Geology Practice Questions

Where is the vestigal structure on the whale

C

Why is mutation important for the history of life

Mutation leads to new traits and thus fosters evolution over short time periods

How are the DNA sequences suppose to be aligned

Joan, Silvia, Walter, Fred

Are butterfly wings and bird wings homologous

no they are analogus, adapted for similar environments not sharing a similar ancestor

Are bird wings and bat wings homologus or analogus

They are analogus in terms of flight and homologus in terms of the limb itself (one bone, two bone, many bones)

Currently what is the oldest evidence for animals, what kind of fossil

Chemical Fossil

What is a proxy in science

in science, something measurable that stands in for something not measurable

What is a heterotroph

Needs to eat food

What does intrinsic mean in the context of the Cambrian explosion and which is a good example

Something internal to the organism like the evolution of the gene regulatory networks

What is the case that birds are dinosaurs

1. Reduced Fibulas, Half Moon Wrists, Feathers, wishbones

What is the signifcant Deinonychus wrist bone

It would ultimately allow for flight in birds

What does fenestra mean

Hole

Other than fins/limbs, what other prominent feature that would be important for life on land seen in somewhat developed Tiktaalik and even more developed in true 'tetrapods

Neck, Flat Head, Ribs, None of the Above

What is the definition of biologic evolution

Descent with modification via natural selection

__ is the manifestation of your genetic code (e.g. what you look like)

phenotype

__ is defined as similar characters from a common ancestor that also has that character

Homology

What of the following statements is true regarding a bird wing and a bat wing

They are analogus as wings but homologus as bony limbs

True or False: The eye is simply too complex to have evolved

False, evolution of the eye from a simple photoreceptor spot to the complex eye has happened in multiple clades multiple times

About how old are the oldest macrofossils (fossible visible to the naked eye) of multicellular life

1 Ga (one billion year old)

Modern birds are ornithischian dinosaurs (bird-hipped dinosaurs)

false

The primary way to tell apart orinithschian and saurischian dinosaurs is through the presence of two postorbital fenestrare in saurischian dinosaurs.

false

Which of these traits are shared specifically among therpod dinosaurs and not within orthischian dinosaurs

Wishbone, Thin-Walled Bones

Therapsids a group synapsid stem-mammals that lived from the permian through the Triassic, are characterized by having which feature

Secondary Palate

Synapsids do not have differentiated teeth

False

Is it plausible to stop a meteor with nuclear bombs

No

Which answer best describes these graphs

Both show extinction rate through time but one is at the family level the other the generic level

Assuming the d180 of the ocean is 0 per mil if you measure the d180 of a shell as -1 per mil what was the temperature of the water when the shell grew

Approx 30 degrees

What is the order that is most important for moving from water to land

1. Protection against drying out

2. Gas Exchange

3. Maintaining support for buoyancy

4. Reproduction

Do Gymnosperms constitue a clade

No