Deck 15: Life of the Mesozoic Era

Question 1

Reptiles, birds, and mammals are descended from one common ancestor.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Dinosaurs were divided into two orders based on whether they were ectothermic or endothermic.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Dinosaurs evolved from the Saurischians.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A significant change in land-plant communities occurred with the evolution of angiosperms in the Cretaceous.

Question 5

The primitive archosaurs were the ancestors to both modern birds and crocodiles.

Question 6

Unlike the Paleozoic burrowing animals, which were soft-bodied, Mesozoic burrowing animals had hard-shells.

Question 7

By the end of the Mesozoic, bony fish had gone through a three-fold evolution from primitive to an advanced group called teleosts.

Question 8

The mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic was of far greater magnitude than the extinction at the end of the Permian.

Question 9

The Saurischian dinosaurs are known as the bird-hipped dinosaurs.

Question 10

All feathered dinosaurs could fly.

Question 11

Relatively few invertebrates existed at the beginning of the Mesozoic, but by the end of the Cretaceous, they were more abundant and diversified.

Question 12

The corals that proliferated in the Mesozoic oceans were scleractinians and were different than those of the Paleozoic seas.

Question 13

Flowers and insects have coevolved because each depends greatly on the other.

Question 14

Almost all species of bony fish today are ray-finned fish.

Question 15

Ammonites were one of the major groups of Mesozoic marine fauna to go extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.

Question 16

All Saurischian dinosaurs are herbivores.

Question 17

The theropod dinosaurs were the ancestors to the modern reptile groups, including snakes, lizards and turtles.

Question 18

Rudist bivalves were an important component of the Mesozoic reef community.

Question 19

Typical reptiles are endotherms.

Question 20

Gymnosperms became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic.

Question 21

What was one characteristic of ammonites in the Mesozoic?

A) Most were burrowing organisms.
B) Most led a benthonic existence.
C) Most were uncoiled.
D) Most were coiled.
E) Most were reef builders.

Question 22

Ornithischians were much larger than the Saurischians.

Question 23

Which feature is one of the pieces of evidence that indicates that the boundary between the Cretaceous Period and the Tertiary was marked by the impact of a large meteorite (bolide)?

A) evaporites
B) large scale unconformities
C) metamorphosed limestones
D) sequence stratigraphy
E) iridium anomaly

Question 24

Any vertebrate (such as amphibians and reptiles) that depends on external heat to regulate body temperature is said to be ____.

A) cyclothemic
B) vascular
C) heterotrophic
D) ectothermic
E) endothermic

Question 25

Which type of coral was present in Mesozoic reef communities?

A) nautiloids
B) rugose
C) scleractinian
D) tabulate
E) polyphorma

Question 26

The two subclasses of bony fish are ____ and ____.

A) ray-finned; spiral-finned
B) ray finned; lobate-finned
C) ray-finned; lobe-finned
D) lobate-finned; radial-finned
E) spiral-finned; radial-finned

Question 27

The earliest humans lived during the time of the dinosaurs.

Question 28

Which gymnosperms made their appearance in the Triassic and became very widespread?

A) angiosperms
B) cycads
C) horsetail rushes
D) seed ferns
E) cryptosperms

Question 29

Placental mammals give birth to live young.

Question 30

Humans ( Homo sapiens ) are ____.

A) monotremes
B) bipedal
C) quadrupedal
D) invertebrate
E) ectothermic

Question 31

Which animal below is a mammal?

A) dinosaur
B) bird
C) frog
D) turtle
E) horse

Question 32

Which oldest positively identified fossil bird had feathers, but retained many reptile characteristics?

A) ichthyosaurs
B) plesiosaurs
C) therapsid
D) Utatsusaurus
E) Archaeopteryx

Question 33

Faunas became more diverse during the breakup of Pangaea because ____.

A) angiosperms dominated
B) gymnosperms dominated
C) climate was highly variable
D) of increased competition for shoreline and shelf habitats
E) intercontinental migration was more difficult

Question 34

Mary Anning was widely recognized during her lifetime for her pioneering work in the field of paleontology.

Question 35

The organisms that replaced Paleozoic corals as the major reef builder in the Mesozoic were ____.

A) scleractinians
B) rudist bivalves
C) oysters
D) cephalopods
E) gastropods

Question 36

The Mesozoic Era is called the "Age of Reptiles" because ____.

A) there were more reptiles than any other type of animal
B) reptiles were the only animals to show evolutionary change
C) even though there were more plants than reptiles, plants did not evolve
D) reptiles predominated the land-dwelling vertebrate animals
E) reptiles dominated the oceans

Question 37

The cynodonts were the direct ancestors of early mammals.

Question 38

Pterosaurs were ____.

A) ancestors of birds
B) flying dinosaurs
C) large and aggressive birds
D) flying reptiles
E) flying mammals

Question 39

Dinosaurs are examples of ____.

