megafauna (1 Viewer)

[rhia]

biology preliminary syllabus 8.5.1 says:


discuss current research into the evolutionary relationships between extinct species, including megafauna and extant Australian species

i'm having difficulty locating any information about this: does anybody have any links or notes of their own that would assist me in elaborating on it? thank you.

 

[Survivor39]

Have you checked the Charles Sturt HSC website? It has great info for each dot point.

 

[rhia]

Have you checked the Charles Sturt HSC website? It has great info for each dot point.

unfortunately the charles sturt website only has information for the hsc topics, not the preliminary - evolution of austalian biota is the final preliminary bit. thanks heaps though.

 

[pLuvia]

Try looking in the resource page of BoS
I'm sorry I would give you my Aust Biota dot points but I didn't cover that in my notes, as I did not need to know it, but if you want to take a look anyway check here

 

[kami]

You basically have to identify that megafauna means 'giant animal' in layman terms ie the giant kangaroos, or the 10 foot tall carnivorous ducks and what have you that roamed the continent a while back. Its worth noting that not all megafauna are prehistoric animals - there are some still in Africa, namely the elephants and giraffes.
If you are interested in learning about the different varieties of megafauna, wiki has a good list here.
Once you understand what the word megafauna means you basically have to acknowledge some theories for extinction(climate change or hunted by humans to extinction or couldn't compete with other species) and what the extinct megafauna were related to in modern day.
One last thing to note, even though it sounds like whales and sharks may count in this definition of big animal(I don't know why they wouldn't), we don't look at them in this particular discussion.

 

[rhia]

You basically have to identify that megafauna means 'giant animal' in layman terms ie the giant kangaroos, or the 10 foot tall carnivorous ducks and what have you that roamed the continent a while back. Its worth noting that not all megafauna are prehistoric animals - there are some still in Africa, namely the elephants and giraffes.
If you are interested in learning about the different varieties of megafauna, wiki has a good list here.
Once you understand what the word megafauna means you basically have to acknowledge some theories for extinction(climate change or hunted by humans to extinction or couldn't compete with other species) and what the extinct megafauna were related to in modern day.
One last thing to note, even though it sounds like whales and sharks may count in this definition of big animal(I don't know why they wouldn't), we don't look at them in this particular discussion.

thanks - i think i understood the question incorrectly. what i thought it was asking me to do is identify the evolutionary relationships between the megafauna and extant australian species - specifically, to identify a common ancestor for them both. so, thanks heaps!

 

[Serius]

donr forget that giant ass wombat! man that thing was massive compared to todays wombats

 

[angmor]

do u guys think that in the final external bio exam we will get tested on prelim stuff? coz i dont want to revise for my prelim AND hsc courses