Well estimates vary, 4.6 billion years is also an acceptable estimate accepted by many, and probably more accurate.amerikestrel wrote:Yup, only 4.5 billion years old.gneissisnice wrote:]
And the Earth is only 4.5 billion years old anyway.
4.54E9 years ± 1% is probably the best estimate. This is based on the moon and meteorites since many of them would've cooled and solidified around the time when the earth was still molten from a collision with another proto-planet.
I wouldn't count on that. There are realistic questions that could be asked about the specific behaviors, and CERTAINLY some specific adaptations of individual genera. For instance the use of the perforations in the gabella of cryptolithus as a tool for filter feeding by slapping it's head into the sediment, and it's lack of eyes due to the muddy low light conditions in which it thrived. Another example would be the various adaptations that can be seen in a couple of brachiopods on the list that were meant to keep them from moving through the sediment too much.amerikestrel wrote:For this topic, you just need to know how organisms adapted to survive. You probably don't need to get too specific, hence the inclusion of "major fossil groups".katzmeow wrote:Could anyone help me with 'n' on the event list (Adaptations and morphologic features of major fossils groups)? Other than the example they gave, I have no idea what else to look up.
If you want to learn these things, you will have to study up on each of the individual taxon on the list. The other option is to think about it when they ask you, and come up with a logical answer, though this is not recommended, and is obviously not reliable.
Also, once again, to those asking for websites to use as resources, use wikipedia, and for the rest your best bet is google. There are some other sites that are occasionally helpful such as petrified wood, and tolweb, but if you just google the taxon you want information on, then check wikipedia and use a google search to discover more resources.
For books...
Simon & Schuster's
Smithsonian
Audubon
and while you probably wouldn't want to bother, due to price, and limited actual use for the event, you can get some good stuff out of textbooks on paleontology, or more likely, invertebrate paleontology or vertebrate paleontology.
Just the ones on the list, though if they gave you a generic dinosaur they could ask you certain questions, such as whether it is lizard hipped or bird hipped, and what you could infer about the way it lived by it's anatomy.lllazar wrote:Also, do we have to learn ALL dinosaurs or just the ones on the list?
I'm not saying that you will never be asked to identify a dinosaur not on the national list (or if your state has one, your state list). I am saying that a good event supervisor will not ask that, and that by the rules it would not be appropriate to ask any identification of something not on the list (though it doesn't necessarily have to be a member of one of the most specific levels of taxonomy on the list, for instance they could ask you for the class of a blastoid that is not pentremites. If however they ask you to identify something to a level at which it is not on the list, then there isn't much you can do about it despite the fact that it goes against the rules. If you really wanted to you could have your coach file an appeal, but it probably wouldn't be worth it. When such a thing happens, it is disappointing, but really you just have to live with it.
