lines and unfold.

5. Refold along the centre line and cut along the white lines.

We’d love to see your megalodons! Send a photo to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

6. Add glue to the grey section, fold the template into a triangular tube and stick together. Fold the teeth down and stick on the fins.

7. Cut off a piece of the straw, about 2 cm long, and stick it to the underside of the megalodon near the front.

8. Stick one end of template 3 to the megalodon about halfway between the fins and tail.

9. Unfold the paper clip into a straight line, thread it through the straw and then bend it like this. You might need an adult to help you. 45 mm

20 mm

10. Push the shorter end of the paper clip through one of the holes in the box, repeat on the other side and then bend the ends like this. Use sticky tack to keep it in place if needed.

20 mm

25 mm 11. Stick the loose end of template 3 to the bottom of the box near the back, and your megalodon is ready to swim!

45mm

Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

1. What is full of holes but can still hold water? 2. What did megalodons have that no other animal has ever had?

When you turn the handle, your megalodon d n fi ld swims up and down, leaping out of the water! Yo u shou

3. What is the most famous animal under the sea?

TEMPLATE 1

FINS

TEMPLATE 2

TEMPLATE 3

GLUE

whizzpopbang.com 19

20 whizzpopbang.com

ng threads, Repeat with the remaini ands together either by holding two str nd plait, or by and doing a three-stra it. doing a four-strand pla

I’d love to see your jellyfish bracelet! Take a photo and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag and email it to Y@whizzpopbang.com

Remove the bracelet from the circle and tie the two pla its together about 1 cm from the end of the bracelet to make a loop. Put the bracelet around your wrist then pop the large knot you made in step 2 through this loop to fasten it.

ECO

ideas...

You can use all sorts of materials for this project! Look out for parcels wrapped with ribbon or twine, old clothes that can be cut into strips and leftover cord, thread and yarn from craft kits. You could even try using natural materials like long pieces of flexible grasses. Making something new from something that might end up in landfill is a brilliant way to make the most of our resources.

Continued from page 16

We can all help to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! Make longer lengths of cord and use them as necklaces or to tie around presents. Make a jellyfish bracelet entirely from plastic bags and plastic garden twine to make a waterproof bracelet!

whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... find prehistoric marine reptiles!

ffa

Davide researches palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham and Virginia Tech. If you have any questions of your own for Davide, you can contact him on davidefoffa@gmail.com

“

I had a passion for dinosaurs when I was a kid.

Dr Davide Foff a, Palaeontologist

“

Next, I started to learn about marine reptiles.

”

In my first project, I used digital technologies to understand how pliosaurs (giant predators) fed underwater. Later, I recognised that a broken old fossil that had been in a museum’s store for about 100 years was a new species. It was part of a group of marine reptiles called metriorhynchids (say met-ree-o-rin-kids). I named it Ieldraan melkshamensis (say yel-draan melk-sham-en-sis, which means ‘the older one from Melksham’). It’s one of two species I have named. Discovering new things is so exciting!

Metriorhynchids could have

looked like this

”

up and I went to But my interest faded as I grew geosciences. But university to study maths, then and I enjoyed it so then I took a class about fossils d to learn more. I much that I decided that I wante ory museum and joined the university’s natural hist ecked dinosaurs). investigated sauropods (long-n

“

Metriorhynchids were crocodile-like reptiles that could not go on land.

”

Their bodies were completely adapted to living in the sea: their limbs were modified into paddles (unusable on land) and they had long, shark-like tails. They were active predators. Some ate fish and cephalopods (squid-like and similar creatures). Others were bigger and probably ate smaller marine reptiles. They are so different from anything we have in today’s oceans, and yet they play similar roles to orcas and dolphins. Perhaps the food webs of ancient and modern oceans are not that different!

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

“

It is important to remember that a fossil was once a living, breathing creature.

”

When you find a fossil in the field, you are the first person that has ever seen it. I love collecting rocks and fossils from the places I visit. I keep my favourite rocks on a shelf in my living room. Visiting wonderful places around the world to expand my collection is one of the joys of my job. I also get to visit spectacular museums and see fossils that are stored behind the scenes!

Davide identified a new sp ec

“

ffa

ies from this fossil

I would travel back to the Triassic period if I could!

