Deck 18: Life History

Question 1

Briefly describe the "out of Africa" and "multiregional" views to describe the transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens .

Answer 1

Early modern humans evolved from a single woman in Africa, whose offspring then migrated from Africa, perhaps as recently as 100,000 years ago, and populated Europe and Asia, driving the earlier hominid populations to extinction. Alternatively, early modern humans did not have an isolated origin in Africa, but rather they established separate colonies throughout Eurasia. Occasional contact and interbreeding between these populations enabled our species to maintain its overall cohesiveness while still preserving physical differences in people that we observe today.

Question 2

What are stromatolites and why are they important in Earth history?

Answer 2

Stromatolites are blue-green algae that trap sediment. They are common in some Proterozoic rocks, but the oldest are in 3.3 to 3.5 billion-year-old rocks. Stromatolites are important in understanding Earth's history because the atmosphere of the Paleoarchean had no free oxygen, but stromatolites release oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis thereby increasing the levels of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.

Question 3

Describe bird evolution as known from the fossil record.

Answer 3

The ancestor of birds was probably a small theropod, and some species have been discovered in China that had a featherlike covering. The birdlike Archaeopteryx had dinosaur-like teeth, tail, brain size, and hindlimb structure, but had feathers and a wishbone, typically observed in birds.

Question 4

Briefly state the problems that animals faced in their adaptation to land.

Question 5

What happened to marine invertebrates during the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian Period, and what caused it?

Question 6

What were pterosaurs? What adaptations did they have for their unique ability?

Question 7

How did eukaryotic cells evolve, and why was this advance so important in life history?

Question 8

Briefly state some of the problems that plants had to overcome as they adapted to land and how they accomplished that.

Question 9

Briefly state why the development of the amniote egg was so significant in the evolution of the reptiles.

Question 10

What do the Ediacaran fauna represent, why are they important, and what is their relationship to later life forms?

Question 11

What characterized the Ordovician in terms of invertebrate life, and how does that relate to what was happening geologically at the time?

Question 12

How did transgressing and regressing seas affect the quantity and diversity of life forms in the Paleozoic?

Question 13

What was the first line of evidence that the Cretaceous Mass Extinctions were caused predominantly by a large meteorite impact?

Question 14

Describe the evolution of fish in the Paleozoic.

Question 15

What are the differences between saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs, and what was their common ancestor like?

Question 16

What is the evidence that dinosaurs were endotherms? What is the evidence that they were ectotherms? What is the conclusion?

Question 17

What is the prehistoric overkill hypothesis, and what evidence supports overkill as the reason for the Pleistocene extinctions? What is the alternative hypothesis?

Question 18

How were hominids different from other primates?

Question 19

What evidence of life was there on Earth prior to stromatolites?

Question 20

What is the Cambrian explosion? Is their appearance sudden? Why is it sudden, or why does it seem so?

Question 21

What were the pelycosaurs, and why were they important?

Question 22

What were the characteristics of the first eukaryotic cells?

Question 23

What is significant about Neanderthals?

Question 24

What are prokaryotic organisms?

Question 25

What are stromatolites also referred to as?

Question 26

How do you think the evolution of jawed fishes and other predatory creatures affected the marine ecosystem?

Question 27

What are gymnosperms, and why was their evolution important?

Question 28

How distinct were Mesozoic mammals from their reptile neighbors?

Question 29

What were the factors that made it difficult for animals to adapt to land?

Question 30

Describe the evolution of amphibians in the Paleozoic.

Question 31

What was the importance of the therapsids?

Question 32

What is the best alternative to the meteorite impact hypothesis for the Cretaceous mass extinction?

Question 33

What is a symbiotic relationship?

Question 34

What is an invertebrate?

Question 35

What was the large size of many Pleistocene mammal species attributed to?

Question 36

Where are the Ediacaran fauna found?

Question 37

What were ichthyosaurs? What adaptations did they have for their locomotion ability?

Question 38

Since the appearance of Cro-Magnon, what has been the major area of human evolution?

Question 39

What is important to know about the evolution of invertebrate phyla?

Question 40

What is the distinction between marsupial and placental mammals?

Question 41

The ____________________ were characterized by a thickened dome-shaped skull.

Question 42

Mammals that produce an unprotected embryo that undergoes further development in a pouch are called ____________________ mammals.

Question 43

The dominant type of flora in non-swampy areas of the Late Paleozoic consisted of __________________.

Question 44

The Carboniferous flora in coal-forming swamps was dominated by __________ _________ plants.

Question 45

The ____________________ dinosaurs are also known as the bird-hipped dinosaurs.

Question 46

The oldest hominids belong to the genus ____________________.

Question 47

Homo sapiens clearly evolved from ____________________.

Question 48

The development of ____________________ increased the diversity of foods that fish could consume, including other ____________________.

