Deck 8: Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature

Question 1

Which of the following would NOT be an ideal environment for fossilization?

A) mud (as in a swamp)
B) acidic soil (as in a jungle)
C) sand
D) rock

Answer 1

acidic soil (as in a jungle)

Question 2

The continent that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents ultimately emerged, is called

A) Eurasia.
B) Afrinesia.
C) Australasia.
D) Pangaea.

Answer 2

Pangaea.

Question 3

Taphonomy is the study of

A) human cultural remains.
B) human genetics.
C) the processes that affect an organism's remains after death.
D) the processes that affect a living organism through life.

Answer 3

the processes that affect an organism's remains after death.

Question 4

Crucial to creating a fossil record of a species is

A) a living form of the fossil species.
B) a good representation in the fossil record.
C) the preservation of soft tissue such as muscle.
D) the lack of dating; knowing the age of the fossil introduces biases.

Question 5

The study of fossils is called

A) phylogeny.
B) biology.
C) chronometry.
D) paleontology.

Question 6

The three eras that make up Earth history are

A) strata, stratigraphy, and striations.
B) Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene.
C) Early, Middle, and Upper Miocene.
D) Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.

Question 7

Earth's age is ________ billion years, and life on Earth began about ________ billion years ago.

A) 4.6; 3.5
B) 3.4; 2.5
C) 7; 5.2
D) 12; 3.6

Question 8

Which era saw the proliferation of mammals?

A) Holocene
B) Cenozoic
C) Jurassic
D) Mesozoic

Question 9

A stratigraphic layer in one location overwhelmingly represents one species, while the same species is discovered in a similar stratigraphic layer hundreds of kilometers away.What method is used to provide an estimate of age for this layer and this species?

A) biostratigraphic dating
B) dendrochronologic dating
C) Steno's law of superposition
D) carbon 14 dating

Question 10

Igneous rock can be dated with which of the following methods?

A) radiopotassium dating
B) dendrochronology
C) radiocarbon dating
D) fluorine dating

Question 11

Most of the early hominin fossils discovered in Africa come from the eastern and southern parts of the continent.Why is this?

A) Hominin groups lived in these areas and nowhere else.
B) Only these areas were conducive to sustaining life.
C) These areas provided better preservation.
D) Many villagers in these areas gather fossils to sell.

Question 12

The study of what happens to an organism's remains after death is

A) archaeology.
B) cryptozoology.
C) forensic biology.
D) taphonomy.

Question 13

An index fossil, such as the Irish Elk, is

A) the original set of fossil remains used to describe a species when it is first found.
B) a fossil with a strong stable isotope signature that can be used to calibrate the local vegetation cover.
C) the fossil remains of a species that existed during a well-established time period, to use in biostratigraphic dating.
D) the fossil of a species amenable to radiometric, and thus absolute, dating.

Question 14

Eras are

A) divisions in geologic time divided into periods and epochs.
B) any time periods in the past.
C) divisions of time based on cultural standards, as in "Stone Age."
D) the time frames during which a certain fossil species existed.

Question 15

To reconstruct and interpret evolutionary changes, it is crucial to place each fossil in time.This is called a(n)

A) chronological sequence.
B) era.
C) period.
D) phylogeny.

Question 16

If fossil species A is consistently recovered from geological deposits beneath layers containing fossil species B, then A is considered to be older than B.This relative dating technique is based on the principle of

A) superposition.
B) paleomagnetism.
C) fluorine analysis.
D) geolayering.

Question 17

Experts reconstruct the appearance of early hominids during life using which method?

A) They take molds of trace fossils of the faces of hominids who died facedown in mud.
B) They use computer-generated graphics that convert an organism's ancient DNA into a hologram.
C) Using known relationships between bone and tissue in living animals, layers of clay are built up until finally we can see the ancient face staring at us.
D) So-called artists' reconstructions are entirely fabricated ideas, but they serve to bring the past to life.

Question 18

The English surveyor who developed the technique of stratigraphic correlation between regions was

A) William Smith.
B) Charles Lyell.
C) Alfred Wallace.
D) Richard Owen.

Question 19

What is the basic difference between relative and absolute dating?

A) the use of species
B) the use of bones and teeth
C) the use of years to express age
D) the use of wood

Question 20

Which of the following sedimentary environments is MOST likely to destroy bone and thus contain few if any fossils?

A) a limestone cave filling rapidly with sediment in a semiarid region
B) acidic sediment with plenty of groundwater
C) slowly accumulating sediment so bones remain on the surface for a long time
D) rapidly deposited neutral (not acidic or basic) sediment such as in a rift valley

Question 21

Cultural dating can be used to date

A) ceramics.
B) bones and teeth.
C) shells.
D) trilobite evolution.

Question 22

Analysis of stable carbon isotopes in ________ can provide information on ancient diet.

A) shell
B) cloth
C) bones and teeth
D) wood

Question 23

Which dating method would be MOST appropriate for establishing the age of a volcanic ash layer from an early hominid site in eastern Africa?

