Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 88: FLYING BEASTS

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

Pterrific!

E n g i n ee r a flappingr p t e r o s au

Make a ! r p e g - o s au

PREHISTORIC

BEASTS Test a pterosaur glider

WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 88

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

Welcome to the pterrifying world of pterrific pterosaurs!

WELCOME!

Emmi

WHIZZ POP BANG is made by:

Inside this high-flying edition humungous pt erosaurs as big , you’ll ge t to me et as flying dinosaurs, thought to ae roplane s, and small be of mode rn birds. You can cut the early ance stors out pt erosaur mobile, investigat e and make a flapping might have he lped them to fly how pt erosaur crests and star t ge tting re ady for C hristmas with some ec o-friendly home made tree de corations.

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, Owen Inglis, Kate Powell and Kirsty Williams

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

As well as our writers, we also have a team of science advisers who help to ensure that our content is accurate, up-to-date and relevant. Our advisers include: palaeontologist Steve Brusatte; molecular microbiologist Matt Hutchings; robotics engineer Abbie Hutty; mechanical engineer Amiee Morgans; GP Dr Cathy Scott; astronomer Mark Thompson; physicist Dr Jess Wade; child psychologist Dr Naira Wilson.

To find out more, go to whizzpopbang.com/about

Make your own model fossils to dig up!

Riley

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ISSN 2399-2840

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M ISSUE 74 EXPER IMENT S PUZZL ES AMAZ ING FACTS SCIEN CE NEWS

WHIZZ POP BANG is only available by subscription. If you haven’t subscribed yet, simply go to whizzpopbang.com and sign up for as little as £3.99 per magazine, including UK delivery.

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GROWN-UPS

EDUCATORS

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.

Indicates content linked to the National Curriculum

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© 2022 Launchpad Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents of WHIZZ POP BANG without written permission is prohibited. Illustrations: © 2022 Clive Goodyer

CONTENTS

4

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Read about science’s wackiest awards, a smashing space collision and a fascinating fossil find…

FLYING HIGH

6

Soar through prehistoric skies as you test a pterosaur glider, make a peg-osaur and create a model fossil!

ANIMAL ANTICS

Discover the secrets of Archaeopteryx, thought to be the link between dinosaurs and modern birds.

SILLY SCIENCE

14

Was there really a prehistoric daddy long legs that was bigger than a Triceratops?! Take this quiz to find out…

©

Sh u

12

tte

rst ock

.com

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

16

Upcycle scraps into two planet-friendly Christmas decorations.

PULLOUT

17

Craft a fantastic flapping pterosaur mobile!

Atom

22

INTERVIEW WITH A SCIENCE HERO

Meet a palaeontologist who uses laser beams to reveal the secrets of ancient fossils.

24

HOW STUFF WORKS

Discover how a glider can soar into the air, even though it doesn’t have an engine. © RTimages / Shutterstock.com

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

Weird and wonderful pterosaurs! This pterrible lot range from ginormous to tiny and from toothless to fanged!

28

© Dan

iel Eskridg

te r hut e/S

.co ck st o

m

30

26

SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

Richard Owen was a fossil expert who gave dinosaurs their name and founded London’s Natural History Museum.

Y’S WONDER CLUB

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

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION I’d love to see pictures of your knowledge with our super-duper 32 Test your experiments! Send them to science quiz and win a volcano kit!

Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media JOKES AND ANSWERS out loud at some awesome jokes and find the 34 Laugh @whizzpopbangmag answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

35

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE Marvel at an incredible Pterodactyl fossil!

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

G NOBEL PRIZ I 2 2 0 2 ES THE Each year, science’s wackiest awards celebrate scientific research that makes you laugh, then think.

Here are some of our favourites among this year’s winners…

10 LITTLE DUCKS… A SORRY TAIL The Biology Prize was won by South American scientists who investigated how constipation (not being able to poo) affects the mating prospects of scorpions. Like some lizards, some scorpions can detach their tails if caught by a predator. But in doing so they also lose their anus, so they can’t poo any more! The good news for the scorpions is that this doesn’t appear to stop them finding a mate.

The Physics Prize was presented to an international team of scientists who worked out how and why ducklings swim in a line. The researchers got a group of ducklings to follow a robot mother duck in a big tank of water and found that swimming in a line saves the ducklings energy.

LUCKY WIN The Italian winners of the Economics Prize explained mathematically why success is often down to luck rather than talent. Donna Strickland, the Nobel-Prize-winning scientist who presented the award, admitted that luck had played a role in her own success.

DOORKNOB DATA The Engineering Prize went to a team from Japan who studied doorknob turning, concluding that the bigger the doorknob, the more fingers you need to use to turn it.

The team has since turned their attention to studying bag handles and umbrella grips. © Shutterstock.com

PTEROSAUR ANCESTOR REVEALED

Schleromochlus was the size of a rabbit © Gabriel Ugueto

A SMASHING SUCCESS!

FLASHY FLYING FLUFFBALLS © Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

© NASA/Johns Hopkins

American space agency NASA has successfully crashed a spacecraft into a faraway asteroid to test whether they can knock it off course. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft arrived at an asteroid called Dimorphos in September, after travelling through space for 10 months. Dimorphos doesn’t pose a risk to us, and this test won’t change that. This was just an experiment to test whether we could redirect a big space rock in this way should we ever need to. Luckily, space scientists say no large asteroids will come near Earth for at least 100 years.

