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Activities |
Edible
Devonian Marine Ecosystem
Objective:
Create a fossil marine ecosystem out of edible materials.
Some animals are predatory, others filter feeders or scavengers.
Supplies:
Sheet
cake with 2 layers of icing = Sea floor
Gummi
worms = Worms
Gummi
fish = Bottom dwelling fish
Marshmallows
= Cephalopod, crinoid heads
Licorice
whips (any color) = Cephalopod and horn coral tentacles, starfish
arms
Sugar
cone = Cephalopod shell, horn coral
Chocolate
chips = Rocks
Sprinkles
= Sand
Cake decorating
equipment = Other fossils
Licorice
sticks or candy canes = Crinoid column
Feathers
(trimmed) or 1" whips = Crinoid arms
Honeycomb
= Colonial coral
Think
creatively. What can you use to make clam or brachiopod shells,
snails, trilobites? Consider a mix with other non-edible decorations.
Mix fragments
of ingredients to create "fossils" buried in the sediment
(layer cake). Sprinkle sand and gravel on the top icing layer.
Place the other "creatures" on the top (cephalopod, horn coral,
crinoid, etc.). Drag a worm through the ice to leave a track
way. Would you expect to find a fossil worm in the sediment?
Why not? (No shell or other skeletal remains.)
Interpreting
the ecosystem
In an
ecosystem, prey must out number the predators. So the cake
might have only one cephalopod, and multiple examples of filter
feeders and scavengers.
Predatory:
Cephalopods, some snails and starfish
Filter
feeders: Clams, brachiopods, crinoids, coral
Scavengers:
Some starfish and snails, trilobites
Traces:
Worms and snails would leave trails in the sediment as they
crawled around in search of food.
Follow-up
Create
a food web. Which animal(s) are at the top of the web? at
the bottom? Less well-defined?
Prepared
by the Naturalists at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, Clarksville,
IN
No copyright
held. This material may be reproduced.
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