dinosaur train

"Rollin' on the Riverboat: Part One" - The whole Pteranodon Family takes a rollicking adventure on the Dinosaur Train Riverboat! Buddy and Don vow to spend every minute together, but while Buddy wants to spend all his time investigating the creatures on the river, Don wants to spend all his time playing games and investigating the buffet. Can they come to some kind of agreement? "Rollin' on the Riverboat: Part Two" - While still rolling down the river on the Dinosaur Train Riverboat, Grandpa Pteranodon tells Buddy about the Legend of Admiral Globidens - a HUGE Mososaur that supposedly lives on the river, but no one has ever seen. Buddy enlists Dad and Tiny's help to look for Admiral Globidens, but they can't seem to find him. Does Admiral Globidens really exist, or is he just a figment of someone's imagination? Educational Objectives: River ecosystems tend to be lushly vegetated and full of diverse life forms because of the constant presence of water and the diversity of habitats (i.e., aquatic and land-based). Also, a Globidens was a large mososaur from the late cretaceous that lived in the water and used its large, globe-shaped teeth to eat turtles and other large shellfish.

"What's at the Center of the Earth? Troglobites!" - The Drill Engine Train burrows into an underground limestone cave, where the Pteranodon Family meets some strange creatures without eyes called "troglobites." In a contest to see who would make the best troglobite, Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, and Don participate in a treasure hunt - with their eyes closed! The kids have to rely on their other senses (with some guidance from the actual troglobites) to navigate the cave and find the prize. Story A Educational Objectives: A speleologist is someone who studies caves. Also, there are creatures called troglobites whose bodies are specially adapted for living in deep caves without any light. "What's at the Center of the Earth? Minerals!" - While digging even further underground, the drill bit on the Drill Engine Train breaks. The Pteranodon Family find themselves in the Cave of Giant Crystals, where they learn all about rocks and crystals (what they are, how they're different, how they form). In order to get back home, the Pteranodon Family has to fix the drill bit by finding a mineral harder than the mineral that broke the bit in the first place. Story B Educational Objectives: Minerals form naturally in the Earth and are made of the same thing all the way through, while rocks are made up of a bunch of different kinds of minerals. Minerals come in thousands of different types (more than 4000 to be more exact), many of which form large and beautiful crystals, some of which are harder than others.

The Pteranodon kids and their dome-headed friend Spikey Stygimoloch meet a brother and sister, Patrick and Pamela Pachycephalosaurus, two dinosaurs with enormous dome heads. Spikey bonds with the Pachycephalosaurus. Patrick and Pamela are athletes who invite our kids, Mom, and Spikey along to watch them use their impressive dome heads to play a volleyball type sport called, Dome Ball. Don has a large collection of things he's found in nature, but he's missing one hard-to-locate item - amber. On the Dinosaur Train, Don and the other Pteranodon kids find out that Gilbert is also looking for amber. At Amber Arroyo caves, Don and Gilbert separately search for and find amber, eventually bonding over their discoveries.

"Crystal and King Benefit Concert: Part One" - When Crystal and the King go for a trip to the Big Pond, they learn that it's being recklessly overfished! They enlist the help of the Pteranodon Family to try to spread the word that if the dinosaurs and pterosaurs aren't more careful, the Big Pond will run out of fish to eat. But when Crystal realizes that nothing they're doing is actually raising awareness of the issue, she decides to organize a HUGE benefit concert, and everyone agrees to pitch in and help (as long as the King doesn't have to perform)! "Crystal and King Benefit Concert: Part Two" - The "Don't Overfish the Big Pond" Benefit Concert is underway, and it's a HUGE success! But because there's so much to organize, Crystal never finds the time to rehearse her big finale - so when it's time for her to go onstage, she experiences something she's never experienced before - stage fright! Can the kids help Crystal get over her stage fright and get her back onstage, or will the King have to come out of "performance retirement" to help her out? Educational Objectives: Overfishing generally results in a dramatic depletion in the total amount of fish (i.e., biomass). Also, overfishing often causes smaller fish (the prey species of larger fish) to increase in number as the larger predators are removed. If aquatic ecosystems are given a chance to rebound, they often will, as long as the numbers of fish have not been depleted too far.

When Mr. Pteranodon and Larry go out to the Big Pond to find some red platanoids for the Winter Solstice Celebration, they accidentally miss the last train home. Will Larry and Mr. Pteranodon stop bickering long enough to figure out a way home, or will they get stranded in the middle of nowhere and miss the family Winter Solstice Celebration? Educational Objective: The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year.