”

The variety of marine reptiles was absolutel y stunning – there were so many different grou ps. I have always been amazed by how lots of different groups of marine reptiles managed to live together in the same habitats. In the Jurassic, there were at least four different groups (dolp hinlike ichthyosaurs, marine crocodiles, long-nec ked plesiosaurs and big-headed pliosaurs). Toda y, the only marine reptiles are turtles, and som e snakes and lizards. They are nowhere near as big as ancient reptiles, which could be more than 10 metres long. The ocean must have felt very busy!

ils Davide loves looking for foss

The prehistoric ocean was teeming with a variety of marine reptiles

whizzpopbang.com 23

How Big Ships Float

HOW STUFF

WORKS

Ever wondered why an enormous ship that weighs thousands of tonnes and is loaded with cargo doesn’t sink to the bottom of the sea? Here’s how these nautical monsters stay afloat…

Large modern ships can weigh 100,000 tonnes or more and are usually made from super-heavy materials like steel.

They also often carry massive loads of cargo – up to 24,000 containers (which can weigh over 20 tonnes each) on the largest ‘Ultra Large Container Ships’.

As more weight of cargo is loaded onto a ship, the overall density of the ship increases, until gravity starts to overwhelm buoyancy and the ship sinks dangerously low into the water. To prevent this happening, cargo ships have a special line on their hulls called the Plimsoll line, which shows how low they can safely sit in the water.

24 whizzpopbang.com

Ships are designed to be less dense than water. Even though they are made from very heavy materials, there is lots and lots of air inside a ship. This means that the force of buoyancy is greater than the pull of gravity – and they float!

All of this weight presses the ship down into the water under the influence of gravity.

However, there is also a force pushing back up against the ship, which is called buoyancy. Buoyancy is caused by the water the ship displaces (pushes out of the way) when it sits in the water.

The balance between gravity and buoyancy determines whether a ship will float or sink. This balance is down to the overall density of the ship, which is a measure of how heavy it is relative to its volume.

Drop a lump of Plasticine or sticky tack in water. Does it float or sink? Now roll the same lump into a thin sheet and make a boat shape. Can you make it float? Changing the shape of an object doesn’t change its weight, but it can change its volume and density. The boat-shaped piece of Plasticine pushes more water out of the way, so the water pushes back with more force – enough to balance the downward pull of gravity.

g.. in z a m A ly e m o s e w A 0 1

M I N I M R E UNDE RWAT of Meet the tiny terrors

n! the prehistoric ocea

Teeny copepods have lived in damp places for the last 300 million years. Their name means ‘oar-feet’ as they travel by pulling body parts through the water like oars.

Size: 1 to 2 mm

Lyrarapax lived

around 520 million years ago (mya) and is thought to have used the fearsome claws on its head to capture prey.

Around 33,000 species of seed shrimps have been identified, and they have existed for up to 485 million years. Some species glow blue – their light was used by the Japanese army to read by at night during World War II.

Size: 0.2 mm to 3 cm

Size: Up to 8 cm

Thought to have evolved between 900 and 600 mya, foraminifera are single-celled organisms with hard shells.

Size: <1 mm to 20 cm

Fossilised comb jellies from up to 525 mya have been found, and some species still live in oceans today. They can eat ten times their own weight each day!

Size: 1 mm to 1.5 m

! S R E T S I-MON Trilobite fossil

7 8

Kerygmachela had long

body parts ending in sharp spines at the front of its head and a long, spiked tail. It might look fierce, but its tiny mouth suggests it could only have handled small prey.

Size: 17.5 cm

More than 20,000 species of trilobite lived in Earth’s oceans for over 250 million years. They could curl up into a ball like a woodlouse and some of them developed enormous spines which may have scared off predators!

Size: 4.5 mm to 70 cm Panderodus was an eel-like creature with

extraordinary teeth. It’s thought to have eaten large pieces of food and could have been poisonous!

Size: 4 to 40 cm

For decades, scientists weren’t sure what this mysterious sea creature was! Parioscorpio venator probably hid in plants then grabbed its prey with its vicious claw-like body parts.

Size: 1.6 to 4.5 cm Radiolaria are tiny single-celled plankton covered in spines. Their skeletons gather on the seabed in vast amounts, creating a slimy layer called siliceous ooze.

