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GEOL 102 Final Exam Review

Lecture 13 – Paleozoic Life

  1. What do we call the large diversification of life that began during the Phanerozoic Eon?
    Cambrian Explosion

  2. What is a Lagerstatten?
    A site with exceptionally preserved fossils, sometimes including soft tissues.

  3. Why was the Burgess Shale important?
    It preserved soft-bodied organisms from the Cambrian.

  4. What were the top predators of the following periods?

  • Cambrian: Anomalocaris

  • Ordovician: Nautiloids, Sea Stars

  • Silurian: Eurypterid

  • Devonian: Dunkleosteus

  1. What group of fish gave rise to humans?
    Lobe-finned fish

  2. What was the ‘Missing Link’ between fish and land vertebrates?
    Tiktaalik

  3. What is an amniote?
    An animal whose eggs are laid on land or retained within the mother, not dependent on water for reproduction.

  4. What was the Late Devonian Mass Extinction?
    A major extinction event around 375 million years ago, possibly linked to climate change and loss of reef habitats.

Lecture 14 – Mesozoic Geology

  1. What are the periods of the Mesozoic Era?
    Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous

  2. What is an erg?
    A large desert region of wind-blown sand dunes.

  3. What is CAMP?
    Central Atlantic Magmatic Province – a large volcanic event linked to the Triassic–Jurassic extinction.

  4. What was the Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway?
    A shallow sea that split North America during the Cretaceous.

Lecture 15 – Mesozoic Life

  1. What was the general nickname for the Mesozoic?
    Age of Dinosaurs

  2. What were some marine reptiles of the Mesozoic?
    Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs

  3. What was Archaeopteryx?
    An early bird with both reptilian and avian features.

  4. What caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene (KPg) extinction?
    Likely asteroid impact (Chicxulub) and volcanic activity.

Lecture 16 & 17 – Cenozoic Geology & Life

  1. What is the nickname for the Cenozoic Era?
    Age of Mammals

  2. What happened to climate during the Cenozoic?
    Overall cooling trend, with glaciations in later epochs.

  3. What was GABI?
    Great American Biotic Interchange – exchange of species between North and South America via the Isthmus of Panama.

  4. What were the large land mammals of the Cenozoic?
    Indricotherium, mammoths, mastodons

  5. What was Megalodon?
    A giant extinct shark.

  6. What was the Bering Land Bridge?
    Land connection between Asia and North America during ice ages.

Past Quizzes

1. What do we call the group of animals which bear their young in an egg that is independent of water?

Amniotes

2. What do we call the large diversification of life that began during the Phanerozoic Eon?

Cambrian Explosion

3. What was the top predator(s) of the following periods?

Cambrian: Anomalocaris

Ordovician: Nautiloids, Sea Stars

Silurian: Eurypterid

Devonian: Dunkleosteus

4. What group of fish gave rise to humans?

Lobe-finned fish

5. What was the largest extinction event ever?

Permian-Triassic; P-Tr; P-T; or The Great Dying

6. What is the general name for Western N. America region of mountain building and exotic terranes?

Cordillera

7. The “Keystone Thrust” fault in Red Rock (Las Vegas, NV) is an example of thin-skinned

faulting caused by what western orogeny?

Sevier Orogeny

8. What was the organism that deposited chalk on the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous Period?

Coccolithophores

9. What do we call the failed rift arm of a triple junction spreading zone?

Aulacogen

10. What were the two sequences that occurred during the Mesozoic Era?

Triassic-Jurassic: Absaroka

Jurassic-Cretaceous: Zuni

11. What do we call the chamber walls of ammonites?

Septa

12. What do we call the more advanced group of ray-finned fish that evolved in the Cretaceous?

Teolost

13. What were the three dragons of the sea discussed yesterday in class?

Plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs

14. What group of diapsids include crocodiles, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs?

Archosaurs or Archosauria

15. What was the two groups of dinosaurs that are organized by the their pubic bone?

Ornithischians (Bird Hipped) and Saurischians (Lizard-Hipped)

16. What west coast orogeny began in the Cretaceous and continues into the Cenozoic?

Laramide

17. What type of desert exists east of the Sierra Mountains or north of the Himalayan

Mountains?

Rain Shadow

18. What period was the last Ice Age?

Quaternary

19. What period did the San Andreas Transform plate boundary become fully established?

Neogene

20. What was the only sequence that occurred during the Cenozoic Era?

Tejas

21. What are the large rocks (some the size of a house) moved by continental glaciers called?

Erratics

22. What is the name of the land bridge that united Asia and North America during the last ice age?

Bering

23. What is the largest animal that ever existed?

Blue whale

24. What is the largest land mammal that ever existed?

Indricotherium

25. What plant drove the evolution of many Cenozoic mammals (e.g., horses, humans)?

Grasses