FINALS - Day 1 - Historical Geology Flashcards
The first extinction was dated back to how many million years ago?
440 MYA
The first extinction was also referred to as _________.
Ordovician-Silurian Extinction
During the Ordovician-Silurian Extinction, which organisms died out?
small marine invertebrates including species of brachiopods, trilobites, bivalves, and corals
Which extinction occurred 365 MYA?
Devonian Extinction
During this extinction, tropical marine species were most impacted. Which specific species went extinct during this extinction?
jawless fish, brachiopods, ammonites, and trilobites
Which extinction event is dubbed as the largest mass extinction event in Earth’s history that affected a wide range of species, including vertebrates?
Permian-Triassic Extinction
The Permian-Triassic Extinction took place _____ MYA.
250 MYA
This extinction event happened 210 MYA.
Triassic-Jurassic Extinction
The Triassic-Jurassic Extinction eradicated vertebrate species on land which allowed which species to flourish?
Dinosaurs (RAWR)
Which extinction event took place 65 MYA?
Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction
Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction is also referred to as _______ because it happened at the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period.
K-T Extinction. Scientists used K instead of C because C is a shorthand for Cambrian.
Which specific type of dinosaurs were wiped out during the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction?
Non-avian Dinosaurs
This is a site of exceptional fossilization, in which soft tissue preservation and other highly detailed remains can be retained and recovered.
Lagerstätte
Lagerstätte (plural Lagerstätten) is a German term that directly translates to ______.
storage place
The majority of lagerstätten form when organic remains end up preserved in a way in where a specific element cannot reach it. Which element is this?
Oxygen
What are the two major forms of lagerstätte?
konzentrat-lagerstätten and konservativ-lagerstätten
These are areas of high concentration of fossil remains, places like bone beds where a lot of animals died all at once or repeatedly in roughly the same spot.
konzentrat-lagerstätten
This certain type of lagerstätte preserve soft-bodied, typically hard-to-fossilize organisms like invertebrates with the same detail that they preserve more typically abundant organisms.
konservativ-lagerstätten
Name a famous example of a konzentrat-lagerstätten.
La Brea Tar Pits
Name a famous example of a konservativ-lagerstätten.
Burgess Shale
Which large mammalian megafauna fossils from the Pleistocene epoch are found in La Brea Tar Pits?
mammoths and giant ground sloths
Which paleontologist discovered the 508 million-year-old shale in 1909?
Charles Wolcott
Which anomalous organism found in the Burgess Shale puzzled scientists for years as to which end was back, front, up or down?
Hallucigenia
This lagerstätte in Wyoming is made up of three fossil lakes dating back about 55 million years ago to the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene period and showcases the much milder and even climate of the region at this time.
Green River Formation
This German lagerstätte dates back to the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic era, during the middle of the age of dinosaurs about 150 million years ago. This is where one of the first and most famous fossil birds was found, Archaeopteryx lithographica, which gave paleontologists new questions and answers regarding the origin of birds.
Solnhofen Limestone
This konservativ-lagerstätte, located in Illinois in the United States, can be divided mainly between marine and freshwater fauna, preserved together in what was thought to be an estuarine river delta. It is home to the truly bizarre animal Tullimonstrum (AKA Tully Monster) has been found, which is the state fossil of Illinois.
Mazon Creek
This lagerstätte is over 10 million years old than the famed Burgess Shale in Canada. It includes possibly over 100 species of soft-bodied animals, many of which their exact classification is still debated.
The Chengjiang biota
This lagerstätte is a 180 million-year-old German locality of Jurassic shale that has preserved a large variety of Jurassic period marine fauna. Disarticulated ichthyosaur remains are very common, such as scattered vertebrae, teeth, and other bones.
Posidonia Shale
Dating back to the Mississippian period of the Carboniferous, about 308 million years ago, _______ is a Montana lagerstätte which features an abundance of fish, aquatic arthropods, worms, microbial stromatolites, and molluscs. Chondrichthyans make up the majority of fish, and are remarkably diverse, with around 80 different genera attributed to the locale.
