GEOL 107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Calcium Carbonate, Apatite, Cladistics
25 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Darwin"s bulldog": went on the road to discuss darwin"s theory, proposed birds evolved from dinosaurs. Formed a version of cladistics to prove it. For fossils found: need to put bones together then need to put skin on the bones and put it in an ecosystem. Fossil: anything left behind by a prehistoric living organism. Made of several different things: bones (phosphate, apatite, quick/rapid burial. Nearly complete specimine: destruction of bones. Teeth are the hardest part in a mammals skeleton. We have learned much about mammals from their teeth: dinosaur eggs. The structures remain intact so they can still be identified: plants, can be preserved in several different ways, carbonization, heat and pressure drive off liquids, leaving you with pure carbon (coal). With more heat that will become silvery graphite: petrified wood, water flows in with minerals that precipitate out, taking the form of the wood, trace fossils, ex. tracks, trails, burrows (worms)
