Title
Names of all group members
[Members in brackets below is a suggestion for how to divide the primary authorship of each
section among a group of 3. Group members must arrive at a consensus on the content and
authorship of each section before writing begins.]
Summary of Project
[Member A]
Use this section to describe in 2 -3 sentences the primary goals of this project and the scientific
questions you will address about the excavation site.
Stratigraphic Age
[Member B]
Revisit your Excavation III assignment with your group and come to a consensus about the age
of the excavation site. In this section:
●
Clearly state the age range (in millions of years) – this is your claim.
●
Present the evidence you used to support your claim, referring to the FADs and LADs of
the organisms present in the stratigraphic column and their position in the stratigraphic
column relative to the excavation site.
●
Explain the reasoning that allowed you to infer the age from the evidence.
●
Explain how you know the age cannot be younger than your claim.
●
Explain how you know the age cannot be older than your claim.
Identification
In this section, clearly lay out your evidence for your taxonomic identification. Address each of
the following:
●
Evidence and reasoning supporting this specimen is a dinosaur.
[Member C]
●
Evidence and reasoning supporting the placement of this specimen within one of the
major clades of dinosaur (ex. Saurischia or Ornithischia)
[Member C]
●
Evidence and reasoning supporting the placement a clade of dinosaur within the Saurishia
or Ornithischia (ex. Sauropoda, Ceratopsia, Theropoda, Ornithopoda, Pachycephalosauria,
Stegasauria, Ankylosauria
…
)
[Member A]
●
Evidence and reasoning supporting the genus and species of dinosaur.
[Member B]
In each case, your evidence should include the shared derived characteristics you used to
assign your specimen to each taxonomic level. To arrive at genus and species, you should
also consider the age and size of the dinosaur in your evidence and reasoning.
If you are not able to come to a consensus at a given taxonomic level (ex. genus), describe
the types of evidence you would need to gather to make a determination. Explain your
reasoning behind needing those particular pieces of evidence.