After analysing images from telescopes on Earth and in space, NASA confirmed that the impact had succeeded in changing the asteroid’s orbit. “This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

APL /Steve Gribben

You can watc h the fina l imag es take n by the spac ecra ft as it appr oach ed the aste roid here : go.n asa. gov/ 3fGr Q4Z

For hundreds of years, the mystery of how pterosaurs evolved has baffled scientists.

But new research has revealed one of their early ground-dwelling ancestors. A team of scientists from Scotland and America used computed tomography (CT) to scan a fossil discovered in Scotland over 100 years ago.

The fossil – a small reptile from the Triassic Period – was poorly preserved and difficult to study, but CT scanning allowed the team to reconstruct the animal’s skeleton and identify it as a close relative of pterosaurs.

Recent evidence suggests that some pterosaurs were covered in colourful feathers.

Fossilised pterosaur skeletons are rare – and fossils with well-preserved soft tissues are even rarer. But an exquisitely preserved fossil from Brazil shows clear evidence of feathers on the pterosaur’s head. It was even possible to identify different types of melanosomes – microscopic structures responsible for skin and hair colour – suggesting that some pterosaurs might have been as colourful as parrots! “For decades palaeontologists have argued about whether pterosaurs had feathers. The feathers in our specimen close off that debate for good,” said lead researcher Dr Aude Cincotta. The scientists think this colourful plumage wasn’t just there to keep the animals warm – it may also have been important in attracting a mate.

whizzpopbang.com 5

FlyingHIGH

By Anna Claybourne

When dinosaurs walked the Earth, flying monsters ruled the skies! They were the pterosaurs (say TEH-ruh-sors), winged reptiles related to dinosaurs. They existed for over 175 million years.

Here’s a ptypical pterosaur, a Pteranodon!

Pterosaurs’ wings were made of thin, leathery skin.

Oooh, it’s another new one!

Some had long tails, but this one didn’t!

Palaeontologists

(fossil scientists) have found over 130 different species of pterosaur – and they’re still finding more!

WHO FLEW FIRST?

Though they lived ages ago, pterosaurs were not the first flying creatures. In fact, four different types of prehistoric animals evolved the ability to fly – all separately!

Here’s what happened…

6 whizzpopbang.com

325 million years ago: Insects were first into the air, flying on thin, see-through, flapping wings.

Pterosaurs were the first flying vertebrates (animals with backbones).

230 million years ago: The first pterosaurs took to the skies…

Beat you!

Delitzschala

Rhamphorhynchus

At last!

150

t t!

WHAT WERE CRESTS FOR? Most pterosaurs ha d crests, in a variety of shapes and sizes.

But why? Try this experiment to see ho w a crest affects flig ht.

Yo u will need

Many pterosaurs had a sticking-up crest on their heads

3 sheets of A4 paper Sticky tape Ruler

Pencil Scissors A large indoor space

What you do 1. First, fold two sheets of paper into paper darts, like this: 1

Long beak-like mouth for grabbing fish from the sea

Some pterosaurs ate dinosaurs!

4

7

2

3

5

6

8

Answer on page 34

Today, there are no true flying reptiles left – just a few lizards and snakes that can glide a short distance, such as the draco lizard.

150 million years ago: Next came the birds, which evolved from small, feathery dinosaurs.

Wheeeeee!

55 million years ago: Late to the party were the bats, the only flying mammals. Like pterosaurs, their wings are made of thin skin.

Last but not least!

Birds are the best!

Archaeopteryx

Icaronycteris

2. On the third sheet of paper, measure and draw a triangle in the corner, 11 cm wide and 5 cm high, like this.

3. Cut off the triangle and slot it between the wings of one paper dart, like this, to act as a crest. Hold it in place with sticky tape.

4. Use another piece of sticky tape to hold the wings of the other dart together, like this.

5. Now test your darts! Throw them both in the exact same way and see how they fly.

You should find

The crest may help the dart to fly straighter and further. What happens if you bend the crest? Do you think crests could have helped pterosaurs to steer?

whizzpopbang.com 7

GIANTSAIR of the

Some dinosaurs grew to ENORMOUS sizes!

But what about pterosaurs – how big could they be?

Well… this BIG!

Meet Quetzalcoatlus northropi (say ket-zal-co-at-lus north-ropey), the biggest pterosaur ever found.

Its wingspan could reach 11-12 m across – bigger than some planes!

300 kg

To see just how big Quetzalcoatlus really was, here it is shown to scale, alongside…

A small 4-seater plane, the Cessna 172 A wandering albatross, the biggest bird and largest flying animal alive today

A human

LITTLE AND LARGE

Not all pterosaurs were ginormous – they came in all shapes and sizes.

Turn to page 26 to see some weird and wonderful examples!

8 whizzpopbang.com

It probably weighed around 300 kg – as much as ten 10-year-olds!

Duck!

No, it’s a Quetzalcoatlus!

WHICH IS WHICH?

‘Pterosaur’ means ‘winged lizard’ – from the words ‘pteron’ for wing, and ‘saurus’ meaning lizard, or reptile. Can you match these prehistoric animal names to their meanings? Check your answers on page 34.

Dinosaur Ichthyosaur Spinosaur

F ish lizard Spiny lizard Terrible lizard

PEG-OSAUR Make your own clothes peg pterosaur, or ! a whole flock to hang around your room

!

Why did the Quetzalcoatlus cross the road?

Because chickens hadn’t evolved yet!

