Documentarian- Mankind Rising: Where do humans come from?

Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StqZI9pMq0U&list=WL&index=6

Also, I shared this on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DevyionOnline/status/712326647798747136

This documentary starts off with it talking about how the soon to be earth was being hit with thousands of asteroids. The material of the asteroid sometimes got into the ocean. The ocean hit the material and the water at the right time and created the first ever genetic material. This genetic material was then consumed by an oil blob and created the first ever cell. The cell then went through mitosis and created millions of cells. The cells then had accidents with them just floating around in the water. Some cells collided with each other and had sexual reproduction. This sexual reproduction created mutations and variants of the other cells and more cells were formed. The cells then began to create more cells which then turned into the first aquatic creatures. These creatures were worms that formed under the water. These creatures were blind but developed eyes after a while. The nerve cells inside of the worm begin to collect to form a brain. At this point, it is a fish like creature. That creature then evolves into a more armored and stronger fish due to needing to protect itself. That fish then struggles to find a home and ends being able to breathe air. This creature is an amphibian and can breathe air and water. Later it finally evolves to exist only on the surface. The creature on the surface then has to compete with other creatures on the surface that turn into dinosaurs and other things. Due to the sun, the amphibian evolves into a lizard that has tougher skin to protect from the sun and claws to help for traveling terrain. The cold then forces many of these lizards to grow hair along their bodies. These are rodents and they are alive during the dinosaurs. They live in burrows and are very small. They survive the extinction of the dinosaurs by hiding underground. With being small they can eat the small amounts of food while the other plants are growing back. The rodents that rule the land then evolve even larger and variation makes animals even more diverse. The first human-esque creatures finally develop due to the need to kill other creatures and speed. Those creatures then form into the humans that we know today.

Documentarian- Life After Dinosaurs

Here is the link to the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7QSwAhMuUY

I also shared this on Twitter. It is here: https://twitter.com/DevyionOnline/status/711658425160175617

This documentary starts with talking about how mammals are the animals that succeeded the dinosaurs after the majority of them died off.  Archaeologists had found a mammalian skull in the desert that they say was the beginning of all of the mammals we have today. It was as long as 5 inches and first appeared during the period when the continent was Pangaea. Mammals were very small and lived in burrows. Due to the dinosaurs that would eat them in the day time, most mammals would hunt and forage during the night. They also had a bone structure in their ear that humans still use today. Most of the mammals during that time laid eggs to give birth. A certain few species had begun using the placenta to keep babies inside of them, birthing live children. The documentary then moves to talk more about dinosaurs and how the dino succus ruled the fresh waters in North America and then it shows this ground that had been turned on its side in the last millions of years where dinosaurs had used to walk. The wall/ground showed that there were still many different types of dinosaurs alive before the extinction. It then moves the scene to a lake area with a desert/savannah setting around it. A sauropod and edmontonia feast on trees and bushes. A carnotaurus attacks after the sauropod leaves. Edmontonia fights the carnotaurus with the spikes on the sides of its body. The carnotuarus realizes it cannot win and goes after the sauropod. The carnotuarus chases the sauropod and collides with it. More of the sauropods of the same species come and protect the younger one that was being attacked. It then moves the scene to the asteroid belt and tells how the collision of two asteroids caused one to be thrown at the earth. The asteroid hits the earth and sends tons of debris in all directions. Everything is set on fire and all dinosaurs not killed by the fire are killed by the tsunamis that follow afterward. All small animals that lived underground are safe. The mammals with high birth rates and small lifespans now benefit the mammals. Being small also allows the mammals to eat a small amount and it helps them because there is a very small amount of resources. Mammals had evolved bigger after the plants that were covered up began regrowing and more species of mammals allowed for more food. Mammals ruled the planet and kept evolving.

See The World 1- Jungle/Tropical Rainforest

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_XwzW5fUdu0ba1BTH3thbce3jj9XE02sB0BXXeMGb4I/edit?usp=sharing

This is the link to a slideshow presentation I am going to be doing for these quests! Thes quests were done with information from the Planet Earth documentaries on Netflix! The one I am doing for this submission is the Jungle or Tropical Rainforest biome. The information is in the presentation on the second slide!

