Biology 101 Laboratory          Name _________________________

South Carolina State Museum Field Trip

Purpose: The purpose of the field trip to the South Carolina State Museum is to provide enrichment for the last two topical areas of the course, evolutionary biology and ecology, and to relate this information to the natural history of South Carolina. Specific topics to be covered will include the geography and topography of South Carolina, continental drift and plate tectonics, fossil formation and interpretation, geological time, South Carolina’s ice age, extinction, South Carolina habitats, adaptations, and food webs.

Most of the answers will be found through observation or reading information that accompanies the various displays at the State Museum. Some of the answers will require your own ideas as you synthesize and apply the information being gathered. Where your own ideas are required, the information will be italicized.

I. Geography and Topography of South Carolina, Geological Time, Fossils

As you examine the large map of South Carolina at the entrance to the Natural History Museum, provide the following information:

1. Name the four major geographic regions of South Carolina and give a brief description of the dominant vegetation and conditions:

2. Columbia would be located between which two of these regions?

3. Name the four major river systems of South Carolina:

4. According to the map, where would the ocean shoreline have been 100 million years ago in South Carolina?

5. According to the map, where would the ocean shoreline have been 1 million years ago in South Carolina?

6. How would the changes taking place in South Carolina between 1 and 100 million years ago have affected the plants and animals living here?

II.      Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

1. List the three major layers of the earth and give their relative thickness in miles:

2. Define the following terms:

A. continental drift

B. plate tectonics

3. Two hundred million years ago South Carolina would have joined which other continent?

4. As continental drift occurred, what changes would have been taking place on the various continents and how might this have affected the animals and plants occurring in a particular region of the earth?

III. Fossils and Fossilization

1. List and describe how the three major categories of rock are formed:

2. Which of these types of rocks would most likely contain fossils and why? Which would be least likely and why?

3. List, describe, and give an example of four ways that fossils can form:

4. Which of these fossil types might provide the most information about an animal’s behavior? Why?

5. List three types of information that fossils can provide:

IV. Geological Time

1. Why were the ocean levels higher globally during the Eocene epoch (3 7-55 million years ago)?

2. How does the Archaeocete whale in the limestone quarry differ from modern whales?

3. List the four major geological eras, provide the relative time span, and list the dominant animals for each:

4. Why have geologists divided the eras into such unusual and uneven time spans?

5. From the “Reading the Rocks” display, why are 60 millions years missing from some parts of South Carolina’s geological record?

6. Define the following terms:

A.    unconformity

B. index fossil

6. List and describe three animals that became extinct during the cretaceous (65-95 million years ago).

V. South Carolina’s Ice Age

1. What was the time span for the various “ice ages”?

2. Compare the feeding habits of the mastodon and the mammoth.

3. How might the feeding habits of the mastodon and mammoth allowed them to coexist?

4. How are the mastodon and mammoth teeth adapted to their particular feeding strategy?

5. Describe three adaptations possessed by the glyptodont that allowed him to thrive in marshy areas:

6. What are “edentates”?

7. Name two modern relatives of the glyptodont.

8. Why might the glyptodont been unable to cope with either changing environmental conditions or hunting pressures from early man, which eventually led to its extinction?

9. What three factors are thought to have led to the extinction of the ice age mammals on display?

10.     List and describe seven ice age mammals present in South Carolina:

VI. South Carolina Habitats

1. Compare the following South Carolina habitats with reference to annual climate, sunlight, soil quality (humus, nutrients, inorganic composition), dominant plants and animals, and adaptations of animals and plants within each habitat.

2. A small number of individuals of a species of animal well-adapted to life in a mountain cove migrate to the South Carolina Sand Hills and attempt to establish a population. Discuss five problems that this species is likely to encounter?

3. A plant seed is carried by birds from the South Carolina piedmont to a dune community along the South Carolina coast. Discuss four problems that this plant will face in terms of living in this new environment?