They eventually evolved into forms of life that dominate the planet today, from plants to trees, and from fungi to people. The appearance of eukaryotes showing up on our planet was a significant event. “Then, seemingly overnight, we had organisms show up that are complex. “Microbial life dominated our planet for 2 billion years,” he said. The relatively sudden appearance of eukaryotes around 1.6 billion years ago marked an important turning point in the evolutionary timeline, said Adam, who conducted his research in MSU’s Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, under advisers Mark Skidmore, associate professor of geology, and David Mogk, professor of geology.įor the 2 billion or so years prior to that, life on Earth consisted solely of simple microscopic organisms, Adam said. The site is part of a collection of rocks known as the Belt Supergroup that extends throughout much of Western Montana. His research was primarily funded through a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award that he received in 2011 while at MSU.Īdam discovered the fossilized remains of Tappania, a shape-shifting organism barely larger than the thickness of a human fingernail, in a clay outcrop near White Sulphur Springs. from MSU in 2014 and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, published his findings in the May 2017 edition of the scientific journal Geology.
The findings offer clues about the development of life on Earth and may contribute to the search for lifeforms on other planets.Īdam, who received his Ph.D. A eukaryote is an organism with complex cellular anatomy and many are capable of changing their cellular shapes into complex structures. Zach Adam’s research of the fossilized remains of a eukaryote called Tappania shows that Earth’s first complex life forms reflect an actively growing state, rather than a dormant one as scientists previously suspected.
#DAVID MOGK PRIVATE CONTACT INFORMATION FREE#
You are now reading 1 of 3 free articles.īOZEMAN - A Montana State University doctoral graduate discovered fossilized microorganisms in western Montana that predate by 200 million years fossils previously believed to be the oldest complex life forms in North America. Kirk, McDaris, Ormand, and Bruckner manage the Web site, steward the content, and create a coherent resource from the contributions of community members.Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local. Iverson, SERC's evaluation director, leads the data collection effort for the Web site and workshops. As SERC's technical director, Fox has developed the content management system that supports community development by the On the Cutting Edge Web site.
#DAVID MOGK PRIVATE CONTACT INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL#
All the authors have received national awards for contributions to geoscience education and have served as leaders in geoscience professional societies. Cathryn Manduca (left) is the executive director of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the director the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College, which uses workshops and Web sites to help faculty to be better teachers in all disciplines and engages in projects that support geoscience education at all levels. These examples are collected through a structured Web-based format in advance of the workshop, which allows participants to learn about their colleagues' work before they meet at the workshop and automatically produces a valuable, easily searched collection for use by all interested faculty ( 4).Īuthors Macdonald, Mogk, and Tewksbury are full-time geoscience faculty, in addition to leading the On the Cutting Edge program. In another example, participants from a 2009 workshop on teaching paleontology submitted descriptions of their courses and two activities that they have used in the classroom.
Workshop participants prepare for the workshop by reviewing materials on the Web site and contributing examples from their own teaching.
For example, before a workshop on the role of the affective domain in geoscience teaching, pages reviewing the definition of the affective domain, a framework for its application to teaching, and an introduction to the literature were developed. The conveners work with staff to create pages that introduce the topics of the workshop and build a foundation for workshop discussions. The Web site is a joint creation of the workshop participants and the project team of On the Cutting Edge.
0 kommentar(er)
