Fossils B/C

[soobsession]

Also, Favosites is a tabulate coral, not a honeycomb coral.

it looks honeycomby enough. >.< but oh well. Yeah, your right.

[Cheerwine]

Does Fossils at Nationals generally have a better balance between invertebrates and vertebrates? I'm used to state and regional tests which are heavily slanted toward whatever is common in the area; obviously, that means lots of mollusks, sponges, and corals. I was just wondering whether they try a bit harder to incorporate more dinosaurs, fish, etc.

Alternatively, if anyone here is from Illinois: How do the folks at Urbana/Champaign normally approach their Fossils event?

Thanks

[lllazar]

Does Fossils at Nationals generally have a better balance between invertebrates and vertebrates? I'm used to state and regional tests which are heavily slanted toward whatever is common in the area; obviously, that means lots of mollusks, sponges, and corals. I was just wondering whether they try a bit harder to incorporate more dinosaurs, fish, etc.

Alternatively, if anyone here is from Illinois: How do the folks at Urbana/Champaign normally approach their Fossils event?

Thanks

WOAH WOAH WOAH

Whats ur name, wat school???? Central HS baby...and if u went to regionals at Central, i placed first at Fossils. Ya, the tall Indian kid who tryed to do an amazing jump of the bleachers and almost tripped.....

Anyway, i can help you a lot on fossils, we have to rep CU after all...cant have Imsa and New Trier taking ALL the medals.....

Edit: I just realized something. You asked a question about nationals. Which means your school actually has a chance at nationals...

O well, even if u are from New Trier, i can still help u out on studying...

Edit #2: Aww man ur not even from Illinois....ur just asking about CU because Nationals is held here....well i can still help you study i suppose, though theres nothing special in Illinois except Mazon Creek...

Just Pm me, ill get back to u asap, im on this site often.

[gneissisnice]

Does Fossils at Nationals generally have a better balance between invertebrates and vertebrates? I'm used to state and regional tests which are heavily slanted toward whatever is common in the area; obviously, that means lots of mollusks, sponges, and corals. I was just wondering whether they try a bit harder to incorporate more dinosaurs, fish, etc.

Alternatively, if anyone here is from Illinois: How do the folks at Urbana/Champaign normally approach their Fossils event?

Thanks

The events are based on the National event writers, not the school. The Nationals test last year consisted of 10 or so stations at 6 minutes each, but time was the biggest issue. There were a TON of questions per station, and if you relied on your binder for ID, you'd have no time to answer the questions.

Seriously, one of the stations was like "identify fossils A-Q, match them with their mode of preservation and then answer a bunch more questions". In 6 minutes.

That was for Division C.

[Videogamer321]

Hi, I need to study for the Florida state competition down at ucf right now as the competition is on April 10th. I was brought into fossils about 2 days ago (I mainly do shock value, in which we got 1st at our school invitational and 2nd at regionals) and I need to study. How can I get started as my coach was missing on my first day. Thank you in advance.

[allie-san]

Hey, I'm in CA! I'm studying for state.
Good luck in Florida, i would just study a lot of classifacation. Like phylum,class, order, family, genus.
My state competion is on the same day! Luck!

I just want to know like how much info we need to know about all the fossils
I'm making flash cards all I have is classifacation, range, modes of life,.....and thats it. But in the binder I have all the other stuff.. I hope.

[Cheerwine]

lllazar: sorry about the confusion, I'm not actually from Illinois. Our team just won state, so I was asking about nationals. I'll definitely be on this board a lot between now and then, so we'll see.
gneissisnice: thanks for that; sounds like they're going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us. I suppose the best studying I could do is just memorizing more of the taxonomy at this point (and identifying modes of preservation). Were there many short answer questions asking you to explain broader natural history kinds of things (e.g. how did such and such evolve)? Also, was there a big emphasis on morphology?

[lllazar]

lllazar: sorry about the confusion, I'm not actually from Illinois. Our team just won state, so I was asking about nationals. I'll definitely be on this board a lot between now and then, so we'll see.
gneissisnice: thanks for that; sounds like they're going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us. I suppose the best studying I could do is just memorizing more of the taxonomy at this point (and identifying modes of preservation). Were there many short answer questions asking you to explain broader natural history kinds of things (e.g. how did such and such evolve)? Also, was there a big emphasis on morphology?

From all the practice tests ive taken (which is like, 5?...), there is a bit on morphology.

