THE MYSTERY OF THE FAR-FLUNG FOSSILS
Investigating Plate Tectonics
NAME:_________________________________________
Earth Science
09/23-24/2010
(Circle the correct period) Period 1, 3, 6
Purpose: To go on a fossil-collecting expedition to the continents of South America, Africa, Australia,
Antarctica, and the sub-continent of India in order to emulate evidence related to the splitting of the
super continent Pangaea.
Introduction: Alfred Wegener, a German geologist and meteorologist proposed the theory of
continental drift in 1915. He believed that the Earth's continental crust slowly drifted and plowed
through the oceanic crust (this is now known to be inaccurate). The fossil record supports the idea
that the continents have moved, however, it was not until the formation of theory of plate tectonics,
that a true mechanism for the movement of the continents was discovered (www.enchantedlearning).
Wegener hypothesized that there was a gigantic supercontinent 200 million years ago, which he
named Pangaea, meaning "All-earth". During the Jurassic period, Pangaea started to break up into
two smaller supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwanaland. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the
continents were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents
(www.enchantedlearning). Fossils can be seen in sedimentary rocks of each past age. In South America you will collect fossils in
Brazil. You will explore the coal fields of Gondwana in southern India. Some of your African rocks will be in a
gorge near Capetown. In Australia you'll look at rocks on the southern coast. Your fossils of Antarctica will occur
mostly beneath glacial ice in the mountains on the western shores. You will discover some of the important
organisms that lived on the continents in different time periods (Appendix 1, Fossil Catalog).
Procedure:
1) Detach the data sheet from the back of this packet.
2) Imagine that the five continents are each represented by a stack of sedimentary rocks on five tables around
the room. The continents are in their natural geographical shape and their sizes are proportional.
3) Travel between the 5 continents (5 tables) by plane and by boat, since each continent is now separated from
the others by oceans and seas.
4) Look for fossils in sedimentary rocks of 4 ages:
a) The blue, top layer represents modern times; the pictures of the modern animals you see are native
to the continent.
The three lower layers depict sedimentary rocks of three past ages:
a) Green Rocks -Late in the Age of Dinosaurs 100 million years ago*
b) Yellow Rocks -Early in the Age of Reptiles 200 mya
c) Red Rocks -The Coal Age
300 my a
5) Use the Fossil Catalog to help identify the names of the plants and animals.
6) Read about the plants and animals before you record them.
7) Record on your data sheet (Table 1) the names of the fossils you find in the rocks on each continent for the
past ages and present day continents.
8) Analyze your data in the analysis section – Answer questions 1-3. When you have completed those 3
questions please raise your hand. I will check with you to see if you understand your analysis (C level).
9) Cut out the 5 continents from the back page. Complete question #4 by tracing the outline of the continents
where they belong for each time period.
10) Answer questions #5 and 6, then raise your hand. I will check with you to see if you understand your analysis
(B level).
11) Answer questions #7-10 (A level).
12) Whatever you do not finish in class you need to finish for HW.
13) You will be writing a 3-section conclusion for this lab. We will dedicate 30 minutes to writing the conclusion
during the next class period.
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Results (C level - Applying)
Now that the expedition is over, what sense can you make of your data?
1. On the basis of what you found in the red rocks,
a. Which continents had similar fossils?
b. From this fossil evidence, which continents seem to have been connected
300 million years ago?
2. On the basis of what you found in the yellow rocks,
a. Which continents had similar fossils?
b. From this fossil evidence, what can you tell about the connections of the five continents
about 200 million years ago?
3. On the basis of what you found in the green rocks,
a. Which continents had similar fossils?
b. From this fossil evidence which continents seem to have been connected
100 million years ago?
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Results continued (C level – Applying)
4. Based on your data analysis, arrange the continents according to where you think they
were situated during each of the three past ages. Arrange them also as they appear in
the present.
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Results Continued (C level – Understanding)
5. Explain your reasons for putting the continents together as you did for
each time period.
300 million years ago
200 million years ago
100 million years ago
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(B – Level – Analyzing)
6. Look at the black arrows on the red rocks of the continents. The arrows represent grooves in
the rock. The grooves were carved by advancing continental glaciers about 300 million years ago.
