Post date: Jul 29, 2013 9:46:00 PM
This internship just gets better and better. We finally winded down on data collection and started to work on the project. I finally realized how all these measurements previously made were necessary for our project. Essentially over the past 5 weeks, we have made a huge database of the size of organisms. By using this newly acquired database, and using previously existing databases, we would be able to develop a new project.
For our project we decided to look at the species which are the members of class echnoidea. We decided to look at size to determine whether Cope's Rule or Bergmann's rule takes precedence. The time period we are looking at is the Mesozoic Era. We decided to take this time period because there is a large amount of temperature fluctuation. After analyzing the graphs, we found that Cope's Rule dominates. No direct correlation was found between body size and Carbon Dioxode levels. To assess Bergmann's rule, latitude was taken into consideration and was found to not be valid. Instead, the opposite is true.
Finally, the trip to UC Berkeley was fun. It consisted of sorting out fossils. It helped us learn how organisms are classified. We later went to look at the Hayward fault. We first went to the well-known Cal Stadium, which is slowly diverging due to the creep of the Hayward fault. Later, we walked up a creek to observe how its water-flow is affected by the movement of the fault.