Its huge head was over 2 m long – more than the height of a tall human.

Yo u will need

ooden springy W clothes pegs (one per pterosaur) Card

Scissors White paper Glue Hole punch (optional)

Pens

Re cord Brea ke r!

Quetzalcoatlus was the biggest flying animal EVER!

HOW DID THEY FLY?

What you do

1. Draw a pterosaur’s wings, body and legs on the card, like this, around 15-20 cm across.

15-20 cm

So how could a huge pterosaur like Quetzalcoatlus or Pteranodon get into the air – and stay up there? Well, they had a few clever flying tricks...

Some of their bones were hollow, making them light and

strong and holding extra air to provide more oxygen.

Their wings had a large surface area, stretching

2. Decorate your pterosaur with colours and patterns. Copy our design if you like!

3. Cut out your pterosaur, then clip on your peg to make the head!

4. Glue on some eyes made from small circles of white paper (you could use a hole punch) with a black dot in the middle.

between their legs and their fingertips.

Once up in the sky, they could save energy by gliding on

outstretched wings and only flapping once in a while, just as some birds do today.

Some experts think they may have used their wing

bones to push themselves up into the air when they took off.

Ready…

Push…

FLAP!…

We have lift-off !

See how pter osau rs migh t have laun ched them selv es into the air: bit.l y/3C LiON b

Ask an adult to help you hang your peg-osaur up using thin string or sewing thread.

Finds FOSSIL A pterosaur dies and falls into the sea, where its body rots away, leaving just a skeleton…

Look what I’ve found!

We know about pterosaurs because of the fossils they left behind. Fossils gradually form after an animal dies, as its bones or other body parts are buried and replaced by minerals.

Layers of sand and mud collect on top, then slowly get squashed down into solid rock. The bones slowly dissolve away...

Water filled with minerals seeps into the spaces. The spaces slowly fill up with minerals, forming stony fossil bones.

Over time, rocks containing fossils move around as the Earth changes. They often wear away or break apart, making the fossils easier to find. Palaeontologists dig them up and study them to find out about prehistoric creatures.

PTEROSAUR FOSSILS 1784

Italian naturalist Cosimo Collini was the first to study a pterosaur fossil.

He thought it was some kind of sea creature, but we now know it was a Pterodactylus.

It must be a sea monster!

Sadly for pterosaur-lovers, pterosaur fossils are quite rare. That’s partly because their light, hollow bones often didn’t stay in one piece long enough to be turned into fossils. However, pterosaur studies have a long history…

1828

Famous fossil hunter Mary Anning found the first British pterosaur, a Dimorphodon.

It’s obviously a flying creature!

TODAY

If you’d like to study pterosaurs, you’re in luck! Recently, palaeontologists have been finding more and more new, exciting pterosaur fossils. Turn to page 22 to read about one discovered on the Isle of Skye in Scotland in 2017.

Why can’t you hear a oing pterosaur g t? to the toile eP Because th is silent!

10 whizzpopbang.com

ng ?

P

HERE BE DRAGONS!

Of course, people probably found pterosaur fossils lying around long before palaeontologists first studied them. In fact, they could explain all the myths and legends about dragons that are found around the world!

MAKE A MODEL FOSSIL

Use this simple salt doug h recipe to make a realistic-looking fossil pterosaur – or any other fossils yo u like!

Yo u will need

120 g plain flour 2 tablespoons salt ½ a tablespoon cooking oil

60 ml water A baking tray lined with baking paper

What you do Pterosaur fossils could explain where tales about dragons came from!

GOODBYE PTEROSAURS!

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until they form a dough, then knead it for a while.

2. Shape the dough into pterosaur bones, laying them out carefully on the baking tray.

3. Ask an adult to help you bake your bones on the lowest oven setting for about 3 hours, until they’re rock hard.

4. Let them cool, then arrange them to make your fossil pterosaur!

Around 66 million years ago, all pterosaurs became extinct after a large asteroid hit the planet. Unlike the dinosaurs, they left no descendants.

It’s been nice knowing you!

You

could bury the bones for someone else to dig up, then see if they can fit them together.

AL ANIM S TIC

AN

Archaeopteryx

Our vet Joe Inglis is heading 150 million years back in time to the Late Jurassic Period to uncover the secrets of a dinosaur thought to be one of the earliest ancestors of birds.

Fossil feathers Archaeopteryx (say ar-kee-op-ter-ix) was a small bird-like dinosaur that lived alongside dinosaurs such as the fearsome allosaurus and the spiny stegosaurus. It was first identified from a single fossilised feather found in a limestone quarry in Germany in 1861.

Back in black

© Shutterstock.com

About the size of a modern-day magpie or raven, Archaeopteryx had broad wings and a large tail covered in feathers. After comparing Archaeopteryx feathers with those of modern birds, scientists think they were most likely to have been black in colour.

12 whizzpopbang.com

50 cm The maximum length of an adult Archaeopteryx, from its beak to the tip of its tail.

Is it a bird?

Soon after the discovery of the first feather, a nearly complete skeleton fossil was found. This was examined by the famous Victorian anatomist and palaeontologist Richard Owen. He realised that this species had features in common with both dinosaurs and modern birds. Like birds, Archaeopteryx had wings, flight feathers and wishbones (a special feature in birds that helps strengthen their chests for flight). They also had sharp teeth in their mouths, claws on their wings, and long bony tails, just like a lot of dinosaurs.

x

The missing link

High flyers

This mix of features led scientists to realise that these ancient dinosaurs were an evolutionary link between the dinosaurs and modern birds.

