...study fossils in order to uncover facts about the different species and organisms that roamed the Earth up to 3 billion years ago. Using this knowledge, scientists have learned more about the geological processes that continually happen today, as well as climate changes from the past and present, the origination and extinction of species, and the birth of certain deadly diseases. It has helped shape the hundreds of hypotheses and theories about the beginning of the earth. A fossil is defined in Clark Larsen’s book “Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology” as “physical remains of part or all of once living organisms, mostly bones and teeth, that have become mineralized by the replacement of organic with inorganic materials.” In this paper, I will discuss the importance of fossils, how they are found, and their role in the scientific world. Without the study of fossils, the question of how our species originated would still be a mystery. There are a lot of things that can be learned from fossils while under a microscope. One would be that you can identify what the species ate, or by looking at their coprolites (fossilized fecal material). This can help anthropologists and paleontologists learn more about the animal that created it (Cummings & Grand, 2004). Coprolites are rare to find because they decay very quickly, but when they are found, it is most commonly discovered amongst sea organisms. It is a crucial component in determining the diet of a species; it can display...
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...After completing Lab 4 Acceleration Due To Gravity I can conclude that using a direct method (free falling activity) in obtaining acceleration is more precise than compared to the indirect method (pendulum swing activity). Thusly when I compared my results of each experiment, the free falling measurements were not so great, but closer to the earth’s acceleration. For example, my last measurement of the free falling activity was approximately 985.11 cm/s^2, which was very close to the earth’s acceleration. On the other hand my last measurement on the pendulum swing activity my last measurement was 2196.14 cm/s^2, which was very off from the earth’s acceleration. It is possible to assume errors in my calculations may had alter any of my measurements. Also possible errors in the experiment could have also altered my results. I can honestly say it is not that simple to obtain multiple measure close to the earth’s average. This experiment was overall simple to conduct, but obtaining really good results compared to the earth’s average is the challenge. I really enjoyed conducting this experiment using two different methods to obtain acceleration. My favorite activity was the free falling activity, because I actually obtain one very good measure. These experiments were pretty simple once I got the hang of using the equipment. I thought this experiment was quite interesting looking at my results and comparing them to the average. I had no dislikes on these experiments. Overall this...
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...Horseshoe crabs are marine living fossils, probably traced back to 485 million years ago. There are two horseshoe crab species found in Hong Kong. Horseshoe crabs are an ancient marine chelicerates, identified as the Class Merostomata, Order Xiphosura. The animals are identified by the possession of appendages around their ventral mouth and their swimming legs at their distal end. They have closer lineages with trilobites and arachnids such as spiders and scorpions instead of the "real" crabs which are crustaceans. Four extant species of horseshoe crabs are found and have survived over the geological period. They are classified to three genera in two families under the Superfamily Limulacea. They have hardly changed in millions of years. The oldest horseshoe crab fossils are probably traced back to the Cambrian period, which is nearly 485 million years ago. Therefore, the existing horseshoe crab species are treated as living fossils. http://www.hschk.org/article.php?id=20 2. Oriental Blechnum Blechnum orientale is an evergreen fern forming a clump of arching fronds from 20 to 200cm tall, growing from a thick rhizome that rises to a short, erect trun. The plant is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food and a medicine. It is often cultivated as an ornamental. The plant is anthelmintic, antiviral, contraceptive and tonic. It is used in treating urinary complaints, impotence, boils in babies and older children and diarrhoea. It is believed that total...
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...Animals with hard parts are obviously more likely to be preserved than those that have only soft bodies. Animals may have hard parts, but if they are fragile (perhaps thin), they will not preserve as well as those that have more resistant structure. Some hard parts may have a chemistry that allows then to dissolve easily, reducing their chances of preservation. Some animals have an anatomy that predisposes then to breaking up after death. Vertebrates, for examples, have bony skeletons, but the bones are held together by soft tissue tendons and muscles. Vertebrates often fall apart after death, and their bones may be scattered by water currents, predators, scavengers, etc. Plants fall apart after death, or even during life. Flowers, pollen/spores, leaves, and even branches may be shed during life; stems and trunks may be broken away from roots after death, and the result is that plant parts (even from the same plant) may end up being fossilised in different places. Some creatures molt off their hard parts during life. We have already mentioned leaf fall in deciduous plants. But all arthropods except insects molt off their outer skeletons as they grow (adult insects don't grow). So crustaceans, trilobites, and so on may drop a dozen or more outer skeletons into the fossil record before they finally die. Molting may act as a bias suggesting that a species was MORE abundant than it was in reality. Size Large fossils are easier to see Large shells or bones are stronger, so...