Size: 0.1 to 0.2 mm

© 1. CC BY-SA 4.0/Andrei Savitsky, 2. CC BY 2.5 / Anna Syme, 3. CC BY-NC 4.0 / Nix Illustration, 4. CC BY-2.0 / Orin Zebest, 5. CC BY-SA 4.0/Haruka Takagi et al, 6. CC BY-SA 4.0 / Junnn11, 7. CC BY 2.0 / James St John, 8. CC BY-SA 4.0 / Prehistorica, 9. CC BY-SA 4.0 / Junnn11, 10. Picturepest.

Images are not to scale. Sizes given are approximate.

whizzpopbang.com 27

Sensational Scientists

Mary Anning

Meet the inspiring scientist who taught herself geology and anatomy – then discovered some incredible fossils! Mary and her family lived in a tiny house that was so close to the sea that it sometimes flooded. When she was a baby, a woman who was holding Mary was struck by lightning. She and two nearby adults were killed, but Mary survived. People said that from that moment on she was a bright and curious child. Mary’s family lived in a part of Dorset that is now known as the Jurassic Coast and is famous for being a great place to find fossils. But when Mary was a child, many people didn’t know what fossils were.

Some people collected fossils as a hobby and thought they had mystical properties or health benefits. Mary’s father took her and her brother Joseph to hunt for fossils on the beach, even in terrible weather. Mary became expert at spotting them and carefully chipping away the surrounding rock. The family were poor, and their mother sold the things they found from a table outside their house to make money. Sadly, Mary’s father died when she was young. Afterwards, the family struggled more than ever.

Ammonites were prehistoric marine animals with spiral-shaped shells. How many ammonites can you spot in this illustration? Write your answer here and check it on page 34.

By Joanna Tubbs

MARY ANNING WAS BORN IN LYME REGIS, UK, IN 1799.

One day, when Mary was 12, her brother Joseph found an enormous skull embedded in a cliff face. Mary searched the area and dug out the rest of the skeleton. She and Joseph charged people a penny to come and see the skeleton. They sold it for £23 (the equivalent of £1,500 today) and it was later given the name ichthyosaur, meaning ‘fish lizard’.

This is the ichthyosaur fossil discovered by Joseph and Mary Anning. It was first called Ichthyosaurus platyodon but is now called Temnodontosaurus platyodon. It can still be seen in the Natural History Museum today.

Mary and Joseph’s discovery helped to prove that there had been life on Earth millions of years ago and provided evidence for dinosaur extinction. Mary never stopped looking for fossils and went on to discover two plesiosaur skeletons, the first pterodactyl discovered in Britain and many more significant fossils.

Women weren’t allowed to join the British Geological Society when Mary was alive, and she wasn’t given credit for her discoveries until after she died in 1847. Some male scientists talked about her work without even mentioning her name, but others recognised her brilliance and helped to support her when she became ill later in life.

This statue of Mary was unveiled in Lyme Regis in 2022 .

whizzpopbang.com 29

Now, Mary has been recognised as a very important scientist. Even though she never went to school and never left Lyme Regis, Mary and her fossils changed the way the history of the world was understood.

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club!

Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our robot, adventures in science p Bang readers! Y, and other Whizz Po ce question Everyone whose scien is page gets answered on th ng wins a Whizz Pop Ba Science Joke Book, ome available in our awes at online science shop

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F oR

Dear Y, Why does a straw look bigger in water than it does out of water?

CURIoUS K I DS

Thanks! Thomas, aged 6

Lots of you had fun making the dragon eggs from our Science Party edition (Issue 100). Rosie, aged 7

The speed of light changes depending on what it’s travelling through. The more closely packed the molecules are, the slower it goes. Light travels slower as it moves from air (gas) into water (liquid), and even slower when it goes into glass (solid), where the molecules are tightly packed together. Weirdly, the more light slows down, the more it changes direction – this is called refraction. When you look at a straw in a glass of water, the curved surface of the glass and the water inside both bend the light, like a magnifying glass, making the straw appear bigger!

Maggie, aged 8

Archie, aged 7

Isabella, aged 12

enamel badges Y’s Wonder Club Badges Collectable for you to earn! Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

Investigate scientific questions to earn your Super Scientist badge.

Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

Hello, Why is it high tide at different times in different parts of the UK?

and Isaac, aged 6, ade m 3, ed Nyah, ag ee guide the pocket tr endous from the Trem ue 75) ss (I n Trees editio ildlife W r ei th to earn ge. Watcher bad

Thanks very much. Rahel, aged 12

Hi Rahel! Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon on the Earth’s oceans. Tides travel as waves. The speed and direction of these waves depends on the depth of the ocean and the shape of the local coastline. Where the ocean is shallow a large distance from the shore, the tide will be slowed down for longer, making high tide happen later. If the ocean is deep right up to the shore, the tide moves in quickly, so high tide happens earlier. High tides also happen earlier in deep rocky bays than on shallow sandy beaches.

Joe, aged 8, made the h magic cupcakes wit g icing in g an colour-ch ience Sc e th from . Party edition

Jack and Frey loved the wal a kin water experim g en featured in o t ur Science Party edition.

Dear Y, Why do we have eyebrows instead of loads of hairs on our face like monkeys?

Jessica, aged 10, with her coll ection of Whizz Pop Bang magazines!

Max, aged 6

Fionn, aged 5, with his pictu re of Voyager 1 and its golden re cord inspired by th , e Aliens editio n (Issue 98).

Ruben, aged 6, did the walking water experiment too!

Around 1.5 million years ago, early humans lived in the hot African savannah (grassland). They hadn’t invented good weapons yet, so hunting involved a lot of running around in the heat. Humans with less fur cooled down faster, so they could hunt for longer and catch more food – and were more likely to survive to pass on their genes to their children. Over time, they evolved to have thin body hair instead of fur – with only some hairy areas remaining. Eyes are important for hunting and spotting danger. Hairy eyebrows (and eyelashes) protect our eyes from rain, sweat, dust and sunlight, which keeps our vision clear. They are pretty handy for communication too!

Send your experiments, ideas, photos, reviews and questions to Y@whizzpopbang.com or Y, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Don’t forget to include your name, age and address. We can’t return any post, sorry.

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

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whizzpopbang.com 31

um/ Test your m sil dad/old fos

How much can you remember from this issue?

at they know! to see wh

Test your knowledge with our super-duper quiz. Just tick the answers you think are correct, mark them using the answers on page 34 and then add up your score. If you need some help, check out the hints at the bottom of the page.

Megalodon means…

a) big mouth

Which of the following has been found to make fungi grow faster? a) Loud noise

b) big tooth

b) UV light

c) big poo

The Plimsoll line shows…

a) where to look for fossils at the Jurassic Coast

c) Watching TV

here to leave your b) w shoes after P.E.

Which of these is NOT a tiny prehistoric marine creature?

b) £23 c) £5,000

a) Panderodus

b) chinchillas

c) Lyrarapax

Plesiosaurs had… a) four long toes and a wolf-like head b) f our flippers and a long neck c) f our necks and a long flipper

Metriorhynchids are prehistoric creatures similar to… a) rhinoceroses

b) Sea calf

How much did Mary and Joseph Anning charge people to see the fossilised skeleton they discovered? a) A penny

ow low a boat can c) h safely sit in the water

Sea monster jokes really kraken me up!

c) crocodiles

The two holes on top of a mosasaur’s head were for… a) breathing air b) eating c) sniffing out seagulls

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages… 1) Page 12 2) Page 4 3) Page 24 4) Page 29 5) Pages 26-27 6) Page 22 7) Page 9 8) Page 35

Answers on page 34.

I scored: .......... 1-3: Intrepid trilobite! 4-6: Amazing ammonite! 7-8: Magnificent megalodon!

W ! IN

Create a creature

We’ve got five fun games to give away! To be in with a chance of winning one, we want you to invent your own wonderful sea creature. You could draw it and add labels describing its awesome adaptations to life under water, you could make a model of your creature or you could write about it, describing where it lives and what it does.

Kitty, aged 7

Mimi, aged 7

I Saw It First! Ocean game With this fast-paced game from Laurence King, you can discover 300 ocean animals from around the world. Put your reflexes to the test as you race to be the first to spot the animals! Send your entry to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Sea monster competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post it to Sea Monster competition, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please don’t forget to include your name, age and address. Deadline: April 8th 2024. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com. Sorry, we are unable to return any post.