Extraterrestrial Beings- Interstellar Quest

I think that out of a space station, a Mars colony, and a Moon colony, that a colony on the moon would be the best. I think that this will be the best option out of the three because the moon, as long as earth does not get destroyed, has the earth to orbit around which is already the perfect distance from the sun. With being the perfect distance from the sun, that means that the moon will range from how far and close it is to the sun, due to it orbiting the earth. So, by that, I expect that there will be a new kind of seasons on the moon.

Now I am going to be listing the things that humans would need inside of a space station if there was one on the moon. This station would be the shelter. The first thing I know we would need is a source of oxygen. This could be possible with the use of plants that could grow in the space station. The way we could get plants in space, trees, bushes, and etc., is that we could bring soil up from Earth on a spaceship. The soil could also be made with a mix of the decomposing food that was left over from the trip, the crews feces from the trip, and the soil on the moon. The Moon’s soil contains a lot of oxygen and silicon and these both positively affect plants. The next resource we would need to cover is water. Water could be made from a purifier that connects to all of the bathrooms. It would then take the urine of the people and purify it. Urine is 95% water so a large amount of water could be regained from urination. I also would plan to create my station on the bright side of the planet or close to the line between the dark side and the light side of the moon so that part of the station could be receiving direct sunlight and the other side wouldn’t. The sunlight would help with the plants that I plan to grow inside of the space station. I would also have solar panels on the part of the station that is exposed to the sun so that I can collect power for the station and all of the appliances inside of it. The next thing would be the plants that we would have on the station. There would be no animals because it would be a vegetarian colony. The plants would be brought from earth and would be planted in the soil that I had made. Inside of my station is where I would have my farm and there would be a giant thick glass dome for sunlight to get to the crops. Also, there will be a carbon dioxide vacuum system that sucks up all of the CO₂ and feed it to the plants. There will also be a radio tower like set up on top of the station so that we can receive signals from other areas in space and from the earth.

Here is the link to my station: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lWO4eTMxNSb-moon-colony-station

Here is the link to my notes: Here

Documentarian- Dinosaurs in the Outback

Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y75OB2n9Zz4

In this video, it talks about some of the dinosaurs that lived in the outback. For the main part of this video, it talks about how this guy named David Elliot, a grazier in the outback of Australia. He was herding sheep and found a bone that he thought, at first, was a strange looking rock. He contacted the Queensland museum a year after they found it, not digging it up, though, and they came to Elliot and collected the bone. They had only found the femur that he had seen on the surface. He knew about how the soil on the top had really just been blown around and that may have covered up the rest of the dinosaur's fossils. The team of Paleontologists came back out and they started excavating the dirt around where the femur was. They soon found other parts of the "sauropod that died there"'s legs and found some other lower body pieces. The person who has been narrating in this documentary then went back to the lab with the scientists. The scientists showed her how to and what they use to clean the dinosaur bones and remove them from their protective rock shells. A theropod's bones were also found near the area later on by David's family. Scientists assumed that the way this happened is that the sauropods herd was traveling through the area that was there millions of years ago. It had probably gotten stuck in the mud while traveling. The theropod there had probably been trying to eat the sauropod because it had noticed it was stuck. The theropod tried to attack the sauropod and the sauropod swung it's tail at the creature and killed it. The theropod died on its side and the sauropod died standing in the mud. Bigger dinosaurs had probably come by and took some of the sauropod's body. That is the reasoning for why the dinosaurs that were found in the area are there and their positions. Also, it is the reasoning for why some of the sauropods bones are missing.

Documentarian- Mega Beasts: T Rex of the Deep - Mosasaur Documentary

Here is the link to the 33 Minute Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhY_SnX2gjE

This documentary is about how the Mosasuarus is the apex creature of the sea during the time of the dinosaurs. It starts off talking about how the mosasaurus was originally a land lizard that had to move to the ocean to avoid being eaten by the land creatures at the time. It talks about the land reptile mosasaur evolving into the dallasaurus and then into the Mosasaurus. For the main part of this documentary it talks about what makes the mosasaurus the apex if ut's territory. The first thing is it's bone structure. The bones allow for the fast movement in water with it's webbed feet and paddle-like tail. The second thing is, that since it evolved from a lizard, it has the ability to smell like a lizard. It has the forked tongue that allows for the smelling in two different directions. The next thing is it's sonar ability. It uses this to hear everything in it's area and it allows for it to fin many sources of food. The next thing is the size of the creature. The size allows for the mosasaurus to take on many large predators. The last thing that makes the mosasuarus an apex predator is how it's jaw is formed and it's teeth. It has a small set of teeth in the back of it's throat that allows for pushing it backwards in it's thoat and allows for fast swallowing and biting.

