Lecture Questions

Question 1

Is Archaeopteryx a bird or a dinosaur?

Answer 1

• it is considered a dino-bird

- it has features of both dinosaurs (bony tail, teeth) and birds (wings, feathers) but may not have been able to fly

Question 2

What type of rock will we most likely find dinosaurs in?

Answer 2

• classic sedimentary, because dinosaurs did not live in water

Question 3

What an we learn about the environment during the Time of the Dinosaurs from studying the rocks in Drumheller?

Answer 3

• it used to be swampy (coal layers)
• white layers show that a river used to flow through the area
• clay layers - flood plain deposits

Question 4

Is a dike older or younger than surrounding strata?

Answer 4

• younger.

- class example: if you are cutting a cake, you need a cake to cut in the first place

Question 5

Why are animals sometimes preserved in the “death pose”?

Answer 5

• we don’t entirely know, but…
• muscles and tendons drying up
• drowned, and ended up in this death pose
• like a chicken, neck flopped after death