Midterm 1

Question 1

Where and when were dinosaurs first found, and how were they perceived?

Answer 1

• during the Victorian and Georgian eras
• in the UK
• surprising because they were like both reptiles and humans

Question 2

What were the first three dinosaurs, and who found them?

Answer 2

Megalosaurus- Buckland
Iguanodon- Mantell
Hylaeosaurus- Mantell

Question 3

Who named Dinosauria, when, and why?

Answer 3

• Richard Owen
• 1842
• organisms that had at least 5 vertebrae fused in the pelvis
• means “terrible lizard”

Question 4

Who were the early American dinosaur workers?

Answer 4

Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope, and Charles Othniel Marsh

Question 5

When was the turning point of dinosaur research?

Answer 5

1961- John Ostrom found a hand that could grip, which meant the group had to be more intelligent than they originally thought
-also found a straight tail, which means they had good balance and motor control

Question 6

How long is the geologic time axis?

Answer 6

4600 million years or 4.6 billion years

Question 7

What is the relative age?

Answer 7

The approximate age of the dinosaur using the rocks around the dinosaur (biostratigraphy)

Question 8

What are fossils?

Answer 8

a part or all of a body of an organism, preserved in whatever way

Question 9

How are typical fossils made?

Answer 9

1. carbonization- just leaves carbon (not informative for dinosaurs)
2. permineralization- solidified from the outside (fossil gains)
3. dissolution and replacement- recycling of original elements into new elements

Question 10

Will the fox I saw the other day become a fossil?

Answer 10

It is unlikely because

1. usually bodies are consumed by other organisms
2. needs to be buried in the sand or water without easy access to oxygen, without being broken, without changing too much, without erosion
3. it has to be in a discoverable area

Question 11

How do we find, collect, and prepare fossils?

Answer 11

1. look around where fossils would be
2. find impressions of what used to be there
3. dig away cliff to find more
4. lay down a grid system
5. preparation
   a. transport in plaster
   b. chip away rock (ex. with air chisel, used to use acid)

Question 12

What is the tree of life?

Answer 12

A branching diagram that depicts the ‘family’ relationships of species

Question 13

How do you read relationships from a tree?

Answer 13

ancestor- determines the closeness of the relationship
plesiomorphy- basal character
apomorphy- derived character
sister- two groups that share the same ancestor

Question 14

What is Linnean classification?

Answer 14

kingdom- phylum- class- order- family- genus- species

Question 15

What is the timeline of vertebrate history in the Paleozoic?

Answer 15

Early Cambrian- 1st vertebrate (some controversy)
Ordovician- 1st fish
Devonian- tetrapod 
Permian- reptile
Permian/Triassic- archosauromorph

Question 16

What reptiles are archosaurs and lepidosaurs?

Answer 16

lepidosaurs- scaly reptiles (snakes, lizards, tuatara)

archosaurs- birds and crocodiles, dinosaurs

Question 17

What are Archosauromorpha and Ornithodira?

Answer 17

Archosauromorpha- close to dinosaurs

Ornithodira- dinosaurs and Pterosauria

Question 18

Where are fossils found?

Answer 18

In sedimentary rock, mostly on the coasts where they have been exposed through erosion

Question 19

How do we place absolute ages on relative ages?

Answer 19

using half-lives, mass spectrometers, and isotopes yields an actual age, using the stratum of sedimentary rock surrounding a fossil yields relative ages

Question 20

Root (tree of life)

Answer 20

usually unnamed, leads to the common ancestor of that family

Question 21

nodes (tree of life)

Answer 21

common ancestors

Question 22

basal (tree of life)

Answer 22

closer to root than terminal, in relation to a specific species

Question 23

derived (tree of life)

Answer 23

closer to terminal than root, in relation to a specific species

Question 24

stem (tree of life)

Answer 24

leads to its descendants

Question 25

internodes (tree of life)

Answer 25

internal branches

Question 26

character (tree of life)

Answer 26

observable features of anatomy (ex. mammals)

Question 27

character state (tree of life)

Answer 27

distinguishes a clade from other groups (ex. live birth)

Question 28

homology

Answer 28

trait evolved once in the group being discussed

Question 29

synapomorphy

Answer 29

a trait present in an ancestral species and its descendants exclusively (ex. live birth)

Question 30

How do we recognize a group?

Answer 30

clade- a common ancestor and all of its descendants
or clade+stem
groups share homologies

Question 31

What were the three early innovations for vertebrates?

Answer 31

the jaw, limbs, and amniotic egg

Question 32

How did the jaw form?

Answer 32

the arches supporting the gills became the jaw, stapes, and tongue bone

Question 33

How did limbs form?

Answer 33

the shoulders separated and the leg and backbone fused

Question 34

How did the amniotic egg form?

Answer 34

They developed an amnion (covering for the embryo), allantois (sack for discretion), and the chorion (a direct oxygen line to the outside)

Question 35

Archosauromorpha

Answer 35

crocodiles, birds, dinosaurs

Question 36

Dinosaur Renaissance

Answer 36

Ostrom’s new view of dinosaurs led to a lot of research in the 60s

Question 37

What are the three types of rocks?

Answer 37

igneous rocks- rocks of fire
sedimentary- rocks of water
metamorphic rocks- altered rocks

Question 38

cenozoic

Answer 38

mammals (65-0 ma)

Question 39

cretaceous

Answer 39

64.5 ma

Question 40

jurassic

Answer 40

dinosaurs

Question 41

mesozoic

Answer 41

reptiles/dinosaurs (251-65 ma)

Question 42

paleozoic

Answer 42

complex life (542-251 ma)

Question 43

triassic

Answer 43

252 ma