• The most popular piece of evidence chosen was sharp/pointy/curved teeth, followed by sharp claws, long slim legs, and finally eye position.
• There were a number of responses that lacked detail. Most commonly this related to teeth, where students were not specific about what sort of teeth.
• Of those students who gave a correct response, just under half gave only one piece of evidence to justify their answer. Just under a quarter provided three or four pieces of evidence.
• Some students did not have a clear idea what is meant by evidence. A number of these answered by suggesting a possible food they may have eaten.
• Two students answered this question more generally by suggesting that evidence is obtained from fossils, rather than using the provided information to make decisions themselves.

For question e)
Three-quarters of students were unable to give a valid reason for the colour they chose for their dinosaur. An example of a valid, relevant answer is: Green - so they will be camouflaged, so prey won't notice them in the trees and bushes.

General
The trial students did not find it too difficult to answer the questions, but they had much more difficulty justifying their answers, even though the background information for doing so was provided in the text. This difficulty has also shown up in other science trials, and in some English trials.

Misconceptions
A common misconception reported in science education research is that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time on earth. The trial identified a similar misconception held by some students. Those students who attempted to identify what the velociraptors ate often referred to animals or food that are present today.

Next steps
It is important that students realise that all the features of an animal combine to allow it to behave in a particular way. Ask them to think about what would happen if:

• a velociraptors' eyes were at the side of its head. (Predators' eyes usually face to the front. This provides them with stereoscopic vision, which makes it easier to accurately judge the position of prey.)
• it had short legs. (It would have to use methods other than running down to catch its prey.)
• it had herbivores' teeth. (It would have difficulty chewing its food. An extension of this is to think about the impact of losing their teeth has on older predators.)
• if it was bright red (prey would see it more easily.)

Investigate carnivorous animals from today, and compare their features and how they work together to get the best result in the environment they live in. Some interesting examples could be hawks, owls, seals, and crocodiles. Many students have access to cats and dogs so these are also a good resource to use. However, as these animals have been domesticated, remind students to think about what they would eat if there were no humans to feed them.

Discuss with students why animals are the colours they are. As we cannot tell from fossils what colour dinosaurs were, we have to infer what colours they might have been and we assume that they were colours that allowed them to blend in with their environment.

Check that students recognise that velociraptors' prey were different from animals present today.

Nature of Science (NoS)
Using multiple pieces of evidence to justify a theory is an important NoS theme. In the case of animals' adaptations, there are sometimes tradeoffs to best fit the animal to its life style. When we look at a checklist of a carnivore's features, for example, some carnivores will only have some of these features. Other adaptations may be common to some species within both groups, for example deer (herbivores) are also adapted to be able to run to escape their predators. Class or group debates can be a useful strategy for encouraging students to consider more than one piece of evidence to justify their opinions. Other dinosaurs could be a context, or less well-known mammals and birds.