Geology help please

[Chalnoth]

Hmmm, thanks for the suggestion, Chordates. I'll have to do a bit of thinking on how to incoroporate those formations into the essay.

 

[ChordatesLegacy]

Nah, actually, your earlier post was good for me, as the Burgess Shale searches alone yielded some great pictures describing the life found there, as well as a few comparisons between modern ecosystems. Know of any other famous fossil beds that provide images of a similarly alien ecosystem from a different time frame? If at all possible, I'd like to leave, at this point, pesky details like dating out of the equation, and just focus on the alien nature of specific fossil beds.

Look up Lagerstatten's

Lagerstätten (sing. lagerstätte) are fossil localities which are highly remarkable for for either their diversity or quality of preservation; sometimes both. Sometimes the phrase konservat-lagerstätten is seen in all its polysyllabic glory, though this seems like somewhat pretentious over-kill to me.

Here’s a LINK to a table of the best Lagerstatten’s world wide

 

[Chalnoth]

Look up Lagerstatten's

Lagerstätten (sing. lagerstätte) are fossil localities which are highly remarkable for for either their diversity or quality of preservation; sometimes both. Sometimes the phrase konservat-lagerstätten is seen in all its polysyllabic glory, though this seems like somewhat pretentious over-kill to me.

Here’s a LINK to a table of the best Lagerstatten’s world wide

Oh, that's superb! Thanks!

 

[DaisyDay]

I dont see why you should worry about convincing someone the earth is ancient; tell them to take a university geology course if they REALLY want to know the facts and truth.

I took a geology course; I'm pretty sure the professor wouldn't lie about the earth being billions of years old.

You don't just pay a thousand dollars for a credit hour to be mislead by professionals an hour of your day.

lol

Tell that to the Scientologists.

 

[keith99]

Well, I hope to show the precise age, but he believes it to be thousands of years (10,000 at the outside).

Oh, of course I plan to make use of radiometric dating. I just don't need any help with that, as I think I understand it well enough to describe it effectively, as well as provide evidence.

The next question is how stubborn the person is and what they think the initial state of the Earth was. One can easily take the Grand Canyon and show it took far longer that 10,000 years to form. But if he thinks the Earth was created with it already in place the argument dies. Same for any radiometric dating method.

Now if you can get him to say the Grand Canyon wasn't always there you can easily sshow there is no way (short of magic) for that much material to get removed in 10,000 years.

Put in a different way, what you are likely going to have too do is destroy his model of how the Earth and things on it got to it's present form. To do that you need to know how he says it got as it is now.

 

[mpok1519]

Tell that to the Scientologists.

i'd hope their ten-headed gorgon alien gods dont eat me if i did though. =P

 

[Chalnoth]

The next question is how stubborn the person is and what they think the initial state of the Earth was. One can easily take the Grand Canyon and show it took far longer that 10,000 years to form. But if he thinks the Earth was created with it already in place the argument dies. Same for any radiometric dating method.

Now if you can get him to say the Grand Canyon wasn't always there you can easily sshow there is no way (short of magic) for that much material to get removed in 10,000 years.

Put in a different way, what you are likely going to have too do is destroy his model of how the Earth and things on it got to it's present form. To do that you need to know how he says it got as it is now.

Well, we shall see. As near as I can tell, his beliefs on the subject are a little bit vague. So, it'll be interesting when I finish this essay (I'll post on this forum as well when I'm done).

 

[Baggins]

Chalnoth; google image Ediacaran fauna if you want something older and stranger than the Cambrian fauna. The very first multicellular life forms show strange symmetries. They look Lovecraftian.

The Carboniferous faunas are good as well due to the giant size of the insect fauna, this was down to the high levels of oxygen in the atmosphere from all those photosynthesising plants, gave us Dragonflies the size of birds.

Later faunas all look familiar as they tend to be quadrapeds of some from or another running around on land.

 

[Chalnoth]

Chalnoth; google image Ediacaran fauna if you want something older and stranger than the Cambrian fauna. The very first multicellular life forms show strange symmetries. They look Lovecraftian.

Hmmm, that's some great stuff, too. Looks like Mistaken Point, Newfoundland would be a good fossil bed to reference from this era.

The Carboniferous faunas are good as well due to the giant size of the insect fauna, this was down to the high levels of oxygen in the atmosphere from all those photosynthesising plants, gave us Dragonflies the size of birds.

Will definitely have to give those a look. Also, the carboniferous was before the advent of flowering plants, right?

Later faunas all look familiar as they tend to be quadrapeds of some from or another running around on land.

Yeah, but still should be a good contrast. Now I just need to get to work writing this essay! (first, though, I'm going to beat Mass Effect again...fun game )