Midterm 1 Part 2 Flashcards
What was a benefit of the Linnaean system of classification?
It brought order to naming animals, plants, and minerals. Before, people were just naming things whatever they wanted.
What is a disadvantage of the Linnaean system of classification?
Created a false sense of hierarchy in which some animal species were placed lower in “importance” and “significance” than others.
What are the vertebrate classes of animals?
Fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians
What is the new system of classification called?
Cladistics
What are some of the characteristics of the cladistic classification system?
Eliminates the hierarchy, doesn’t take rock dates into account, based on hypothesized relationships not artificial ranks (kingdom, phylum), and attempts to show relationships at all levels.
What is phylogeny?
The study of evolutionary relationships between different species. The two most common systems of classification are Linnaean (which is outdated) and Cladistics (cladograms)
What created the cladistics system?
Willi Hennig around the 1950’s
How are relationships between species determined using cladistics?
Based on evolutionary novelties that species have in common. IT is NOT based on overall similarity.
True or False: In cladistics, relationships are determined by derived characteristics.
True
What is a monophylitic polygenetic group?
A group of species/clades that include all its descendants. LIke if you drew a circle around a group of species and all their ancestors on a cladogram.
What is a paraphyletic polygenetic group?
A natural group of species/clades that does NOT include all its descendants/ancestors. Like if you removed a clade or two to emphasize others. Those relationships still exist, you’re just not displaying them.
What is a polyphyletic phylogenetic group?
A group of unrelated species/clades (or at least very dissimilar and far away on a cladogram). Technically all life is related if you go back far enough.
Who was Jacques Gauthier and what did he do for the world of dinosaurs?
He wrote a paper on cladistics and dinosaurs in 1986. This marked the start of everybody using the cladistics method in the dinosaur community.
What is left of the Linnaean system?
Only the genus and species rules. Everything else is basically dumb now.
True or False: Time is a factor used to determine cladograms.
False
In cladistics, what is the name of a group?
Clade
What is parallel evolution?
Closely related forms adapting to similar environments. Kind of like convergence, but convergence is more like bats and birds (two distinct species with a shared character) vs. kangaroo rats and gerboas that are similar in many ways.
Define plesiomorphic
The original state of a character. Like if a feature has been the same for every generation of that species.
What is the opposite of plesiomorphic?
Apomorphic - derived characters (evolutionary novelties) instead of the original characters.
Which museum was part of the Central Asiatic Expeditions?
American Museum of Natural History
Who led the expedition to Mongolia/China (the central Asiatic Expeditions)?
Roy Chapman - zoologist that worked for the American Museum of Natural History
When were the Central Asiatic Expeditions?
1921-1930
What were the most significant finds of the American Museum’s expeditions?
Oviraptors, Protoceratops, Velociraptor, and dinosaur eggs in nests.
Which museum led an expedition to Tendeguru, Tanzania, Africa?
Berlin Museum of Natural History
When were the expeditions to Africa?
1906-1912
Who was the “Indiana Jones” of the Berlin Museum’s expeditions?
Werner Janensch
What were the major finds of the Tanzania Africa expedition?
Dicreaesaurus, Kentrosaurus, Giraffititan, they discovered a lot of species that were similar to the Morrison formation (on the other side of the world) but found out they were not actually related.
Who is Edwin Colbert?
Worked for the museum of natural history, built complete skeletons I think? Ghost Ranch, New Mexico skeletons
When did the Soviet Union start their expeditions to the same Mongolian site?
1962-1970’s
What was the most important discovery of the Polish-Mongolian expedition?
They found dinosaur skeletons fighting.
Who led the Polish-Mongolian expeditions?
Soviet Union
When was the Dinosaur Renaissance?
1960’s - 1970’s
What were some of the important things that came out of the Dinosaur Renaissance?
They started thinking of dinosaurs as lighter, quicker, and more agile.
Who was John Ostrom
He was a paleontologist dude that lived during the Dinosaur Renaissance. He worked under Edwin Colbert. Found new species of Deinonychus.
