Activity 4

Ostracod Activity:

• The Ostracod can help us understand Australian ocean currents (Rubber Ducky Model)
• The Ostracod has varied speciation; and can be classified diversely within its genus
• Classification is important in recognising differences between ancient and modern Ostracod (Making a fossil)

Learning Intention : To model Mark Warne's research of the Ostracod with the Rubber Ducky oceanography journey.

To recognise the variations an Ostracod might have through speciation and how new and old species are procured, through fossilisation and classification.

Background - Friendly Floatees

In 1992, a shipping container filled with rubber ducks and other assorted children's plastic toys fell overboard, spreading just under 30,000 items into the ocean. Due to the world's ocean currents, they were spread to different continents showing up on shores of roughly 10 different countries over the next 15 years. Oceanographers studied where they began their journey, and how the finished on the different shores.

This event aligns with the work of Mark Warne, who as a paleoceanographer looks at the path the marine life-form the Ostracod takes in its journey, creating branching species from trips along varied Australian ocean currents.

Images of Ostracod Shells taken from rocks in coastal cliffs along the Victorian coastline; taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope.