Class starts at 11:30 PM. Today's Class Schedule: a. Overview/Review. b. Triassic. c. Jurassic. d. Cretacious e. Aftermath Telescopes will not be necessary for class unless otherwise noted. Remember to bring note taking materials with you to class (you will be excused from this for the Jan 10th session) Should you have any questions, feel free to visit my office between your daytime classes. For tutoring, please make an appointment with me prior. Feel free to ask questions! The astronomy classroom has now been remodelled to be 'indoors' (see post for details) and have windows that look outwards into an animated  image of space, similar to the Great Hall's ceiling enchantment. At the center of the room is a large sphere that is being used as a projector; underneath is the old armillary sphere. Desks are arranged in a circle around this globe and two alcoves (southwest and northwest) have small fireplaces to heat the room, which are raised slightly above the floor with steps leading to them. The original Astronomy classroom looked like this.

Board from Previous Class
This class was not roleplayed. This class takes place as the 3rd class in the section on ancient life.

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Devonian (416 million - 359 million Years ago) In the sea ammonites and fish evolve and quickly diversify.  On land trees and forests appear for the first time.  (Wood evolves) The first insects, spiders, and tetrapods evolve. Early tetrapods are the descendants of jawed fish and are our ancestors. There were no 2-legged land animals at this time. Animals Discussed: Dunkleosteus (Bony fish, reaching 33ft in size), Eusthenopteron (Prototype for tetrapods, 17-20ft),  Hynerpeton (Land dweller)

Carboniferous (359 million to 229 million years ago) Oxygen levels rise due to the abundance of forests Due to the oxygen and lack of large terrestrial predators, insects reach incredible sizes. The Supercontinent Gondwanaland head south during the later part of the period, triggering glaciation. Due to the huge amount of forestation, most coal deposits date to this era. Animals Discussed: Meganuera (Aeral predator, wingspan of 70cm) Arthropleura (10ft in length)

Permian (299 million to 251 million years agoo) Starts with an ice age; as the continents break up and shift, a massive drought begins. The drying climate killed off the massive swampland forests of the Carboniferous and ushered in a more spread-out flora. The Theropsid order arrives - large reptiles that look more like mammals do today than modern reptiles. The supercontinent reforms towards the end of the Permian, forming Pangea. Animals Discussed: Dinocephalia, Lycaenops, Pelycosaurus

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The classroom today was different - for the first time, at least for the first years, it started out with the windows set to the exterior forest, looking for all the world as if they'd chopped the top off the tower and set it down in an ancient forest. There were even sounds, too; distant roars, the snapping of branches, the sniffing sounds of tiny animals, and wind.

Tappy was very pleased with this extra touch and was doing his damnedest to ignore that it was coming from the record player hidden under his desk.

Since their foray into the kitchens and his introduction to the man, Tapendra had found the new Charms master a great help; finding out he was the inventor of the projection charms was been a boon, and now they were working better than ever. He was even able to make the illusions he placed on Kepler solid, though they lacked tactile texture.

He sat, as was swiftly becoming habit, on the short steps to his office/alcove, with a book open on his lap. Kepler had taken up his usual spot atop the globe, which was currently turned off.

The warmth of the room and general interest of the giants walking by the windows distracted from the fact that just outside rain poured off the tower. The occasional clap of thunder gave this fact away.

With voices on the stairs, he inserted his bookmark and retrieved Kepler from the globe, the cat gripping his shoulder and scurrying to get comfortable.

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Yes you can slap me for the thread title; I'm not too creative today haha.

Charles walked up the stairs to Astronomy, and saw they were still doing stuff about aincient life. the problem he had with thta was he couldn't see what the flobberworm it had to do with astronomy, i.e., the study of the stars. Entering the room, he headed straight for a desk and got note-taking materials out. It shoudl at leats be an iteresting lesson, even if it seemed to be off-subject. It would be better than Professor Storm's continuing attempts to kill them, or the varying disasters of Herbology.

"Hello Professor!" Eirene greeted him as she walked into the tower, only slightly surprised to see the windows displayed a forest scene, because she was now used to the different illusions and illustrations used to supplement the lecture. She paused, annoyed to find that Charles had arrived before her, and stuck her nose in the air as she passed him, sitting a few desks away.

