Evolution (Level 5)

Question 1

How did the Earth form over 4.6 billion years ago?

Answer 1

Out of a mixture of dust and gas around the young sun.

Question 2

What were the earliest life forms we know of that left signals of their presence in rocks about 3.7 billion years old?

Answer 2

Microscopic organisms (microbes)

Question 3

How long ago did the first known single-celled organisms appear on Earth?

Answer 3

About 3.5 billion years ago- roughly a billion years after Earth formed.

Question 4

What forms of life took longer to evolve than the first known single-celled organisms?

Answer 4

More complex forms of life.

Question 5

When did the first multicellular organisms appear on Earth?

Answer 5

Not until about 600 million years ago.

Question 6

How long ago did eukaryotes develop?

Answer 6

At least 2.7 billion years ago, following some 1 to 1.5 billion years of prokaryotic evolution.

Question 7

How long ago did archaic Homo sapiens evolve?

Answer 7

About 300,000 years ago.

Question 8

How long ago did modern Homo sapiens evolve?

Answer 8

Approximately 160,000 years ago.

Question 9

During which period did the first fossil arthropods appear?

Answer 9

During the Cambrian period (541 to 485.4 million years ago).

Question 10

What are represented by trilobites, merostomes, and crustaceans?

Answer 10

The first fossil arthropods.

Question 11

What were present as well as trilobites, merostomes, and crustaceans during the Cambrian period?

Answer 11

Some enigmatic arthropods that do not seem to fit into any of the existing subphyla.

Question 12

When did the first fish appear, before undergoing a long period of evolution so that, today, they are by far the most diverse group of vertebrates?

Answer 12

Around 530 million years ago.

Question 13

When have researchers found land plants to have evolved on Earth?

Answer 13

About 700 million years ago.

Question 14

When have researchers found land fungi to have evolved on Earth?

Answer 14

Around 1,300 million years ago.

Question 15

Which research estimates have been found to be much earlier than previous estimates of around 480 million years ago, which were based on the earliest fossils of said organisms?

Answer 15

The research estimates of land plants having evolved on Earth about 700 million years ago, and land fungi having evolved around 1,300 million years ago.

Question 16

By when did tree-like (“arborescent”) plants appear in the fossil record, rising to dominance through the Carboniferous period (360 - 300 million years ago)?

Answer 16

By the mid-Devonian period.

Question 17

Throughout which period did the first major groups of amphibians develop?

Answer 17

Throughout the Devonian period, around 370 million years ago.

Question 18

From what did the first major groups of amphibians develop?

Answer 18

From lobe-finned fish which were similar to the modern coelacanth and lungfish.

Question 19

How long ago did the first amniotes appear?

Answer 19

About 350 million years ago.

Question 20

From what did the earliest reptiles evolve about 315 million years ago?

Answer 20

From a sauropsida ancestor.

Question 21

What are dinosaurs?

Answer 21

A diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria.

Question 22

During which period did dinosaurs first appear, despite the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs being a subject of active research?

Answer 22

During the Triassic period (between 243 and 233.23 million years ago).

Question 23

During which period were mammals derived from members of the reptilian order Therapsida?

Answer 23

In the Triassic period (about 252 million to 201 million years ago).

Question 24

Which huge and often terrifying new life forms took the ascendancy several hundred million years ago?

Answer 24

Pterosaurs, or flying dinosaurs.

Question 25

Which massive creatures had wings of skin, stretched between one enormously elongated finger and their flanks?

Answer 25

Pterosaurs, or flying dinosaurs.