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Description

Back in March, my labmate Lizzy Steell enlisted me to draw templates for an activity she'd wanted to host during the Cambridge Science Festival, which, well... didn't happen due to the global pandemic. However, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences offered to put the activity up on their website , so here we are!

The activity is "Build a Bird", in which participants can mix and match the body parts of eight different bird species to create their own fictional bird. The templates are available for participants to print out here . Lizzy also put together some informational sheets about the bird morphotypes represented here, illustrated using photographs taken by our supervisor, Daniel Field.

For those curious, the bird species illustrated are (left to right, starting from top): common ostrich (Struthio camelus), ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), black jacobin (Florisuga fusca), Sabine's gull (Xema sabini), African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), long-winged harrier (Circus buffoni), and pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator).

And while you're here, you can additionally check out the online exhibit about Asteriornis on the museum website! (Plans for a physical exhibit had also been scuppered by the pandemic.)

Description

Back in March, my labmate Lizzy Steell enlisted me to draw templates for an activity she'd wanted to host during the Cambridge Science Festival, which, well... didn't happen due to the global pandemic. However, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences offered to put the activity up on their website , so here we are!

The activity is "Build a Bird", in which participants can mix and match the body parts of eight different bird species to create their own fictional bird. The templates are available for participants to print out here . Lizzy also put together some informational sheets about the bird morphotypes represented here, illustrated using photographs taken by our supervisor, Daniel Field.

For those curious, the bird species illustrated are (left to right, starting from top): common ostrich (Struthio camelus), ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), black jacobin (Florisuga fusca), Sabine's gull (Xema sabini), African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), long-winged harrier (Circus buffoni), and pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator).

And while you're here, you can additionally check out the online exhibit about Asteriornis on the museum website! (Plans for a physical exhibit had also been scuppered by the pandemic.)