Amphioxus (Lancelet)

The Amphioxus, is also known as a Lancelet. These tiny creatures are found in sand in shallow temperate and tropical waters and in Asia they are actually harvested to eat. These animals are extremely important in terms of evolution and zoology, because it gives us a window into the past to see about the origins of vertebrates in animals. Lancelets also prove to be quite useful for evolution because it helps scientists theorize about how vertebrates have used old genes to perform new functions.

Macon Dog Park

For this lab we walked to the Macon Dog Park which is only a few blocks away from campus. Here we took samples of the water from the river that will eventually flow into the Ocumulgee. We are seeing how much fecal matter there is by putting it into a machine that keeps it at 44.5 degrees Celsius, which is the same temperature as your stomach/intestines. We also discussed some of the positives and negatives that come with a dog park.
Personally, I think it's a good thing to have a dog park in a community. It allows for people with a common interest to meet new people, as well as give their animal some much needed exercise in most cases. It also is something that can be aesthetically pleasing to a community. If there is just a barren field or possibly something that wasn't very good, a dog park could be a good way to spruce up the area surrounding a community. Overall, the positives far outweigh the possible negatives that dog parks bring to a community as a whole.

Darwin's Dilemma

For this lab we watched a movie called "Darwin's Dilemma" which was discussing evolution and Charles Darwin. This video is the greatest refutation of Darwin's theory that evolution is a gradual process over millions of years. Darwin hoped that future scientists would be able to piece together his theory and make it stronger, provided that there was evidence.
What this video shows, however, is the "explosion" of complex organisms which later became known as the "cambrian explosion" in the scientific community. What this was, was that in an extremely short time (in terms of the earth), hundreds of new and complex organisms appeared on the Earth that weren't there before. One thing that I found interesting was the analogy of a clock used to describe this rapid growth. If the whole planet was determined in a 24 hour period, the first 18 hours would still be simple, one-celled organisms. Within TWO minutes, all the organisms, complex and simple, would be created. That is how rapid this "cambrian explosion" was. This movie was dry at times, but overall pretty interesting because this was a part of evolution and science that I had never heard before.

Hitchiti Experimental Forest

For this lab we traveled to Hitchiti Experimental Forest for a (long) hike. We stopped a few times to look at some rocks and plants and eventually found our way to our end point at the river. We discussed there that because of the rocks and shallow water, it is nearly impossible for boats to travel this far south on the river. It was a nice hike considering I haven't been on a nature walk in a very long time, but I'm not gonna lie, it was quite long. We found a snake near one of the rivers as well.

Megaflood

For this lab we watched a video discussing the history of the "Megaflood" that occurred in the scablands of America's West thousands of years ago. This flood happened when an extremely dense and tall glacier acted as somewhat of a dam for a body of water. This theory was first brought up in the 1930's, but was immediately dismissed as being a ludicrous idea. As more and more evidence piled up, it seemed that not only did this megaflood occur, but there were multiple floods of this magnitude. This picture shows some of the rock structures that are found in the scablands that help support this theory of a "megaflood". By the erosion of these rocks, scientists are able to detect the ferocity and volume of water that was able to do this.  I found this video to be quite interesting because I had never heard of something like this before, if you don't include the stories found in Genesis.

Trip to Jackson Springs/Baconsfield

For this lab we went to Jackson Springs park near the Baconsfield apartments. We walked through the park, looking at different rocks that we found right near the river, and under/near the bridge. We talked about how in the mid 90's the river flooded and destroyed a handful of homes that were too low for the water line at that point.
When we were finished with the hike and made it back to our original spot, we discussed the history of Baconsfield. I didn't know that at one point there was a zoo there or about the history of the neighborhoods themselves. I knew about how the park was left to the "white women and children of Macon" and the obvious problems that that had caused.