WINNERS

Issue 102 competition winners Thank you to all of you who sent in your entries to our ‘Keeping warm’ competition. We loved your fantastic photos! These five lucky winners will each receive a Window Bird Feeder from Playmonster.

Clara Dawson, 7

Joshua Madders

Maddie Cogger, 9

Zaki Hussain, 9

Emily Stark, 8

whizzpopbang.com 33

JOKES What do you ge t cross an Arche if you lon wit an elephant? h A submarine w ith built-in snorkel! a

How d communic o you a Shast ate with asaurus? Drop him a line!

hical Which myt ver e creature n oom? ir r tidies the Mess h c o L e h T Monster!

he Why did t sh? blu mosasaur saw the it e s u a c Be ttom! ocean’s bo

How do plesiosa urs make decisions ? They flipper coin ! Page 6 – True/Untrue

Page 10 – True/Untrue

TRUE: But not until 80 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. Before that, these shelled octopus-like animals were smaller.

TRUE: Livyatan had the biggest biting teeth ever known (not including tusks, which are a kind of non-biting tooth).

Page 6 – Dunkleosteus words puzzle

UNTRUE: That prize goes to the dinosaur Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, with its 14-m neck – TWICE as long as Elasmosaurus’s!

N O

B M K

H C

N O M M A

N R

Y H T H C

E M F M O

A N H

O G

N Q

A M M A M

O C T

Page 13 – Megalodon teeth puzzle There are 14 teeth in the picture. Page 13 – True/Untrue TRUE: Scientists estimate that megalodons had a bite force around three times stronger than T. rex.

Page 18 – Riddles 1) A sponge. 2) Baby megalodons! 3) Starfish! Page 28 – Ammonites puzzle There are 26 ammonites. Sensational Scientists

By Joanna Tubbs

Mary Anning

Meet the inspiring scientist who taught herself geology and anatomy – then discovered some incredible fossils!

MARY ANNING WAS BORN IN LYME REGIS, UK, IN 1799.

Mary and her family lived in a tiny house that was so close to the sea that it sometimes flooded. When she was a baby, a woman who was holding Mary was struck by lightning. She and two nearby adults were killed, but Mary survived. People said that from that moment on she was a bright and curious child. Mary’s family lived in a part of Dorset that is now known as the Jurassic Coast and is famous for being a great place to find fossils. But when Mary was a child, many people didn’t know what fossils were.

Ammonites were prehistoric marine animals with spiral-shaped shells. How many ammonites can you spot in this illustration? Write your answer here and check it on page 34.

This statue of Mary was unveiled in Lyme Regis in 2022.

Page 8 – True/Untrue

L N O R

Page 15 – Sea monster maze

You can make more than 600 words from the letters in Dunkleosteus! Here are some examples: skeletons, loudness, tuneless, loudest, nestles, toeless, eldest, eludes, lenses, lesson, nested, oldest, sensed, snouts, sounds, stolen, stones, sunset, tokens, undoes, unless, untold, dunes, kneel, leeks, loses, lotus, louse, needs, nests, noses, noted, notes, seeds, sends, sense, sleds, sleek, sleet, steel, stuns, suede, teens, tends, tense, tones, tunes, tusks, eels, ends, dent, desk, done, duel, duet, duke, dunk, dust, keen, knee, knot, lend, lent, loss, lost, nets, nods, nose, nuts, seek, seen, send, snot, sulk, sunk, toes, told, tons, undo, used, den, doe, dot, due, duo, eel, elk, end, let, lot, nod, not, old, one, out, set, see, son, sun, ten, toe, ton, use, do, on, no, so, to, us.

Page 11 – Sea monster word search

Answers

whizzpopbang.com 29

Page 32 – Quiz 1) b 2) a 3) c 4) a 5) b 6) c 7) b 8) a

For millions of years, huge marine reptiles called mosasaurs were the top ocean predators. This 83-million-year-old fossilised mosasaur (Platecarpus coryphaeus) was found in 1911 in Kansas, USA. It hunted in a shallow sea that once stretched from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, splitting North America in two. It preyed on fish and probably also on squid and ammonites. Some fossils are so well preserved that they show undigested scales, bones and shells in their stomachs. Mosasaurs breathed air and you can see two long holes on top of its head where its nostrils would have been. Modern-day snakes and monitor lizards are related to mosasaurs!

Sea reptile

science

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