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EOSC 116 > Life In The Mesozoic Skies > Flashcards

Life In The Mesozoic Skies Flashcards

1
Q

Describe the four forms of flight.

A

Passive flight: floating on air current.
Parachuting: require specific structures.
Gliding: shape must generate lift.
Powered flight: flapping motion.

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2
Q

What were the earliest fliers of plants?

A

Evidence of plant spores from land plants like Cooksonia that are from the Silurian Period.

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3
Q

What were the earliest animal fliers?

A

Small mites or first insects that were around the low water hugging terrestrial ecosystems of the Silurian.

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4
Q

What about powered flight for insects is hazy?

A

First fossils found were already adapted to life in the skies so we are missing a bit of the story.

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5
Q

What body part evolved into wings to allow flight?

A

Legs

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6
Q

What did having wings do in terms of the dragonflies ability to hunt?

A

Expanded hunting territory.

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7
Q

What has allowed the animals (including Meganeura) from this time period to grow so big?

A

Oxygen allows respiratory system to be better and freeze up space for growth.

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8
Q

What allows animals to lay their eggs on land so that they are no longer tied to the water?

A

Eggs contained all nutrients.

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9
Q

What large group of animals evolved on land as a result of this new ‘egg out of the water’ adaptation?

A

Reptiles.

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10
Q

How did insects get in the air?

A

Early arthropod limbs from water were paired (walking limb and exite). Exites became the wings.

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11
Q

Describe exites.

A

They were used for filtering water or as a gill. They are plate like structures used for locomotion. Insects might show these structures during the nymph stage but as adults they become wings.

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12
Q

What is considered one of the primitive living insect fliers?

A

Mayflies. They can’t fold their wings to the side of their bodies. Nymph stage of mayfly is aquatic and they have exites.

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13
Q

What is an example of one of the first airborne vertebrates?

A

Coelurosauravus from the Late Permian.

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14
Q

What similar glider existed during the Triassic?

A

Sharovipteryx.

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15
Q

Describe Draco.

A

Gliding reptile from SE Asia. Living today, it is an insectivore. Draco also uses it’s wings as display and thermoregulation.

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16
Q

How far can Draco glide?

A

Half the length of a football field.

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17
Q

How do the wing like structures work?

A

Loose skin expands to a cape attached to ribs.

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18
Q

When did pterosaurs evolve?

A

Late Triassic

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19
Q

Describe pterosaur structure.

A

They were the first fully powered flight lizards. Their bones had air spaces in them, making them light. They supported their wings using one long slender finger. The other three fingers were normal and were used as claws. Became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.

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20
Q

What was the feeding behaviour of pterosaurs?

A

Fossils were found in shallow marine sediments often associated with fish debris. Suggests that they were fish eaters. Might have dove into the water to catch fish (only neck and head though). Others probably fed like flamingoes. They had bristle structures in their jaw that were used to get micro organisms and algae out of the water. Others could’ve been scavengers or stalkers who fed on small vertebrates.

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21
Q

What was the morphology of pterosaurs?

A

Varied greatly. Some grew to great sizes like the Quetzalcoatlus.

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22
Q

Which pterosaurs are ‘the undisputed king of the skies’?

A

Ornithocheirus.

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23
Q

What was it’s wing span?

A

12m

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24
Q

Why are pterosaurs not agile on land?

A

Legs joined up with wings.

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25
Q

What was the function of head crests?

A

Mating.

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26
Q

What were the two groups of pterosaurs?

A

The rhamphorhyncoids and the pterodactyloids.

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27
Q

Describe the rhamphorhyncoids.

A

Among the first pterosaurs to evolve during the Triassic. Long tails that end with diamond shaped vane. Were generally small during Triassic. Extinct by the end of Jurassic.

28
Q

Describe the pterodactyloids.

A

More advanced ones had no tails. Joined during the Jurassic and varied in size. During Cretaceous some became really big. Extinct by end of Creatceous.

29
Q

What was the oldest pterosaur fossil found?

A

Eudimorphodon.

30
Q

What’s the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs?

A

Archosaurs. They are only distant relatives. A basal ancestor of pterosaurs is the Scleromochlus but people still don’t know how they got in the air.

31
Q

Who did birds evolve from?

A

Therapods.

32
Q

Describe birds

A

They are endotherms and have efficient respiratory system. 75% of inhaled air go into an air sac and 25% go to lungs. When exhaled, the air from sacs go to lungs so they always have air.

33
Q

Describe the Solnhofen Limestone.

