Deck 18: Life History

Question 1

What are the differences between Saurischian and Ornithischian dinosaurs,and what was their common ancestor like?

Answer 1

Saurischian dinosaurs have a lizard-like pelvis,and Ornithischian dinosaurs have a bird-like pelvis.These dinosaurs had a common ancestor,much like archosaurs.Archosaurs were small,long-legged carnivores that walked and ran on their hind limbs,meaning that they were bipedal.

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Plants had to solve some of the same problems that animals did by dealing with the effects of desiccation,gravity,and reproduction.Vascular plants have a tissue system for the movement of water and nutrients,and for support.The development of seeds allowed plants to reproduce without problems of drying out.

Question 3

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

Answer 3

After the Permian extinction,roughly 50% of all marine invertebrate families and about 90% of all marine invertebrate species were extinct.Scientists think global warming caused the ocean to become highly stratified.Since there was little or no circulation of oxygen-rich surface waters into the deep ocean,deep-water organisms died out.Stagnant waters covered the shelf region,causing shallow water organisms to die out.Widespread volcanism also added carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,causing climatic instability and ecologic collapse.

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

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

Question 7

How were hominids different from other primates?

Question 8

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

Question 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

Describe the evolution of fish in the Paleozoic.

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

What evidence of life on Earth before stromatolites do we have?

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

Describe bird evolution as known from the fossil record.

Question 20

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

Question 21

What is the distinction between marsupial and placental mammals?

Question 22

What is an invertebrate?

Question 23

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

Question 24

What is important about Neanderthals?

Question 25

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

What was the importance of the therapsids?

Question 28

What are gymnosperms,and why was their evolution important?

Question 29

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

Question 30

Describe the evolution of amphibians in the Paleozoic.

Question 31

What were the pelycosaurs,and why were they important?

Question 32

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

Question 33

Where are the Ediacaran fauna found?

Question 34

What are fossils?

Question 35

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

Question 36

What are prokaryotic organisms?

Question 37

What is a symbiotic relationship?

Question 38

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

Question 39

How distinct were Mesozoic mammals from their reptile neighbors?

Question 40

What were the characteristics of the first eukaryotic cells?

Question 41

____________________ was a robust creature with a developed social structure.

Question 42

Homo sapiens clearly evolved from ____________________.

Question 43

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

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

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

Question 47

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

Question 48

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

The dominant type of flora in non-swampy areas of the Late Paleozoic was ____________________.

Question 51

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

Question 52

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

Question 53

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

Question 54

Mammals that lay eggs are called ____________________ mammals.

Question 55

The duck-billed dinosaurs were in the ____________________ dinosaur group.

Question 56

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

Question 57

The fin-back reptiles are called ____________________,and they went extinct in the ____________________.

Question 58

The oldest australopithecines were _________________________.

Question 59

The oldest hominids belong to the genus ____________________.

Question 60

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

Question 61

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 62

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 the these.

Question 63

All existing orders of mammals had evolved by:

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

Question 64

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

Question 65

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 to repopulate abandoned niches.

Question 66

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 67

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

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

Question 68

The first jawed fish were the:

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

Question 69

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 70

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 71

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 72

Trilobites are common organisms in aquaria today.

Question 73

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

Question 74

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 75

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 retain heat more efficiently.
C)protection from predation of other organisms.
D)increased predatory ability.
E)decreased metabolic requirements.

Question 76

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

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

Question 77

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

Question 78

The Ediacaran fauna represent the first fauna with internal skeletons.

Question 79

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

A)dramatic changes in oceans 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 80

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