The arrows point in the direction the glaciers were moving.
a. Suppose you were the first person to have found the glacial grooves in south-eastern South
America. From where would it seem the glacier came?
b. Could the glacier have come from the ocean? Why would the geologist who first found the
glacial grooves in India be puzzled by the discovery?
c. How might the idea of continental drift explain 300 million year old glacial grooves on four
separate southern continents?
d. Where was the probable spreading center of the glaciers? Make an X to mark this location
on the map above. Where on the surface of the earth was the probable location of the X
300 million years ago?
(Remember that a continental glacier tends to move out and away from its center, like a spreading mass of bread dough.)
e. Where would you look for glacial grooves in the 300 million year old rock of Antarctica? Draw
arrows where you would expect to find glacial grooves in Antarctica on the map above.
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Conclusion (A level – Analyzing and Evaluating)
Two species of living earthworms in the soils of southern South America and Africa
were found to be very closely related (members of the same genus). Also, two species of
living earthworms in soils of southern India and southern Australia were found to be
very closely related (members of the same genus).
7. How was the theory of continental drift strengthened by discoveries of closely
related earthworms on widely separated continents?
Examine the mammals pictured on the continents of South America, Africa, India, and
Australia. These living animals are native on their continents. Each eats insects, and is a
major ant/termite eater among all the mammals there. Each species belongs to a
different order of mammals. These four mammals are very distantly related, even
though each is highly specialized for eating ants and/or termites.
8. Explain in terms of continental drift and Darwin’s evolution through natural selection,
how four very different kinds of ant/termite eaters could occur in India, Africa, South
America, and Australia. (Remember, the Age of Mammals began on earth after Dinosaurs became extinct
about 65 million years ago.)
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Conclusion Continued (A level – Remembering, Applying, and Evaluating)
9. List as many pieces of evidence as you can to support the theory of continental drift.
10. Why do you think it is so difficult for some people to accept the idea of continental
drift?
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Literature Cited:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Contdrift.shtml
http://slohs.slcusd.org/pages/teachers/bsmith/ZZ%20%20Folder/Ron's%20Biology%2
0Web%20Page/Biology/GeoHistory/Far-Flung%20Fossils.htm
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Table 1. Earth Science Continental Drift Project data sheet.
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Appendix 1. Fossil Catalog
FOSSIL CATALOG
Early Glossopteris
Flora
A group of 27 species
of plants found in coal.
Glossopteris is the genus
name of one common seed
fern.
Lystosaurus
A plant-eating mammal-like
reptile with beak-like jaws
and a body about one meter
long.
Mesosaurus
A fish-eating, river-living
reptile about 65 cm long.
Later Glossopteris
Flora
Different but related
species of the early
Glossopteris flora.
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Dicroidium
Flora
A group of plants adapted
to warmer conditions than
Glossopteris flora, named
after a genus of gymnosperms.
Minmi
A plant-eating, armored dinosaur
built like a living battle tank, about
two meters long.
Kentrosaurus
A plant-eating, plated
dinosaur about five
meters long.
Brachyopodosaurus
A plant-eating dinosaur
about 5 meters long and
covered with bands of bony nodules.
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Austrosaurus
The “southern lizard”, a
plant-eating dinosaur,
about 15 meters long.
Secernosaurus
A small duckbill dinosaur
about three meters long.
Modern Ant and Termite Eating Mammals
(Notice their pointed snouts and claws)
Giant Anteater
Myrmecophage tridactyla
Order: Edentata
Pangolin
Manis crassicaudata
Order: Pholidota
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Echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
Order: Monotremata
Aardvark
Orycteropus afer
Order: Tubulidentata
Earthworms
Genus #1
species #1
Genus #1
species #2
Genus #2
species #1
Genus #2
species #2
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Cut out these four sets of outlines of the five continents of the southern hemisphere.
Trace the cutouts on the southern hemisphere map views found on
as they would have occurred during that period of Earth History. Use your information
from your analysis and the data from Table 1 to place your continents correctly. You
will be scored for accuracy in this section! You can look on page 250 in your textbook to
get a more accurate picture of the tilt of the continents.
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