Storms- Natural Disasters Quest Chain

First, I have to talk about how multiple different storms are formed and what conditions are needed for them to form. First, a tornado. For a tornado, you need warm, moist air that collides with cool, dry air. The cool, dry air pushes against the warm, moist air and it makes the warmer air begins to convect and spin rapidly, forming a supercell. The next one I am going to do is hurricanes. A storm, which is from cold and warm fronts colliding, has to form over the ocean. Then the warm fronts push more water vapor towards the storm and it begins to build more storms with that starting storm. It again creates a supercell and that is where all of those storms attach. The final storm is a blizzard. Blizzards The first thing is that cold air that is under 0 degrees Celcius is needed. Then moisture is also needed for clouds which can be gathered in a couple different ways. The air then pushes to moisture towards the cold front and it begins to create clouds. Then a warm front is needed so that the clouds can rise and for precipitation to fall. These are the conditions for all three major storms.

My Newspaper article is here: Click here

Save the Blank!- Extinction Quest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PewocndDQ

This is the link to my video on the Axolotl. Thanks to Colleen for the awesome narration!

The Martian Quest

In the movie, The Martian, Mark Whatney faces many different things on mars. These three challenges are a constant supply of oxygen, a steady supply of water to drink for the human body, and a good supply of food. Mars makes all of these hard to do because it is very cold (This keeps water frozen most of the time), the soil is mainly composed of iron, there are constant dust storms, and the air is not full of oxygen (Or if it is then it also has other chemicals in it to make it to where humans can't breathe it). Earth makes up for all of these challenges with the great temperature depending where you are on Earth, the soil also depends on where you are and even though it has a lot of nitrogen in it the plants actually use nitrogen, and the temperature (Again depending where you are) is great, which makes the water not freeze. Whatney, in the movie, overcomes these challenges in a couple different ways. For the temperature problem, he actually does most of his work inside of the station that was left on the planet. Inside the station, he takes the crew's excrement and the martian soil and mixes it to make a more fertile soil. He uses this soil to grow the potatoes in.

http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/9725/664975_084.jpg

http://3blmedia.com/media/images/martian-gallery.jpg

 He then creates a little set up in the middle of the potatoes which uses excess hydrogen in the atmosphere and creates a way for water to come from it. This water is used for him and to water the potatoes that he found were on the station. In the future, I predict, that humans will already have many machines that can generate or break down many chemical compounds so that the base elements can be used and that could create a way for oxygen to be created easier on other planets. Also, by the time that they have the technology to do that I suspect that they will have many pressurized stations to form colonies on Mars.

Jurassic Park- Hollywood Critic

This is a critical review of the science and research behind Jurassic Park. The first thing that I want to talk about and point out is that the Tyrannosaurus Rex can see things that do not move. Researchers, after watching the film, had found interest in the subject and began research on it. They have found out that the T-Rex possibly had better eyesight and depth sensory than modern day raptors. More information can be found here. The next thing that I want to talk about is how most of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park are not even from the Jurassic time era. Most of the dinosaurs that are actually shown in the first movie are actually from the Cretaceous time period. Some of the dinosaurs that are actually from the Cretaceous period include the T-Rex, the Velociraptor, the Spinosaurus (From Jurassic Park III), the Masosaurus (From Jurassic World), and a dinosaur that is actually from the Triassic era, the Camptosaurus (Form Jurassic Park II). One of the people that worked on Jurassic Park had responded to an interviewer on why it was called Jurassic Park and not something like Cretaceous Park is that it was just a name and could be named anything.