Bear Gulch
Many jawless fishes, primitive spiny sharks, and at least one lobe-finned fish have been recovered from this area. The site is also a wealth of invertebrate fossils, and notably, much like Beecher’s Trilobite Bed, there are many invertebrates such as brittle stars and trilobites found with extreme pyrite fossilization, giving them a look like tarnished gold.
Hunsrück Slate (Germany)
This is a Moroccan formation which dates back to the early Ordovician period, 480 million years ago. The fauna here fill a gap in the fossil record for a great many species, including some genera thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Cambrian period. Notable are the trilobites, including the Harpides, Asaphellus and Kierarges genera.
Fezouata Formation (Morocco)
Dating back to the Ordovician period of the Paleozoic era, the _________ is a wealth of trilobite fossils preserved in exquisite quality. The trilobite genera found here, such as Ceraurus, Flexicalymene, and Isotelus, even show fully fossilized appendages, the first trilobites to be discovered with preserved appendages.
Walcott-Rust Quarry
Located in Lebanon, these 100 million year old localities also show an abundance of smaller, soft-bodied marine organisms from the mid Cretaceous period. Astounding preservation has allowed animals like squid and octopodes to endure across the eons, and the preservation of genera like Keuppia and Styletoctopus paints a picture of the transition from ancestral squid-like forms to modern octopodes.
Hakel/Hjoula/Al-Nammoura
This succession of Middle Cambrian formations located in the House Range and Drum Mountains of Utah, is home to a lagerstätte of trilobites as well as a Burgess Shale-like soft-bodied fauna. Well over a 100 species of trilobites have been described from this mountain range, along with dozens of other marine critters including sponges, early echinoderms, enigmatic arthropods and even delicate jellyfish fossils.
Wheeler/Marjum/Weeks Formations
This is another konzentrat-lagerstätte which is, as the name suggests, very trilobite heavy. Charles Emerson Beecher discovered and named the location, but died unexpectedly in 1904, without passing on the exact location of the fossil bed. It was rediscovered in 1984 by Tom E. Whiteley (who also reopened the Walcott-Rust quarry for re-examination in 1990) and Dan Cooper, amateur fossil collectors.
Beecher’s Trilobite Bed (New York)
Located in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, ________ offer a unique look into life during the Ice Age from 40,000 to 8,000 years ago. It contains possibly the richest, best preserved, and best studied assemblages of Pleistocene vertebrates, including at least 59 species of mammal, over 135 species of bird and over 600 species overall.
La Brea Tar Pits
Part of the larger Niobrara Chalk Formation, the ___________ lagerstätte dates to the Cretaceous period, over 86 million years ago. Located in Kansas, the site was, at the time, the shore of a wide but receding inland sea, and as such is home to a huge concentration of marine fossils. Reptiles like huge mosasaurs, some flighted pterosaurs, and turtles dominate the majority of faunal remains, and famously, a specimen of the monstrous fish Xiphactinus was once found here with another fish (Gillicus arcuatus) halfway down its throat!
Smoky Hill Chalk
Age of Man
Quaternary
Age of Mammals
Tertiary
Both Age of Man and Age of Mammals are under which era?
Cenozoic
Age of Reptiles
Mesozoic
Age of Amphibians
Carboniferous
Age of Fishes
Devonian
Age of Invertebrates
Paleozoic
Two subperiods of Carboniferous
Pennsylvanian and Mississippian
5 epochs under Tertiary period
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Which period did the first primates appear?
Cretaceous
Which period did the first vascular land plants appear?
Silurian
First chordates appeared during this period.
Cambrian
First mammals appeared during this period.
Triassic
First birds appeared during this period.
Jurassic
This is a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms but not the preserved remains of the organism itself.