Now basically, to study for this event:

Before regionals, i just made a page of info for each vertebrate consisting of:

Mode of Life
Time Range
Habitat
Taxonomy
Other facts
Interesting Morphologic Features
Etc....

And for invertebrates, i just did Taxon And Time range...i was new to the event at the time, and i honestly was stupid and thought invertebrates were simple and wouldnt be as in-depth as they were on practices tests.

I also, for my regionals binder put in info on fossil events and locations (famous and well known) such as the Burgess Shale, Dinosaur Feathers in China, Ediacara Hills, Permian Mass Extinction, etc...other pages included:

Types of fossilization
Laws/Principals
Index Fossil chart (very nice)
Geologic time line chart (also very nice)

* I also just put in pictures of plants...

Now for state, im almost COMPLETELY gutting everything...im almost done with all my invertebrate pages which now include:

Taxon
Time Range
Nicknames/Common Names
Morphology
Interesting Facts
Mode of Life
Habitat
Diet
Modern Relatives

I also added onto my pages of Fossilization Methods, Sedimentary Rocks, and Index Fossil Chart...i put the criteria for Index fossils.

For Vertebrates, i am going to do the same thing i did for regionals, except make the pages more organized...and also add Common names/Nicknames

For plants, im going to add a lot more info than i previously did:

Time Range
Taxon
Facts
Nicknames
Significant things revolving around the plant

Well ya...now thats wat i did and am doing...of course, i dedicate a lot of time to this event because i like it and i also would like to medal at state...of course if they screw up the test, theres nothing to be done

What you can do, make pages for each organism (genus) with the following info:

Taxon
Time Range
Nicknames/Common Names
Interesting Morphological features

Now also, you can make pages for each Phylum/Class/Order...now i saw / meaning "or"...for example, in Invertebrates, you want to make a page on the phylum Mollusca but make A page for Bivalves, Gastropods, and Cephalopods, with a few characteristics of each. But for fish (vertebrate) dont make a page about fish...make a page about Condrichthyes, Armored Fish, Jawless Fish, and Bony Fish. Give a few characteristics of each.

Now for Dinosaurs, you want to make a page for each Genus, but u want to understand the difference between Ornithischians and Saurischians.

Im really tired, and i could say more, but i have to get up and go to school tomorrow... so good luck at nationals...and hope i helped

Edit: You should also make pages on the following:

Types of fossilization
Laws/Principals
Index Fossil chart (very nice)
Geologic time line chart (also very nice)

Tip: If u understand geologic time, it really helps and you can understand age ranges a lot better...

[gneissisnice]

lllazar: sorry about the confusion, I'm not actually from Illinois. Our team just won state, so I was asking about nationals. I'll definitely be on this board a lot between now and then, so we'll see.
gneissisnice: thanks for that; sounds like they're going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us. I suppose the best studying I could do is just memorizing more of the taxonomy at this point (and identifying modes of preservation). Were there many short answer questions asking you to explain broader natural history kinds of things (e.g. how did such and such evolve)? Also, was there a big emphasis on morphology?

If I remember correctly, a lot of it was multiple choice, and most of the fill in was for the ID. I dont remember a big emphasis on morphology, but I was rushed so I don't remember a whole lot of the event.

There was a pretty big emphasis on modes of preservation though, that was a whole 6-minute stations, with around 13 samples you had to match to the preservation type.

[lllazar]

lllazar: sorry about the confusion, I'm not actually from Illinois. Our team just won state, so I was asking about nationals. I'll definitely be on this board a lot between now and then, so we'll see.
gneissisnice: thanks for that; sounds like they're going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us. I suppose the best studying I could do is just memorizing more of the taxonomy at this point (and identifying modes of preservation). Were there many short answer questions asking you to explain broader natural history kinds of things (e.g. how did such and such evolve)? Also, was there a big emphasis on morphology?

If I remember correctly, a lot of it was multiple choice, and most of the fill in was for the ID. I dont remember a big emphasis on morphology, but I was rushed so I don't remember a whole lot of the event.

There was a pretty big emphasis on modes of preservation though, that was a whole 6-minute stations, with around 13 samples you had to match to the preservation type.

That station doesn't sound TOO bad...unless the specimens were vague and the prexservations were hard....

Now when you add in the buncha questions about them, thats just annoying...but i suppose when u get to competitive nationals contenders, the only way to seperate the good from the best is to bring in the speed factor...


I just have a question on Cephalopod morphology: Was the Siphuncle used to control buoyancy?