GEO LAB_tracking_sea_level_paleoenvironment.

Lab Report > GEO LAB_tracking_sea_level_paleoenvironment.

Sam Houston State University GEOL 1404 ACTIVITY NAME: Tracking sea level and Paleoenvironments with Fossils SUMMARY Students will interpret changes in sea level of coastal states within North America by observing the distribution of various fossils. This exercise will use organisms with well-known habitats and will rely on the Paleobiology Database to show t ...[Show More]

Sam Houston State University
GEOL 1404
ACTIVITY NAME: Tracking sea level and Paleoenvironments with Fossils

SUMMARY

Students will interpret changes in sea level of coastal states within North America by observing the distribution of various fossils. This exercise will use organisms with well-known habitats and will rely on the Paleobiology Database to show the distribution of these organisms over distance and time.

GOALS

After completing this activity, students will be able to:

- Identify coastal/near-shore depositional environments.

- Determine suitable and desirable characteristics of organisms that determine lead to

understanding water-depth of their habitat.

- Create maps showing the spatial and temporal distribution of specific fossils.

- Create paleogeographic reconstructions for the Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene

Periods of southeastern North America.

- Interpret environmental changes for an area based on the spatial and temporal change

of its fossils.

- Describe the extent and rate of sea level change within an area over a specific time

frame, based on observation of changes in the fossil record.

- Predict causal mechanisms for sea level change within a specified time and area.

- Predict additional organisms that could be used to identify sea level change in other

areas and use the PBDB Navigator to test these predictions.

CONTEXT FOR USE Educational level:

To be used in an introductory or intermediate undergraduate course, including (but not limited to) physical geology, historical geology, and paleontology.

Class size:

Students can work as individuals or in small groups of four or less. Appropriate class size can range from a small seminar (< 10 students) to a large lecture (> 100), as long as computer resources are available.

Institution type:

Can be used with non-majors or majors from two or four year institutions. Each student or student group will need access to the internet and Microsoft Word (or other word-processing program). We do not recommend using smartphones for the internet and word-processing