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Ancient Alabama Adventures.Pages Ancient Alabama Adventures Let’s start our journey with an overview of what is known about the development of life on earth PART 1: Time lines Use the two diferent time lines linked here to learn about diferent ways to show a progression of events. At the end of this field trip, you will be asked to design your own time line. As you view these time lines, use the Time Line worksheet (p4) to help your understanding of the concepts presented. You’ll need to be thinking about the following questions: How is the passage of time shown? Is this time line done to scale? How can you tell? What types of organisms existed in each era? Which ones still exist today? What was happening to the land? Time Line 1 Time line 2 PART 2: The Fossil Record Use the various links to understand how scientists study fossils. As you explore these simulations and videos, use the Fossil Record worksheet to help your understanding of the concepts presented. Digging for Dinosaurs – This site allows you to learn about the tools paleontologists use to unearth fossils. On a Dig – This video shows how paleontologists are using new technology to learn more about fossils. This wired science site also contains links to other videos you may find interesting. Rebuilding the bones – Can you rebuild a skeleton from a jumble pile of bones? The Dating Game? – Use this site to find out about some ways we can find the age of fossils. Try your hand at dating some fossils found in a cross section of sediments. Now let’s zoom in on Alabama … PART 3: Alabama’s Geologic History Geologic Map showing the age of surface rocks from the Paleontology Portal County Map from Alabama Cooperative Extension System In this section, we’ll use a variety of sources to learn more about Alabama’s Geologic past. You’ll want to learn about events that happened all over the state plus focus in on your assigned county. As you explore these sites, use the Alabama worksheet to help your understanding of the concepts presented. Paleoportal for Alabama - This interactive map site shows images of rock location by age with pictures of fossils from that time where available. From this site, you can also explore the geologic history of all 50 states! Alabama Fossils – This link takes you to the fossil section of the Encyclopedia of Alabama. It provides a good resource for general information about the state. 16. Geological History of Alabama (APT series produced by Alabama Museum of Natural History) This video is not available on-line. However, it provides an excellent overview of the state’s geologic history with a tour of important fossil sites. Your Alabama worksheet provides a guide to help you practice your note-taking skills while watching the video. Sea Level Changes – This site provides a series of images showing the level of the oceans around North America. States are outlined so you should be able to keep track of Alabama. Now let’s explore Alabama era by era. Alabama Through The Ages PreCambrian Chewacla – get a 360 view of the Precambrian rocks at Chewacla State Park Lee County – get a closer view of the oldest rocks in the state (Link won’t work in this upload so scroll down to page 7) Paleozoic Walker County – and Encyclopedia of Alabama overview of fossils from Walker County. Footprints – photos of fossils found in Walker county Red Mountain – photos of rocks and fossils from the Red Mountain Road cut in Jeferson County (Link won’t work in this upload so scroll down to page 9) Mesozoic Alabama Dinosaurs – use this link to explore the Alabama Dinosaur skeleton exhibit at the McWane Center. Watch the accompanying videos to see what scientists think about dinosaur adaptations. Spiky-Dinos – watch this video to learn more about dinosaur adaptations Badder than T-Rex – learn about other, less well known predators Alabama's Tyrannosaurid – Information from the Encyclopedia of Alabama about Montgomery County fossils Hadrosaur - Information from the Encyclopedia of Alabama about Dallas County fossils Mosasaur- data and fossils photos from Green County, Alabama (Link won’t work in this upload so scroll down to page 11) End of an Era – This journal article explains information on a fossil location that records the end of the Mesozoic and the beginning of the Paleozoic Cenozoic The last of the MegaBeasts – PBS Nova video shows what North America was like during the Cenozoic. Watch the first segment to get an overview. The rest of the video explores the scientific evidence behind it. Alabama State Fossil - Information from the Encyclopedia of Alabama about Clark and Choctaw County fossils Time Line Work sheet Time Line 1 by National Geographic a) How is the passage of time shown? b) Is this