Lecture 2

Question 1

Evidence of past life Preserved in Materials of the Earth’s crust:

Answer 1

Fossils

Question 2

Provide evidence for the behaviour of an organism

Answer 2

Trace fossils

-May not preserve any of the trace-maker, but we see evidence of its behaviour

Question 3

Provide evidence of how an organism moved through or lived within the sediment

Answer 3

Burrowed trace fossils

Question 4

Provide evidence of digestive behaviour

Answer 4

Gastroliths

Question 5

Provide evidence of digestive behaviour and can reveal information about diet

Answer 5

Coprolites (Fossilized feces)

Question 6

Provide evidence of predatory or scavenging behaviour, and also occur with in-species fighting, as commonly seen amongst the big meat eaters

Answer 6

Bite marks

Question 7

Provide evidence of reproductive and nesting behaviour

Answer 7

Fossil eggs and nests

Question 8

Impressions made by stepping into a soft substrate - sand, mud (silt/ clay) or volcanic ash.

Answer 8

Tracks

Question 9

A series of tracks made in sequence as an individual walked, ran, lept

Answer 9

Trackways

Question 10

Include fossilized skeletal material

Answer 10

Body fossils

On occasion the integument ( body covering) might be preserved as an impression in the substrate, or in rare instances the soft covering might also be fossilized

Question 11

What is the fossilization process?

Answer 11

Death, Decay, Burial, Mineralization.

fossilization occurs through petrification and permineralization

Question 12

Dino finds ranked

Answer 12

Dino mummy

Bone bed (dozens or more specimens that died at the same time)

Articulated complete skeleton (huge bonus if some integument preserved as impressions)

Articulated partial skeleton/ or even just the skull

Disarticulated but lots of the skeleton present

Disarticulated and very incomplete

Disarticulated small broken bits and pieces

Question 13

A dinosaur fossil with soft tissues that has undergone mineralization (just like the bones) is called a

Answer 13

Dinosaur mummy

Question 14

there is more than _____ species of (non-avian) dinosaurs known from the fossil record

Answer 14

1000

About half of these would be theropods

The other half come from a combination of Saurodomorpha (sauropods and closely related kin) and Ornithischians.

Question 15

only ____ % of the ~1000 species known from complete specimens, or from enough partial specimens collected that a full one can be put together

Answer 15

20%

Some dinosaurs are known from only a single specimen

Question 16

Excavating Body fossils

Answer 16

Dinosaur fossils are carefully excavated. Fossil bone crumbles easily so first it is treated with a special glue, then protected with a plaster jacket prior to being brought back to the preparation lab.