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In the fossil list, Do we have to do Anularia and Pecopteris? Im really confused about it.

khtungpalan wrote: ↑March 7th, 2020, 11:24 am In the fossil list, Do we have to do Anularia and Pecopteris? Im really confused about it.

Yes, you need to be able to identify them. But, they are form taxons of Calamites/Psaronius meaning that they are classified as the same genus, just two different parts of the organism. For example, you need to know that the stem of the plant is classified as genus Calamites, but the leaves of the plant are from the same organism, but originally classified under the genus Annularia.

EwwPhysics wrote: ↑March 7th, 2020, 11:03 am
It must be horrible to have prepared and studied so much only to have states be canceled. My sympathies go to everyone in SoCal.
We can hope that this won’t happen in other states, but it unfortunately probably won’t be the case :/ I just try to remember that having fun learning is the reason scioly exists, not going to competitions (though that is a fun part of it).

To make this post related to fossils, how much has everyone seen about mass extinctions? I don’t think I’ve had a single question in the 3 competitions I’ve been to so far.

tbh, not much on mass extinctions have appeared this year. I'm pretty sure we had a couple of them last year, but I haven't seen anything as of this year. If you're worried about regionals or state (if it might happen), get familiar with the concepts of each different extinction including the percentage of organisms died and what caused the extinction. There might be a little bit more to that. (like what creatures survived the extinction and other stuff).

We've had quite a few mass extinction questions in WI. Most of the 6 meets I've been to have had questions on them, and usually they were exactly as you described (what creatures lived through the extinctions). Have you guys had very many questions about transitional fossils?

BennyTheJett wrote: ↑March 8th, 2020, 8:10 am We've had quite a few mass extinction questions in WI. Most of the 6 meets I've been to have had questions on them, and usually they were exactly as you described (what creatures lived through the extinctions). Have you guys had very many questions about transitional fossils?

Not really... I remember we had only 1-2 about transitional fossils and we got the questions wrong because we didn't even know that they existed. Since they are relatively important in geologic time, I have a slight feeling that WI will probably test on them. Maybe even a whole station? (dedicated to Archaeopteryx and Tiktaalik) I feel that both transitional fossils have been tested a lot from the invys that we went to, but regionals on the other had actually didn't have as much as the invys.

When they ask about extinction causes what are they usually looking for? b/c most of them are caused by a large chain of events that had multiple impacting triggers (seismic activity - global cooling - sea level drop - co2/h2o drop - etc.)

axolotl wrote: ↑March 8th, 2020, 6:33 pm When they ask about extinction causes what are they usually looking for? b/c most of them are caused by a large chain of events that had multiple impacting triggers (seismic activity - global cooling - sea level drop - co2/h2o drop - etc.)

They would probably ask you (well the most common one that I've seen) is the cause of the K-T extinction, which was a meteorite...but that was just a theory. I would guess that they would maybe ask for one of the triggers that may have caused the extinction, like what you have listed for other ones that don't have theories associated with them.

welp... time to start on the R&M binder and figure out what the teachers assigned while we were at the forum festival
Again, I'm free from my fossils duties (bc states was cancelled if you didn't know already) but I still need to add some stuff to our binder.
To those who are still studying, good luck and I hope that your state comp doesn't get cancelled...

twig wrote: ↑March 8th, 2020, 7:19 pm Again, I'm free from my fossils duties (bc states was cancelled if you didn't know already) but I still need to add some stuff to our binder.

Look on the NY thread for information about a potential unofficial tournament that would be avaliable to both NY and SoCal, and potentially other states that cancel in the next month or so.

EwwPhysics wrote: ↑March 8th, 2020, 7:39 pm

twig wrote: ↑March 8th, 2020, 7:19 pm Again, I'm free from my fossils duties (bc states was cancelled if you didn't know already) but I still need to add some stuff to our binder.

Look on the NY thread for information about a potential unofficial tournament that would be avaliable to both NY and SoCal, and potentially other states that cancel in the next month or so.

yeah def don't give up hope there's still plenty the state/nation can do to still make all your hard work worthwhile. Sorry about SoCal, I hope they can figure something out

Long live fossils !