A) fish
B) invertebrates
C) amphibians
D) reptiles
E) mammals

Question 40

Vascular plants having flowers and seeds are called ____.

A) ostracoderms
B) spores
C) angiosperms
D) gymnosperms
E) therapsids

Question 41

The aquatic ____________________ were porpoise-like reptiles, which probably gave birth to live young.

Question 42

Mammal and reptile fossils can be differentiated based on ____.

A) pelvis shape
B) stomach contents
C) habitat, as determined from rock type
D) outer covering
E) ear bone and jaw structure

Question 43

True mammals evolved from ____________________, which were the most mammal-like of group of ____________________, which were mammal-like reptiles.

Question 44

Animals that move on four limbs are ____________________, while animals that move on two limbs are ____________________.

Question 45

The ____________________ is the most heavily armored vertebrate, and it evolved in the Triassic.

Question 46

Which statement about ichthyosaurs is true?

A) They were quadrupedal.
B) They were bipedal.
C) They are closely related to plesiosaurs and mosasaurs.
D) They were carnivorous marine reptiles.
E) They were born on land and migrated to the water.

Question 47

Phytoplanktonic organisms with skeletons made of silica are called ____________________.

Question 48

Humans belong to which group of mammals?

A) monotremes
B) mauropods
C) marsupials
D) amniotes
E) placental

Question 49

Why do some geologists believe a meteorite impact was not the sole cause of the extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic?

A) Iridium is not always found at the boundary between Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks.
B) Meteorite impacts cause local extinctions, not global extinctions.
C) The meteorite hit at the end of the Jurassic, while extinctions occurred throughout the Cretaceous.
D) The location of an impact crater has not been discovered, and likely never will be.
E) Terrestrial and marine extinctions have not been shown to occur at the same time.

Question 50

Rare in crustal rocks, but abundant in some meteoroids, the presence of a(n) ____________________ layer provides evidence for a meteorite impact at the end of the Mesozoic.

Question 51

Mesozoic plants and animals occupied ____.

A) small geographic areas since climate varied greatly
B) large geographic areas since climate varied greatly
C) small geographic areas since climate showed little variation
D) large geographic areas since climate showed little variation
E) large geographic areas since Pangaea was forming

Question 52

The distinction between the Ornithischian and Saurischian dinosaurs is based on the ____.

A) shape of cranial cavity
B) function of teeth
C) arrangement of the pelvis
D) method of reproduction
E) position on food chain

Question 53

Which observation would undermine, and not provide support for, the idea that a meteorite impacted Earth at the end of the Mesozoic?

A) rapid decrease in sulfuric acid and nitric acid concentrations
B) thin, global iridium layer between Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks
C) soot layer between Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks
D) shock-metamorphosed quartz between Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks
E) an impact crater dated to Cretaceous times

Question 54

____________________ were short or long-necked marine reptiles that gave birth to live young.

Question 55

The first vertebrates to achieve flight were ____________________.

Question 56

Flowering plants called ____________________ flourished in the Late Cretaceous.

Question 57

The two major groups of dinosaurs were ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 58

Paleozoic and Mesozoic marine invertebrate faunas differ primarily because ____.

A) mammals had not yet evolved in the Paleozoic
B) birds had not yet evolved in the Paleozoic
C) most Paleozoic faunas were nektonic
D) Mesozoic fauna with hard and soft parts burrowed in the sediment
E) more Mesozoic fauna were nektonic

Question 59

The mammal-like reptiles at the end of the Paleozoic were ____.

A) thecodonts
B) therapsids
C) protoavis
D) hesperornis
E) monotremes

Question 60

Fossils of Archaeopteryx are important because they ____.

A) prove that dinosaurs could fly
B) indicate birds may have evolved from theropod dinosaurs
C) indicate theropod dinosaurs may have evolved from birds
D) indicate some dinosaurs were warm-blooded
E) show that small dinosaurs had feathers

Question 61

How does the breakup of Pangaea influence the Mesozoic distribution and development of plants and animals?

Question 62

Dinosaurs are classified as reptiles, but several characteristics set them apart from other reptiles. List four characteristics that made dinosaurs unique from other reptiles.

Question 63

What evidence supports the hypothesis that a meteorite impact might have caused the extinction at the end of the Mesozoic?

Question 64

Compare and contrast the various groups of dinosaurs. Provide examples of each group.

Question 65

Were dinosaurs endotherms or ectotherms? Explain lines of evidence that are important to making a determination of warm- or cold-bloodedness.

Question 66

Discuss the mechanisms for flight that some reptiles developed in the Mesozoic.

Question 67

Discuss the origin and development of mammals during the Mesozoic.

Question 68

Compare and contrast land plant communities of the Triassic and Jurassic with those of the Cretaceous.

Question 69

What evidence suggests that dinosaurs were social animals?

Question 70

How do the Mesozoic marine communities differ from those of the Paleozoic?