Geology 2150: Age of the Dinosaurs Exam 1

A fossil that is particularly useful for correlation (i.e., telling time) because its is common, widespread, easily identified, and has a well constrained time when it lived

Index Fossil

True or False: Color is such a delicate characteristic the no fossil evidence exists concerning the color of dinosaurs or their contemporaries.

True, details of appearance (i.e. color) is one of the first to go

Define: sedimentary facies

Characteristics that distinguish a group of sedimentary rocks from other sedimentary rocks deposited in a different depositional environments

Geologic data shows dinosaurs reproduced by

Laying eggs

Fluvial refers to

Channels, rivers, or streams

When was Sue (the fossil of T.Rex) found?

1990

The super-continent of Pangaea existed

at the beginning of the age of the dinosaurs (beginning of Mesozoic)

When organic remains are converted to fossils...

the composition of original material may be changed, lost, or deformed

The bone wars (the competition between Cope and Marsh) resulted in...

A) proof that dinosaurs had lived on Antarctica near the south pole

B) the description many (more than 100) dinosaur taxa

C) many mistakes and destroyed specimens

D) all of the above

E) B and C only

E) B and C only

In movies made between 1925-1960 dinosaurs are typically depicted as...

A) agile and aggressive predators

B) large, dangerous, and stupid beasts

C) exclusively quadrupedal organisms

D) all of the above

E) none of the above

D) all of the above

Who was the late 19th-early 20th century artist who drew many museum murals including tail dragging T. Rex attacking Triceratops?

Charles R. Knight

Which of the following has the lowest preservation potential?

-muscle

-scales

-claws

-teeth

-bone

Muscle

READ CAREFULLY: Two atoms with a different number of neutrons and a different number of protons are called?

Atoms of different elements

The scientific panel that determines which hypotheses becomes theories and which theories become laws (and also demotes discredited ideas) meets annually in...?

No such panel exists

Radioactive isotope "green" decays to a stable daughter product "white" with a half life of 50 million years. Imagine that when a certain igneous mineral formed it contained "green" but no "white." If the ratio is now 1 part "green" for every 7 parts "white," (i.e, ratio =1:7), how old is the mineral?

150 million years old

In the same rock, there is a different parent:daughter system where the ratio of parent to daughter is 1:3. Using your answer for age above, determine the half life of this second system?

50 million years old

The first dinosaurs described scientifically were found in _______ during the ________.

England, 1820's

What were the oldest, middle, and youngest parts of the Mesozoic Periods?

Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous

What is a half-life?

the time taken for the radioactivity of a specified isotope to fall to half its original value.

What basic rock type is best for preserving fossils?

Sedimentary

Which basic rock type is best for measuring radiometric dates?

Igneous

Define: Original Horizontality

Sedimentary rocks which are originally laid down in horizontal layers that continue laterally until they run into a discontinuity, grade into something else, or pinch out.

Who is Nicolas Steno?

A physician and saint who was the first to articulate the first three principles of stratigraphy: Original Horizontality, Superposition, and Cross Cutting Relationships.

When trying to tell what rock layer is oldest, this stratigraphic principle is the principle that most directly supports the conclusion.

Superposition

Who was the first person to really discover fossils?

Mary Ann Mantell

What was the first complete dinosaur fossil?

Hadrosaurus Foulkii in New Jersey in 1858

What elements need to be taken into consideration when looking at rocks in respects to fossils?

Age, region, depositional environment, and taphonomy

What expedition helped to find the discovery of dinosaur eggs?

The Gobi Expeditions

Bob Bakker believed that virtually all dinosaurs were what?

Active/warm-blooded

What is the difference between a body fossil and a trace fossil?

A body fossil is the physical remains of an organism (such as bones, teeth, or tissue) while a trace fossil is remains that weren't part of the living organism (like tracks, excrement, and feeding traces)

What are the 3 basic rock types?

Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic

Why has the representation of dinosaurs changed over time?

The representation of dinosaurs has changed over time due to the fact that at we did not know as much as we do now then. Everything is subject to change when new information is found.

What was the first fossil to be recorded?

An Iguanadon

Define Taphonomy

The study of what happens between death and fossil

What are the steps in taphonomy typically?

life assemblage, death assemblage, fossil, collect specimen (these steps can be skipped or repeated)

What are the 4 principles of stratigraphy?

1) original horizontality and lateral continuity

2) superposition

3) cross cutting relationships

4) faunal succession/biostratigraphy

Describe cross cutting relationships

Features that cut across other layers that and are younger than the layers they cut, usually igneous rock

What is faunal succession?

Fossils can be used to identify the relative age of the layers of a rock formation based on the knowledge of the fossils. (If you know when fossils lived, you know when the rocks were young)

What are the periods of the Phanerozoic eon? (Oldest to youngest)

Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleogene, Neogene, Quarernary

How long does the Mesozoic last?

185 Million Years

What was the climate of the Triassic period?

Dry and hot

What was the climate of the Jurassic period?

Dry and warm

What was the climate of Cretaceous period?

wet and hot to warm

How old is the Earth estimated to be?

4.6 billion years old

What types of fish continued on in evolution?

Placoderms, Acanthodians, Chondrichthyans, and Osteichthyes

Which fish are extinct?

-Placoderms

-Acanthodians

-Chondrichthyans

-Osteichthyes

Placoderms and Acanthodians

Which fish are extant?

-Placoderms

-Acanthodians

-Chondrichthyans

-Osteichthyes

Chondrichthyans and Osteichthyes

What is a cladogram?

a branching diagram that group organisms based on how they share derived characters

Why would animals come out of water?

more food sources, avoid predation, or the current water is inhabitable

What are challenges to animals coming out of water?

breathing, desiccation (drying out), supporting body weight, and reproduction

What is the evolution of lobe-finned fishes to amphibians to amniotes?

Support/locomotion: minimal - legs - legs and tight spine

Respiration: gulp air - lungs as an adult - lungs

Avoid Drying Out: minimal - mostly minimal - keratinized skin

Reproduction: tied to water - tied to water- free from water

What two men were involved in the Bone Wars and when did the wars go on?

Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope during the 1870's-1890's

Who coined the term "dinosauria"?

Sir Richard Owen