Lost in Australian Biota assignment.. (1 Viewer)

[Twinkie_Me]

So I'm suppose to choose an extinct species or group of species of an Australian descent and find the evolutionary relationship it has with an extant (living) species that's still around today.

I chose the marsupial lion but I'm having trouble finding where to start on finding the info into the evolutionary relationships or how research has changed thinking about this species.

Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[madharris]

I did an assessment similar to this (not exactly the same). Here are some websites I remember using (if they don't work, type it into google as I typed them in)

http://arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/cpp/annrep98.php
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nercAUSTRALIA.html
www.abc.net.au/science/ozfossil/megafauna/fossils/default
http://www.agiweb.org

They could ask you something like:
something about the changes in the australian climate as it has drifted north --> effects this had on australian biota
characteristics of the species you have chosen
characteristics of modern/similar species
how the study of australian fossils can contribute to the understanding and development of evolution in australia

i don't really know (I could be really off as I don't really remember the topic or the assessment). As long as you prepare well, you'll do fine no matter what they ask

Hope that helped

 

[sinophile]

Its a bit late but you might also want to try looking at scientific journals rather than secondary info too. Use Google scholar and just search the species name or something. At high school level you're not expected to know all the terminology so just take whatever you can. It'll show you're a cut above the rest.