Cambrian

Even before man, many things happened in what is today the state of Iowa. It begins in the Precambrian and Cambrian period which according to the website from UCMP Berkley, “The Cambrian Period marks an important point in the history of life on Earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This event is sometimes called the "Cambrian Explosion," because of the relatively short time over which this diversity of forms appears.” The exhibit then…

new habitats. Based on the analysis of the Fossil Record 2, Benton (1995) found an exponential diversity increase for terrestrial organisms from Vendian to Recent. The marine organisms follow more or less the same pattern with a more complexity at Cambrian and Ordovician. Therefore, Benton (1995) refuted any possibility of equilibrium global diversity and denied any use of logistic model to predict past diversity patterns. Barnosky et al. (2011) analyzed long term diversity dynamics of species…

American source of terrigenous sediments in allochthon are sound, whereas there is no persuasive reason to suggest accumulation only in the Paleozoic continental margin. The sediments of the Roberts mountains autochthon consist of calcareous strata of Cambrian through Devonian age; these rocks deposited on the shelf of the North American continent. In general, the Antler age deformation in the Roberts Mountains autochthon is almost absent, except some minor deformation seems to have been due to…

Big History has produced many themes within in context, with the most prominent being complexity. However, expansion can also be seen as the most important theme that traverses through the Big History story. Expansion can be seen in at the very beginning with the Big Bang, through the increasing expanding universe that we live in today, it can also be seen in the creation and development of our stars and planets. Furthermore, expansion allows for the many diverse and different organism alive on…

List and describe the six different periods into which the Paleozoic Era is divided The first period in the Paleozoic Era was the Cambrian Period. During this period there was a sudden explosion of life on earth. The climate of the Cambrian Period was relatively cold at first, but then started to gradually warm up. Halfway through this period life started to go extinct. The second period in the Paleozoic Era was the Ordovician Period…

I chose the topic, Geology: Understanding Fossils. I’ve always been fascinated by fossils and where they came from, what we can gain/learn from them. My source for research is below, used via Google Scholar. Fossils - why are they important? This is a great question that a lot of people should be well-informed with. In the mission to seek out and discover fossils, we learn a lot about why this is important and where it all started. In the book, “Discovering Fossils: How to Find and Identify…

The human race has spent almost all of its existence searching for and building a wealth of knowledge. But what would knowledge be without application? This is why it is absolutely necessary to link facts and theories across disciplines of knowledge. The world around us does not consist of isolated occurrences, rather, everything is connected in one way or another. Therefore our knowledge of these occurrences also needs to be connected in order for our survival as a society. This simple fact is…

The Eocene era is the second epoch in the Tertiary Period and lasted around 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago. In that era, the shape and location of the continents affected the general weather trends marked the Eocene epoch and affected the evolution of mammals, primates, and humans. There were some changes in the isotope content of the large marine carbon pool; they forcedly shifted into the smaller carbon pools in the atmosphere and on land. The carbon isotope compositions of marine carbonate…

Life, until now is known to be found only on earth. Although, life has travelled to space but it cannot survive there without the necessary induced conditions. Only lichen and mosses have survived the vacuum of space and UV radiations yet. Imagine if you could survive the space without these conditions! Tardigrade (Water Bear), a water dwelling, 8 legged, segmented micro-animal has survived the space without any protection. They are prevalent in mosses and lichen and have a lifespan of a year.…

A long, long, long time ago, approximately 3.5-39 billion years ago the very first living organisms appeared on Earth1. During the Cambrian Period/Explosion the first true diversification occurred on Earth. Prior to this point there was still no vegetation and the oceans had yet to be oxygenated. It is believed that a reduction in the oxygen depleting bacteria lead to the oxygenation of the oceans which lead to the development of hard shelled organisms and an increase in invertebrates as well as…