ITP Rubric

Criteria Ratings Pts

Full Marks No Marks
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Library Research
40.0 pts 0.0 pts
40.0 pts

Full Marks No Marks

This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Presentation--Participation
10.0 pts 0.0 pts 10.0 pts

Full Marks No Marks

This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Presentation--Visual Media
20.0 pts 0.0 pts 20.0 pts

This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Presentation--Evidence and Full Marks No Marks
40.0 pts 0.0 pts 40.0 pts
Conclusions
Full Marks No Marks
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Final Report--Content
40.0 pts 0.0 pts
40.0 pts

Full Marks No Marks

This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Final Report--Writing Style
40.0 pts 0.0 pts 40.0 pts

This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Final Report--In-Test Full Marks No Marks
10.0 pts 0.0 pts 10.0 pts
Citations and Works Cited
Total Points: 200.0
 Laura Smith

Geology 1010

Spring Semester 2017

smithlaura.weebly.com

Team A Presentation Members:

Laura Smith

Sterling Stroud

Tiana Lewis

Aerin Foutz
 Fossils are the remains of living organisms that have usually been preserved

in sedimentary rock. Almost all living organisms can leave fossils, but usually only the hard

parts of plants and animals fossilize. For example, an animal or plant dies and their remains sink

to the bottom of a lake or sea. Over time, they are gradually buried under many layers of

sediment and eventually become fossilized. As the encased bones decay, minerals seep in

replacing the organic material cell by cell in a process called petrification. Alternatively, the

bones may completely decay leaving a cast of the organism. The void left behind may then fill

with minerals making a stone replica of the organism. Other fossils can include the footprints of

animals left in soft mud, later to be buried, and turned into stone. One of the more exotic fossils

is that of swimming tracks made by animals as they brush against the mud and silt floors of an

ocean or lake. Under certain circumstances fossils of animal dung, eggs, and even complete nest

with eggs have been preserved in stone.

Fossilization can occur in many ways. The most common is where minerals (chemicals

other than oxygen, carbon, nitrogen or hydrogen) in the body of an animal are dissolved and

replaced by other minerals (e.g. silica or calcite). This leaves behind a solid rock-like impression

of the original organism. Almost no fossil record exists for soft organisms such as jellyfish and

worms. This method uses the decay rate of radioactive isotopes, elements with an unstable

atomic nucleus. Scientists know that these elements break down at a certain rate called a half-

life, the time needed for half the atoms of a one radioactive isotope to decay and become an

isotope of another element. One example is carbon-14, where the "14" means it contains 6

protons and 8 neutrons. This parent isotope gradually changes to the daughter isotope nitrogen-

14, with a half-life of 5,570 years. By measuring the parent-to-daughter ratio, the age of a fossil

can be analyzed. Relative dating looks at comparative rather than actual ages. One way is
by superposition, which is based on the assumption that fossils in lower rock layers are older

than those in the higher ones. Another method uses correlation where rock layers from different

regions are compared on the basis of mineral composition, fossil content, etc. If the various

features match, the areas are of similar age. Particularly useful are fossils with a limited but

defined age range (e.g. dinosaurs).

Fossils of land animals are scarcer than those of plants. To become fossilized, animals

must die in a watery environment and become buried in the mud and silt. Because of this

requirement most land creatures never get the chance to become fossilized unless they die next to

a lake or stream. Indeed, there may be whole species of land animals in which no fossil record

has been discovered. We may never know how many and diverse these animals were.

The knowledge of fossils is attributed to its link to dinosaurs. However, fossils are much older

than the age of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were extinct 65 million years ago and they ruled the Earth

for 100 million years before that. Although, fossils that have an estimated age of 3.5 billion

years have been found on all continents of the Earth. To understand fossils, there are a few things

that must be understood. Fossils are the remains of previously living organisms. Most of the

fossils found that are related to the early history of the earth are fossils of extinct organisms.