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...Phyletic gradualism and punctuated equilibria are really two different modes where evolution can take place. Punctuated equilibria, many different kinds of species can differentiate very quickly resulting evolving to a new environment. Once species are established they vary very little over time. An older theory is phyletic gradualism; this has been actually discarded in biology. This is a steady and slow rate of change in population over time. The differences between the two are the rate of evolution. Phyletic gradualism is very slaw and is constant for species. In punctuated equilibrium the rate is very fast and is related to geologically side of things. In my opinion, the differences lay in the definitions of the species and of course the theories behind punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism. Many expert and researchers have annotated that punctuated equilibrium implies a prediction about patterns of genetic differences among many species. It predicts that many evolutionary changes takes place in a short span of time and is tied to speciation events.” Punctuated equilibrium predicts that the fossil record at any one site is unlikely to record the process of speciation. If a site records that the ancestral species lived there, the new species would probably be evolving somewhere else. The small size of the isolated population which is evolving into a new species reduces the odds that any of its members will be fossilized. The new species will only leave...
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...The earth is known to be old, but what is the truth of how old is the earth. There is scientific evidence of how old it is, some would say it’s Billions of years and some would say Thousands of years old. There is a lot of factors like rocks layers, plants, animals, sun, moon and many more facts that can predict how many years has the earth been around. But to find the truth if it’s a Billions of years or Thousands of years we would have to compare the two and even look into scientist discovering facts. Or do we go off the what God has created and the Bibles authors? When we read about how or what makes the earth Billions of years? There was a Geologic time scale that was invented in 1800’s. Within this invention, this scale was only to find the geologic ages, with out the information of periods or events. By this we believe the earth was formed about 4 billions years ago. This dates have been proven by analyzing samples of rocks , solar systems, and minerals. Scientist have collaborated and scientifically giving proves of objects, like how old it the oldest rock on earth or the oldest mineral and where did it come from. Material (Oldest earth rock), Age (4.0 billion years), and Methods (radiometric) our how the geologic scale combinations of specific source that tell the what scientist have documented and dated there sources. These are examples of why some assume the age of the earth is a billion years old. One big scientists believer was James Hutton studied...
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...GEOLOGIC TIME Go to http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html to fill in the following table: ERA | PERIOD | INDEX FOSSILS USED TO IDENTIFY ROCKS OF THIS AGE (DESCRIBE WHAT THESE FOSSILS ARE AS WELL) | ABSOLUTE AGE RANGE (MYA) | MAJOR GEOLOGIC EVENTS | CENOZOIC | Quaternary | Evidence of Homo Sapiens Sapiens and early types of plants.Pleistocene conifers, mosses, flowering plants, insects, mollusks, birds, mammals (sloths, bison, sabre-toothed cats, mammoths, early human hunters). Diatoms, foraminifera, and plant pollen. | 1.8 MYA to today. | Yet the Holocene has witnessed all of humanity's recorded history and the rise and fall of all its civilizations. It was during the Pleistocene that the most recent episodes of global cooling, or ice ages, took place. Temperate zones were alternately covered by glaciers during cool periods. The Pleistocene also saw the evolution and expansion of our own species, Homo sapiens. | | Tertiary | Grazing mammals, such as members of the perissodactyl and artiodactyls diversified in the Miocene and Pliocene.Long legged grazers.Chalicotherium , perissodactyls. artiodactylsHyaenodon horridus, elephants, horses, various grassesUngulates such as Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla, Vivveravus | 65 to 1.8 MYA. | The cooling and drying of the global environment may have contributed to the enormous spread of grasslands in this time. The change in vegetation undoubtedly was a major factor in the rise of long-legged grazers who came to live...
