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Do we need to know about the pre-Cambrian time periods? From my understanding you don't because there were basically no fossils from that time but I just wanna make sure.

ampy1234567 wrote:Do we need to know about the pre-Cambrian time periods? From my understanding you don't because there were basically no fossils from that time but I just wanna make sure.

I'd suggest you know them just in case; there are certainly important fossils from there, just none of them are on the list.

Unome wrote:

ampy1234567 wrote:Do we need to know about the pre-Cambrian time periods? From my understanding you don't because there were basically no fossils from that time but I just wanna make sure.

I'd suggest you know them just in case; there are certainly important fossils from there, just none of them are on the list.

Last year there was mention of the Pre-Cambrain era on a regionals test, but not specifically fossils in it. I'd still suggest learning it.

So, one of the things we have toj know is adaptations and morphologic features of major fossil groups, but what exactly are they talking about? Like Class Placodermi or more specific like each Genus? So confused about that.

By major groups they mean all groups on the list (its like anatomy of major groups but they can ask about the anatomy of any group). For nationals they follow the rules to the dot but if you want to do well at invitationals you should know it for every group

varunscs11 wrote:By major groups they mean all groups on the list (its like anatomy of major groups but they can ask about the anatomy of any group). For nationals they follow the rules to the dot but if you want to do well at invitationals you should know it for every group

ok thanks

Does anyone want to give some useful tips on what to study for the Geologic Time Scale. Thanks.

embokim wrote:Does anyone want to give some useful tips on what to study for the Geologic Time Scale. Thanks.

Make sure you know the time period for each organism on the list and then have a large timescale in your binder for reference. (This is the one I use: http://www.geosociety.org/science/timescale/timescl.pdf) For general time scale stuff, know the extinctions and the explosions (You know Permian Extinction, Cambrian Explosion, et cetera et cetera) and for general reference know a little bit about what occured in each period of the Paleozoic Era since a lot of organisms are going to have more specific time ranges (For example, Carboniferous had a lot of trees and plants and stuff).

For future reference, my favorite website currently is http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/index.php. (go to Online Exhibits and then History of life through time and THEN click on list of available taxa and then click on whatever needed)
NB: I use this website mainly for invertebrates and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/ for the dinosaurs.

embokim wrote:Does anyone want to give some useful tips on what to study for the Geologic Time Scale. Thanks.

More stuff about geologic time scale (yay!)

I recommend this document - it has simple text, simple illustrations, pretty helpful stuff if simplicity helps your brain wrap itself around certain topics. It explains it pretty well for such a simple document

Also -- know the nicknames for each period of time: for example, the Devonian period is known as the "Age of Fish" or the "Age of Fishes." That's something that you could write in on your large timescale for reference, I guess. If you go onto the petrified wood museum website, there's a 2009 state fossil test from Colorado with a whole station on time periods (Station 9, for your reference). If you look on the answer key, you can get all the answers from it, which tell you "devonian was the age of fish" "during the carboniferous, there were widespread coal swamps" etc.

Another tip (mostly just an organization tip, but still):

Personally, I think it's a good idea to write between the columns and in the margins of the official fossil list in your binder - next to each organism, you can write the time period(s) in which it lived. Another thing I like to do is put color coded dots in front of the number - red is index fossil, green is extant, etc (I would do that with time periods as well, but it's a bit of a hassle to memorize what color = which period).

Hi, everyone-

Some of you might remember me from this thread last year. My first question regarding this year is: "Where did you guys get all of your taxonomy information relating to all the different organisms?"

For my other event I've been using itis.gov, but I've found this ineffective for Fossils. What have you guys been using? Are there any "Holy grail" websites that you have been using to study and find invaluable pictures of specimens? Thank you all!!!