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Me and my partner are new to this event. Does anyone have any suggestions on which field guide is the best. We have past experience with fossils, but are unsure to what level we will be tested at competition.

Thanks, Tavin and Max

TavinM wrote:Me and my partner are new to this event. Does anyone have any suggestions on which field guide is the best. We have past experience with fossils, but are unsure to what level we will be tested at competition.

Thanks, Tavin and Max

I'd suggest either Smithsonian or Audobon; both are good, although personally I rarely use the field guide during competition.

So this is probably a stupid question, but hey I'm new to the event. When ID'ing the fossils they won't ask specific questions about the actual thing right (ie- mating, environmental impact, etc.)? It's just stuff relating to the fossil? I also noticed that the list is organized by taxonomy, are they going to ask questions about overall orders (etc.) like in Entomology?

Also, since we are allowed to bring a binder would it make sense to basically make our own field guide if we have time? Is anyone else doing this?

I participated in this event at the National Competition, Panda Weasley, and they almost never ask you questions like that, so you mainly only have to know about the fossil itself. However, there are occasionally a few ecological questions on the tests.

Panda Weasley wrote:So this is probably a stupid question, but hey I'm new to the event. When ID'ing the fossils they won't ask specific questions about the actual thing right (ie- mating, environmental impact, etc.)? It's just stuff relating to the fossil? I also noticed that the list is organized by taxonomy, are they going to ask questions about overall orders (etc.) like in Entomology?

Also, since we are allowed to bring a binder would it make sense to basically make our own field guide if we have time? Is anyone else doing this?

In the event, they may ask you impact, but it's not very in-depth questions, it's mainly like 'Is this an index fossil?' type questions. They'll ask things relating to it's life when it was alive like it's mode of life (ie benthic [living on the ocean floor], pelagic [swimming], sessile [rooted to the ground], etc.), how it ate its food (ie filter feeding, etc), special traits (ie poisonous 'tooth'), anatomy of the fossil, etc. There's also stuff about the fossil like how it's formed and such. You'll notice that there's not too too much on dinosaurs, the mammals, and other larger animals since the event supervisor will probably not have the actual fossils, so it'll be identification based on pictures and people often repeat pictures.

There will probably be a taxonomy question at every other station, so yes it is probably going to be like entomology on that aspect. Also as a disclaimer, since I am basing this information on my experience in the B division, I don't really know what's going to be in the C division event. A tip is to leave no stone unturned (or something like that) and make sure you have basic information on everything listed on the official list.

I've never seen anyone actually make their own field guide and I don't think that's really recommended for competition, but you can bring any field guide even if it's not recommended Smithsonian or Audubon. I think that since you're also making the binder, which should essentially have everything you need to know, you don't really need a make another resource that'll have the same information. So yeah, this was a lot of typing...

azuritemalachite wrote:

Panda Weasley wrote:So this is probably a stupid question, but hey I'm new to the event. When ID'ing the fossils they won't ask specific questions about the actual thing right (ie- mating, environmental impact, etc.)? It's just stuff relating to the fossil? I also noticed that the list is organized by taxonomy, are they going to ask questions about overall orders (etc.) like in Entomology?

Also, since we are allowed to bring a binder would it make sense to basically make our own field guide if we have time? Is anyone else doing this?

In the event, they may ask you impact, but it's not very in-depth questions, it's mainly like 'Is this an index fossil?' type questions. They'll ask things relating to it's life when it was alive like it's mode of life (ie benthic [living on the ocean floor], pelagic [swimming], sessile [rooted to the ground], etc.), how it ate its food (ie filter feeding, etc), special traits (ie poisonous 'tooth'), anatomy of the fossil, etc. There's also stuff about the fossil like how it's formed and such. You'll notice that there's not too too much on dinosaurs, the mammals, and other larger animals since the event supervisor will probably not have the actual fossils, so it'll be identification based on pictures and people often repeat pictures.

There will probably be a taxonomy question at every other station, so yes it is probably going to be like entomology on that aspect. Also as a disclaimer, since I am basing this information on my experience in the B division, I don't really know what's going to be in the C division event. A tip is to leave no stone unturned (or something like that) and make sure you have basic information on everything listed on the official list.

I've never seen anyone actually make their own field guide and I don't think that's really recommended for competition, but you can bring any field guide even if it's not recommended Smithsonian or Audubon. I think that since you're also making the binder, which should essentially have everything you need to know, you don't really need a make another resource that'll have the same information. So yeah, this was a lot of typing...

On the note of Div C, the rules are identical and the tests on the test exchange are very similar to Div B tests, so there shouldn't be much difference. As for the level of detail about the fossils that they'll ask, it depends on the test; Regional and State supervisors tend not to ask detailed questions, but they'll often have a few questions about something otherwise obscure that happens to be listed in a textbook they use. Invitationals tend to have longer and more detailed tes (at lest around here; in places like Illinois or Michigan it'll be different). I'm not entirely sure what you mean by making a field guide; if you mean to structure your binder like a field guide, that would certainly help.