Curiosity won out over envy, however, and after a moment she turned to Charles and asked in a whisper, "What do reckon Kepler will turn into tonight?"

Kepler being transformed into large scorpions and other creatures was the most scary, but also exciting part of class. Eirene had to admit she was beginning to look forward to it, even if she squealed and made a fuss almost every time.

Pax had been dragging his feet a little on the way up to the Astronomy Tower, due to the late hour, but he noticably perked up at tonight's window display. 'Dinosaurs!' he breathed, beaming clear from one side of his face to the other. Unlike Charles, Pax didn't even think to give a second thought to the counter-intuitiveness of studying earth's prehistory in Astronomy-- he was too excited about the prospect of dinosaurs!

'Ooh, ooh, a Microraptor, I hope!' he chirped in answer to Eirene's ponderance as he bounced over to where she and Charles sat. 'They're these cool little bird-looking things, but they're actually dinosaurs.' He slid into his usual seat next to Eirene, and waved cheerily at Professor Trishna before looking back at Charles and Eirene. 'Although... I don't know which period they're from...' He started scrutinising the board to see if any of the names up there looked familiar.

"Good evening, everyone," he said, stroking Kepler. "Hopefully today will be fun - and a bit different. Take your seats-" he paused, and smiled brightly at Pax. "We will be talking about Microraptor, Mister Wintergreen! And some of the debate surrounding it - there have been some very interesting studies done recently, and we'll get to that. We'll be looking at the other types of raptors as well."

Once they'd all settled in - mostly - he took up his position at the globe. "Alright - as we've talked about over the last few weeks, the climate and movements of the coninents have a major - and sometimes disastrous - effect on life on our planet. We've followed our ancient ancestors from their very beginnings - but we won't be talking about too many mammals today."

He looked out the window at the surrounding forest.

"The dinosaurs are the largest creatures ever to exist on land, and they are one of the most famously known groups of prehistoic animals. Muggles, discovering their bones, sometimes thought they were dragons; and indeed, dragons may take their descent from the dinosaurs, though no genetic studies have been done to prove or disprove that idea."

He pulled Kepler off his shoulders and held the cat in his arms as he spoke. "Now, the extintion event that marked the end of Permian and the beginning of Triassic is - despite he famous drama of the one that killed the dinosaurs - the most disaterous one of all.  The drought plagued the landscape, killing off 96% of the life on our planet. I'd like you to consider that for just a moment - and that includes many species of plant as well. The Permian-Triassic extintion is known amongst scientists as the 'Great Dying' or, if you're feeling cheesy, 'The Mother of all Extinctions.'"

He put Kepler on the floor. "Due to this, it took much longer for life to recover - but when it did, the dinosaurs' ancestors were born. Now, one of the things that made the early dinosaurs so successful was their bone structure. For example, if we look at Lystrosaurus," he turned Kepler into the creature, "You can see how its legs sprawl out to the side - this is not a partiularly agile build."

He looked down; in this form, Kepler reached about to his upper thigh. "If you'd all like to come here, actually - ths effect is solid, now, so if you'd like to touch Kepler in these forms, that's fine. Now then - anyway. These hip joints don't really equate a fast runner. Lystrosaurus here is a mammalian ancestor; once the dinosaurs arrived, it would not last. However, this-"he switched Kepler's spell again, this time to a much fiercer looking creature, which stood at the same height as the first. "This creature is definetly built to run and kill. For those of you who have studied dinosaurs, would you list a few of the dinodaurs who may decend from this creature?"

" some form of dinosaur, no doubt"  Charles replied to Eirene, ignoring Pax for now. Charles thne watched as Professor trishna lectured about the beginning of the Triassic period. He still ahd no clue as to what relevance this had to astronomy. " The second dinosaur is the ancestor of the T-Rex, it has to be.

"Correct, Mister Harcroft; the Tyrannosarus is one descendant of this early dinosaur, which is called Herrerasaurus. This is one of the two types of builds we look at when we talk about early dinosaurs - this," and he changed Kepler again, "Is the other."