Charles Darwin used this evidence to support his theory of evolution, helping him to show how gradual change over millions of years could create entirely new types of animals.

Although Archaeopteryx had feathered wings, scientists aren’t sure whether it could fly like modern birds.

Some think their feathers were too weak to support powered flight, but others don’t agree. The most recent study suggests that they could fly, but only in short bursts, much like modern-day pheasants.

Why did the Archaeopteryx like mornings?

Because it was an early bird!

Slowly does it

Draw lines to match the Archaeopteryx dinosaurs with their shadows. Check your answers on page 34.

More than 100 Archaeopteryx fossils have been discovered Answer on page 34

What do Archaeopteryx and the kiwi bird from New Zealand have in common? They are both slow growers, taking far longer than most birds to reach their adult size.

It’s thought that it took nearly three years for a baby Archaeopteryx to reach full size – and that’s even longer than you might think, as there were 375 days in every year back in the Late Jurassic period!

BARMY BUGS!

Some prehistoric bugs were truly huge!

Do you think these frightening facts are all true or are we telling whoppers?!

There was a prehistoric daddy long legs with legs 5 m long – it could easily step over a Triceratops!

1

TRUE

3

FALSE

The largest extinct cockroach was three times bigger than any alive today.

TRUE

14 whizzpopbang.com

FALSE

2

An ancient giant mantis-like creature had needle-sharp spines sticking out of its forelegs.

TRUE

FALSE

Divide the grid into four parts so that each part contains a dragonfly, a millipede, an ant and a cockroach.

Check your answer on page 34.

4

There was a prehistoric ant the size of a badger!

TRUE

1. FALSE – da

FALSE

A giant dragonfly had a wingspan wider than a pigeon’s.

TRUE

FALSE

SW

ER ddy long le (or crane fl gs ies) have b S een around the Early C since retaceous, but the larg known is a est ever species aliv e today, wh a leg span ich has of almost 2 6 cm. Altho they look a ugh bit like gian t mosquito es, they don’t bite – luckil y! ants

Why don’t ever get sick?

Because they have anty-bodies!

5

AN

titan was at lived e predator th lik sti n a m e spiny a massiv . It had large d o ri e P ic ss a ri ing prey. during the T to grab pass d se u it t a th 0 cm, forelegs an of up to 4 sp g in w a d Gigatitan ha it probably as so heavy w y d o b s it sed its although ht to have u g u o th is It couldn’t fly. g sound, ke a vibratin a m to s g in forew . day’s crickets similar to to

2. TRUE – Giga

3. FALSE – the largest

extinct cockroach, which lived in the Carboniferous Period, was around 9 cm long, about the same size as the biggest cockroach species alive today.

6

An ancestor of today’s millipedes and centipedes was 3 m long; that’s twice as long as an average sofa!

TRUE

FALSE

4. F

ALSE – the biggest ant specie s that eve r lived wa the size of s about a hummin gbird, whic for an ant! h is still hug The worke e rs were ab and the q out 3 cm lo ueens were n g 6 cm, with of about 1 a wingspa 5 cm. It is n th ought the acid as a y could sp defence a ray nd probab ly p re y e d other anim on als.

5. TRUE – a giant dragonfly with a wingspan of up to 75 cm buzzed around planet Earth about 275 million years ago.

It was a distant relative of the dragonflies you see today.

millipede riod Carboniferous Pe that lived in the ies to invertebrate spec was the largest oked rth. Although it lo ever roam the Ea ous entirely herbivor terrifying, it was (vegetarian).

6. TRUE – a massive

b... clu O C E

Emmi's

TREE-MENDOUS DECORATIONS!

Get ready for Christmas by making these delightful decorations from scraps of old fabric and string!

Ribbon tree You will need

A stick about 18 cm long Scraps of festive or green ribbon, or old green fabric String Scissors

1 2

bric, cut it If you are using fa ribbon or the into strips. Tie the nd the stick. strips of fabric arou

3

Bunch them tightly together and then trim the edges into the shape of a tree – wider at the bottom and narrower at the top.

Tie a piece of string to the top of the tree so you can hang it up.

16 whizzpopbang.com

Continued on page 21 ➜

PULLOUT FLYING BEASTS

PULL OUT PAGES 17-20 AND GET MAKING!

SOARING PTEROSAUR

Template 1A

Create a fantastic flapping pterosaur mobile. Pull the string and watch it fly!

GLUE

Yo u will need

emplates 1-5 T Thin string or thick thread A stick at least 20 cm long (or a pencil) Scissors Glue stick Sticky tape Sharp pencil Colouring pens or pencils Four 5p coins

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

whizzpopbang.com 17

What yo u do

Tem p

late

GLU

3A

E

1. Colour in the white parts of the pterosaur templates with whatever colours you like – scientists don’t know what colours they were so use your imagination!

2. U se sticky tape to attach a 5p coin to templates 1B and 2B, and two coins to template 3B. 3. C ut out all the templates, and then stick templates 1A, 2A and 3A onto templates 1B, 2B and 3B with glue – this is to make your pterosaur thicker and stronger.

4. U sing a sharp pencil, make holes through the dots on templates 1, 2 and 3 just big enough to thread your string through.

5. Use sticky tape to attach one wing to the body, as shown.

Repeat with the second wing on the other side, making sure that the wings line up with each other.

