The Dinosaur Lady engages youngsters at Oso Hall

Aug 12, 2010

The Dinosaur Lady, Betsy Cotton engages youngsters at Oso Hall

Betsy Cotton of Kingston calls herself the Dinosaur Lady and for 30 odd years she has been scouring both libraries and land for information and remnants pertaining to those great beasts that once roamed this earth.

As a former primary teacher for 28 years in Frontenac County she was introduced to dinosaurs through a group of students she was teaching early in her career. She recalled, “At that time I didn't know anything about dinosaurs so I started studying them. Since then almost every holiday I have taken has been dinosaur related. ”

She has traveled all over North America to many digs including a few with Dr. Phil Currie, a well-known Canadian paleontologist who is considered a leading researcher of theropods, the meat-eating dinosaurs.

She also attended the world-famous Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, named after Joseph Burr Tyrrell who discovered the first Albertosaurus in the Red Deer River valley in 1884. She has also attended Egg Mountain field school in Montana where American paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner discovered the first dinosaur eggs in the western hemisphere in the 1970s and also named a new dinosaur genus, Maiasaurus or “Good Mother Lizard” providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young.

It was at Egg mountain that Cotton did a two-day dig where she learned how to identify and dig for fossils and bones, draw maps, and how to properly plaster her finds to bring back to the museum.

Betsy has always loved history and she especially liked Egyptology in university where handling the 2000-year-old mummies always fascinated her. She recalled, “But when I saw my first dinosaur mummy that was 67 million years old, it just blew me away. To know that you are handling something that was once a live creature that lived and walked and fought to stay alive is just an amazing experience.”

On August 5 Betsy was at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake to share her fascination with youngsters, who were invited to join her for a free hands-on craft workshop in partnership with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library Sharbot Lake branch.

Her talk covered many of the various dinosaur species, the time periods and typical habitats in which they lived and she provided a wealth of visual materials for the children to absorb. Later she invited participants to create their own diorama of either the Triassic, Jurassic or cretaceous period to match one particular dinosaur of their choice which they later sculpted from modeling clay with the visual aid of a small plastic model.

For Cotton dinosaurs are an entry point from which to educate youngsters about many things. “What I am really doing with the kids through the dinosaurs is introducing them to science - and what a wonderful way to do that. Kids at all ages love dinosaurs and there is so much to discover through them.”

Cotton has not decided where she will be heading next as far as traveling and studying but she is always eager for a chance to handle the bones of these ancient giants. “It's like bringing the history to life.”

The Dinosaur Lady does a number of interactive presentations for children at various locations. She can be reached at 613-389-5175.