Dinosaur Bones Apple Tree House

# No matter if you're young or old

# With good friends you'll never be alone

# Shining light on our joyful world

# Ain't nothing going to beat that place we call home

# First days, new days

# All the very best days

# New things to discover

# New people to meet

# Fun days always

# Playing with your friend days

# Life is for the living down at Apple Tree House. #

These are all so bright and colourful.

And funny-shaped compared to the ones in the shop.

But they're really good for you, full of vitamins.

-Vitamins?

-Yes, stuff that's found in foods we eat.

Your body needs vitamins to work properly,

-so that you grow up like your...

-Like Dad?

-Yes, nice and healthy.

Ooh, look at this!

Goodness, what have you got there?

I don't know, what is it?

Do you think it's some kind of hidden treasure?

Treasure? Well, that would be a surprise.

But it might be.

-Pirate treasure...

-Ooh-arr!

..hidden for hundreds of years.

Buried here in the ground.

But why is it buried in the community garden?

Hmm, I'm not sure.

Let's take the treasure back upstairs,

then we can start to work out what it is that we found.

-Let's get solving!

-Solving!

SHE CHUCKLES

Um, this doesn't look like our treasure.

No-one's seen treasure like this before.

-It could be very rare and even more valuable.

-Hm.

It could be one of those dinosaur-thingy whatsits, you know?

A fossil. Yes, it's a fossil!

Yes!

-But how did they get here on the estate?

-Hmm.

It probably came from a dinosaur that roamed around Apple Tree House

millions of years ago.

Oh, my gosh!

Dinosaurs used to live here? Cool!

My dad would know about this, he works at the zoo.

Gran, can we go ask him?

Please, please, please!

He's watching the football on TV with my dad.

All right, let me finish up here and then we'll go and talk to him.

-Yes!

-Awesome!

-Yeah, yeah, that's it, that's it.

-Come on.

-Come on...

Hi, Dad.

-Oh, no!

-Sorry to interrupt your match, boys, Mali's found

something strange and interesting in the community garden today.

Bella helped research it on the computer,

but we couldn't find anything about it.

We think it's a dinosaur fossil.

Dinosaur fossil? Is that possible?

What do you think?

Yes, it's certainly possible.

Fossils have been found in the strangest of places.

If it's important, does that mean we'll be famous scientists?

Well, if it turns out to be a dinosaur bone,

you certainly could be.

Scientists who study dinosaur bones or fossils are

called palaeontologists.

Zoo archaeologists study how humans interacted with animals.

Wow, we're ologists!

It certainly looks like an old bone of animal origin.

It could well be that of a dinosaur.

Wow, this is a real find!

Fossils are so exciting!

They help us imagine what life

for these amazing old creatures was like.

CAWING

Dinosaurs as big as a house!

Ah, yeah!

Ooh, that's scary.

Dinosaurs roaming around Apple Tree House.

Dinosaurs were massive and they'd probably gobble you up!

No need to worry, Bella.

The last of the dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago.

Our earliest ancestors didn't arrive until much later,

about five million years ago.

So despite what you see on TV,

people and dinosaurs never lived on our planet at the same time.

It would have been impossible for dinosaurs to gobble up people

-or keep them as pets.

-Phew, thank goodness for that!

-WHISTLE BLOWS

-Oh! Oh, that was close!

Why don't you take it to work, see if you can find out more about it?

-CHILDREN:

-Please!

That is a great idea.

Now, can we watch the rest of the footy?

Come on, you Reds!

Have you heard about the dinosaur fossil?

-The what?

-The dinosaur fossil.

Everyone's talking about it.

No, but tell me more.

Apparently, Mali and Grandma Zainab went to the community garden

and found a dinosaur fossil.

-What, here?

-Yes.

It could be an important and valuable archaeological find.

-Hiya.

-Oh, hi, Ian.

Here's that fit-all super wrench I borrowed.

Listen, have you guys heard anything about this dinosaur thingy?

-Fossil.

-Dinosaur fossil?

Oh, yeah. Nadeem took it off to work at the zoo to have it analysed.

I reckon them archae...olly people...

-Zoo archaeologists and palaeontologists.

-Yeah.

..may have to excavate the garden,

see if any more fossils can be found.

That'll cause disruption, an area of the estate closed off,

affecting access to some of the flats.

The car park, play area, sheds, and gardens.

Disruption?

-Upheaval?

-Yeah.

The residents aren't going to be happy.