The creature was much smaller - about the size of Kepler himself, with a long tail. Tapendra made sure they got a look at its normal size before he cast Engorgio, so they could all get a better look.

"This is Pisanosarus; it is one of the ancestors of a second group of dinosaurs. I don't suppose any of you can hazard a guess on which ones? Take a careful note of the difference in stance between Herrerasarus and Pisanosarus when you consider this."

When Hannah entered the Astronomy tower, she had not been expecting this. She made it one step inside the doorway before pausing to look quizzically at the creatures and plant life outside the enchanted windows. The little chirps, the distant roars, the leaves rustling in the wind... it was weird. As she trailed to her seat, she heard Pax mention it: dinosaurs.

Hannah had no idea what a dinosaur was, but she listened patiently to Professor Trishna's explanation. They'd talked about early life on earth before, full of giant bugs and snakes and things which Hannah found fascinating but would never want to actually see, but the idea of it crawling with giant lizard-looking things was a hard one to swallow until the professor mentioned dragons, at which point it made a little more sense. If she just thought of it as a world full of different types of dragons... well, then that was pretty bloody brilliant!

It was even more brilliant when Professor Trishna turned Kepler into one. Hannah trotted forward to examine the new beast, biting her lip to keep from giggling. The dinosaur looked like some sort of bizarre pig-lizard mix, nonthreatening in its solid bow-legged structure and wide bony face. Professor Trishna said they could touch, and Hannah liked animals (even weird lizardy ones) so she reached out a hand to stroke down the little dragon's side. He switched the illusion into a Herrerasaurus, and she snatched her hand back instinctively. This one did not look cute - this one looked made for killing.

Professor Trishna was still asking questions, but Hannah had no idea as to what could possibly be the answers. It was somewhat frustrating, as Charles and Pax obviously knew what they were talking about, but frustration was not an uncommon feeling for Hannah in this class. She resolved to go to the library after and find books about these dinosaurs, not at all an idle resolution. If they all had as complicated names as these, it might take her a while to memorize them. Best to get on it now.

The next dinosaur wasn't quite as vicious looking. Same basic body, but without such a wicked sharpness to its jaw. Hannah watched it quite easily from her three-foot distance until the Professor cast Engorgio, at which point  she found that three feet was way too close to be to something that large and strange-looking.

"How big did they get?" she asked, many many steps back now from the newly sized Pisanosarus. She was curious, but wary, even knowing as she did that it was only Kepler. She didn't try to hazard a guess as to the second group of dinosaurs it could be related too - she didn't have a clue. It definitely looked different than the Herrerasaurus, but she wasn't sure how those differences were supposed to prove.

Charlkes piped up again " it's the oldest currently known dinosaur of the Ortinischia order, it is the ancetsor if the herbivores of the later periods, including some of the most famous, like the stegosaurus and even i believe the triceretops, althouhg both of those are far differejt, obviously. And Hannah, dinosaurs could be just about any size, but the largest was about 10 meters tall by 58 meters long. the smallest was 25 centimeters long and possibly 50 centimeters high.[1] understandably, most mammals kept out of the dinosaurs' way." Charles added as a bit of a joke.

1.	using wikipedia, and Amphicoelias as the largest, and Epidexipteryx as the smallest.

This time, Serenity didn't just bring her bag with her quills, parchment, ink, and wand. No, no, no. She had written her grandfather who had been delighted to send her what she requested. That very morning at breakfast, not one, but five owls carrying three books each dropped their parcels on the table in front of the highly surprised Ravenclaw first year. The note she received from a sixth owl explained that her grandfather simply could not choose one and in her dire need for knowledge, "had to give her enough to satisfy her curiosity." He even had sent her a large journal (from the sixth owl) that he'd purchased from a booth of his students at the university.

So, that evening, Serenity Lee had packed the journal into her bag and carried four thick books in her arms. Needless to say, she'd had to leave early in order to be able to get to class on time as the winding staircase had proved to be difficult for her to climb just as she had expected. She did arrive on time in class, of course, and dropped the books onto her desk where she could get a better look at Kepler. Serenity Lee panted, sat down, and took out the journal her grandfather had sent her to keep notes in; quill and ink followed the leather-bound journal from the bag and when class started, she immediately set to note-taking.

