h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Coccolithophores: Earth's Little Helpers - A3590976
Author: elwyn_centauri - U1138262

Coccolithophores are cool.

*Opens micropaleontology book.*

Hi Elwyn! Good to see you so prolific!

I took a quick read through your entry- glad you did it, by the way! I'm thinking about writing one on foraminifera! Anyway, I noticed that you focused mainly on coccolithophores' contributions to climate- which is good! Don't get me wrong, but there's a lot, a /lot/ more you can write!

For example, according to my paleontology text (Prothero, "Bringing Fossils to Life"), coccolithophores belong to the smallest category of planktonic organisms known as nannoplankton, and (of course) form nannofossils. Coccolithophores themselves are golden-brown algae, and are made up of circular plates (called coccoliths) which fit together to form a sphere 2-25 microns in diameter. Coccolithophore fossils are used widely in dating and correlating rocks since their appearance in the Jurassic. The white cliffs of Dover and all other Cretaceous chalk is made mainly of coccolithophores!

Then there are all kinds of biology and morphology you can go into!

Oh, and keeping with the climate change thing- coccolithophores also record the Earth's climate based on the isotopes they have in their calcium carbonate skeletons, so if you want to work that angle more, you should probably do some reading on Oxygen-18 dating. Also, I seem to recall some research out there that found increased iron levels in the water contributed to coccolithophore blooms.

Good luck! And I hope I wasn't too hard on you... Please don't get discouraged, you're off to a great start!

I told you it was worth putting in PR Elwyn! So many intelligent people with specialisations hang around here.

Hi thanks Scandrea and Kat...
You've just made my day :D
I will research some more on that fossil thing, didn't come across that, yes you were right I mostly stuck to the climate controlled aspect, hence the little helpers. But the rest of the information is just a useful, so I'll get this changed.
Cheers!

I like this - more entries on the Earth (especially geology/climate-related ones) are good!

A GuideML suggestion to improve the presentation - rather than having the headings in bold (<B&gt tags, it would be better to use header (<HEADER&gt tags. Also, it's more usual not to have a header at the start - usually the introduction paragraph shouldn't need a header.

I've noticed some spelling mistakes but I'll come back to those later when you've finished updating the entry. Let us know when you're done

Hang on, we're addressing the guide-ml issue.

Go for dealing with the spelling and grammar with her because she's picky about getting those things right. I'll sort out the guide-ml with her.

Okay then - here goes:

"honor" -> honour
"necessary life processes i.e. photosynthesis" -> necessary life processes like photosynthesis
"microorganisms" -> micro-organisms
"1.4 million squared kilometers" -> 1.4 million square kilometres ( I think)
"global warming that mostly caused by greenhouse gases emissions" -> global warming that is mostly caused by greenhouse gases emissions
"sulfide" -> sulphide
"sulfur" -> sulphur (I think both of these will have to be changed...)
"helped Earth maintain stability in generally tolerable temperature for millions of years" -> helped Earth maintain stability in generally tolerable temperatures for millions of years

That's all I can see at the moment will have another look tomorrow

Hi Andy!
I made some changes but I have to go out now to buy a present so I'll do the rest later.
Thank you Scandrea and Kath for your help and advise I'll definately look into more research!

Peace!

World>> should this have a capital letter or not?

Need a footnote for CFCs

All the [ ]s need to be changed to ( ) please.

1.4 million squared kilometres>>Footnote for that in miles please?

Long-term wise, these phytoplanktons already reduced tons of carbon dioxide by taking out the carbon to creat the coccoliths.

have already reduced? or already reduce?
also creat>>create

that had reduced the amount of carbon in the air would have produced a carbon dioxide molecule from oxygen and carbon in the ocean. That molecule would most likely be used by coccolithophores, but some may escape back into the atmosphere.

Is all this in the right tense? Sorry I get funny about tenses.

the ocean>>the oceans?

dimethyl sulfide>> Is this deffo two separate words or one with a hyphen?

Emiliania huxleyi>> I reckon Latin names should be in italics...although I could be wrong.

There are no small parts, only small actors.>>Where's this quotation from? It needs to be attributed with

There are no small parts, only small actors.
-Whoever it is, whatever year

Talk about such amazing impacts these small actors had dealt us!
HAVE! Have have have!!!


Just a few small pedantic points to keep you busy and happy.

Kathy

Dimethyl sulfide is two words- a chemical name

Wow folks, it took me half an hour to edit... I had no idea how bad my grammar is (so much for dozing in middle school):D
Thanks for pointing out the corrections and keep me busy if you spot anymore
I am going to catch a nap then it's on to updating my research to include all the other amazing properties of coccolithophores

Er... Elwyn? CFCs aren't greenhouse gasses- those cause the hole in the ozone layer. Methane, however, is a greenhouse gas.

o yeah we talked about the ozone in earth science but i was typing and brought up examples of what man did/did not do to harm the environment and probably got it confused with something else... sorry about that. Thanks for suggesting Methane, it's perfect because both it and co2 can be created naturally as well as chemically by animals such as us.

*dozily bookmarks*
I'll take a look once I'm sorted.

Interesting entry -- I'll have to re-read it more carefully.

I think the first paragraph needs to be re-worked. While it may not have been conclusively proven that life exists (or existed) on Mars, there certainly is strong evidence that it could have. It's likely that there will be developments in the near future that will result in fossils being discovered and chances are they'll be similar to the early forms of life found in the fossil record on Earth.

My

Cheers!

Argh, between Chemistry and Lit and now this changing world, how can one avoid insanity?
Still, no excuses :P
I can try but so far it's just evidences of water is it not?
ok, I'll change the introduction by this weekend, thanks all

I'm with elwyn on this - what she says in her first paragraph is pretty much correct. It might be slightly better to say that, to the extent of our knowledge, Earth is the only planet in the Universe where life has been proven to exist, but in essence what she is saying is correct.

"It's likely that there will be developments in the near future that will result in fossils being discovered and chances are they'll be similar to the early forms of life found in the fossil record on Earth." - That's speculation, unfortunately. We don't know if fossils will ever be discovered on Mars, and even if life existed there (or still exists) it might only be single-cell life, which tends not to leave too many fossils around. Prior to the Ediacaran period on Earth (a mere 650 million years ago, when multicelled lifeforms really took off), evidence of life on this planet is in short supply, mainly resting on particular types of bacteria that form dense colonies called stromatolites.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations, Elwyn!

Woohoo!


No booze as am on antibiotics However for everyone!