Life Over Time and Mass Extinctions

Question 1

Why are plants and animals in India different than Southeast Asia?

Answer 1

India was its own continent until 45 million years ago

Question 2

Angiosperm

Answer 2

flowering plant

Question 3

Gondwana

Answer 3

Ancient supercontinent that consists of Africa, South America, Australia, Antartica, India, and the Arabian Peninsula

Question 4

How do lizard species on mainland California compare in diversity to those found on islands?

Answer 4

Due to greater ecological opportunities on islands, there is greater differences between island species

Question 5

What is exceptional about the early animal faunas from the Ediacaran period just before the Cambrian?

Answer 5

soft-bodied animals are well represented by these fossils

soft bodied fossils are rare

Question 6

Key innovation (evolutionary innovation)

Answer 6

a novel phenotypic trait that allows subsequent success of a taxonomic group

Question 7

Does genetic drift directly cause adaptive radiation?

Answer 7

No

Question 8

Can an unusual event splitting a habitat, such as a hurricane led to adaptive radiation?

Answer 8

No

Question 9

When did Pangea occur?

Answer 9

Late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic era

Question 10

What major evolutionary episode corresponded the closest with the formation of Pangea?

Answer 10

Permian extinctions

Question 11

How do fossils start to form?

Answer 11

Start with burial in sediment

Question 12

Intact fossil

Answer 12

forms when decomposition does not occur and the organic remains are preserved intact

Question 13

Compression fossil

Answer 13

forms when sediments accumulate on top of the organism and become cemented into rocks such as mudstone or shale

the sediments weight compresses the organic material below into a thin, carbonaceous film

Question 14

Cast fossil

Answer 14

forms when organisms decompose after they are buried

the hole that remains fills with dissolved minerals, which creates an accurate cast of the remains

Question 15

Permineralized fossil

Answer 15

forms when organisms decompose extremely slowly

Question 16

Trace fossil

Answer 16

forms when sedimentation and mineralization preserve indirect evidence of an organism in the environment

ex: footprints, tracks, feces

Question 17

Conditions for fossils to occur

Answer 17

1. buried rapidly

2. decompose slowly

Question 18

Habitat bias

Answer 18

Organisms that live in areas where sediments are actively being depositing (beaches, swamps) are much more likely to form fossils than are organisms that live in other habitats

Question 19

Taxonomic and Tissue Bias

Answer 19

Organisms with hard parts, such as bones or shells, are most likely to leave fossil evidence

similar idea applies with tissues

Question 20

Temporal bias

Answer 20

Recent fossils are much more common than ancient fossils

The older a fossil is, the longer it has been exposed to destructive forces

Question 21

Abundance bias

Answer 21

fossil record is weighted towards common species

Question 22

Paleontologists

Answer 22

scientists who study fossils

Question 23

Why is it hard to estimate when species first appeared in the fossil record?

Answer 23

A particular species or lineage can exist for millions of years before leaving fossil evidence

Question 24

Precambrian

Answer 24

Interval between the formation of the earth and the appearance of most animals (541 bya)

Unicellular

Oxygen was virtually absent until photosynthetic bacteria

Question 25

Phanerozoic Eon Eras

Answer 25

Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic

Question 26

Paleozoic Era

Answer 26

starts with appearance of most major animal lineages

ends with the obliteration of almost all multicellular life-forms (end-permian extinction)

initial diversification of the animals, land plants, and fungi, as well as the appearance of land animals

Question 27

Mesozoic Era

Answer 27

begins with end-permian extinction and ends with the extinction of the dinosaurs

gymnosperms were dominant plants

dinosaurs were dominant vertebrates

Question 28

Cenozoic Era

Answer 28

angiosperms were dominant plants

mammals were dominant vertebrates

Question 29

What era are we currently in?

Answer 29

Cenozoic era

Question 30

Adaptive radiation

Answer 30

the sudden appearance of related, diverse species in the fossil record

Question 31

3 Hallmarks of Adaptive radiation

Answer 31

1) monophyletic group
2) speciated rapidly
3) diversified ecologically (occupy many niches)

Question 32

Niche

Answer 32

range of conditions that a species can tolerate and the range of resources that it can use

Question 33

Ecological opportunity

Answer 33

Can trigger adaptive radiation

marked by the availability of more resources

Question 34

When did most modern animal phyla evolve?

Answer 34

Paleozoic

Question 35

When did animals first appear?

Answer 35

Precambrian

Question 36

Flowering plants first appeared during?

Answer 36

Mesozoic era

Question 37

How to determine if two species are an example of adaptive radiation?

Answer 37

Ask yourself if they came from a single lineage

Question 38

Stromatolites

Answer 38

fossilized mats of billions of bacteria cells

oldest found 3.5 bya

Question 39

What era was the Cambrian explosion?

Answer 39

Paleozoic

Question 40

What conditions allowed for the Cambrian explosion?

Answer 40

1) oxygen levels rose rapidly
2) evolution of predation
3) new niches beget more new niches
4) new genes, new bodies

Question 41

What new genes were developed during the Cambrian explosion?

Answer 41

Hox genes

determine where things are placed in the body developmentally

Question 42

3 domains of life

Answer 42

Bacteria, archaea, eucarya

Question 43

Intrinsic factors of adaptive radiation

Answer 43

Evolution of key morphological, physiological, or behavioral traits

These traits are called synapamorphies

Question 44

Extrinsic factors of adaptive radiation

Answer 44

ex: favorable new conditions in the environment