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Loaner Kits

Texas Natural Science Center offers a variety of loaner kits available for educators to borrow at no cost. Educators interested in borrowing a kit must attend a teacher training session to learn how to integrate the kit into their classroom.

Available kits include:

  • Burgess Shale Replicas: The collection of scientifically accurate models, based on the half-billion-year-old fossils of the Burgess Shale, includes five organisms that lived on the sea floor: Pikaia gracilens, Laggania cambria, Olenoides serratus, Opabinia regalis, and Wiwaxia corrugate.
  • Carnivoran Skulls: Includes dichotomous key and a set of the following skulls: bobcat, coyote, gray fox, striped skunk, ringtail, American badger, mink, American black bear, and northern raccoon.
  • Cat Skeleton: Complete disarticulated skeleton of a domestic cat.
  • Chicken Skeleton: Complete mounted and articulated skeleton of a chicken.
  • Dinosaur Trackway Mats: Reproduction of our Paluxy River dinosaur trackway pattern on a set of yoga mats, approximately 25 feet long and 11 feet wide. Kit includes 5 metric tape measures.
  • DNA-RNA Protein Synthesis Kit: Students use plastic, color-coded components to build a DNA molecule, replicate it, and use half of the “ladder” to build messenger RNA. Contains enough materials for 24 students working in pairs.
  • Paluxy River Theropod Track Replicas: Set of 4 different theropod plaster track casts. Kit includes a track from a small individual, a metatarsal (heel and sole of foot impression), and a track with mud-collapsed toe prints.
  • Pinniped Phylogeny: Cast skulls of sea lion, monk seal, and black bear; photographs of walrus skull; whole body photographs of each. For investigation of the evolutionary relationships of pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses).
  • Predator Skulls: A set of 4 coyote and 4 bobcat skulls for predator “bite” analysis.
  • Primate Phylogeny: Cast skull and whole body photograph of each of the following: Lemur, Symphalangus, Saimiri, Lagothrix, Macaca, Pan, Aotus, Papio, Callithrix, Homo. For analysis of primate evolutionary relationships.
  • Sauropod and Theropod Dinosaur Replicas: Set of 10 plastic replicas of each, representing Paluxysaurus and Acrocanthosaurus. For use in track-making activities and as models in art projects.
  • Small Mammal Skulls of Texas: Students use a dichotomous key to identify the skulls of six small mammals commonly found in Texas. Skulls in the kit include armadillo, bobcat, raccoon, porcupine, coyote and opossum.
  • Stratigraphic Layer Modeling Kit: Kit contains five 3-D models of stratigraphic layers, including representative rocks and fossils found in different time periods of Texas’ past.