Paleontology Lecture Notes Review

Flashcards based on lecture notes to help review and prepare for the exam.

What group of people knew what marine life looked like prior to aquariums?

Before the popularity of aquariums, the only people who had any idea what marine life looked like were fishermen.

What types of things are often preserved as impressions in fine sediment?

Scales, skin, and feathers are often preserved as impressions in fine sediment.

What do paleontology and forensic science have in common?

Paleontology and forensic science have the following in common: they both involve reconstructing past events.

How can we determine the behavior of an extinct organism?

One way that we are able to determine the behavior of an extinct organism is by using trace fossils like footprints. For example, there are dinosaur tracts that are able to provide how dinosaurs lived in their environment; this can tell about how they walked and maybe even how they hunted.

What is the key factor that prevents biological destruction of an organism after death?

The key factor that prevents biological destruction of an organism after death is rapid burial.

What is a common theme of Lagerstatten?

A common theme of the Lagerstatten we discussed is that most of them involve anoxic conditions.

What type of organisms are better represented in the thanatocenosis?

Organisms that lived in muddy rather than rocky habitats are better represented in the thanatocenosis.

What advantage does a thanatocenosis have over a biologist studying an ecosystem?

Despite the massive loss of information, a thanatocenosis does have an advantage that a biologist studying an exosystem would not see. a collection of many organisms sampled over a long period of time

A fossil assemblage contains many heavily weathered and abraded vertebrae, toe bones, some teeth, and a few broken pieces of ribs, and there are no complete skeletons or articulated bones. What can you deduce about the transportation of these elements?

This may be a river system, and the bones had been transported a long way, meaning the animals died elsewhere

How does the species richness of a death assemblage compare to that of a life assemblage?

Due to time-averaging, species richness of a death assemblage is greater than that of a life assemblage.

What does a dead organism's body surviving mechanical destruction mostly come down to?

A dead organism's body surviving mechanical destruction mostly comes down to shape, size, and thickness of the bone or shell.

What are Voorhies groups and Behrensmeyer stages used for?

Voorhies groups are used to determine the velocity of a current by what bones are present, and Behrensmeyer stages are used to indicate how much weathering or the bones has taken place befroe it was buried.

What was one of Darwin's greatest insights?

One of Darwin's greatest insights was the realization that populations are variable.

What is the biological species concept?

"A species is members of a population that actually or potentially interbreed in nature" is the definition of the biological species concept.

What might a paleontologist be ignoring if they name a new fossil rhinoceros species because it's smaller and has no facial horns?

If a paleontologist names a new fossil rhinoceros species because it is smaller than a known species and has no facial horns, they are at risk of ignoring heterochrony.

What is an example of reworking?

A fossilized dinosaur bone being eroded from its previous location and then embedded into new sediment which becomes a sedimentary rock much younger than the dinosaur bone itself, is an example of reworking.

If a paleontologist describes a new species of ancient whale and its skull is a little longer and thinner, what might they be ignoring?

A paleontologist describes a new species of ancient whale because its skull is a little longer and thinner than a previously known whale species. They may be most likely ignoring postmortem distortion.

Why might crab, trilobite, and scorpion individuals be overrepresented in paleoecological studies?

Crab, trilobite, and scorpion individuals may be overrepresented in paleoecological studies because they leave behind molts.

Why can't insects become elephant-sized while retaining their proportions and abilities?

Insects cannot become elephant-sized and retain their same proportions and abilities because relative strength of limbs decreases as size increases.

How does an animal's metabolism relate to its size?

As far as metabolism - the bigger the animal, the more efficiently it uses energy.

What is an example of hypermorphosis?

The enlagement of the human brain beyond what our great ape ancestors experience is an example of hypermorphosis.

What causes elkhorn coral to take on different shapes based on water conditions?

Elkhorn coral takes on very different shapes when it is in deeper, calmer water than when it is in shallow, more turbulent water. This is due to ecophenotypic variation.

What is the basic mechanism of evolutionary change?

The formation of new species is the basic mechanism of evolutionary change.

Morphological species concept

species concept of Morphological member of speicies must look similar

Biological species concept

species concept of Biological members of species must be able to interbread

False or True: Large populations experience genetic differentiation, and therefore evolution, much faster than do small populations.

Large populations experience genetic differention, and therefore evolution, much faster than do small populations. - False

Why is it difficult for paleontologists to recognize species? What advantage do paleontologists have over biologists who study modern life?