Question 49

Many of the large dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus , are known as the ____________________ dinosaurs.

Question 50

The duck-billed dinosaurs belonged to the ____________________ dinosaur group.

Question 51

By the end of the Permian, small mammal-like reptiles called the ____________________ evolved from the pelycosaur.

Question 52

Mammals that give birth to live young that need little or no protection after birth are called ____________________ mammals.

Question 53

____________________ was a robust creature with a developed social structure.

Question 54

The first of the hominids to make major migrations was ____________________ ____________________.

Question 55

Mammals that lay eggs are called ____________________ mammals.

Question 56

The fin-back reptiles are called ____________________, and they became extinct during the ____________________.

Question 57

The most recent ancestor of modern humans that evolved about 35,000 years ago is ____________________.

Question 58

The oldest australopithecines were _________________________.

Question 59

Scientists know that birds began to evolve prior to the Cretaceous, evidenced the fossil known as ____________________.

Question 60

Single-celled animals known as ____________________ were plankton that diversified tremendously during the Mesozoic.

Question 61

The feature that distinguishes the two subclasses of bony fish is:

A) gill structure.
B) skeletal structure.
C) fin structure.
D) teeth structure.
E) scale structure.

Question 62

The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary represents the first appearance of:

A) vertebrates.
B) amphibians.
C) reptiles.
D) animals with skeletons.
E) animals with soft bodies.

Question 63

The development of the seed played what role in vascular plant evolution?

A) Plants could grow taller.
B) Plants could reproduce asexually.
C) Plants could adapt to varied terrestrial habitats.
D) Plants could grow taller, reproduce asexually, AND adapt to varied terrestrial habitats.
E) Plants could grow taller and reproduce asexually.

Question 64

The extinction of dinosaurs began during the:

A) Oligocene.
B) Eocene.
C) Cretaceous.
D) Miocene.
E) Paleocene.

Question 65

The Ediacaran fauna represent the first fauna with internal skeletons.

Question 66

Seedless vascular plants lived in low wet habitats because they:

A) need water to reproduce.
B) do not have a means to transport water through their structure.
C) had no protection from desiccation.
D) were a food source for amphibians.
E) all of these.

Question 67

Devonian mass extinctions were caused by global cooling that made the environment unfavorable for the widespread reef organisms of the time period.

Question 68

The evolutionary trend in mammal size during the Pleistocene could have been in response to:

A) global warming when there was more food available.
B) cooler temperatures because large animals tend to retain heat more efficiently.
C) protection from predation of other organisms.
D) increased predatory ability.
E) decreased metabolic requirements.

Question 69

The sail-like fin on the pelycosaur may have served as all but which of the following?

A) sexual display
B) a means of locomotion
C) a means of protection
D) a means of defense
E) a thermoregulatory device

Question 70

The mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician set the stage for:

A) more species to go extinct.
B) groups of organisms to diversify.
C) groups of organisms to withdraw from previous habitats.
D) groups of organisms to repopulate abandoned niches.
E) groups of organisms to diversify AND repopulate abandoned niches.

Question 71

Plants are divided into two major groups:

A) coniferous and deciduous.
B) vascular and spore-bearing.
C) angiosperms and gymnosperms.
D) vascular and nonvascular.
E) seedless and non-seedless.

Question 72

Gymnosperms are:

A) flowering, seed-bearing plants.
B) nonvascular, flowerless seed plants.
C) nonvascular, flowering seed plants.
D) flowerless seed plants.
E) all of the above

Question 73

Which reptile group is considered to have been the ancestor for the mammals?

A) captorhinomorphs
B) pelycosaurs
C) Edaphosaurus
D) Hylonomous
E) alligators

Question 74

The primates can be divided into two suborders:

A) prosimians and simians.
B) prosimians and dessimians.
C) anthropoids and proanthropoids.
D) anthropoids and prosimians.
E) proanthropoids and dessimians.

Question 75

Mass extinctions at the end of the Ordovician occurred because of:

A) dramatic changes in ocean levels related to glaciation.
B) dramatic chemical changes in seawater related to meteorite impact.
C) increased solar radiation.
D) decreased solar radiation.
E) dramatic changes in oceans related to glaciation AND increased solar radiation.

Question 76

Trilobites are common organisms in aquaria today.

Question 77

All of the following except which are features of primates?

A) increased brain size
B) stereoscopic vision
C) opposable thumb
D) grasping hands
E) more specialized teeth

Question 78

The first jawed fish were the:

A) placoderms.
B) acanthodians.
C) ostracoderms.
D) chrondrichthyes.
E) agnatha.

Question 79

In the Early Cambrian, there was a great diversity of fauna that represented many phyla that exist today.

Question 80

Carboniferous age reefs differed from those of the Devonian in that they were much more massive than the older reef structures.