History Of Life On Earth 🌍 Flashcards
Why does glaciation take place?
Because large ice sheets form due to cooling temperatures.
How many Ice ages have occurred ?
4
What was the name formation of all the continents together ?
Pangea
Pangea broke up into two , what were these continents called?
Gondwanaland & Laurasia
What is biogeography
The study of the distribution of existing and extinct animal and plants species relative to the geographical regions on earth
What was the ostrich called in Africa , Australia , New Zealand and South America ?
Ostrich , emu , moa & rhea
What are fossils ?
Complete organisms or remains , traces or tracks of organisms usually preserved in rock
Paleontology is?
Study of plant and animal fossils
Where were the bivalves and ammonites found ?
On the makhatini plains of northern KZN
What is a bivalve ?
A Marine mollusc with a soft body that is compressed in a shell
What is an ammonite ?
An extinct marine snail with a flat spiral shell divided into chambers with wavy interlocking walls.
Where were fossils of trilobites found?
The Karoo
What are trilobites ?
Extinct arthropods which are related to crabs and lobsters.
Where were the whale fossils found ?
In the Sahara dessert
What is the purpose of a geological timescale ?
To represent a timeline of life on earth from the its origin
Name the 4 eras
- Cenozoic
- Mesozoic
- Paleozoic
- Precambrian
What is the fossil record ?
Fossils of different ages which have been discovered and listed.
Acrhaeopteryx…what is this?
Earliest and most primitive bird which was the missing link between birds and reptiles which lived in the jurrasic period
What happened during the Cambrian explosion ?
Most animal groups occurred during this time
Why is it known as the Cambrian explosion?
Due to the relatively short time in which the large diversity of life occurred
Where did homo habilis live and with whom ?
In Africa with other Australopithecus species.
What is the Australopithecus?
Species which are bipedal primates with both ape-like and human like characteristics
Describe homo habilis in comparison to Australopithecus
The body was smaller and more ape like
-they had a larger brain capacity which enabled them to develop skills such as making tools
What is homo erectus , give their characteristics
They’re a species that are closer to modern humans than Australopithecus.They had large bodies and were the first to migrate from Africa to Europe and Asia
