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From Dinosaurs to Dinoflagillates
By Bruce Carter and Russ DiFiori
It was just past midnight, the temperature finally dropping into the low nineties, as we sat on the sand late last June. We thought back to the evening's activities: viewing the milky way, using the telescope to examine the rings of Saturn and several globular clusters, kayaking among the phosphorescent waves and diving amongst the swirls of thousands of tiny sparks of light-each emitted by an almost microscopic organism. Underwater flashlights revealed the forms of hundreds of dinoflagillates darting back and forth as they fed, fought and reproduced among the phytoplankton that clouded the water. These tiny creatures would be the subjects, under microscopes, of the laboratory study exercise scheduled for the next morning.
While many readers may be familiar with these magical Baja moments, most of our group of 25 college students had never been to Baja, and were enjoying these experiences for the first time. The 3-week trip not only exposed them to many of the unique features and experiences of Baja, it was part of an intensive science study program dealing with the biology and geology of the Peninsula. From Ensenada to Mulege they studied the unique vegetation, marine and terrestrial life, fossils and the geological development of Baja California. After 3 weeks of classes in Pasadena and 3 weeks of intensive field study in Baja, they could earn up to 8 transfer science credits. Last summer's group was the latest of the more than 200 students who have participated in the program since 1997.
On the Pacific coast at San Quintin, we studied the young cinder cones with their lava flows, volcanic bombs and fragments of rocks carried up by the lava from the mantle below the crust. Students explored the sand dune fields and learned how coastal longshore sand movement produced San Quintin bay. Detailed intertidal transects documented the life forms of the rocky, wave-dominated Pacific coast and compared them with similar transects elsewhere. Down the coast our students searched for dinosaur fossils as they scrambled through the petrified forest preserved in the steep arroyos of the El Rosario badlands. They made detailed studies of fossil-rich beds in the San Fernando Wash and at Punta Banda as they reconstructed the nature of long-dead marine creatures, inferred ancient environments and speculated on the nature and possible causes of past extinctions.
Hiking through the aspen grove to the crest of the San Pedro Martir was a highlight, especially for those who caught sight of the small group of mountain sheep on the ridge. We observed the different life zones as we traveled from the coastal sage up through the alpine vegetation zones, and we studied the diverse rocks that record the 100-million year history of the formation of the great western Cordillera of North America. Then, as we stood at the crest looking down to the Gulf of Mexico, students came to understand, in detail, the events during the past 10 million years which have led to the formation of the planet's newest ocean, the Sea of Cortez, which continues to widen by several inches a year as Baja California moves away from the mainland.
By the end of the trip they understood this ocean-forming process. It produced such features as the older lava flows on the mesas around Cataviña and the very young ones of Tres Vergenes, the rich copper ore deposits of Santa Rosalia and the oyster-rich fossil reefs near Loreto. The process also created the great fault-controlled eastern scarps of the Sierra Juarez and Sierra San Pedro Martir and the ongoing earthquakes and active hot springs in many parts of the peninsula.
We used biological transects in the Vizcaíno Desert to study the unique vegetation (cirio, cardon, elephant tree, cholla, etc.) and quantify its morphology and diversity. These studies showed students how individual species and entire biological communities develop when isolated in restricted areas such as the Baja peninsula. At Bahia de Los Angeles the class viewed finback whales, dolphins and manta rays, waded through lagoons surrounded by hundreds of sting rays and helped feed sea turtles at a research station. Snorkeling in the Gulf waters let them observe numerous forms of marine life. Whether dissecting an 18-inch squid, having taste tests of different species of clams, tasting oysters right off the rocks or enjoying ceveche made from a freshly-caught tiger shark, these experiences led them to a greater understanding of marine biology and our own place in the natural world.
The class learned to work together as they cooperated in shopping, cooking, and cleaning at field stations in San Quintin and Bahia de Los Angeles. They especially had to be self-reliant on the camp-outs on the beach or in the mountains. They experienced many aspects of Baja, from shopping at markets in Mulege, exploring the ruins of the great smelters at Santa Rosalia, and visiting small ranching towns in the San Francisco de la Sierra, to attending mass at small churches, visiting missions founded almost a hundred years before those in Alta California and learning about the contemporary cathedral music of the Mission Era.
One of the themes of the program is relating the science content to other areas of human knowledge, and to issues that are familiar to students and have relevance to them individually and to society as a whole. There was considerable discussion of current concerns such as resource depletion, species extinction, overpopulation, environmental pollution and the different causes and effects of climatic change, both past and future.
Many of the 200 plus students who have completed this program said their Baja experience was a highlight of their lives. They were sometimes hot, tired and uncomfortable, but they had learned more than during any other six weeks in their lives. In truth, both of us consider this trip the highlight of our year too.
Bruce Carter teaches geology and Russell DiFiori teaches biology at Pasadena City College where Dr. Carter is Dean of the Natural Sciences Division. Each of them ran individual field courses in Baja California before they joined to run their joint Biology-Geology program for the past six years.
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