Final Exam

Question 1

When did Pangaea begin to break up?

Answer 1

Triassic.

Question 2

What types of deposits are preserved along the East Coast of North America associated with the early stages of formation of the Atlantic Ocean?

Answer 2

Basalts in the form of the Pallisades Sill.

Question 3

What two major orogenies occurred in the Triassic on the western margins of North and South America?

Answer 3

South America- Andes Orogeny

North America- Sonoma Orogeny

Question 4

What type of ammonoid was dominant in the Triassic?

Answer 4

Ceratites.

Question 5

What do we know about the feeding habits of Placodonts? How do we know this?

Answer 5

They had blunt tooth shell crushers and we know this becuase of Budodont teeth.

Question 6

What are the two main groups of Dinosaurs? What is used to differentiate between the groups?

Answer 6

Bird hipped- Ornithischians

Lizard hipped- Sauriscians

Question 7

What are the major Sloss sea level sequences and when did they occur?

Answer 7

Sauk: Late Precambrian- Early Ordovician
Tippecanoe: Early Ordovician- Early Devonian
Kaskaskia: Mid Devonian- Miss/Penn Boundary
Absaroka: Miss/Penn Boundary- Jurassic
Zuni: Jurassic- Early Tertiary
Tejas: Early Tertiary- Today

Question 8

What evidence is there for aridity during the early Jurassic in North America?

Answer 8

Sand dunes and deserts that make up the Navajo Sandstone.

Question 9

What is special about Archaeopteryx?

Answer 9

It is the missing link between reptiles and birds.

Question 10

From which major group of Dinosaurs did Birds evolve?

Answer 10

Sauriscian.

Question 11

What are gastroliths?

Answer 11

It’s a stone that’s swallowed by dinosaurs that grinds up whatever they ate.

Question 12

When were Ichthyosaurs dominant?

Answer 12

Lower Mesozoic.

Question 13

What type of animals built large reefs during the Cretaceous? (this animal normally doesn’t build reefs)

Answer 13

Rudists (a type of clam).

Question 14

Know the styles and dates of the major orogenies that affected North America in the Phanerozoic.

Answer 14

Taconic- Ordovician- East Coast- Peripheral.
Acadian- Devonian- East Coast- Retroarc.
Alleghenian- Pennsylvanian- East Coast- Retroarc.
Antler- Devonian- West Coast- Peripheral.
Sonomian- Triassic- West Coast- Retroarc.
Nevadan- Jurassic- West Coast- Retroarc.
Subir- Jurassic- West Coast- Retroarc.
Laramide- Cretaceous- West Coast- Retroarc.

Question 15

When did the largest turtles live? When did the largest flying animals ever live?

Answer 15

Largest turtles lived in the Mesozoic and the largest flying animals lived in the Mesozoic as well.

Question 16

When did the major flowering plant (angiosperm) radiation take place?

Answer 16

Mesozoic (Cretaceous).

Question 17

List at least four lines of evidence for a major collision of an extra terrestrial body with the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous.

Answer 17

• Impact Crater
• High concentration of Iridium
• Shocked quartz
• Nuclear winter

Question 18

What element is found in great abundance at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary? How does this element support the theory of an extra terrestrial impact?

Answer 18

Iridium is found in abundance in extra terrestrial bodies and not on the earth. Iridium is found in high concentration in the sedimentary record during this time.

Question 19

What major groups went extinct at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary?

Answer 19

Dinosaurs, marine and flying reptiles, Ammonites, and Rudists.

Question 20

What evidence is there for a warm early Paleogene?

Answer 20

Abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios in planktonic and benthic organisms. Change in number of Stomata on leaves also helped prove this.

Question 21

What happened at 36mya in the area that is now Chesapeake Bay? What evidence do we have for this?

Answer 21

An asteroid impact created the Chesapeake Bay. The impact crater it left behind and shocked quartz helped prove this.

Question 22

What two major morphological trends do we see occurring over the evolutionary lineage of horses?

Answer 22

Originally horses had separated toes, but they morphed into a single hoof. They also grew in size starting at the size of a dog.

Question 23

When did the largest sharks ever live?

Answer 23

Paleogene.

Question 24

What evidence do we have for cooling at the end of the Eocene?

Answer 24

Ice began to reappear at the poles and the Antarctic Ice Sheet began to rapidly expand.

Question 25

What types of animals replaced raptorial dinosaurs as one of the top land predators in the Paleogene?

Answer 25

Giant flightless birds.

Question 26

When did the uplift of the Colorado Plateau occur? What type of tectonic activity was associated with this uplift?

Answer 26

Late Cenozoic. Normal block faulting caused the formation of basin and range provinces (ex: Death Valley).

Question 27

What was the Great American Interchange?

Answer 27

When North and South America were connected, species interacted and often killed each other off. Most Marsupials in South America were wiped out.

Question 28

What major factors lead to the build-up of glaciers in Antarctica?

Answer 28

Warm water was unable to reach Antarctica due to disruption of flow because of glaciation in Northern hemisphere.

Question 29

What are the 6 lines of evidence for major glaciation at the end of the Neogene?

Answer 29

1) Erratic boulders
2) Depression of land surface
3) Till everywhere
4) Glacial striations
5) Lowering of sea levels
6) Migration of species

Question 30

How does the modern day distribution of Gorillas in Africa support climate change during the late Neogene?

Answer 30

Gorillas migrated due to extreme weather (drying of habitable areas). Today they are found in the same areas they migrated to.

Question 31

What are Prairie Potholes?

Answer 31

Depressions formed from buried blocks of ice.

Question 32

What are the two hypotheses for the mega-faunal extinction during the Holocene?

Answer 32

Climate change and predation by humans.

Question 33

Why do we think the extinction of the Pleistocene/Holocene megafauna was NOT a mass extinction?

Answer 33

Only 43% of mammals went extinct and it was over a long period of time.