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...Extinction Happens 1 2 3 Thomas Henry De La Beche (1796‐1855), sketch of life in ancient Dorset, 1830 4 5 A few unfortunate but widely-recognized facts about the history of science (and society and religion and...) • rich, old, straight* white guys are (mostly) everywhere • the participation of women was (in many cases) actively discouraged or discounted • the participation of non-white guys and all poor guys was (in most cases) actively discouraged and/or discounted • some aspects of scientific discovery have been highly exploitative, of both nature and of local cultures • scientific ideas have been hijacked and inappropriately used to justify many things, both good and bad 6 * or so they claimed… Ph.D.s full-time faculty 7 8 State Revenue Contribution ($Billion) 1.2 +3% +14% tuition + scale 0.9 0.6 state contribution negative scale 0.3 0 2015 Sources: http://nicic.gov/statestats/?st=WI 2016 http://doc.wi.gov/Home https://www.wisconsin.edu/about-the-uw-system/ http://www.doa.state.wi.us/Documents/DEBF/Budget/Biennial%20Budget/2015-17%20Executive%20Budget/2015-17_Executive_Budget.pdf There is no extinction, There is no evolution, it’s all EVOLUTION! it’s all EXTINCTION! “Goal” is towards God, man created in his image (Lamarck) Catastrophic changes in Earth cause extinction of created forms. 10 (Cuvier) 9 Homologous structures • anatomical parts which share similarities that are not functionally necessary • pre-Darwinian explanations involved...
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...Week 1 Critical and Creative Thinking Questions Name: Gardner Chapter 1 3. How do you think the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for occasional catastrophic events such as meteorite impacts, huge volcanic eruptions or great earthquakes? Uniformitarianism is a scientific clarification on how the rocks, continents and mountains in the planet are created. The material process that occurs on earth has not changed; although the objective conditions have changed radically the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for the outcome of the catastrophe or natural calamity. 4. In this chapter we have suggested that Earth is a close approximation of a natural closed system, and we have hinted at some of the ways that living in a closed system effects each of us. Can you think of some other ways? Mainly a closed system is a system which is isolated from a larger system or environment. Closed systems, are detained to be isolated from their environment. The effect that changes in a reservoir, like CO2 levels have a close system effect on us. 5. In what ways do geologic process affect your daily life? There are several ways that Geologic Processes affect our lives. By description a geologic process is a normal way of modifying the face of the Earth. With this significance, the processes such as withering, desertification, stratification, soil erosion,and alluvion. These processes can sometimes take form in natural disasters such as Tsunami and...
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...Fossils are among the most highly prized natural objects in the world. Paleontology has its roots in two subjects: geology and biology. Geology and paleontology are intimately linked. In geology, fossils are important in piercing together rock successions from the same time interval across the globe, and in interpreting the nature of ancient sedimentary environments. Fossils are also unrivalled as stratigraphical tool. The process of evolution acts as an irreversible clock in which the appearance of successive species through time can be used to match and correlate rock successions. Every day, microfossils are used in industry as routine stratigraphical ciphers, unlocking the relative age of successions of oil-bearing rock. In paleontology,...
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...Week One Review Questions Student’s Name GLG 101 Due Date Teacher’s NAme Chapter 1: Critical and Creative Thinking Questions 3 & 5 3. How do you think the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for occasional catastrophic events such as meteorite impacts, huge volcanic eruptions, or great earthquakes? Uniformitarianism is a theory that states that past events are happening today and will happen in the future. What we do today has an effect on the geologic formation and structure and can lead to natural disasters. 5. In what ways do geologic processes affect your daily life? Daily life can be interrupted by flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes and wildfires destroying communities and resources that provide stability. Chapter 2: Critical and Creative Thinking Questions 1 & 3 1. When astronauts brought back rock samples from the Moon, the minerals present were mostly the same as those found on Earth. Can you think of reasons why this might be so? Would you expect minerals on Mars or Venus to be the same, or at least very similar, to those on Earth? Moon and Earth are close neighbors so some of the similarities are to be expected. Mars, Venus and Earth are inner planets and similar because they are small and made up of solid rock like materials. 3. Which of the following materials are minerals, and why (or why not)? Water; beach sand; diamond; wood; vitamin pill; gold nugget; fishbone; emerald. Water is not a mineral because it is a liquid. Beach sand...