A

Consists of rock that was originally deposited as like rich sediment on the edge of Tethys Sea.

34
Q

Why does the Solenhofen limestone demonstrate such spectacular preservation?

A

High salinity, low oxygen levels, fine grained sediments for details.

35
Q

What about the environment of deposition of the Solenhofen Limestone would cause high salinities/low oxygen?

A

Tropical climate, lagoons restricted from ocean, high evaporation, restricted water circulation in lagoons.

36
Q

Describe transitional forms.

A

Transitional forms are missing links. They aren’t common ancestors.

37
Q

Describe what the Archaeopteryx is in the evolutionary tree.

A

It is a transitional form somewhere between a bird and reptile. It is not a common ancestor of birds and therapods.

38
Q

Who did birds evolve from?

A

Modern birds probably evolved from another avian dinosaur in a group of therapod dinosaurs called Maniraptora.

39
Q

What is an accepted trait that is different between dinosaurs and birds?

A

Notch for the supracoracoideus tendon.

40
Q

What does the notch do?

A

Allows animal’s low centre of gravity to be maintained.

41
Q

Which group did the scientists believe were the ancestors to the birds?

A

Theropods.

42
Q

What is the initial proposed use of feathers in the small theropods in which they first evolved?

A

Insulation, display, camouflage, recognition.

43
Q

Which digits were lost in the theropod lineage that eventually led to birds?

A

4th and 5th

44
Q

What feature evolved that eventually allowed birds wing joints to move to create thrust for flight?

A

The wrist bones underlying the first and second digits consolidated and took on semicircular form that allowed birds’ wing joints to create flight.

45
Q

What is one suggested function of feathers that may have directly affected the hatching success of dinosaur eggs?

A

Warming and shielding.

46
Q

According to the paper, when did the ancestor of all living birds exist?

A

Late Cretaceous.

47
Q

Describe the three hypotheses for development of flight.

A

Arboreal Hypothesis: birds evolved from feathered therapod dinos jumping from trees and gliding.
Cursorial Hypothesis: therapod dino with feathers would leap in the air while trying to catch insects or prey.
The Wing Assisted Incline Running Hypothesis (WAIR): winged dinos ran up inclined surfaces and flapping would get them up the slope.

48
Q

What is the name of the ‘giant of the air’ discussed in a publication about pterosaur flight?

A

Quetzalcoatlus.

49
Q

What’s its wingspan?

A

34ft

50
Q

How did it take off?

A

Had to run. If it’s off a cliff, then it’s okay.

51
Q

How does flight performance decrease as size increases?

A

Power decreases as size increases.

52
Q

What was the main type of flying used by these animals?

A

Gliding.

53
Q

Describe the Confuciusornis.

A

It started to look like a modern bird, size of a pigeon. Lost its dino teeth but still had claws on its wings and small keel. Could have flown in flocks.

54
Q

Describe Enantiornithes.

A

Found in range of sediment types so they must’ve lived in a range of habitats. Almost all had teeth in their beaks and claws on wings but they had no bony tail.

55
Q

Why did birds survive the extinction at the end of Cretaceous?

A

Diet. They fed on seeds.

56
Q

Would you expect the teeth from the bird-like dinosaurs to become more or less diverse over time if the ecosystem was gradually declining in the Late Cretaceous, prior to the impact event?

A

Less because ecosystem would be declining and species would be lost.

57
Q

What did the tooth data end up favoring with respect to diversity in the Late Cretaceous?

A

It favoured abrupt extinction because the ecosystem was stable before the abrupt extinction.

58
Q

What is adaptive radiation and how did it affect birds and pterosaurs?

A

Organisms diversify quickly into new species. Many species of birds came from available niches and changes.

59
Q

What is causing the sudden drop in diversity at the end of the Cretaceous?

A

Asteroid fell into Yuncatan Peninsula causing climate changes.

60
Q

How rapid was the event?

A

32 000 years

61
Q

Which broad types of birds survived and which didn’t?

A

Ground dwelling survived, arboreal didn’t.

61
Q

Which broad types of birds survived and which didn’t?

A

Ground dwelling survived, arboreal didn’t.

62
Q

Which of the following do you think is the primary reason for the adaptive radiation of birds at the end of the Cretaceous?

A

New environmental niches.

63
Q

Why did birds survive?

A

Diet, big brain, flexibility

64
Q

Why did Aves (modern birds) have an advantage?

A

They had the ability to dive, swim, and seek shelter.

EOSC 116 (7 decks)

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