Where in the world?- See the World Quest Chain

The first things that I would look for are the types of trees in the area. Trees grow in set climates and conditions and if you look at a certain type of tree then you can automatically, as long as you know something about the trees, tell what kind of area you are located in. Like, for example, Aspens. Aspens are a tree that is usually found near the North of temperate forest areas and north of the Northern hemisphere. The second thing I would look for, if there were any, is cars. Since this quest did say there were no people around and not cars. You can tell what part of the world you are in often by which side of the car the driver's seat is on. If it is on the right side of the car then that limits to where you are. Try to find more than one car that is like that though so that you can make sure it is not “someone from out of that place”’s car. Also, if the cars were to just be left on the street and they were abandoned then that could hint to you being in the UK, Ireland, or a couple other countries. The third thing that I would look for is the landscape of the area you are in. The landscape around the world is very different in certain parts. Also, the landscape includes looking at what type of ground is underneath you because sand could lead to you being in a desert. Rocks are also a big part of where you are at. If the rocks around the area are sedimentary then that could mean that there is a lot of sand around the area and could lead to a desert type biome. Igneous rocks could lead to you assuming you are near a volcano. Now, to talk about the stars. Stars are located directly above some areas so that tells you where you are. Like Polaris, the North Star, sits directly above the North Pole. So if you look up into the sky and find Polaris, it is always above the Big Dipper, then you will be able to find where you are in the world.

The Sixth Extinction- Extinction Quest Chain

This is the list of criteria that I would go over if I had to consider an animal needed to be saved.

1- Does it contribute to keeping the population of another organism low?

2- Does it provide something to another organism? (E.g. Spider's silk, cow milk, etc.)

3- Does it critically impact the environment?

4- Does it support a food chain?

5- Does it keep another animal alive? (E.g. symbiosis, etc)

6- Is it interesting to look at or cute?

Does the Giant Panda fit this criterion? Yes, I think that it does. Basically, I am going on if the animal fits a majority of the criteria. This is the yes/no answers to the criteria.

1- Yes (Bamboo)

2- Yes (Research on the lifestyle of most other bears that share its lifestyle)

3- Yes (It keeps the fast spreading bamboo at a low)

4- Yes (It eats bamboo and is one of the only things that do)

5- No (It is the apex of its territory)

6- Yes (Definitely)

The five other animals that I did were Siamese Crocodile, Takhi, Hawaiin Monk Seal, Sumatran Orangutan, and Axolotl.

Their criteria ratings will be listed in the order below as they were just given.

1- Yes (It eats many mammals that drink from rivers it lives in)

2- No (They do not give any resource or material)

3- Yes (It keeps the population low of many animals that live around it)

4- Yes (It eats many fish and mammals)

5- Yes (Symbiosis with some birds allow them to eat from cleaning crocodile's teeth)

6- No (They are scaly and don’t look very friendly)

1- Yes (It eats many plants around its territory)

2- No (They do not give any resource or material)

3- No (It keeps the grasses around its habitat low)

4- Yes (It eats grasses and carnivores eat it)

5- Yes (Apex predators feed off of it)

6- Yes (They look like a fat horse)

1- Yes (It eats much fish in the sea around it)

2- Yes (They provided their hide, a reason for their extinction)

3- No (It is not that big of a contributor to the decline of fishes populations)

4- Yes (It eats many fish and sharks, did, eat it)

5- Yes (It was a primary food source of some sharks)

6- Yes (It is blubbery and is really sleek looking)

1- Yes (It eats many berries and keeps the berries from spreading more rapidly)

2- Yes (It has homes in the trees that another animal can use after them)

3- Yes (It keeps the trees at a limit and it provides homes for other animals)

4- Yes (It eats many of the berries and fruits in the forest)

5- No (They are very independent)

6- Yes (They are red and furry)

1- No (They are very solitary and docile creatures)

2- Yes (They provide many different types of research to science)

3- Yes (It was the apex predator of its environment and kept fish populations down)

4- Yes (It consumes many small fish and birds eat it)

5- Yes (Many birds, including Herons, eat it)

6- Yes! (Basically a Mudkip, adorable)

Now I am going to be discussing several other things that I am supposed to be talking about. The first thing is why extinction is a problem for human survival. The main reason that I think that extinction is a big problem for human survival is that things that critically support humans, like bees, cows, etc., provide so many resources for humans that they rely on them. The second thing that I need to talk about is why I chose the criteria I chose for above. I chose the first piece of criteria because that is something that all animals should do so that things don't begin to overpopulate (Like humans). The second criteria were because all animals, including humans, should be providing for another animal so that it can survive as well as that animal. The third criteria were chosen because it is similar to why humans should clean up their trash after they do something. This keeps the world prettier and less abundant of a certain resource. The fourth criterion was chosen because if the animal solely eats on a thing and so many other animals also eat that, then that animal does not really need to be there. This is unless there is an animal that eats these animals. The fifth criterion was chosen because most if an animal supports the life of another animal then that boosts both of those animals likeliness of survival and shows scientists what their behavior towards other animals are. The final criteria, if the animal was cute/interesting or not, was put in there because not many people are going to really want to help that animal if they don’t have some reason to like it.