Ichnofossil/Trace Fossil
TRUE THE FIRE or MARIA CHRISTINA FALSE
Ichnofossils are biologically produced sedimentary structures that include tracks, trails, burrows, borings, fecal pellets, and other traces made by organisms.
TRUE THE FIRE!
NYAAAS or NAURRR
Trilobite is a trace fossil.
NAURRR. A trilobite itself is not a trace fossil; it is a body fossil.
What is a body fossil?
Body fossils are the remains of the actual organism, such as bones, teeth, shells, or exoskeletons, and in the case of trilobites, their exoskeletons are what are typically fossilized.
NYAAAS or NAURRR
Coprolite is a trace fossil.
NYAAAS!
One of the most famous body fossils is the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered in South Dakota in 1990. What is the name of this body fossil?
Sue (named after Sue Hendrickson, the paleontologist who discovered it)
These are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that include reptiles (including birds) and mammals.
Amniotes
These are openings in the skull behind the eyes that allow for the attachment of larger and stronger jaw muscles, contributing to more efficient feeding mechanisms.
Temporal fenestrae
Classification of amniotes based on temporal fenestrae.
Synapsids, including mammals, have a single temporal fenestra on each side of the skull.
Diapsids, which include reptiles and birds, have two temporal fenestrae on each side.
Anapsids, such as turtles, lack temporal fenestrae entirely.
When we say proboscidean, it usually refers to what type of animal?
Elephants
This is an extinct genus of proboscidean that has teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids.
Stegodon
This is a species of extinct elephant found in the Philippines.
Stegodon luzonensis
Dubbed as the most studied meteorite.
Allende Meteorite
Differentiate meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite.
Meteoroid - body of rock in space
Meteor - body of rock that entered the atmosphere
Meteorite - body of rock that survived and reached the surface of the Earth without disintegrating
Two types of stony iron meteorites.
Pallasites and Mesosiderites
CHRUE or FALSE
Allende Meteorite is the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on Earth.
CHRUE!
When was the fireball of Allende Meteorite witnessed?
01:05 AM on February 8, 1979
The Allende Meteorite landed in Pueblito de Allende, which is a part of which Mexican state?
Chihuahua
This is the first meteorite to be part of the museum’s National Geological and Paleontological Collections.
Orconuma Meteorite
How much does the whole Orconuma Meteorite weigh?
7.8 kilograms
Who are the three farmers who found the Orconuma Meteorite and stored it for nine years?
Fredo Manzano
Edgar Francisco Senior
Enrico Camacho Junior
What is the oldest intact rock found on Earth to date? U/Pb dates of zircon from the rock reach into the Hadean Eon at 4.02 Ga.
Acasta Gneiss
Where can you find the oldest intact rock?
Northwest Canada
The word ‘fossil’ was derived from a Latin word which means “something dug up” because fossils are often found buried in rock formations deep in the earth. What is this Latin word?
Fossilis
Which epoch did the first marsupials appear?
Paleocene
This is a prehistoric horn snail that lived in the Philippines about 23 to 5.3 million years ago. It is an extinct genus of horn snails or mudwhelks.
Vicarya
In the Philippines, the first reported rudist fossil was discovered in _____ in 1988.
Cebu
This is a marine clam that lived in the Philippine waters about 11.63 – 5.33 million years ago (late Miocene). This clam would have been found on the bottom of warm, shallow, near-shore waters, feeding by filtering out plankton or nutrients suspended in the water. It is now extinct.
Glyptoactis philippinensis
Glyptoactis philippinensis fossils can be found excellently preserved in a sequence of greenish gray, poorly consolidated sandstone and mudstone belonging to which formation in Madlum, San Miguel, Bulacan?
Tartaro Formation
Macrosolen madlumensis is an extinct clam that was named after the locality it was discovered - the ______ River of San Miguel, Bulacan.