A) carbon 14 dating
B) amino acid dating
C) potassium-argon dating
D) electron spin resonance dating

Question 24

Stratigraphic correlation is

A) matching strata by chemical composition and color from several sites across distances.
B) correlating stratigraphic markers in one location.
C) matching stratigraphy from known sites only.
D) dating through the use of a chronometric method.

Question 25

An index fossil is

A) a fossil found in a particular site.
B) the ideal specimen of that species to which all later descriptions must refer.
C) a fossil used to categorize a stratigraphic layer.
D) the type specimen of a species.

Question 26

Some of the best information on climate history over the last several million years is based on the study of

A) amino acids.
B) foraminifera.
C) radioisotopes.
D) dendrochronology.

Question 27

Based on the molecular clock, geneticists believe the split between chimps and hominins occurred ________ mya.

A) 10-12
B) 8-10
C) 6-8
D) 4-6

Question 28

A mummy is discovered whose tomb includes cloth, food, and other organic remains.What dating method would MOST likely be used to date the tomb?

A) biostratigraphy
B) carbon 14
C) dendrochronology
D) electron spin resonance

Question 29

Paleontologists find a fossil ape with long arms.What type of environment can they infer it inhabited?

A) savanna
B) woodland
C) grassland
D) swamp

Question 30

Paleosols and fauna in the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia show that the earliest hominins lived in ________ settings.

A) wooded
B) unwooded grassland
C) marshy
D) desert

Question 31

A hearth is discovered with bone fragments in it.What method might be used to date the bone?

A) dendrochronology
B) electron spin resonance
C) fission track
D) amino acid

Question 32

The molecular clock has been useful to determine the phylogenetic relationships of species based on the assumption that

A) a species lineage accumulates genetic differences over time at a constant rate.
B) only some species are genetically related.
C) DNA is preserved unchanged over long periods of time.
D) species adapt at specific rates.

Question 33

Coinciding with the appearance of early hominins about 5-10 mya, the climate was

A) increasingly wet and rainy.
B) increasingly hot and humid.
C) increasingly dry and seasonal.
D) less temperate.

Question 34

During the Holocene, artifacts like ________ began to appear.

A) bones and teeth
B) ceramics
C) shells
D) wooden objects

Question 35

In the 1600s, Nicolaus Steno proposed

A) the principle of uniformitarianism.
B) taphonomy.
C) the law of stratigraphy.
D) the law of superposition.

Question 36

For dating hominin fossils that go back four million years, what dating methods might be used?

A) electron spin resonance
B) thermoluminescence
C) amino acid method
D) both electron spin resonance and thermoluminescence

Question 37

What is the MOST important variable in reconstructing ancient climate?

A) weather
B) sea levels
C) temperature estimated using any of several methods
D) isotope ratios

Question 38

Fluorine dating is an example of what type of dating method?

A) chronometric
B) nonrelative
C) chemical
D) genetic

Question 39

A wooden tomb is discovered with a well-preserved mummy inside.Which of the following methods could be used to date the tomb MOST accurately?

A) superposition
B) electron spin resonance
C) thermoluminescence
D) dendrochronology

Question 40

Scientists can determine the type of plant consumed based on

A) carbon 14.
B) radioisotopes.
C) index fossils.
D) carbon 13 and carbon 12.

Question 41

Electron spin resonance dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?

A) wood
B) shell
C) teeth
D) soft tissue such as muscle

Question 42

Thermoluminescence dating can provide dates when used on which types of materials?

A) sediment, stone, and ceramics
B) bone, wood, and stone
C) bone, shell, and fabric
D) shell, ceramics, and wood

Question 43

The time it takes for 50% of an unstable isotope to decay to a stable form is called the

A) semichron.
B) middlemorph.
C) demidose.
D) half-life.

Question 44

Studies of temperatures during the Cenozoic era suggest that temperatures have ________ over time.

A) steadily increased
B) steadily decreased
C) fluctuated, sometimes greatly,
D) stayed basically the same

Question 45

How has the study of ancient primates and human ancestors changed over time, with respect to phylogeny and reconstruction of ancient habitats? Why did this change occur? Give an example of the understanding of the past that has been improved as scholarship itself evolved.

Question 46

Differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques, giving one example of each.

Question 47

During crucial periods of human evolution, the Pleistocene was characterized by

A) massive glaciation, then warm interglacials.
B) high humidity.
C) aridity, then humidity.
D) glaciation, then aridity.

Question 48

How does Steno's law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods?

Question 49

Fission track dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?

A) sedimentary rock
B) shell
C) bone
D) igneous rock

Question 50

How do dating methods support the theory of natural selection and biological evolution?

Question 51

At a site in the American Southwest, you find only a single ceramic pot in association with an individual within a burial.You can use the pot to date the burial based on

A) biostratigraphic dating, because there may be animal remains inside the pot.
B) cultural dating, since the pot must be specific to a known culture and time period.
C) radiopotassium dating of the material used to make the pot.
D) fission track dating of the pot itself.