Earth Day

Since my Dad was in the hospital and I was out of town when the tree-hugging photos were taken, I decided to instead post a photo that was taken of me mourning Trout and Sprout when I returned and found them both dead.

Happy Earth Day!
http://www.rd.com/slideshows/6-surprising-earth-day-statistics/

Burgess Shale

The Burgess Shale fossils are often referred to as the "world's most significant fossil discovery" because not only were the usual, hard parts of the organisms preserved, but also the soft parts- such as the muscles, gills, etc. They're also over 500 million years old, and the fossils were in very good condition when found by scientists in 1909.

anomalocaris- the largest known Burgess Shale animal (as big as six feet), also known as "strange shrimp". 











wiwaxia- looks like a slug, but has two rows of spines and flat, overlapping shells.

hallucigenia- one of the smallest creatures of the Burgess Shale, with seven pairs of spines.


opabinia- has five eyes, a mouth under its head, and stuffed food in its mouth similar to how an elephant does.
*see video-- http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article//cambrian_06

waptia- small, shrimp like (not nearly as much information about it online....)


marella- most abundant of Burgess Shale animals, two spines, two pairs of antennae


http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/

Lab Assignment- Mercer's Campus

These are all things I found on campus (with the help of my boyfriend, the biologist)--

Trees: Sawtooth Oak, Shurmand Oak, Crepe Myrtle, Dogwood, Red Bud
Plants: Dandelions, Daffodils, Iris, Tulips, Poison Ivy
Rocks: Feldspar, Granite, Limestone, Quartz, Ochre
Animals: Grey Squirrel, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Cottontail Rabbit, Domestic Cats

The Water Cycle

The water cycle is vast in its intricacies but can be simplified to illustrate a basic concept of its mechanism. It’s important to know that the water cycle depends on water’s unique facility to occur naturally in all three physical states (liquid, gas, solid) on earth. The cycle is also greatly influenced by water’s exceptional thermal properties, adhesive and cohesive properties, and ability to act as the universal solvent of most compounds on earth. That said it’s most useful to describe the water cycle by tracing one small group of water molecules and assuming for all intents and purposes that those few molecules never go too far from each other. So, let’s start with some water in a lake. The water on the surface of the lake is exposed to high heat and evaporates. The previously liquid water then travels as a gas into the atmosphere. As the warm water vapor rises it coalesces into clouds. There the water undergoes adiabadic cooling and can no longer exist in the form of vapor. The now cooled water molecules fall in the form of rain, or some other precipitation and flow into the lake where they originated. The water’s journey has been cyclic, and on its way has influenced weather, plant growth, animal populations, pollution distribution, and global climate.

The end!

DIRT!

12 soil orders of the world: http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/

A common soil in Georgia is Ultisols (http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/GPS/soil.html).


http://wapi.isu.edu/envgeo/EG2_earth/images/ULTISOLFLA.jpg

A soil map of Georgia:
http://csat.er.usgs.gov/statewide/large/statsgo.png

The Munsell Soil Chart:
http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/pvg/munsell.htm

Soil Texture Diagram:
http://www.jsu.edu/dept/geography/mhill/phylabtwo/lab12/soiltextdiag.html

Now you know about DIRT!

Geology (Rocks) for Dummies (Me)

There are three types of rocks:
Igneous- formed when molten magma cools
Sedimentary- formed when matter is compressed
Metamorphic- formed when rocks are exposed to different temperatures and pressure conditions than original rock was formed in.

Examples of Igneous:
pumice and basalt
 


Examples of Sedimentary:
limestone and sandstone

 

Examples of Metamorphic:
marble and slate
 

*all pictures from rocksandminerals4u.com

Halophiles and Extremophiles, Oh My!

Halophiles are an example of extremophiles, and thrive in environments that have very high concentrations of salt (fun fact from Wikipedia: the word "halophile" comes from the Greek for "salt-loving"). Wikipedia gives the example of Owens Lake in California, which "contains a large population of the halophilic bacteria Halobacterium halobium". Below is a picture of the bacteria and Owens Lake (the bacteria turns the water pink).

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/lms/owenslake/