Madlum River
Wareniconcha and Calyptogena belong to the family of vesicomyid bivalves (clams) that appeared approximately 42 million years ago (Middle Eocene). Which of the two is larger (length 11.3 cm, height 10.1 cm, width 5.7 cm), has more inflated, and more rounded shell outline compared to the living species?
Wareniconcha (Wareniconcha mercenarioides)
These are squid-like sea creatures that existed before and all the way through the age of dinosaurs. They were carnivores that lived inside ribbed coiled shells. While they may look like chambered nautiluses, their closest living relatives are squids, octopuses, and cuttlefishes.
Ammonites
TRUE OR FALSE
Since Perisphinctes (Liosphinctes) Ammonites only lived during the Late Jurassic, these fossils acted as markers in time or body fossil, helping geologists identify the age of the rock formation.
FALSE.
Index fossil.
A __________ is the single specimen selected by the taxonomist as reference point in describing a new species. Therefore, it is the most important specimen of any species.
Holotype
By virtue of RA _______, otherwise known as the ______________________, the National Museum of the Philippines is the official repository of holotype specimens of fossils and extant flora and fauna collected in the Philippines.
10066; National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009
This member of cephalopods possessed a hard internal skeleton at their tail end called a rostrum (plural: rostra). This bullet-shaped feature acted as counterbalance for the head and arms during swimming.
Belemnites
Unlike its relatives, such as cuttlefish and squid, belemnites didn’t have tentacles. They had arms. How many arms did they have?
10
Instead of suckers/suction cups like what an octopus has, belemnites didn’t have any suckers. Belemnites had 30 to 50 _______ for grabbing crustaceans.
Hooks
These are the only surviving species of the shelled cephalopods which were present in the earth’s oceans during the Paleozoic (~541 million years) and Mesozoic (~252 million years).
Nautilus pompilius or emperor nautilus
_________, also known as sea lilies, live in the world’s oceans since the Ordovician Period, over 230 million years before the dinosaurs. They make look like flowers, but they are actually some of Earth’s earliest animals. Starfishes, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers are their closest relatives.
Crinoids
Although most crinoids died out during the _______ Mass Extinction, one group of crinoids survived and gave rise to over 600 species still living today.
Permian
This is a rugose coral found in the province of Mindoro and is about 300 million years old (Pennsylvanian).
Gshelia sp.
Known by its scientific name Megalochelys sondaari, the _____________ inhabited the island of Luzon from the Early Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago) until about 1.7 million years ago.
Luzon Giant Tortoise
This is an extinct species of sharks that appeared about 20 million years ago. They are considered not only the biggest shark but also the largest fish to have ever existed.
Megalodon/Otodus megalodon
The first fossils of this extinct herbivore were teeth and bones discovered in 1936 in Laya, Cagayan. They were identified as a new species based on features found in the premolars.
Nesorhinus philippinensis (formerly Rhinocerus philippinensis)
This is a giant species of pigs having distal enamel bands on its upper canines. It is believed that the pig’s ancestors arrived in the Philippines from Taiwan, and eventually migrated to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They are already extinct, and the geographical expansion of anoa (dwarf buffalo), babirusa (deer-pigs) and warty pig, which have produced competition, may have been the cause.
Celebochoerus cagayanensis
This is an even smaller water buffalo whose skeleton was discovered by accident by mining engineer Michael Armas more than 60 years ago while exploring for phosphate in a tunnel near the municipality of Balamban in island of Cebu. This species is an excellent example of island dwarfism in the family of Bovidae (buffalos, sheeps, goats, cows).
Cebu Tamaraw (Bubalus cebuensis)
As sediments pile up, fluids are squeezed out and the lower layers of sediments become more compressed, eventually turning to solid rock. Any plant parts contained within them are flattened. This process destroy the internal structure, leaving only a delicate carbonaceous film that imitates the original outline of the plant part. Such fossils are called _______________ fossils.
Compression Fossils
Petrified wood is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of ____________.
Permineralization
