Dragon's Tooth

(The full list of Ages: List of Ages)

Author

Metabasalt

Walkthrough

(to read the spoiler, select it with your mouse or press "Ctrl+A")

Version 2009June19:
Walk through for Dragon’s tooth

When you link into Dragon’s tooth, you see a wooden structure called the Alfred Wegener Paleogeographic Research Laboratory (PRL) with the warning No Trespassing. Authorized Personnel only! How do you become Authorized is the puzzle, and how do you get into the lab. There is no sign of a door or even a window to crawl through.
If you climb up the rocky hill to the side of the PRL you see a map board. Some of the continents are moveable, some are fixed. Moving the continents that can be moved provides access to the PRL. But where do you move them? Leave the map puzzle for now.
Run around the rocky hill (this is Dragon’s tooth by the way), and find a journey book. In the book, you find that you must position the continents on top of the PRL as they existed 450 million years ago. There are clues to where the continents were, so read the book carefully. For example, from magnetic and geologic evidence, it is indicated that the moveable continents of  South China, and Australia were along the equator then. The gray rocks forming the ridges around Dragon’s tooth are also made of limestone. Since limestones form from photosynthetic algae they may also have formed in tropical or subtropical areas like Miami today. Note the equations in the book, and the fossil data for South China and Australia. 
Between the book and the PRL is a rock cube with a fossil and the number 2 on it. Those numbers correspond to fossil genera that lived 450 million years ago. The numbers correspond to the fossil genera numbers found in the book. Go on a fossil hunt and find and record all the fossil numbers in a chart. There are 51 so it may take you a while. Ametist found using the flymode patch speeds up the process. 
On one of the wooden boxes there is a map of Sweden, and directions to Mole Hill and Mount Rogers. If you follow the arrow to Mole Hill, you will see basalt hexagonal columns and limestone blocks. If you click on the central basalt hex column it will take you to how Virginia appeared in the Eocene. There is no linking object back to the Dragon’s tooth, so you will have to go to Realto and then back to Dragon’s tooth via the nexus (If you are using the offline ki, otherwise use the Dragon’s tooth book on your bookshelf). If you go to Mt. Rogers, you will see a cube with a circular rock on the right side of the path. Click on the cube takes you to Virginia as it existed in the Precambrian.
Again you can only return to Dragon’s tooth via Realto. If you click on the Sweden sign, it will take you to Kinnekulle, Sweden. More Limestone here indicates that Sweden formed near the equator too. So all the moveable blocks above the PRL must be along the equator, but what longitude? Read the journey book in Kinnekulle. Add the fossil data to your table. There is a clickable block of rock that takes you back to Dragon’s tooth. 

The longitudes for the moveable continents can be determined using the equations in the Dragon’s tooth journey book. Let’s start with North America and England. North America has 51 fossil genera, and England has 23. There are 14 genera in common (# 3,15,19,21,24,27,32,42,50,53,57,65,77, and 80). The jaccard index which indicates how similar the continents are in terms of their fossils is calculated by JC = c/(n+m-c), where c is the number in common and n and m are the number of genera on each continent. So JC = 0.2333. The distance can be calculate using the formula D = JC-0.3949/-0.0000318. So the distance between North America and England was = (0.2333-0.3949/-0.0000318)= 5,069 kilometers. Since the earth has not expanded, we know that the circumference of the Earth is 40,053 km (2 x pi x 6,378). If we divide the Circumference of the Earth by 360, we find that there are 111 km in 1 degree of Longitude. So 5,069 km / 111= 45.6 degrees. North America should be placed along the equator and 45.6 degrees of Longitude. 

Continue calculating the distance in km and degrees Longitude for Sweden, South China, and Australia. Although it may be tempting to calculate the distance between each of these and England, I used the distance between each of the remaining continents and North America, because North America is a better sampled continent.
There are 14 common genera between North America and Sweden. Sweden has 16 genera and the US 51. JC = 14/(51+16-14) = 0.264. Distance between the US and Sweden is (0.264-0.3949)/-0.0000318 = 4111 km/111= 37 degrees of Longitudinal separation. Subtracting 37 from the longitude of US (46), the longitude for Sweden is 9 degrees. 

These calculations only give distances. The question remains which side of England these continents were on. Parsimony would argue that North America should be on the same side of England as it is today. Placing it on the East side would require higher drifting rates. So I have placed North America and Sweden on the west side of England. 

Continuing with the calculations, I calculated the distance between US and South China. There are 12 genera in common, US has 51 genera and South China has 18 genera. JC = 12/(51+18-12)= 52 degrees of Longitudinal separation. This means that South China was on the East side of England as it today at 6 degrees (52 – 46 Longitude of US). 

Lastly, you need to calculate the longitude of Australia. There are 6 genera in common. Australia has 8 genera total, so JC = 6/(8+51-6)= 0.113. The distance is (0.113-.3949)/-0.0000318=8858 km/111= 80 degrees of Longitude separation. Australia was on the east side of England too and at 34 degrees (80-46). 

ENOUGH WITH THE MATH ALREADY, JUST TELL ME THE ANSWER TO THE PUZZLE!
So to solve the continent block puzzle, move these continents so they are along the equator at these longitudes:

North America : 46 West
Sweden: 9 West
South China: 6 East
Australia: 34 East

Some of you have asked if these equations really work. They are based on  modern clam data and known distances between faunal regions today. Also we know from geologic and magnetic data that Africa was at the south pole, while North America was at the equator. If you analyze the distance between North America and Africa using the fossil data in the book you get 10,088 km or 90 degrees! This reconstruction is also similar to that published by other scientists such as Chris Scotese in Texas. To see his map, set your browser to:
http://www.scotese.com/newpage1.htm.

Once you set the continents in the right configuration, a large wooden door opens to the PRL. Inside you will find linking fossils to the Wind River and the Ordovician Ages.

Information

Here is a map: UAM/Ages/DragonsTooth/DragonsToothMap

The walkthroughs for older versions can be found here: UAM/Ages/DragonsTooth/OldWalkthroughs

Putting this Age on your bookshelf

This command will place this book on the 3rd position of your Relto bookshelf:

/bookshelf 3 Dragons_tooth