There are many reasons as to why pelontologists find it difficult to recognize a species because the fossils can be incomplete, fragmented, poorly preserved, or reworked, making it challenging to tell the pieces and may end with identifying it as another species. Additionally, there is a huge lack of biological information as they are not able to observe the behaviors of these animals as they are lone gone. However, paleontologists are able to study evolutionary changes over millions of years and see the patterns of evolution throughout the earth's history. While biologists who study modern life are not able to see most evoultions unless it's within a few generations or they contain short life spans.

What is cladogenesis?

cladogenesis is when an ancestral species divides into two or more descendant species

How was punctuated equilibrium discovered?

Punctuated equilibrium was first discovered by studying the fossil record.

Why was Pachydermata thought to be a natural taxonomic grouping?

Pachydermata was thought to be a natural taxonomic grouping because scientists were probably looking at thick skin and living in Africa instead of skeletal anatomy, evolutionary history.

Why are higher-level rankings in the Linnaean System arbitrary?

In the Linnaean System, higher-level rankings like class and order are pretty arbitrary because "equivalent" rankings aren't actually equivalent, for example some classes contain far greater diversity than others

Which of the following characters is least helpful in discussing the relatedness of birds to other theropod dinosaurs?

egg- laying

In the previous question, the ancestral character you selected is therefore called a , but the other three, helpful characters are known as _.

plesiomorphy ; synapomorphies

Which of the following statements about a cladogram is true?

can work with three or more taxa. no matter how close or distant they are

The group Pachydermata would be considered a __ grouping.

polyphyletic

In order for Reptilia to be a monophyletic group, it must contain __.

birds

One of the simplest and least expensive molecular systematic techniques is _ and can detect the presence of certain proteins.

gel electrophoresis

A scientific name can be derived from any language, but must always be ____.

Latinized

Three different have been named after former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield.

slime mold beetles

What did Lamarck believe about evolution that was (generally) wrong?

philosophers and men of religion

Describe how Charles Lyell influenced Darwin's thinking of natural selection and the origin of species

Darwin was able to influence the geologist Charles Lyell, who was the advocate for the idea of unifortariansm. This concept of geological features was able to shape the earth by a slow and continuous process over a long period of time. This understanding helped influence Darwin by him thinking about how gradual changes over time over small variations in orgabims could accumulate across generations, leading to the evolution of new species through natural selection.

Charles Darwin was worried about publishing his Origin of Species because of the anger that erupted after __.

Robert Chambers wrote Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

What does "fittest" in the phrase "survival of the fittest" actually mean?

Produces the most offspring

Evolution by Natural Selection was accepted by most of the scientific community relatively quickly because:

A. Natural selection had been related to artificial selection (domestication and farming), with which many Europeans were very familiar B.It immediately explained so many of the strange coincidences that anatomists and geologists had been seeing in their work C.both Darwin and Wallace, working independently and with different organisms, independently came up with the same mechanism to explain evolution

Which of the following is NOT true about how evolution works?

A. organisms get better and more complicated over time

Which of the following is the most accurate description of the Theory of Evolution?

C. Traits are selectively passed down through generations and the populations may change over time

Why is there not enough selection against sickle-cell anemia for this hereditary condition to disappear in the human population?

A. because heterozygotes have resistance to malaria which keeps the gene around

Every protein codes for a specific gene and every gene is affected by natural selection. True or False

False

Most of your genes apparently code for

Northing

The establishment of new body plans to form new species is fundamentally different from the processes that control microevolution, a concept called the _ after a scientist who was ahead of his time.

Goldschmidt Break

Rather than being slow and gradual, speciation may be a discontinuous, rapid process caused by small changes in regulatory genes. True or False

True

At the beginning of the Modern Synthesis, all evolution was seen as small-scale phenotypic changes that occur in a few generations by natural selection, now called __.

microevolution

through studying the fossil record which represents vast amounts of time, large-scale changes were seen at the species level, now called __.

macroevolution

A mass extinction can best be described as

when many species from many different groups of plants and animals die out in a geologically short period of time

At the end of the Ordovician…

Sea level dropped, and habitat loss occurred in the shallow sea

What was a major cause of marine extinctions during the End-Devonian event?

Increased runoff into oceans leading to low-oxygen conditions

The Permian mass extinction was largely caused by

huge shifts in climate from the burning of fossil fuels

The formation of Pangea likely assisted with the Permian extinction by: (choose TWO)

B. causing the interior of this huge continent to dry out, creating deserts C. preventing the flow of seawater from the poles to the equator

Which of the following groups of animals did NOT go extinct at the end of the Permian?

A. Diapsid reptiles

Mass extinctions likely helped the early evolution of the dinosaurs by

D. All of these are correct

What is NOT a likely cause of the end-Cretaceous extinction event?