6. Starting from the top of a wing, thread a 50 cm piece of string down through one of the holes and then back up through the other one.

Pull the string through until both ends are the same length and tie them together in a knot, leaving about 5 cm at the ends. Repeat on the other side.

GLUE

Template 1B

18 whizzpopbang.com

of with – t our

a

and A , 2B o er

e

big ng

one n. ing

p

7.

Thread a 20 cm piece of string through the hole in the body and tie a knot in the end to secure it in place.

Fossilised pterosaur skulls show that they had large eyes, so pterosaurs would have had excellent vision – like today’s flying birds.

3B late p m Te E GLU

8. T ie one end of a 40 cm piece of string to the centre of the stick (or pencil). Make a loop in the other end so you can hang your mobile up.

9. T ie the wings to the stick, using the extra 5 cm lengths of string you left over in step 6.

10. H ang your mobile up somewhere well above the ground and make sure the body is in line with the wings. If it isn’t balanced, adjust the position of the strings on the stick or add paperclips to the wings or body.

Template 2A

11. N ow pull down on the string to see your pterosaur flapping its wings!

GLUE

Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

1. A pterosaur fell from the sky but didn’t get hurt. How? 2. If a pterosaur weighs 30 kg plus half its total weight, how many kg does it weigh?

3. I’m named after a mythical creature that is able to breathe fire.

But I’m an insect with four wings that help me to fly higher.

whizzpopbang.com 19

You should find

Your soaring pterosaur flaps its wings and glides up and down! Before you pull the string, the pterosaur is balanced, but when you pull it, it becomes unbalanced. When you release the string, the model will try to return to its balanced position. Momentum keeps it moving up and down (oscillating) until it runs out of momentum and stops.

Can you think of a word to fill in each space, using only letters in the word

PTEROSAUR? 1

The opposite of go!

____ 2

A volcano might do this

_____ 3

The sound an angry lion makes

____ 4

The sound a happy cat makes

____ 5 GLUE

You have five of these on each foot

____ 6

Colourful birds that live in the jungle

_______ 7

These might come out of your eyes if you’re upset

_____ 8

Small green vegetables that come out of a pod

____ Template 2B

20 whizzpopbang.com

Can you make a whole sentence using only words made from ‘pterosaur’?

Here’s an example…

Parrots pour out pea soup so apes stop to eat!

Festive Santa

1

You will need

String or wool Scraps of fabric or felt A bean or bead Fabric scissors Protractor

eedle and thread N or glue Small pompom or ball of cotton wool (optional)

2

Lay the end of the string or wool on the palm of your hand, then wrap it loosely around your hand about 30 times. Carefully slide the loops off your hand. Tie another piece of string tightly around the middle and cut through the loops.

3 Draw around a protractor onto your scrap fabric or felt to make a semi-circle. Cut it out and then fold it around a pencil to make a cone with a hole in the top. Fix the cone together with stitches or glue. This will be your Santa hat!

Trim the wool into a beard shape. Sew a bead, or glue a dried bean, onto the bottom of the underside of the hat to make a nose. You could add a pompom or some cotton wool to the top of the hat too!

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

ECO

More

ideas...

Make more tree-shaped decorations using strips of plastic bags, twists of foil or even twisted scrap paper.

Upcycling items to make presents is a lovely way to give a gift and help the environment. Look back through our previous eco club pages for ideas!

Continued from page 16

It’s up to us to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference!

Wrapping presents creates a lot of waste, but it is fun to open presents! In Japan, people use a traditional cloth called furoshiki to wrap presents. You could use an old scarf or scraps of fabric.

Once the present has been opened, you could ask for the fabric back so you can reuse it the next time you give a gift.

whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... discover new pterosaurs Natalia Jagielska studies Jurassic pterosaurs at the University of Edinburgh. If you have any questions of your own for Natalia, you can contact her at

© Natalia

Jagielska

natalia-jagielska.weebly.com/contact

“

I am the first scientist in my family!

Natalia Jagi Palaeontologist elska, and illustrator

“

I shot laser beams at ancient bird fossils to research their chemistry!

”

I first started learning about palaeontology through geology (studying rocks). Then eventually I gained the right skills to join a research project looking at bones of flying animals found on Skye, an island in Scotland.

“

”

My grandpa was a coal miner, which is similar to being a fossil hunter in some ways. I loved digging through gravel when I was a child, and have always been interested in animals, but I didn’t know I could turn these hobbies into a job! I was passionate about animal conservation, then later this shifted to animals that had already gone extinct.

One of the researchers spotted the top of a pterosaur skull sticking out of a rock!

22 whizzpopbang.com

t the

Researcher Amelia Penny was first to spo fossil sticking out of a rock

© Stephan Bru

sat te

”

The entire team rushed to excavate the fossil before it was flooded by the tide. It was so exciting – it’s the first pterosaur skeleton of such quality to be discovered in Scotland, and there are probably more to be found. Who knows – maybe you’ll discover the next one!

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

“

We named this newly discovered Jurassic pterosaur Dearc.

”

“

Did you know that artistic skills can be helpful when you’re a scientist?

”

Amazing artworks of prehistoric animals and Jurassic Park movies and games inspired my fascination with palaeontology. I use my drawing skills to illustrate fossils and reconstruct the animals I study. I draw cartoons and comic characters and design film posters to relax after work, too.

“

My office is decorated with dinosaur toys and posters!

