Second-graders at Amanda Moore Elementary School received a quick course in paleontology last month when John Ribbing of the Dinosaur Recovery Bureau visited the school and guided the children through a dinosaur dig.

Students spent the start of the activity digging through the dirt in numerous crates set up on the gym floor, searching for bones that would allow them to reassemble a Miasaura dinosaur.

The activity was funded through a grant awarded to second-grade teacher Kelly Rauh from the Romeo Community Schools Foundation for Educational Excellence.

The budding scientists said they enjoyed looking for evidence of the herbivore that, when fully grown, was approximately 30 feet long and weighed between two and three tons.

The dinosaur roamed in herds of up to 10,000.

Taking a break from digging, Kyle Ristow, a student in Rauh’s classroom, said he likes dinosaurs.

Asked what he likes best about dinosaurs, Ristow emphatically replied: “everything.”

Ristow said the neatest thing about dinosaurs is “how they walk.”

“It was fun because we get to dig in dirt and find bones,” said Anna Braet, another student of Rauh.

Braet said the bone her group uncovered was “one of the skinny ones. I think it was the spine.”

Students discovered and cleaned bones, assisted Ribbing in putting the Miasaura skeleton together, and discussed clues provided by the bones that indicated how the dinosaur may have died.

At the end of the activity, Ribbing asked students what they would have named the dinosaur had they discovered the ancient creature.

Rauh said a fellow Amanda Moore instructor, fourth-grade teacher Kevin Madill, learned about the Dinosaur Recovery Bureau on the Internet, “and it looked really great. We read the Internet site and called Mr. Ribbing.”

Rauh said the second-grade curriculum focuses on dinosaurs and fossils.

“We just started our dinosaur unit and they were so excited to become paleontologists for a day,” Rauh said. “They’re so excited to actually touch and feel what it is we’re studying about, rather than just read about it. It makes it more real to them.”

After the students finished the dig, Ribbing described the dinosaur’s physical and behavioral traits as revealed by the bones unearthed by the youngsters.

A few of the many facts Ribbing told students include the brain of the Miasaura was the size of a human fist, and the animal had hands with four fingers and feet with three toes, all shaped like shovels that Ribbing speculates allowed the dinosaur to dig into the ground and pull up roots for meals.

Ribbing said each Miasaura would eat up to 200 pounds of food per day.

“Just having the leg bone (of a dinosaur) can tell you how long the dinosaur lived, how it walked, how fast it was,” Ribbing said.

Children gave their own suggestions for how the particular dinosaur they recovered met his or her end, including one girl who said, “It might have got eaten,” and a boy who said, “I think the teeth of a T-Rex got caught in (the dinosaur).”

Several other theories were offered, but Ribbing said these two theories were more on the mark.

Due to how a section of the Miasaura rib cage was missing on the replica and how its hip was shattered, Ribbing told the students that in this particular case, a Tyrannosaurus rex knocked the smaller dinosaur down, breaking its hip, and killed the creature for food.

At the end of his presentation, Ribbing encouraged students to explore the possibility of becoming paleontologists when they grow up and stressed that girls should not hesitate entering the field if they are interested.

“Sue Hendrickson is the most famous paleontologist in the world,” Ribbing said.

Ribbing, who also works for the Ford Motor Co., said he enjoys making the presentations at approximately 50 schools per year in the metro Detroit area, because he has always harbored a desire to be a teacher.

The best compliment he ever received for his presentation was when a boy once told him the dinosaur dig, “is funner than playing Play station.”

People can contact Ribbing by calling (248) 310-7551 or by e-mailing him at jribbing@dinobureau.com