D. global warming

What else died out along with the (non-avian) dinosaurs 65 million years ago?

B. all of these answers are correct

The best-supported hypothesis for why many megafauna, such as mammoths, went extinct in the Pleistocene is

a combination of climate and hunting by humans

The are major success stories for the Endangered Spcies Act, enacted in 1973, and made us first realize that if we work to save endangered species, we can.

American Alligator and Bald Eagle

The idea that morphology can be mapped in a systematic way and quantified results in a kind of map called a _.

morphospace

It is common in the fossil record that occcurs well before .

high disparity; high diversity

Ideas used to explain facts with no attempt to test them to see if they are actually true are called "

just so" stories

___ is an method that breaks down complicated variables into a few simple, measureable ones that can be compared geometrically, and is often uses to evaluate morphospaces.

Principal Component Analysis

An issue with the adaptive landscape model of evolution is that

it assumes that optimal adaptation is constantly affecting an organisms's genes

What would be a good explanation for why humans cannot evolve wings out of their backs, like angels?

we are limited by our ancestry, which has only 4 limbs

Cats with white fur and blue eyes are also likely to be deaf, and also, most calico cats are female. These are both examples of where otherwise independent features can be linked genetically, called .

pleiotropy

Which of the following statements about functional design is false?

B. every feature has selective pressure acting upon it

When doing research with pterosaurs in the 1990s, Kevin Padian and Jeremy Rayner determined that __.

large pterosaurs could fly much like gulls or albatrosses rather than like bats

The strongest evidence that saber-teeth in large cat-like predators wasn't just an example of "runaway" evolution, is that

saber-teeth evolved independendtly among 4 different groups of mammals

Oceanic life mode associated to passive floaters, like jelly fish and microfossils

planktonic passive floaters, like jelly fish and microfossils

Oceanic life mode associated to Burrowers in the sediment, such as clams or worms

Infaunal Burrowers in the sediment, such as clams or worms

live direcetly on the seafloor, like trilobites and crinoids is associated to

Epifaunal live direcetly on the seafloor, like trilobites and crinoids

active swimmers, such as whales and fish is associated to

Nektonic active swimmers, such as whales and fish

Generally live on or in the ocean floor (conatins 2 groups) is associated to

Benthic Generally live on or in the ocean floor (conatins 2 groups)

Generally live above the ocean seafloor ( contains 2 groups)

Pelagic Generally live above the ocean seafloor ( contains 2 groups)

The feeding relationships between organisms is known as the ___.

trophic structure

The sum of all the physical, chemical, and biological limits on the organism, its way of life, and the role it plays in the ecosystem is called the ___.

niche

The most important environmental limiting factor in both marine and terrestrial realms is _.

Temperature

___ are restricted to a warm tropical belt of ocean water between 25 degrees N and S of the equator.

Coral reefs

Animals in _ tend to grow slowly, breed much later, live longer, and get much larger than animals in _.

colder regions; warmer regions

Bottom conditions that are may be devoid of animal life, and produce black shales and pyrite in these extreme reducing conditions.

anoxic or anaerobic

Vary large fluctuations in salinity can occur in _.

brackish regions, like estuaries and lagoons

The most important effect on marine ecosystems that is influenced by water depth is ___.

light penetration

Calcareous organisms cannot be preserved below the ___ in the oceans.

carbonate compensation depth

Usually in the oceans, coarser sediment grains indicate and fine sediment grains indicate _.

shallower water; deeper water

Paleoclimatologists and paleoceanographers primarily use _ for determining ancient ocean temperatures.

oxygen isotopes

What is the best explanation for why it is difficult to find examples of competition in the fossil record?

A. rocks show time scales that are just too big

Biogeography was a powerful line of evidence for __.

both continental drift and evolution

A significant biological transition between Asiatic species and Australian species found in the Indo-Pacific islands is called __, and helped this man to understand the origins of species on these islands.

Wallace's Line

Modern plant biomes are divided from one another based primarily upon _.

latitude

The major of the world tend to occur at , and the major of the world tend to occur at .

rainforests/equator, deserts/30 degrees N and S latitude

Scotland has the same trilobites as Canada and Greenland, while England has the same trilobites as Europe and Africa, but now Scotland and England are attached together. This is an example of a __.

beached viking funeral ship

When one Hawaiian island sinks and a new one has formed, the Hawaiian birds can move to the new island through a process called ___.

escalator hopscotch

The enigmatic fact that the highest diversity of organisms is found in the tropics and declines toward higher latitudes is called the ___.

latitudinal diversity gradient

The __ the geographic area, the greater the diversity of life.

larger