Unome wrote:

azuritemalachite wrote:

Panda Weasley wrote:So this is probably a stupid question, but hey I'm new to the event. When ID'ing the fossils they won't ask specific questions about the actual thing right (ie- mating, environmental impact, etc.)? It's just stuff relating to the fossil? I also noticed that the list is organized by taxonomy, are they going to ask questions about overall orders (etc.) like in Entomology?

Also, since we are allowed to bring a binder would it make sense to basically make our own field guide if we have time? Is anyone else doing this?

In the event, they may ask you impact, but it's not very in-depth questions, it's mainly like 'Is this an index fossil?' type questions. They'll ask things relating to it's life when it was alive like it's mode of life (ie benthic [living on the ocean floor], pelagic [swimming], sessile [rooted to the ground], etc.), how it ate its food (ie filter feeding, etc), special traits (ie poisonous 'tooth'), anatomy of the fossil, etc. There's also stuff about the fossil like how it's formed and such. You'll notice that there's not too too much on dinosaurs, the mammals, and other larger animals since the event supervisor will probably not have the actual fossils, so it'll be identification based on pictures and people often repeat pictures.

There will probably be a taxonomy question at every other station, so yes it is probably going to be like entomology on that aspect. Also as a disclaimer, since I am basing this information on my experience in the B division, I don't really know what's going to be in the C division event. A tip is to leave no stone unturned (or something like that) and make sure you have basic information on everything listed on the official list.

I've never seen anyone actually make their own field guide and I don't think that's really recommended for competition, but you can bring any field guide even if it's not recommended Smithsonian or Audubon. I think that since you're also making the binder, which should essentially have everything you need to know, you don't really need a make another resource that'll have the same information. So yeah, this was a lot of typing...

On the note of Div C, the rules are identical and the tests on the test exchange are very similar to Div B tests, so there shouldn't be much difference. As for the level of detail about the fossils that they'll ask, it depends on the test; Regional and State supervisors tend not to ask detailed questions, but they'll often have a few questions about something otherwise obscure that happens to be listed in a textbook they use. Invitationals tend to have longer and more detailed tes (at lest around here; in places like Illinois or Michigan it'll be different). I'm not entirely sure what you mean by making a field guide; if you mean to structure your binder like a field guide, that would certainly help.

Thanks guys for your help!
What I meant about the field guide thing is to extract the pages I would need from the book and put them in the ID section of the binder (attached to paper most likely). That way I would have the same information there, but I wouldn't have to flip through extra pages. Does that make any sense?

Panda Weasley wrote:

Unome wrote:

azuritemalachite wrote:
In the event, they may ask you impact, but it's not very in-depth questions, it's mainly like 'Is this an index fossil?' type questions. They'll ask things relating to it's life when it was alive like it's mode of life (ie benthic [living on the ocean floor], pelagic [swimming], sessile [rooted to the ground], etc.), how it ate its food (ie filter feeding, etc), special traits (ie poisonous 'tooth'), anatomy of the fossil, etc. There's also stuff about the fossil like how it's formed and such. You'll notice that there's not too too much on dinosaurs, the mammals, and other larger animals since the event supervisor will probably not have the actual fossils, so it'll be identification based on pictures and people often repeat pictures.

There will probably be a taxonomy question at every other station, so yes it is probably going to be like entomology on that aspect. Also as a disclaimer, since I am basing this information on my experience in the B division, I don't really know what's going to be in the C division event. A tip is to leave no stone unturned (or something like that) and make sure you have basic information on everything listed on the official list.

I've never seen anyone actually make their own field guide and I don't think that's really recommended for competition, but you can bring any field guide even if it's not recommended Smithsonian or Audubon. I think that since you're also making the binder, which should essentially have everything you need to know, you don't really need a make another resource that'll have the same information. So yeah, this was a lot of typing...

On the note of Div C, the rules are identical and the tests on the test exchange are very similar to Div B tests, so there shouldn't be much difference. As for the level of detail about the fossils that they'll ask, it depends on the test; Regional and State supervisors tend not to ask detailed questions, but they'll often have a few questions about something otherwise obscure that happens to be listed in a textbook they use. Invitationals tend to have longer and more detailed tes (at lest around here; in places like Illinois or Michigan it'll be different). I'm not entirely sure what you mean by making a field guide; if you mean to structure your binder like a field guide, that would certainly help.

Thanks guys for your help!
What I meant about the field guide thing is to extract the pages I would need from the book and put them in the ID section of the binder (attached to paper most likely). That way I would have the same information there, but I wouldn't have to flip through extra pages. Does that make any sense?

I'd say it's better to type up info yourself, both because you learn it better and have to reference the binder less, and because (if you know how to separate accurate and inaccurate info) you can get a lot more info from the internet than you'll ever find in a field guide (although you should also use the info from the field guide, because much of it can't be found on the internet).

How do you distinguish between Mastodon & Mammoth?

kaziscioly wrote:How do you distinguish between Mastodon & Mammoth?

Mostly they'll give you teeth; if so, mastodon has large bumps (like humans) while mammoth has longer teeth like horses.