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...an anemometer (measures wind speed). * Oceanography - Study of the Earth’s oceans and seas. Some types of oceanography include: marine geology (plate tectonics and study of the ocean floor), physical oceanography (physical attributes of the ocean), meteorologic oceanography (the atmosphere and the ocean interact). * Hydrology - the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the Earth. Hydrologists are currently focusing on water turbine or hydropower resources. During the winter, resources freeze and in the summer they dry up. Sanitary water supply is scarce. As cities get bigger the water supply lowers. Every year, the U.S. thermoelectric industry uses 3.3 billion gallons of water. * Paleontology – the study of the history of Earth’s life forms through fossil records. There are many different...
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...Criticial Thinking Questions Chapter 3 Question 3: The principle to uniformitarianism is the "past is the key to the present". This essentially means that scientist are essentially able to hypothesize about what happened in the past with the materials and processes available or seen today. One example of this is being able to determine that sandstone most likely derived from sand dunes millions of years ago. As the obvious wind patterns in both the stone and the sand are very similar. Chapter 3 Question 5 Geological processes affect everything here on Earth and most certainly humans and our way of life. Whether we speak of the damages of earthquakes and volcanoes or the environmental effects on oil and water.They can affect our lives in most all things determining where to get our drinking water essential for life or where we should or shouldn't build a home. Geological processes affect the weather, the climate and the overall stability of our planet. Chapter 2 Question 1 The minerals on Mars, the moon, Venus and Earth would all be very similar based on the fact that they were all swirling balls of dust and gas and formed at relatively the same time due to a cosmic collision. Chapter 2 Question 3 As a liquid water is not a mineral because it is not a solid. Beach sand is not a mineral because it is made up of organic material usch as shells and coral. A diamond is a mineral as it fits the definition of a mineral. A vitamin pill is not a mineral as it is made by humans. A...
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...Dinosaurs were found in the Laramie basin in Wyoming together with land plants "remarkably modern in their aspect"; these land plants bespoke a much more recent age than the Age of Reptiles, which, it is assumed, came to its end about 70 million years ago. The plants were referred by paleobotanists to at least the Tertiary epoch, or the Age of Mammals. "The Laramide group has given rise to one of the two most prolonged controversies in the history of American geology." [C.P. Dunbar, Historical Geology (1949), p. 375.] But the paleozoologists persisted in ascribing the plants to the Age of Reptiles, and finally coerced the botanists into accepting their view. In the redstone wall of Supai Canyon in the region of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona were discovered figures of animals cut by some prehistoric man. "The fact that some prehistoric man made a pictograph of a dinosaur on the walls of this canyon upsets completely all of our theories regarding the antiquity of man." [Ibid.] "The fact that the animal is upright and balanced on its tail would seem to indicate that the prehistoric artist must have seen it alive." Dinosaurs were in the vicinity, as is established by footprints discovered not more than one hundred miles from the picture. [S. Hubbard, The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava Supai Canyon, Northern Arizona, 1925 (1927), p. 5. E. George, referring to these drawings in his The Adventures of Mankind...
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...Associate Level Material Geologic Time Worksheet Use the following table to compare ways of evaluating geologic time. Your description, similarities, and differences must each be at least 50 words. |Time Evaluation Method |Description |Advantages of this Method |Disadvantages of this Method | |Relative dating |The ability to figure out past |By looking at the layers of |The disadvantages to this study | | |sequences of events thus telling|sediment stacked on top of each |and the determining how old | | |us the approximate age |other and studying the fossils |these layers of sediment might | | |difference from one formation to|found within these layers gives |be is the fact that we do not | | |another. This was done by |us the ability to formulate the |know how long it took to make | | |looking at the different layers |approximate age of each layer |one layer. We also do not know | | |of sediment formed in a mountain|and how long it took to form |if there was a time period that | | |side which turned into rock. The|each layer. Also we can tell |a layer of sediments was not | | |layers piled upon each other let|that any fractures...
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