time line done to scale? How can you tell? Time line 2 by Kidipede a) How is the passage of time shown? b) Is this time line done to scale? How can you tell? Putting what you learned together a) What types of organisms existed in each era? Which ones still exist today? Precambrian Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic b) How did life forms change over time? Creating your own time line At the end of this virtual field trip, your group will need to create your own time line of the geologic history of a particular county in Alabama. Choose a format that you are comfortable with and that fits the data. Your time line should: a) show the four eras of geologic time b) be represented to scale. Make sure to indicate the scale you used. c) use graphics to indicate life forms that existed in each era. d) indicate during which eras there were major landform changes e) indicate during which eras your assigned county was underwater f) indicate which era’s rocks are currently exposed at the surface in your assigned county. g) indicate what fossil life forms make your assigned county relevant to this project. h) cite any source materials you used for information and images Fossil Record Digging for Dinosaurs a) What does each tool do? b) Why can’t we use just one tool? c) What type of fossil did you unearth? Use the snipping tool on your computer to capture your “fossil”. Save it as a jpeg and insert it in this document On a Dig a) What big find did Dr. Nick Fraser discover? Why was it important? b) What does he usually find? c) What new technology does he use to study it? d) What do non-paleontologists use this technology for? e) How does it get a 3D image? d) what do they do with these images Rebuilding the Bones Use the snipping tool to capture your rebuilt dinosaur. Save it as a jpeg and insert it in this document. The Dating Game a) Explain the general theory behind finding age using radioactive dating b) Try to figure out the ages of the objects in the dating game. Insert your work in this document as a jpeg using your snipping tool. ALABAMA 16. Geological History of Alabama (APT series produced by Alabama Museum of Natural History) Video Notes While watching the video, think about the following questions. Jot down notes to answer them. You will not be able to write down what is said word for word so try to capture the main ideas using key words and phrases. What was going on in Alabama during each era? What types of rocks are associated with diferent environments? What fossils are found in Alabama? What eras are they from? What parts of the state develop in each era? How does our past afect us today? What have these ancient rocks become? Alabama Through the Ages a) For each Era, give at least one life form that lived in Alabama. State the county where they are found. Precambrian Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic b) Why is it hard to find Precambrian fossils in Alabama? c) Why do you think there are many more websites on the Mesozoic than on the other eras? d) What are some theories that scientist have about the body structures on dinosaurs? Summary thoughts What general trends have you seen in the development of life on earth? How do we know? What did you find the most interesting about this field trip? ALABAMA PRECAMBRIAN ROCKS Chewacla State Park Lee County, Alabama Photos by Dr. Harold Stowell Red Mountain Birmingham, Alabama 1970 view of Road Cut from Birmingham News files all other photos by Dr. Harold Stowell, 2010 MOSASAURS GREEN COUNTY, Alabama Text and Fossils Photos by Gillian Jacobi Tuscaloosa Academy Science Fair Project 2010 other images from Wikipedia.com ABSTRACT The project tests if the formulas for determining the length of a prehistoric mosasaur are accurate. Four mosasaur skeletons found in Greene County, Alabama were measured (lower jaw length and skull length) to find the total length of the mosasaur. One of these skeletons was a complete mosasaur which is rare. The total length of the complete mosasaur was matched with the estimated total length. BACKGROUND RESEARCH Mosasaurs are large, extinct sea lizards that lived in warm shallow water. Scientists today believe mosasaurs are related to lizards like the Komodo dragon (Prothero 2006:35; www.oceansofkansas.com/about-mo.html). These sea creatures lived during the Late Cretaceous period which was 65 to 90 million years ago. Fossils of mosasaurs have been found on all continents and there are about 70 species (Bell 1997:293; Prothero 2006:35). A small mosasaur fossil skeleton is about 6 feet long, while the largest reported is about 55 to 57 feet long and is called Mosasaurus hofmanni (Lingham-Soliar 1995:156; Thurmond 1969; Thurmond and Jones 1981:148).
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