”

I study scans of bones and brains, and figure out cell and bone structures there. Some days, I help teach or go on trips, searching for fossils around Scotland.

This is how a artwor creatin Nata loves lia love Natalia s crea ting gart work.k.Thi s is how a group have s might Dearc group ofof Dea rc cou ld have looklooked ed

“

© Natalia Jagielska

Natalia with the incredible fossil discovered on Skye and a reconstruction of Dearc

© Callum Bennetts, Maverick

Photo Agency

Its wings stretched from its long fourth finger, similar to a bat’s wing. It probably ate squid and fish which it caught using its large, interlocking teeth. It had a long tail decorated with a vane, like a dragon!

The more you know, the more interesting the world becomes. ing questions.

Never stop being curious and ask subjects – the Find out about lots of different These skills d. world is strongly interconnecte scientist! will help you to become a super

”

The three-clawed hand of Dearc – look at its enormous sharp claws!

© Natalia Jagielska

This diagram shows the size and some bone structure of Dearc

Watch a video about Dearc’s discovery here: bit.ly/3qCX9A0

Find out more about xxxxxx © GregoryFunston

whizzpopbang.com 23

Gliders

HOW STUFF

WORKS

Gliding is a way of flying without power. It’s used by lots of animal species, from pterosaurs to modern animals like flying squirrels, flying fish, ants, spiders – and even gliding squid! In the last 150 years, humans have learnt how to glide, and have developed unpowered flying machines to soar high up into the sky. Here’s how they work…

At the back of the glider is the vertical tail fin with the horizontal tailplane attached.

© RTimages

/ Shutterstoc

k.com

3

4

Just like other aeroplanes, gliders are steered using control surfaces – flaps on the wings and tail that can be moved to control the direction of the glider.

5

The pilot (and sometimes a passenger) sits inside the cockpit of the glider where there is a control stick to steer with, an altimeter to show how high the glider is, an air-speed gauge, and a radio for speaking to the ground control or other planes.

Because they don’t have an engine, gliders need help to get into the air. They can be towed up by a powered plane or pulled up using a WINCH CABLE – the glider is attached to a long cable that gets wound around a spool, pulling the glider towards it. As the glider gains speed, the air flow over its wings enables it to take off, and the cable is then released and falls back down.

2

1 The wings of a glider are longer and thinner than those of a powered aeroplane.

This provides lots of lift with very little drag, making glider wings super-efficient – but such long thin wings also mean that gliders can’t carry much weight, and can’t fly as fast as powered planes.

7

6

Modern gliders are made from lightweight materials such as plastics, fibreglass, and carbon fibre. The main body of the glider is called the fuselage.

It is designed to be as aerodynamic as possible, so the glider can cut through the air easily.

Without air currents pushing them higher, gliders will gradually come back down to the ground. When they finally run out of height, they land on a single wheel (plus a skid at the back). Gliders are designed to be able to land in fields if they can’t make it to a proper runway.

Once up in the air, gliders can use air currents to help them climb higher. Some of these currents (called thermals) come from warm air rising above hot patches of ground. Other currents come from air being pushed upwards when it hits a slope or when air bounces up off flat ground.

whizzpopbang.com 25

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

L U F R E D N O W E I R D AND W

e of the dinosaurs, If you’d lived in the tim ted one of these you might have spot rs soaring above tremendous pterosau out! your head… Watch

1

Thalassodromeus had a huge bony crest on its head and used its strong, sharp (but toothless) jaws to kill its prey.

n: W ingspa up to 4.5 m

4

W in gsp 1.45 an: m

2 3

Ferocious-looking carnivore Dimorphodon had two different kinds of teeth in its jaw – four or five fangs and many tiny, flattened teeth.

Only one fossilised Nemicolopterus (the smallest known pterosaur) has been discovered, and it might actually be a baby Sinopterus – no one’s sure! It lived in forested wetlands and looked like a baby bird.

Sinomacrops bondei is

n: W ingspa n less tha 25 cm

named after its large eyes and face – we think that this member of the Anurognathus family looks like a cute googly-eyed soft toy!

W ingspa n: less tha n 90 cm

n: W ingspa m up to 12

5

26 whizzpopbang.com

Hatzegopteryx

was Transylvania’s dinosaur hunter – the size of a giraffe with the wingspan of a small aeroplane, it is one of the largest pterosaurs ever discovered!

P

L

S R U A S O P TE R

6

n: : span W ing m 60 c

7

Nyctosaurus soared over the open sea like an albatross and had an enormous L-shaped crest on its head. Unlike other pterosaurs, it had no fingers.

W ingsp an: 2m Going a step further than its relative Dimorphodon, Peteinosaurus had three different kinds of teeth in its jaw!

It might also have had a long, stiff tail.

W ingspan: 4.6 m

8

Moganopterus’s

metre-long skull was filled with over 60 large, cone-shaped, pointed teeth which were probably used to snatch fish.

an: W ingsp 3.5 m

9 10

Giant fish-eating pterosaur Anhanguera is known for its spoon-shaped jaw filled with conical, curved teeth.

Nicknamed ‘the Jurassic pelican’, Cycnorhamphus lived in warm lagoons. It used its curved jaws and peg-like teeth to break shells to find food.