"This is Pisanosarus; it is one of the ancestors of a second group of dinosaurs. I don't suppose any of you can hazard a guess on which ones? Take a careful note of the difference in stance between Herrerasarus and Pisanosarus when you consider this."

Serenity's hand shot into the air, but Charles was called on first. Still, her hand stayed in the air. Since their last class, she'd taken the time to at least flip through the books she had with her. A lot of pictures of the dinosaurs looked similar just as the two Professor Trishna was exampling now. She had a worried frown as Charles answered. He was so smart about dinosaurs! Where did he get his information? Her hand waved frantically in the air. Serenity may not have known as much as Charles Harcroft, Gryffindor Genius about dinosaurs, but she was certainly wanting to answer the question. When at last she was called on, she put her hand down.

"Velociraptors," was her answer. "They look a lot like those things. So do the egg-stealers and those little bitty dinosaurs you see at the first part of the movie of Jurassic Park."

She'd seen that series of movies a lot of times. Her dad loved to watch movies and had been quite reluctant to let her watch it at the age of 7. It wasn't until after she saw the tyrannosaurs rex ripping people in half that Serenity Lee understood her father's reasoning. She had nightmares for weeks and during the day was paranoid that a Velociraptor would be jumping from behind a fence to rip her to shreds. Her brothers and sister had had too much fun with that phase. She still never really got over it. Occasionally, a Velociraptor or a T-rex would enter her nightmares and chase her around while she sped around in endless circles on a broomstick.

Just recently in this reoccurring bad dream, Madam Hooch had stamped her with a giant "A" on her forehead and Prof. Trishna turned the T-rex back into a skeletal version of Kepler. The dream haunted her memory now as she stared blankly off into space, but quickly shook her head to see if she got the answer right or not.

"Correct, Mister Harcroft - 5 points to Gryffindor," Tapendra said, happily. Kepler clacked his jaw a few times and then yawned, showing off an array of small pointed teeth. "In the case of Herrerasaurus, yes, Miss Thornton. The bone structure is the basis for the vast majority of predatory dinosaurs." He patted Kepler on the head.

"We'll be doing something a little different today - looking at all three periods at once, more or less. Now then - Miss Harper," he added, with a smile. "The dinosaurs, as Harcroft says, were huge - the largest land animals to ever walk the Earth. The Sauropoda order is the largest; one of their members reached 110 tons. For reference - modern elephants reach only about 9 tons at their maximun weight."

He'd been patting Kepler's head as he spoke, and the cat-turned-dinosaur was reacting in a quite cat like way; Tappy didn't  seem to notice til Kepler starterd rubbing his leg and trying to pur.

"Now - the two hip structures we just looked at are the Ornithischia, meaning 'bird hipped' which leads to most of the billed, beaked and other plant-eating animals, and the Saurischia, meaning 'lizard-hipped' that leads to most of the predatory dinosaurs and the Sauropods, oddly enough."

Leaning on the globe, he started absently scratching Kepler under the chin. "We'll be looking at the dinosaurs first in their main orders, and then we'll talk about the timeline. We'll also be looking at the sea as well, and trust me when I say they get...odd, in the sea."

He drew his wand again, and Kepler looked at it slightly apprehensively. "The first group we'll look at is the Thyreophora - 'shield bearers'. They're the armored dinosaurs, and for those of you with some familiarity with dinosaurs, I'm sure you can think of at least two of them straight off..."

With a tap of his wand, Kepler's dinosaur swelled, fanned out and changed, quickly becoming a Triceratops. He seemed a little surprised to be that large, and clacked his new beak, trying to get a look at himself.

Tapendra rested one of his hands on one of Kepler's forward-jutting horns. "Clearly an animal built for defense. Can any of you hazard a guess as to what this shield what used for?"

Notes, notes, notes! Her quill scribbled wildly across her journal as she tried hard to keep up with Professor Trishna. She paused to glance up at him now and then, though her attention wasn't always kept upon him. The hazel eyes stared out from under the veil of dark brown hair to peer at Dinosaur-Kepler who was relishing being pat upon the head. Serenity grinned and when the teacher started to absent-mindedly scratch the cat under the chin, she started giggling.

