Extinctions

http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2012/02/2009-morrinhosuchus-brazil.html

     This article, found on Yahoo! News, was about the massive extinctions that happened during the Triassic and Jurassic eras and how those extinctions brought upon the rise of the crocodiles and alligators that we have nowadays.
     According to the article all but one of the pseudosuchia lineage died off, due to volcanic activity or a meteor, which then diversified to live in both sea and on land.  Whilst doing research on skull characteristics details about species diversities was found.  Through analysis there was great diversity only a few million years after the extinctions took place, fanning the new crocodilelike species into their different environments of the Triassic period.  This extintion, according to Brusatte, a paleontologist at University of Edinburgh, the extinction likely had a  major effect on giving new species a change.

Ghose, Tia. "Massive Extinction Fueled Rise of Crocodiles - Yahoo! News." Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines. Yahoo!, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://news.yahoo.com/massive-extinction-fueled-rise-crocodiles-001311363.html>.

Original Source: http://www.livescience.com/28208-extinction-led-to-crocodile-explosion.html

More Reading on fossil records: http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofiles/fossilgroups/crocodylomorpha/fossilrecord.html

Tree Rings LinkedIn Profile

Why are you special?

I am special because I help to provide history about the landscapes that I reside in.  I can do this regardless of the influencing factors such as weather and temperature.

What special skills and characteristics do you have?

            I grow a new layer, or ring, each year.  It allows me to keep track of how old I am and how good or bad that specific year has been to me.  When I have had a good year, with ample amount of water and sunlight I will have a wider ring.  When it is a bad year though, such as drought, I will have a thinner ring.

Your ideal challenge where you can excel?

A challenge that I can excel in is giving information on past years.  Because I grow a new ring every year you can see how old I am and be able to count back to a specific date.  When you do this you can look at that ring of growth and see how the world treated me at that time.

Where do you like to work?

            I like to work in forested areas.  These areas, though, need to have a distinct change in seasons, or temperature variation throughout the year, that way you can really see how the area is changing climate wise.  If I’m in a tropical area where it is always warm my rings will be pretty consistent and you won’t be able to see if any changes took place.  If I’m somewhere like a New England forest though you will definitely be able to see the changes throughout the different years.

Information was gathered from:

Climate Change class with Dr. Carsten Braun, WSU 2013 as well as:

NOAA. "Paleoclimate Data." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.        <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleoclimate-data>.

NOAA. "Tree Ring." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, 24 May 2012. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html>.

Wiki. "Dendroclimatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendroclimatology>.

Wiki. "Proxy (climate) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_(climate)#Tree)Rings>.