Most important for saying that dinosaurs are like birds.
Who was Bob Bakker?
He was a hippie-cowboy student of John Ostrom who promoted ‘turbo dinosaurs” that were ultra fast and cool. Made up all kinds of crazy claims (like dinosaurs used their tails to cut through predators, blah)
What is Jehol Biota?
It’s a site in China where they found a ton of dinosaur species and ancient plant life. TONS of stuff. Leathery eggs, fossils everywhere, feathers, embryos, they found SOFT TISSUES, and color patterns.
How do you find dinosaur bones?
Cold search, comb through bones in museums, use geologic reports, ask amateurs where they sited things.
What age of rocks are dinosaurs found in?
Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
Where was mudstone formed (lithified mud)?
Floodplains, lakes, or ocean bottom
Where was limestone formed (lithified marine ooze)?
Shallow warm ocean/lake
Where are conglomerate rocks formed?
Fast streams or below ocean cliffs
Where is sandstone formed (lithified sand)?
Shorelines, streams, deserts
True or False: Shale/mudstone is the best type of rock to find fossils in.
True
True or False: You can find fossils in Conglomerate rocks.
False
True or False: Sandstone is great for finding fossils.
True.
True or False: Volcanic ash has a lot of fossils.
False. You can sometimes find fossils in ash, but not often. And lava flow is terrible.
True or False: Limestone is a good place to find fossils.
True. You can sometimes find dinosaur fossils here.
Why are places like Badlands good for finding fossils?
Because of rapid erosion. It leaves more dinosaur bones exposed.
True or False: You can find fossils in vegetated environments.
False. It’s really hard to find fossils/bones with all the vegetation. These are also areas of slow erosion.
What materials are bones made out of?
50% minerals
50% organics (collagen- fiber proteins)
What materials are teeth made out of?
95% minerals
5% organics (collagen fibers)
What are the characteristics of minerals in the bones and teeth?
Brittle, maintains shape, resists compression.
What are the characterstics of the collagen that makes up the organic part of bones and teeth?
Flexible, acts as the framework for mineral to grow on.
True or False: A fossil must be prehistoric to be a fossil.
TRUE! They must be 10k years old or older.
True or False: A fossil can be a piece of ancient hair?
True. Fossils are just evidence and remains found from ancient animals.
What are the main factors that contribute to preservation of fossils?
Environment, presence of hard parts (must have bones or minerals)
What are the two main types of fossils?
- Body fossils - shells, bones, skin, muscle, hair
- Trace fossils - nests, footprints, feces, burrows
How does something become a fossil?
IT must be preserved in the right type of rock, there must be hard parts to last a long time, there can’t be external factors like bacteria that would erode things away.
What are the types of unaltered fossil preservation?
Tar, amber, dessication, frozen
What are the types of altered fossil preservation?
Permineralization, Recrystallization, Replacement, Carbonization, Molds and casts
What is permineralization?
Minerals are added to open spaces (as the soft parts die and disappear). This preserves the bones.
What is recrystallization?
When the minerals that make up bones and teeth turn into other types of minerals or crystals.
What is replacement?
Wood or shell that turns into something else
What is another name for replacement preservation?
Petrifaction
What is carbonization?
When all the volatile portions of the leaf are gone (things that decay) leaving only the carbon remains.
True or False: Sternberg was a contract collector for March?
FALSE! He worked for Cope :p
What was the American Museum of Natural History originally looking for on Mongolia?
The first man. They were looking for the first species of man.
What is Angular Unconformity?
Underlying layers that are not parallel to the strata above them (like that place in Scotland)
What is Geologic Deep time?
The idea that the earth is 4.55 billion years old because it would take billions of years or hundreds of millions of years for canyons, valleys and mountains to form.
What is superposition?
Youngest rock layers are at the top (unless the rock has been folded in half)
What is fossil succession?
Each of earth’s rock layers had unique sets of species that were around during that time.
This is significant because it means species (and rocks ages) can be correlated.
What’s another name for superposition?
Stratigraphy