Unhappy residents?

Unhappy Dad.

I can imagine it.

HE SIGHS AND GROANS

Argh!

Anyway, Dad, look on the bright side.

Our estate's going to be famous.

I'd better cordon off the area if the community garden will become

an important archaeological site.

Then we better stop in to see Zainab and Mali,

find out if they know what's going on with this

archaeological dinosaur thingy.

Well, Gran and I were picking vegetables in the community garden,

and that's when I saw it.

Then we got solving, but we didn't find what we wanted on the internet.

But Nadeem told us all about palaeontologists,

zoo archaeologists,

and dinosaurs.

And Dad said he'd take it into work.

So we'd know if it was important or valuable.

They are probably loads more fossils that will have to be dug up.

-And then we'll all be ologists.

-Mm-hm.

I want to be a zoo archaeologist.

Well, this is an unexpected turnout.

Dad, did you find out about the fossil?

Yes, everyone's DESPERATE to know.

You've come in just in time for a nice cuppa.

I didn't think so many people would be interested in an old bone.

-Is it valuable?

-Are we going to be famous?

I need to know how the estate will run if have to close off

the car park and the gardens because of an archaeological dig.

Well, after taking it to work, I can reveal that...

it is indeed very old.

-Amazing!

-Yes!

-Wow.

-But not millions of years old.

-Oh.

It's not a fossil bone, as first thought, but a tooth.

-A dinosaur tooth?

-Well, no.

It's not a tooth from a dinosaur.

Probably a large shark.

Wow! A large shark.

Oh, my gosh.

Cool. That sounds FINteresting.

HE LAUGHS AND CLEARS THROAT

Sorry, Nadeem, go on, mate.

As I was saying, a shark,

certainly something very large that lived in the sea.

It's a marine species.

How did the shark's tooth find its way to Apple Tree House?

Yeah, we live nowhere near the sea.

It all sounds a bit FISHY to me.

Dad!

Well, that presents us with an even bigger mystery.

Nadeem, is it possible to see what all the fuss is about, please?

Sure.

KOBI LAUGHS

What's so funny?

Kobi, what's so funny?

Well, I'll tell you.

-Is everyone sitting comfortably?

-Yeah!

-Yeah.

Many, many years ago, my father told the story

of my great-uncle,

Brightness Apapafio,

who was a fisherman in Accra, Ghana.

Now, because of storms and bad weather,

the fishing boats hadn't gone out in days,

and the village was very hungry.

That evening, Brightness decided to brave the weather and set out.

He knew he could become lost as another storm was brewing,

so as soon as his nets were full of fish,

Brightness battled through the rough sea to haul them in.

And then suddenly, out of the dark water, a face appeared.

A giant shark with its mouth open wide.

-Wow!

-Whoa.

-That is cool.

But instead of chomping on the boat,

the shark gently nudged Uncle Bright back to land

with all the food for the village.

Back home, people didn't think it was possible,

until the next morning, when my dad went to check out the fishing boat.

And there, glistening in the water,

a giant tooth.

Proof of Uncle Bright's tale.

Well, he went down in fishing folklore

as the hero who was saved by a friendly shark.

Many years later, my father handed the tooth down to me.

-What about the shark?

-Oh, he was seen a few more times,

and he became known as "Argh, Shark!"

But how could it get into our garden?

Ah, I like to be resourceful,

so I simply used it as a gardening tool to plant my runner beans,

which I have to say, and I'm very proud to say, have won a few prizes.

See, perfect for seeding.

I must've left it in the garden, haven't seen it in ages.

I thought I'd lost it.

So it's not old?

But it is, and valuable.

And important.

You see, another tradition is something

that has such a powerful story doesn't really belong to anyone.

It finds you.

From the shark to Uncle Brightness, and he told his story.

It found me, and I told my story.

And now it's found you,

and you now have your own story.

Whoa! Cool!

Do you know what, I think you better hang onto it for a while longer.

Yay!

Hey, Mali. What an adventure.

It's certainly the oldest

and most significant thing I've ever come across.

-Goodnight, Son.

-Goodnight, Dad.

Oh, well. We didn't get to become zoo archaeologists.

Probably just as well.

THEY LAUGH

Could you imagine my dad and everyone in the garden

digging for fossils?

But we did learn loads about dinosaurs, palaeontologists

and marine species.

And how to plant runner beans.

And the best bit was your dad's story about the shark.

-You're a good friend, Mali.

-And you're a great friend, Sam.