Deck 16: History of Life

Question 1

The most easily fossilizable organisms are :

A) Those made of bone or shell
B) Soft bodied creatures like jellyfish
C) Microorganism
D) Fleshy parts of plants
E) Organisms that live in moist forests

Answer 1

A
Those made of bone or shell

Question 2

Approximately how many people are living on the globe today?

A) 1 billion
B) 3 billion
C) 5 billion
D) 7 billion
E) 10 billion

Answer 2

D
7 billion

Question 3

The Burgess Shale is a rich fossil deposit in Canada. What makes this site so special?

A) Many primates have been found here.
B) Many dinosaurs have been found here.
C) Many soft-bodied invertebrates have been found here.
D) There is a long and nearly complete record of life on Earth at this site.
E) Fossils tree, including those of living fossils, can be found here.

Answer 3

C
Many soft-bodied invertebrates have been found here.

Question 4

Approximately what percentage of all previous organisms known from the fossil record are considered to have become extinct

A) 20%
B) 50 %
C) 70%
D) 90%
E) 99%

Question 5

The oldest fossils are remarkably similar to modern day:

A) Blue-green algae.
B) Protozoa
C) Viruses
D) Mosses and ferns
E) Flowering plants

Question 6

When has been the greatest time of plant and animal diversity in the history of the Earth?

A) In the Devonian, 400 million years ago
B) In the Triassic, 250 million years ago
C) During the Cambrian Explosion 550 million years ago
D) In the 10 million years preceding the mass extinction of the dinosaurs
E) In contemporary times.

Question 7

Using a 60 minute clock to compress all of the history of life, approximately what percentage is Precambrian and therefore before the flourishing of life forms on the Earth?

A) 25%
B) 50%
C) 75%
D) 90%
E) 99%

Question 8

The figure at the right depicts:

A) Evolutionary stability
B) Punctuated equilibrium
C) Speciation
D) Pleistocene overkill
E) Episodic mass extinctions

Question 9

Using a 60 minute clock to compress all of the history of life, approximately when do we see the appearance of humans

A) At 5 minutes before the hour.
B) At 1 minutes before the hour.
C) At 30 seconds before the hour
D) At 3 seconds before the hour
E) At 1 second before the hour.

Question 10

The figure at the right depicts the principle or concept of

A) homology
B) Convergence
C) Genetic drift
D) Speciation
E) Evolutionary stability

Question 11

Approximately how long ago was the explosion of life on Earth known as the Cambrian explosion?

A) 1 billion years ago
B) 500 million years ago
C) 100 million years ago
D) 50 million years ago
E) 25 million years ago.

Question 12

Approximately how long ago did the dinosaurs go extinct?

A) 100 million years ago
B) 65 million years ago
C) 35 million years ago
D) 25 million years ago
E) 10,000 years ago

Question 13

Most of the plants today are flowering plants which began to flourish about 200 million years ago. What is the more scientific name for the flowering plants?

A) Conifers
B) Cycads
C) Angiosperms
D) Gymnosperms
E) Cordaites

Question 14

The lobe-finned fish of the Devonian were capable of moving themselves from pool to pool during times of drought. Until recently, these fish, known as _________________, were thought to have been the direct ancestor of the amphibians.

A) Trilobites
B) Crossopterygians
C) Arthropods
D) Brachiopoda
E) Nautiloids

Question 15

Convergence is the independent development or evolution of similar characteristics in genetically unrelated organisms as a response to similar environments. Where in the world do we see convergence of mammals and marsupials?

A) Asia and North America
B) North and South America
C) Australia and South America
D) Australia and North America
E) Africa and Australia

Question 16

The horseshow crab and the gingko tree have something in common. What is it?

A) They both are common in the fossil record.
B) They are both relatively unchanged in the fossil record for millions of years.
C) They are both found to have evolved by convergent evolution.
D) They both evolved in Asia and then spread throughout the globe.
E) They both have evolved and diverged tremendously over the course of their evolution.

Question 17

There have been many periods of extinction in the history of the Earth. That said, we recognize how many mass extinctions in the past 500 million years?

A) 25
B) 15
C) 10
D) 5
E) 3

Question 18

There is a major mass extinction currently going on NOW that is different than previous mass extinction. It is happening quicker and it is happening due to the actions of a single species (humans). What of the following is NOT a key stage or pulse in this modern mass extinction event?

A) The advent of agriculture
B) The spread of humans across the globe.
C) The spread of European across the globe.
D) The exponential increase in the human population.

Question 19

Which major continental area was least affected by mammalian and bird extinctions that accompanied the spread of humans across the globe in the last 100,000 years?

A) Asia
B) North America
C) Australia
D) Africa
E) Madagascar and New Zealand

Question 20

The fossils in the strata of the Earth are arranged in such a manner that they clearly tell the story of the history of life on this planet. What aspect of the fossil record makes it especially good evidence for evolution?

A) The fossils are found in the strata that would be predicted by evolution and are increasingly complex in recent rocks.
B) The fossils are randomly arranged.
C) The fossils in found in different parts of the world demonstrate continental drift.
D) The fossils are incomplete with many gaps.
E) The oldest fossils are near the surface of the Earth and the newest fossils are deeper in the strata.

Question 21

The demise of the megafauna, (large mammals and flightless birds) from the various continental regions of the world coupled with the spread of humans across the globe is sometimes referred to as:

A) The Holocene catastrophe
B) The Pleistocene overkill
C) The Megafauna event
D) The Cambrian explosion
E) The Gaia effect

Question 22

Fossils have been found in all of the following EXCEPT:

A) Volcanic rocks
B) Sedimentary rocks
C) Fossilized tree resins
D) Organic peat
E) Natural asphalt

Question 23

Approximately how many people were living on the globe around 1 AD?

A) 1 billion
B) ½ billion
C) ¼ billion
D) 100 million
E) 10 million