Deck 28: Memories of Past Life: Fossils and Evolution

Question 1

If a mastodon dies while walking along a river,what needs to happen in order to fossilize the body?

A) A drought must occur so the body can be dried out.
B) A flood must occur so that sediment can wash over the body.
C) No changes are necessary; it will be preserved just by being near a river.
D) The body must be carried away by scavengers to another location.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following statements regarding the fossil record is true?

A) Every minute of the Earth's history is recorded in the rock record.
B) The fossil record contains remains of animals only.
C) All organisms have a high preservation potential.
D) Paleontologists have not yet found all the fossils that are in the rocks.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Fossils of ________ are known as extraordinary fossils.

A) hard parts
B) soft parts
C) bones
D) teeth

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following would NOT be considered a fossil?

A) a dinosaur bone
B) a dinosaur footprint
C) the impression of a fern leaf
D) a basalt dike

Question 5

What type of fossil is shown in the picture below?

A) impressions
B) mold fossils
C) hard parts
D) trace fossils

Question 6

In which of the following rocks would you be most likely to find fossils?

A) gneiss
B) limestone
C) granite
D) basalt

Question 7

Why are feathers rarely found in the fossil record?

A) because birds usually die in dry environments
B) because feathers do not contain hard parts
C) because feathers are very small and thus are not well preserved
D) because birds die in forests,areas with high oxygen levels

Question 8

Which major kingdom would a bivalve belong to?

A) Protista
B) Animalia
C) Plantae
D) Fungi

Question 9

Which of the following circumstances is likely to preserve a fossil?

A) Leaves from an ancient oak tree fall to the ground in a forest.
B) A mammoth dies of starvation in the middle of a vast dry plain.
C) A jellyfish is buried by a submarine landslide.
D) Bacteria living in the ocean die near the shoreline and sink to the bottom.

Question 10

Fossils are most often identified based on changes in their ________,which is easily recognizable,even in the field.

A) morphology
B) DNA
C) domain
D) lifestyle

Question 11

What type of fossil is composed of footprints or burrows?

A) mold or cast
B) chemical fossil
C) trace fossil
D) body fossil

Question 12

Why is the preservation potential of an organism higher if it dies in an anoxic (oxygen-poor)environment?

A) The organism will die more quickly without oxygen.
B) Anoxic environments contain abundant amounts of amber.
C) The organism does not decay in an anoxic environment.
D) Oxygen decreases the rate of permineralization.

Question 13

Petrified wood is a type of

A) permineralized fossil.
B) chemical fossil.
C) trace fossil.
D) body fossil preserved in tar.

Question 14

If two animals are members of the same kingdom,how closely are they related in comparison to two animals that are members of the same genus?

A) Animals of the same kingdom are less closely related than those of the same genus.
B) Animals of the same kingdom are more closely related than those of the same genus.
C) There is no way to tell how closely related either are without more information.
D) Animals of the same kingdom are not related at all.

Question 15

The following is an example of what type of fossil?

A) trace fossil
B) permineralized organism
C) carbonized impression
D) mold or cast fossil

Question 16

Imagine that a layer of leaves is scattered along a forest floor; what must happen in order to preserve these leaves as fossils?

A) The leaves must be picked up by wind or animals and carried to a desert.
B) The leaves must be buried slowly so that the leaves can begin to rot.
C) The leaves must be buried rapidly in order to keep out oxygen.
D) The leaves will never be preserved as they do not contain hard parts.

Question 17

What type of fossil forms when a buried organism decays or is dissolved,but the original shape is preserved in the sediment?

A) body fossil
B) trace fossil
C) mold fossil
D) cast fossil

Question 18

Why do plants generally become carbonized impressions if they are preserved as fossils?

A) because chemical reactions leave behind only the carbon
B) because they often begin to decay before fossilization
C) because they are easily moved by winds and water
D) because they are generally scavenged by animals

Question 19

What type of fossil is shown in the picture?

A) body fossil
B) trace fossil
C) permineralized fossil
D) cast fossil

Question 20

Which of the following is a brachiopod?

A) Figure 1
B) Figure 2
C) Figure 3
D) Figure 4

Question 21

Explain how the leaves in the image below were formed.

Question 22

Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped out by a __________.Similar events have occurred at least five times in the Earth's history.

A) mass extinction event
B) punctuated equilibrium
C) millennia-long drought
D) Plinian volcanic eruption

Question 23

Darwin believed that the finches on the Galapagos Islands were once a single species but had ________ into several different species that could each eat different types of food.

A) regressed
B) reverted
C) evolved
D) relapsed

Question 24

How is a mass extinction event different from extinction?

Question 25

When the last member of a species dies,this is called

A) fossilization.
B) natural selection.
C) extinction.
D) preservation.

Question 26

What is a fossil? In what type(s)of rock are fossils most likely to be found? Why?

Question 27

Which of the following is an example of natural selection?

A) birds that evolve a new beak shape in order to exploit a different food source
B) the extinction of the mammoths due to hunting by a new predator
C) fossils of trilobites that have the same morphology but are separated by millions of years
D) the mass extinction of the dinosaurs due to a meteorite's impact 65 million years ago

Question 28

Explain why the fossil record is incomplete.

Question 29

Label each fossil in the image below with the common fossil name.

Question 30

What is natural selection?

A) the theory that all life began in shallow coastal pools of protein-rich water
B) the theory that all life on the Earth has evolved from single-celled organisms
C) the idea that animals who share specialized characteristics are part of a genus
D) the passing on of beneficial characteristics so that the most adaptable survive