W ing span 1.35 m :

© 1. Mark Witton / Wikimedia Commons , 2. Catmando / Shutterstock.com, 3. Chris Masnaghetti 2022 Pteros, 4. Wikipedia Commons Zhao Chuang for https://peerj.com/articles/11161/, 5. YuRi Photolife / Shutterstock.com, 6. Dmitry Bogdanov / Wikimedia Commons, 7. Catmando / Shutterstock.com, 8. Chris Masnaghetti 2022 Pteros, 9. Daniel Eskridge / Shutterstock.com, 10. Peter Montgomery

whizzpopbang.com 27

Richard Owen

© Wikimedia Common

Sensational Scientists

by Kate Powell

s

Meet the man who invented the word ‘dinosaur’.

SIR RICH AR D IN OW EN WA S BORN 04.

18 IN R TE AS NC LA

Young Richard was described by his teacher as rude and lazy – not a good start!

But he went on to become a professor of anatomy – the study of how bodies fit together.

Richard liked nothing better than looking at bones, and he was allowed to dissect any animal that died at London Zoo. One day, his wife came home to find the body of a rhinoceros in the hall!

Richard also studied fossils. He got so good at identifying them, that anyone wondering what sort of creature a fossil came from would ask Richard.

Thighly impressive! © Wikimedia Commons

By examining a small piece of fossilised thighbone, he worked out that it belonged to a giant bird that couldn’t fly. Later, when more of the bird’s bones were found, he was proved right.

In the early 1800s, several fossils from extinct animals (a megalosaurus, a hylaeosaurus and an iguanodon) were discovered in England. Richard noticed that the vertebrae at the base of all their spines had fused together. By observing this and other similarities, he put them into a new category, and decided to call them... yes, you guessed it... dinosaurs!

The Moa is an extinct flightless bird

28 whizzpopbang.com

HYLAEOSAURUS

How do you invite a dinosaur to a cafe?

“Tea, Rex?”

M

I think I’ll call you Dimorphodon – catchy!

As well as naming dinosaurs, Richard named the first pterosaur found in the UK (by fossil hunting superstar Mary Anning).

The word dinosaur comes from two Greek words: deinos meaning terrible and sauros meaning lizard. Richard meant terrible to be understood as totally awesome!

Richard was a brain box.

By the age o produced mo f 85 he had re than 600 scientific pap animal anato ers about my. He dream t of putting sp species in th ecimens of a e natural wo ll rld on displa y for the public But he was a . lso a mean a nd crafty ma he even prete n. Sometime nded other sc s ientists’ work He liked bein was his own g famous an . d didn’t wan to get attenti t other peop on. le When Charles Darwin published his ground-breaking book about evolution, Richard criticised it. The men shared an interest in evolution, but they disagreed over how it happened.

From friends to frenemies to enemies

The Londoners say he is mad with envy because my book is so talked about.

Charles Darwin became the more famous of the two, but we have a lot to thank Richard Owen for – not least for founding the Natural History Museum.

Thanks Sir Richard!

MEGALOSAURUS

IGUANODON

whizzpopbang.com 29

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club!

Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our adventures in science hizz Pop Bang robot, Y, and other W atured on readers! Everyone fe an this page will receive e! enamel pin badg

Dear Y, What dries quicker, warm or cold water?

From Hattie, aged 9

F oR

CURIoUS K I DS We loved seeing all your makes and experiments inspired by Issue 84, Super Swimmers.

e around freely.

Water is a liquid – its molecules can mov free from the liquid, It dries out when water molecules break air. This is called turn into a gas, and are carried away in the pe, a puddle evaporation. As more water molecules escar at higher will slowly dry up. Evaporation happens faste e heat energy, so temperatures, because the water has mor more likely to break the molecules are moving faster and are cold water in the free. So hot water should dry faster than e experiments to same conditions – why don’t you do som test this out, Hattie!

Some of you had a go at drag racing…

Reuben, aged 5

Lucy, aged 6

Here are some of the awesome water wheels you made (Issue 84 pullout)…

Paul, aged 8

Lily, aged 8, and Ivy, aged 4

Y’s Wonder Club Badges Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

Investigate scientific questions to earn your Super Scientist badge.

Collectable enamel badges for you to earn!

Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

E

Dear Y, Do plants grow at the same speed in the daytime and night-time?

From Ben, aged 7

S TA R LET T E R You’ve won this book!

Thank you for all the pictures you have sent in of the science fun you had over the summer... , Henry, aged 10 er read the Sup sue Swimmers is le d id m in the e! k la a f o

You probably already know that plants use light to make their food, Ben, so it might surprise you to learn that plants do most of their growing in the dark!

During the daytime, they build up their energy reserves and make the molecules they need for growth. When darkness falls, the plant starts to search for light and its cells grow longer as it does so. That can make the whole plant bigger. In fact, time-lapse photography has shown that plants have a rhythmic growth pattern, with the biggest growth spurt just before dawn.

Alex, aged 7, showing the Great White Shark model he won in the Ocean Art competition in Issue 84.

Cody, aged 8, built a beaver dam in his grandma’s garden.

Ben, aged 7, created his own science lab out of Lego.

Dear Y, How do snails get slime?

From Charlotte, aged 7

Hi Charlotte! Snail slime, or mucus, is tly mainly (about 90%) water. The rest is mos ins rote cop gly d calle es ecul very large mol (say gl-eye-co-pro-teens). These huge molecules stick-and-slip as they move past s each other, making the slippery slimines an hum , fact In feel. and see which you can mucus (snot!) is made from pretty similar all stuff! Snail slime is made in special glands over the snail’s body, helping to make sure e there is an even coating. Interestingly, slim doesn’t just help snails and slugs move and stick to surfaces. It also protects them from infection and from being eaten – because who wants a mouthful of slime?!