The poor thing was transfigured into a triceratops. She gasped at the size of the creature, hardly hearing a word the professor was saying at the time. The dinosaur was huge! She had seen them on Jurassic Park, but that had been "only a movie" as her father had told her over and over to quell the fears of the monstrous T-rex in her nightmares. Yet here was a real live Triceratops (that only appeared from magic, but still!) standing right in front of the entire class; it took the little Ravenclaw's breath away.

When Professor Trishna asked his question, Serenity became suddenly nervous to answer. A shaky hand rose up into the air, her gaze locked on the magnificent creature in front of her.

"T-to protect their neck," she stammered and put her hand back down slowly. Then it shot up again. "Professor, can we touch it?"

Serenity wasn't entirely sure where this whim came from, but it was exciting! She wanted to be able to brag to her parents that she'd touched a real live triceratops at Hogwarts. That had been a part of the film that her dad had always wished he could do: pet a dinosaur. The little first year made a mental note to one day get so good at Transfiguration that she could do what Professor Trishna had just done: transfigure something into a Triceratops for her daddy to be able to pet! That would be one of the many adventures that Serenity Lee would have.

"Yes, Miss Thornton, you're certainly welcome to do so," Tapendra said with a smile, stepping back slightly from Kepler.

"While in general, yes, it's believed it helped them protect their neck, it's currently under debates as to how effective that was," he said. "A popular theory currently is that the frill was used in mating - fossils indicate it may have been able to change color. This means it may have acted more like the feathers of a male peacock than a shield, but it's hard to tell - not without more evidence."

He leaned on the globe, allowing them free range to Kepler. "The Triceratops order is debated, but the specimen before you here is Triceratops Horridus. One of the last of the famous dinosaurs to evolve before the end, Tricerotops lived in the Cretacous period - the last age of the dinosaurs - and its infamous adversary we'll talk about in a bit. Despite its feirce appearence, it ate plants - as most dinosaurs did."

Setting himself against the globe and absently popping his neck, he grunted. "The other famous member of this group of armored dinosaurs - Stegosaurs - lived in the Jurassic, and was likely preyed upon by the ancestor of Triceratop's enemy."

He stepped forward, wand out, and changed Kepler again, so that what emerged was a Stegosarus. "This creature's armor is clearly a bit more extensive. Can any of you guess how he would have defended himself?"

'This is the best class ever.' Cy rushed over to Kepler with the others. 'Way better than star charting ever could be.'

"This creature's armor is clearly a bit more extensive. Can any of you guess how he would have defended himself?"

Cyhirae turned a way from patting Kepler on his foreleg and grinned at her father. "They used their four tail spikes for defense.  There was some debate about whether they had the mobility to use their tails that way, but recent studies have proven that the spikes were used for defense such as the high amount of trauma damage on a lot of skeletons."

"Correct," he said, patting Kepler on the head. The cat seemed to be handling all this quite well; he'd definitely have to turn him into things more often. And reward him for it, of course.

He patted Kepler's head as he continued. "The plates along this dinosaur's back are called dermal plates. They're modified scales, as opposed to straight bone, and despite their appearance they're not attached to the skeleton."

Since he was holding Kepler's head, he lifted his jaw and got him to open his mouth. "As you can see they have sharp, leaf-shaped teeth, as well; unlike most of the dinosaurs in their major genus - the Ornithischia - they can't grind their food, as we and their fellows did." He let Kepler close his mouth. "Using our own jaw as an example - we are capable both both up-and-down and side-to-side movement due to the type of joint me have. Stegosaurus doesn't have that kind of joint; they can only move their jaw straight up and down. This let them effectively shear plants, but not chew them. To grind up their food, they swallowed stones - called Gastroliths - and kept them in their stomachs to grind their food there. Many modern birds still do this."

"We're going to talk about the next group in a minute - Pachycephalosaurus and Parasaurolophus. Have any of you heard of them - or have any questions on this guy first?"