Fossils determine many factors of rocks and regions they are found. Law of Fossil Succession

states: The kinds of animals and plants found as fossils change through time. When we find the

same kinds of fossils in rocks from different places, we know that the rocks are the same age.

(Fossils, Rocks and Time, 1997) This leads us to look at index fossils. The index fossil guides

time periods to certain geologic time periods to determine the age of the rock they are found in.

Fossils are an integral part of the earth equation. Without them, we would not have a good

representation of historical record of the great past of our planets.

 The likelihood that any living organisms will become a fossil is quite low. The path

from biosphere to lithospherefrom the organic, living world to the world of rock and

mineralis long and indirect. Individuals and even entire species may be 'snatched' from the

record at any point. If an individual is successfully fossilized and enters the lithosphere, ongoing

tectonic activity may stretch, abrade, or pulverize the fossil, or the sedimentary layer housing the

fossil may eventually be subjected to high temperatures in Earth's interior and melt, or be

weathered away at the Earth's surface. A fossil that has survived or avoided these events may

succumb to collections at the hands of a human.

Successful fossilization begins with the conditions of death in the biosphere. Fossils

occur in sedimentary rock and are incorporated as an integral part of the rock during rock

formation. Unconsolidated sediments such as sand or mud, which will later become the

fossiliferous (fossil-bearing) sandstone or limestone, or shale, are an ideal matrix for burial. The

organism should also remain undisturbed in the initial phase of burial. Organisms exposed in

upland habitats are scavenged and weathered before they have an opportunity for preservation,

so a low-lying habitat is the best. Often this means a watery habitat. The fossil record is highly

skewed in favor of organisms that died and were preserved in calm seas, estuaries, tidal flats, or

the deep ocean floor (where there are few scavengers and little disruption of layers). Organisms

that died at altitude, such as on a plateau or mountainside, and are swept by rivers into a delta or

estuary may be added to this death assemblage, but are usually fragmented.

The biosphere is the sum of all living matter on the Earth. Highly specialized organisms

have adapted to the extreme boundaries of the uppermost atmosphere and lowermost ocean

depths. The biosphere is interconnected with three other spheres of the physical environment:

the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere.

 Until recently, the geosphere was studied primarily by mapping rocks, fossils and soils as

they vary across the landscape. Based on the principles of superposition (younger rocks overlie

older rocks), original horizontality (sedimentary rocks are deposited as horizontal layers) and

uniformitarianism (past processes can be understood by observing similar processes today),

incredibly-complex patterns on the surface can be unraveled to reveal the arrangement of rocks

beneath the surface, their relative age of formation, and the processes that created them. Gaps,

repeated sequences of rocks, or areas where older rocks are found above younger rocks were

tools used to map faults (fractures in the surface in which movement has occurred), folds (rocks

that have been bent or deformed) and unconformities (portions of the geological record that have

been lost due to erosion). Based on the fossil record, geologists of the 18th and 19th century

assembled a relative geologic time scale, which is the basis of the modern time scale.

Most people think that sedimentary rock takes millions of years to form, but we all know

better. Time, heat and pressure can and do alter the properties of rock but are not necessary to

form it. However, we dont find individual fossils or rock layers, but billions of fossils buried in

many rock layers that form the geologic record. Fossils are an integral part of earths equation.

Without them, we wouldnt have a good representation or historical record of the great past of

our planet. Although, they are not the only indicator used, radioactive dating of rocks and

minerals are opening doors that were previously thought to be outside of the human reach.
References:

Fossils, Rocks, and Time: Fossil Succession. Fossil succession. April 217

https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/fossils/succession.html

The Evidence of the History of the Earth. April 2017

https://www.atmos.washington.edu/2001Q1/211/Group_projects/group_X_W01/tanya.htm

Science Clarified. Fossil and fossilization. April 2017

http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ex-Ga/Fossil-and-Fossilization.html

The Formation of Fossils. April 2017

http://scienceviews.com/dinosaurs/fossilformation.html

Elliott, D.K (2016). Fossils. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science