Ava, aged 9, and Esme, ag ed made this wat 7, er pump from Issue 64.

© Shutterstock.com

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

Write a report or a review to earn your Science Reporter badge.

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.

To find out how to earn your badges, go to whizzpopbang.com/wonder-club. Schools can get involved too! Find out how here: bit.ly/39xNQ Q qV

whizzpopbang.com 31

um/ Test your m m guide dad/museu

How much can you remember from this issue?

what they know! to see

1 3

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.

Who discovered the first British pteros aur, Dimorphodon?

2

a) shiny scales, like a snake

b) Cosimo Collini

b) colourful feathers

c) N atalia Jagielska

c) the ability to breathe fire

4

ockpit a) c

b) Under 25 cm

c) fuselage

Which was the first part of Archaeopteryx to be discovered?

c) Under 17 mm

6

a) A single feather

b) In the oven

c) A thigh bone

7

a) Wing

Where did Richard Owen’s wife find the body of a rhinoceros? a) In her bed

b) A tooth

What does ‘pteron’ mean?

What was the wingspa n of Nemicolopterus? a) Up to 12 m

b) tummy

5

Recent fossil evidence suggests some pterosaurs had…

a) Mary Anning

The main body of a glider is called the…

What do you call twin pterosaurs?

A pair-o-dactyls!

c) In the hall

8

Answers on page 34.

Where was Dearc discovered? a) Germany

b) Terror

b) England

c) Lizard

c) Scotland

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages…

1) Page 10 2) Page 5 3) Page 25 4) Page 26 5) Page 12 6) Page 28 7) Page 8 8) Page 23

I scored: ..........

1-3: Incredible Ikrandraco 4-6: Terrific Tapejara 7-8: Awesome Archaeopteryx

W

We’ve got five fantastic volcano kits to give away! To be in with a chance of winning one, find and circle these words in the grid, then write down the leftover letters to find the answer to this joke:

What do you call a pterosaur magician?

Beak Reptile Tail W ingspan

Bones

Flight

Crest

Fossil

Eye

Glide

Extinct

A

_ _ _ _ _ _

The words might be written forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

G F T S E R C N L

L

I

F X T

E Y B E A K

I

P N T

G G

I

I

L

L R N

C L

E

E Y E

O S N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I

D O T H S T A B E S

ANSWER:

!

IN

Wild wordsearch

C

I

S O

W L T F R E R S

Build Your Own Volcano kit This National Geographic kit from Bandai (available at argos.co.uk) contains everything you need to build and paint a volcano and then make it erupt! It includes plaster, volcano mould, paints and powder to make your eruption, as well as two awesome volcanic rock specimens.

WINNERS

Issue 86 competition winners Thank you to everyone who sent in their entries to our ambulance colouring competition. This is where the six shapes were hiding in the scene:

These five lucky winners will each receive a Body Lab kit from brightminds.co.uk: Benjamin Edwards, 8 Chelsea Ellis, 6 Yusuf Haddia, 7 Darcie Badger, 8

Send your answer to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Pterosaur competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post your answer to Pterosaur 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. Sorry, we are unable to return any post. Deadline: December 8th 2022. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com.

Peter Cowling, 10

whizzpopbang.com 33

JOKES Why did Quetzalcoatlus ? evolve to have a long neck et!

Because it had smelly fe

rosaur’s What is a pte eindeer? er least favourit Comet!

Did you he about the b ar the story aby who refused pterosaur to fly?

It was a re al cliffhang er!

What do y pterosau ou call a r ghost?

A scare dactyl!

What do ptero sau when they’re a rs do fraid?

They scream in pterror!

Page 7 – True/Untrue

Page 13 – True/Untrue

It’s probably TRUE: Some large pterosaurs could have caught and eaten small dinosaurs – and the other way around too!

UNTRUE: Only 12 Archaeopteryx fossils have ever been discovered.

Page 14 – Bugs puzzle

Ichthyosaur Spinosaur

Page 20 – Riddles 1) It was only 50 cm above the ground.

Page 8 – Which is which puzzle

Dinosaur

Answers 2) 60 kg, because its whole weight is made from half its weight plus 30 kg, therefore those 30 kg must be the other half of the whole.

F ish lizard Spiny lizard Terrible lizard

3) A dragonfly.

Page 32 – Quiz

Page 13 – Archaeopteryx puzzle

1) a 2) b 3) c 4) b 5) a 6) c 7) a 8) c Page 20 – Pterosaur word puzzle 1) STOP 2) ERUPT 3) ROAR 4) PURR

5) TOES 6) PARROTS 7) TEARS 8) PEAS

Whoops! In issue 87, on page 8, we said that 1,079,252,849 is just over a trillion, when we should have said it’s just over a billion. Thanks to eagle-eyed Edward, aged 6, and others, for spotting our mistake!

Young pterosaur This is a cast of a fossilised pterosaur called Pterodactylus antiquus. When it was first discovered, scientists thought it was a new species because its bones were shorter and it had fewer teeth and a smaller skull than other fossils.

They now realise that’s because it is a youngster! There were probably thousands of species of pterosaur, but only about 150 species have been identified. It’s very rare to find complete pterosaur fossils because their hollow bones were so fragile, they didn’t usually survive long enough to become fossilised.

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

© MarcelClemens / Shutterstock.com

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