The next thing that I have to talk about is whether the Giant Panda fits the criteria I listed and if it is worth saving. The Giant Panda’s rating for the criteria is at the beginning of this article and on whether I think that the Giant Panda should be saved is, yes, the Giant Panda should be saved. It is an amazing animal and is one of the best animals at keeping the bamboo rates down. The last thing that I have to do is explain why my highest ranked animal is threatened and what we can do to save it. I had three animals that got the same scores on the criteria and out of them I choose to do the Axolotl as the animal I would like to save. The Axolotl is endangered because of pollution of the only place it lives naturally in, the Xochimilco lake. This lake is being polluted because of the city of Mexico that is right beside that has factories that let off very dangerous waste into the lake. The solution I believe would work to save these animals would be to start a clean up in the lake where people will take out animals and clean them off and start to remove the sludge at the bottom of the lake. The factories would also need to have another place to put their waste. The animals could be put somewhere safe for them while their home is being cleaned and after it is clean, then they could be put back into the lake.

My notes: Here

Volcanoes Quest- Natural Disasters Quest Chain

This blog post is about the Yellowstone Volcano at Yellowstone national park and if it is a threat to America. Yellowstone is a volcano that is located close to the top of the United States of America and it has been dormant for a very long time. The last time the volcano erupted was in 1350 B.C. This eruption did not let out an actual explosion, though. The last actual explosion of the volcano was 174,000 years ago and the last time lava flowed from the volcano was 70,000 years ago. To answer the question if it would be devastating to humanity if it were to explode, yes, it would be. The explosion would cover up to 2/3 of America, the whole continent, in ten feet of ash. Yellowstone national park is located inside and around the caldera of Yellowstone. If you don't know, a caldera is a crater left over from a volcanic explosion, with Yellowstone's case being over a couple thousand years ago. Scientists have stations around Yellowstone national park that monitor the activity of the volcanoes. These scientists include seismologists, volcanologists, and more. They are all studying the crust and the mantle of the Earth and everything on top of it to get the most accurate amount of years it will be until the next eruption of the Yellowstone volcano. So far, it is expected to be longer than 1,000 to 10,000 years from now. There are also often 100-300 earthquakes, which show that there is still activity in the area under and around Yellowstone and that means that the volcano is still just dormant and will likely erupt once pressures get high enough and it will be devastating.

Here are my notes: Click here

Resources:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/volcanoqa.htm

http://www.idahostatejournal.com/members/doomsday-could-yellowstone-park-s-supervolcano-erupt-soon/article_4a20351e-f6ec-11e4-aefc-073e37e89022.html

http://www.ryot.org/supervolcano-yellowstone-volcano-will-it-erupt/765673

Scorched Earth- Interstellar Quest Line

The scenario I think that is the most likely to cause the biggest threat to survival is the global warming scenario. I think that this is the most realistic scenario because humans, really ever since the late 90's, have been pumping out more and more Co2 emissions through the advancement of factories and industries. "It is clear from the extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in the climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in a number of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide." This quote is from the American Meteorological Society and is talking about what humans have been putting into the air by creating all of the new technologies we have today. This quote by the AMS was from 2012. It has been almost 4 years and people have still not started to try and fix anything with global warming. My second reference is from 2001. This again shows how long we have been dealing with global warming. "Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However, there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities." That reference is from 11 different science academies together. The U.S. National Academy of Science is just one of these academies.The last reference is from theEnvironmental Research Letters by J. Cook. This is from Volume 8 Number 2. ". . . global climate change together with increasing direct impacts of human activities, such as fisheries, is affecting the population dynamics of marine top predators." This volume of letters is from 2013. A solution that I think would work is if humans stopped destroying the forests of areas on the Earth where humans have been too and then start regrowing plants and cleaning up areas that humans no longer use.