Hello everyone! We had lots of fun during bicycle week and hope you did too. And now we’re on to something really really REALLY exciting! Apparently, there was recently a discovery made proving that dragons really did exist! Yeah, I know!
And so, this week’s theme of the week is Dragon Discovery!
I was pretty excited about this, because I used to love reading books about fantastical things like fairies and leprechauns and unicorns, and, my favorites of all, DRAGONS! But, of course, I was always told that they weren’t real (this Wikipedia article about dragons is going to have to be updated – the very first line is “a dragon is a legendary creature”!). But it turns out that dragons actually DID exist. Here is a fossil of a dragon they discovered:
They originally thought this was an archaeopteryx, which is a kind of feathered dinosaur. But it turns out it is actually what we would call a dragon. Technically, dragons were reptiles (like lizards) that were related to dinosaurs but only appeared several million years after the dinosaurs died out. AND they existed at the same time as early humans (almost TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS AGO – so we don’t have to worry about any of them showing up today). And this is why we have these old legends about dragons.
This dragon was named Primostultus. It had soft skin with plated scales on it.
What scientists originally thought were featheres were actually the dragon’s wings, which worked like bat wings and were made of loose flaps of skin. AND (this is the coolest!) the Primostultus could actually breathe fire! There’s no fossil proof of that, of course, but apparently they found evidence of a chambered stomach (like cows have). One of the chambers had bacteria in it that created hydrogen (a gas that catches fire really easily) and another chamber held rocks to aid in digestion (some animals still do this – the rocks are called “gastroliths” or “gizzard stones”). Dragons would eat certain types of rock that could create sparks, which would start the fire as the dragon belched hydrogen from its stomach. So, it kind of worked just like a lighter:
Pretty cool, eh?
Okay – get ready, because HERE’S the most exciting thing about everything I just told you: I made it up! Yep!!
This week’s theme is actually APRIL FOOL’S DAY!!! Tuesday is going to be April Fool’s Day, so I thought I’d give it a whirl and see if you were fooled. Were you? I tried to back it all up with science, but maybe you weren’t fooled at all. The name “Primostultus” actually means “First Fool” in Latin, and that picture of the dragon’s skin is actually an armadillo. And the fossil really was of an archaeopteryx. (Just so you know, chambered stomachs and gizzard stones are totally real, though.)
So: Happy April Fool’s Day!
April Fool’s Day happens on April 1st. Here in the US, we celebrate it by trying to trick people. In some European countries—France, Italy, Belgium—and French-speaking Canada, people celebrate by trying to secretly tape a cut-out paper fish onto other people’s backs without them knowing (like I just did to Matthew, ha ha ha!).
When they finally notice, you’re supposed to yell “POISSON D’AVRIL!!!” (which means “Fish of April” in French) or “PESCE D’APRILE!!!” (which means “Fish of April” in Italian). I haven’t had to decide which to yell yet because Matthew still hasn’t noticed, ha ha ha!
One of the most famous April Fool’s pranks was when a very popular British news program reported on the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest.
Of course spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees!! (You make it out of flour and eggs, and I don’t know, some other stuff – check out this awesome video HERE about a pasta factory if you’ve got the time. It’s pretty cool.) But the news station was flooded with phone calls after the report – people wanted to know where they could buy those amazing spaghetti trees! Ha ha ha!
Another good one was when Burger King announced the Left-Handed Whopper. They said they rotated the ingredients to best serve leftys. Some people actually went into Burger Kings that day and tried to order it!
Anyway. There are lots of funny April Fool’s jokes. You can see a list of some of the best HERE.