Skull of sea monster discovered

A breaking news lesson about the discovery of a huge pliosaur skull

Margarita Camelo
Master MALTT - Université de Genève

Objectives

In this interactive lesson you will ...

Pre-listening task: vocabulary focus

Click on the card to check its meaning

Matching activity

Now, it is your turn. Match the words with their meanings and remember, if your answer is correct, the box will turn green, otherwise, click again on the word to continue playing.

Listening activity

Watch the report to find out what a group of scientists have called

"the ultimate killing machine"

The pliosaur

Some interesting facts from the video

Pliosaurus

This is an idea of how the Pliosaur would look like. Have you wondered how did he sound? Click on the button to find out!

Discoveries that Shaped Our World

Archeology and paleontology have helped us to understand where we came from, and how the world used to be in the time before humans. Click on the button to look at these important archaeological and paleontological discoveries.

The Rosetta Stone

An artifact dating back to 196 BC, the Rosetta Stone contains text written in different languages: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyptian and Ancient Greek. The stone's discovery in 1799 allowed scholars to understand Egyptian texts for the first time. Although other bilingual items were eventually discovered, the Rosetta Stone remains one of the most important human-made discoveries of all time.

Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave

One of the most significant examples of prehistoric art, the paintings at Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave were found in 1994 by a group of scientists. The cave is home to hundreds of animal paintings, with creatures such as mammoths, bears and lions represented. The artists responsible for the cave paintings used complex artistic techniques, making some of the images appear three-dimensional. The earliest paintings are believed to be around thirty- six thousand years old, and the cave was featured in a 2010 movie by Werner Herzog, called Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

Lucy

Discovered in 1974, Lucy is the name given to a collection of bones belonging to ancient human-like species. Lucy was found in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia, and was named after a song by The Beatles. The discovery was one of the earliest examples of a human ancestor, and her skeleton suggested a creature that could walk on two legs, but could also climb trees, with long arms and a skull closer in size to that of an ape rather than a human.

Yuka mammoth

Yuka is the name given to the best-preserved remains of a woolly mammoth ever found. Discovered in Siberia in 2010, Yuka can be seen in a museum in Moscow. Researchers have succeeded in removing flowing blood from the mammoth, leading to hopes that the animals - which have been extinct for at least ten thousand years - could be brought back to life with the help of cloning technology. Yuka is thought to have been between six to eleven years old when she died. Her body was preserved by the permafrost, which is believed to hold the remains of many more ancient creatures.

Archaeopteryx

The hard-to-pronounce archaeopteryx was a type of feathered dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic period, around one hundred and fifty million years ago. Fossils of the creature were first discovered in Germany in 1861. Archaeopteryx was around the size of a modern bird, and had similar features. The dinosaur was probably capable of flight. Its discovery provided evidence to support Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Joaquinraptor casali

While the great Tyrannosaurus rex stalked prehistoric North America, a very different apex predator prowled ancient Argentina: the newly discovered megaraptor Joaquinraptor casali. When paleontologists excavated the dinosaur, they made a stonishing find. Clenched within its massive jaws was a Cretaceous crocodile's arm bone. The discovery offers a glimpse into what may have been the carnivore's last meal some 70 million years ago.

Talking point

Click on the cards to find a question. Then, answer it using your own ideas and the vocabulary you learnt in this lesson.