Fossils

[GGuy5]

I liked dinosaurs alot too when i was little

[gneissisnice]

Dinos are pretty easy for me, considering I've wanted to be a paleontologist since I was four. I learned all of them from my picture books when I was little. However, how do you know the difference between corals and sponges? They look the same!

Sponges have spicules. Astraeospongia is pretty easy, it's shaped kinda like a vase, and it has little star-patterns on it (those are the spicules).
Corals are easy as well. Tabulated corals are kinda layered; i remember that favosites is kinda like a bunch of stacks, while halysites is like a maze, if that helps. Hexagonaria has hexagon shapes on it, and septastraea is just the random coral.
Horn coral kinda looks like hydnoceras, but horn coral looks like a horn.

[soobsession]

Sponges have spicules. Astraeospongia is pretty easy, it's shaped kinda like a vase, and it has little star-patterns on it (those are the spicules).
Corals are easy as well. Tabulated corals are kinda layered; i remember that favosites is kinda like a bunch of stacks, while halysites is like a maze, if that helps. Hexagonaria has hexagon shapes on it, and septastraea is just the random coral.

yups...thats pretty much the rule of thumb i followed...well, id say that astraeospongia has flower-like spicules but flower and stars are pretty much the same. favosites looks like a honeycomb more or less and halysites looks like its wrapped in chains. i agree with hexagonaria too....and since i never really could find a lot of info on septastraea...i would just say that whichever one isn't halysites, favosites, etc. is septastraea

[courage7856]

Do we need to know the six basic body types of dinosaurs (sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, stegosaurs, armored, and horned)? It wasn't in the list, but I think it might be something to know. Also, does anyone know the bone differences between carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores? At Regionals, we were handed a random sample(not a tooth- that would be easy) of bone and were asked to identify it's diet among the 3 types.

[Flavorflav]

It would have to be the right bone. The level of the jaw joint will tell you diet without teeth, and there are a number of bones that will tell you the group, which will tell you the diet - like the predentary, or the pubis, or sometimes the maxilla, vertebrae or toes.

[courage7856]

Oh, that makes a little more sense. Thanks. We just guessed, and I'm pretty sure we got it wrong.

[maggymay]

Do we need to know the six basic body types of dinosaurs (sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, stegosaurs, armored, and horned)? It wasn't in the list, but I think it might be something to know. Also, does anyone know the bone differences between carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores? At Regionals, we were handed a random sample(not a tooth- that would be easy) of bone and were asked to identify it's diet among the 3 types.

Are you serious?!? Handed a bit of BONE and asked to identify the diet? Did you all ever get a test key? I'd like to know the answer and the test-writer's rationale behind the question. (I mean, I'm sure it's a great question and make a lot of sense, but sheesh...)

[croman74]

Do we need to know the six basic body types of dinosaurs (sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, stegosaurs, armored, and horned)? It wasn't in the list, but I think it might be something to know. Also, does anyone know the bone differences between carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores? At Regionals, we were handed a random sample(not a tooth- that would be easy) of bone and were asked to identify it's diet among the 3 types.

Are you serious?!? Handed a bit of BONE and asked to identify the diet? Did you all ever get a test key? I'd like to know the answer and the test-writer's rationale behind the question. (I mean, I'm sure it's a great question and make a lot of sense, but sheesh...)

That is a bit mean of the test writer. A tooth would be easy to ID the diet, but anything else is just hard.

[blufoster6]

well coprolites wouldn't have been that hard

[gneissisnice]

Well, if they give you the hip bones, you should be able to narrow it down to saurician or ornithician, and then maybe find the diet from that?