Midterm 2 Part 2 Flashcards
What is the primary evidence of herding in some dinosaurs?
Large bonebeds of a single species
What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?
Continental drift is when the continents are all on separate plates, plate tectonics define plate boundaries a little differently (include parts of the ocean and sometimes splits continents)
What drives plate tectonics?
Convection and gravity
Cold, dense things go down and gravity pulls them under
What is evidence of plate tectonics?
Seafloor spreading
Is the mantle liquid or solid?
Solid, but brittle
The large feathery wings found on many theropod arms primarily functioned…
as display
In most vertebrates, skulls are the primary part of the skeleton used in classification. Why then are the vertebrae used for this purpose in sauropods?
Sauropod skulls are fragile and rarely preserved
What evidence in the leg bone structure of a dinosaur would suggest that it is a fast runner?
Long metatarsals, long tibia, short femur
What is/are the primary diagnostic character(s) of Thyreophora?
Large number of dermal ossicles
In addition to the pelvis, another diagnostic character of ornithischian dinosaurs is/are?
Ossified tendons along the back
The club at the end of the ankylosaurid tail consists of enlarged…
Dermal ossicles
What is the evidence of cheeks in ornithischians?
Ridges along the maxilla and dentary
WHy is it important to understand the geology/rocks of a dig site?
They provide information about the environment in which the animal lived and died
To collect vertebrate fossils on state and federal lands, paleontologists must secure a permit. The purpose of the permit is to…
Protect fossils from poaching
Digital “preparation” of fossils while they are still in the rock has the advantage of
Minimizing damage to the fossils while still providing a 3D image (not necessarily cheaper or faster)
A lumper is a paleontologist (biologist) that
Places two or more species into a single species
Pachycephalosaurs and Ceratopsians are grouped in a clade diagnosed by which of the following characters?
A ridge or crest at the back of the skull
Evidence that pachycephalosaurs butted heads is given by…
Pathological pits on the skull tops (having thick skulls alone doesn’t prove that they butted heads).
Why are ceratopsians found only in North America and Asia?
The clade existed when there were no links between North and South America
In addition to serving as jaw muscle attachments, the frills of ceratopsians likely served for…
Display and defense
Do ornithischians have cheeks?
Yes
Do saurischians have teeth?
No
In which group of dinosaurs is it common to find the skull because it’s so big and massive?
Marginocephalians
What causes ceratopsians to be quadrupedal?
The weight of their skull
True or False: Ceratopsians first evolved to be bipedal?
True
When we see evidence of bone damage that has not healed, what does that tell us?
That the dinosaur died shortly after receiving the damage or THAT is what killed the dinosaur. It could also tell us what kind of dinosaurs were chewing on bones after the dinosaur died.
What are the evolutionary novelties of neornithischians?
Don’t have an anteorbital fenestra, huge numbers of stacked teeth called dental batteries, hair-like feathers, little bone in the eye called palpebral
Which group of dinosaurs had fancy thumbs and grasped things with their pinky finger?
Styracosterna
A new find in Russia provides evidence that even ornithischians had feathers. To which clade of ornithiscian dinosaurs does this new find belong?
Ornithopoda
Self-sharpening teeth are found in which clade of dinosaurs?
Ornithopoda
Which group of ornithopods is characterized by crests developed from nasal chambers?
Lambiosaurinae
