Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Dinosaurs > Midterm 2 Sauropods > Flashcards

Midterm 2 Sauropods Flashcards

1
Q

True or False: Sauropoda contained the largest land animals of all time.

A

True!!

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What two clades make up Sauropodomorpha?

A

Sauropods and Prosauropods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

When were Sauropods at their peak in diversity?

A

Jurassic-Cretaceous transition

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What tooth shape was characteristic of early sauropodomorphs?

A

Spatulate with serrations

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

The Sauropod hiatus refers to an absence of sauropods in which continent?

A

North America

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

When did sauropodomorphs originate?

A

Late Triassic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What does Opisthocoeleous mean?

A

Refers to vertebrae with a ball on the front and a cup on the back of the centrum in sauropod dinosaurs.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are the evolutionary novelties of Sauropodomorpha?

A

heads small relative to their bodies, spatulate teeth, elongated vertebrae, very large claws on their forefeet, short feet

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What does spatulate mean?

A

Spoon-shaped

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is the biggest difference between prosauropod and sauropods?

A

Prosauropods were basically built the same, but they were much smaller and more slender

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

True or False: Prosauropods are the ancestors of Sauropods

A

False. But they are closely related

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Know the phylogeny of the Sauropodomorph clade

A

k

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Were prosauropods bipedal or quadrapedal?

A

They were likely obligatory quadrapeds

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What modern day animal has teeth similar to those of the sauropodomorphs?

A

Iguana

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What evidence suggests that sauropodomorphs were herbivores?

A

Jaw hinge, long necks, offset of the jaw similar to modern plant animals, mass of small stones in the stomach

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What does Mussaurus mean?

A

Mouse lizard

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the oldest known dinosaur eggs

A

Mussaurus eggs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What event coincided with the diverse speciation of sauropods?

A

The extinction of prosaurupods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What are some examples of sauropods?

A

Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Evolutionary Novelties of Sauropods

A

Gigantic size, long neck and tail, tiny head, dorsally located nostrils

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What are the 3 distinct types of sauropods?

A

Diplidocoids, primitive macronarians, and Titanosauria (advanced macronarians)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Why is it normal to find sauropods without skulls?

A

Because they were relatively small and not connected to their spines very well.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What is it called when vertebrae are bound by two cavities?

A

Amphicoelous

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What are Pleurocoels?

A

Deep side cavities

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What was the function of Pleurocoels?

A

They helped to lighten the enormous sauropods. They may have had intricate air sacs or other materials that made them lighter.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

What’s another name for the most primitive sauropods?

A

Eusauropods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

Where were Diplidocoids primarily found?

A

Europe, North America, Antarctica

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

Evolutionary novelties of Diplidocoids

A

Long and slender skulls and muzzles, peg-like teeth at the front of mouth, nostrils on the top of skull above eyes, neck vertebrae had short ribs, neural spine had deep V-shaped groove

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

What is the humerus-to-femur ratio of a diplidocoid?

A

0.66

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What is the astragalus?

A

Major bone in the ankle of Diplidocoids. It’s the ONLY bone in the ankle

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

How did the bones of Diplidocoids resist the weight of the animal?

A

They were packed with cartilage which resists pressure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

What is the difference between diplidocoid chevrons and those of other sauropods?

A

Regular: Tuning fork shape
Diplidocoid: Look like 2 clothing hangers put together, rods extending from side

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

Brontosaurus or Apatasaurus?

A

Apatasaurus is the correct name because it was the first one used.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

What does Macronaria mean?

A

Large nose

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

Evolutionary novelties of primitive Macronarians

A

Short heavy skull with a blunt snout, Jaws with large spatulate teeth, large nostrils on the sides of skull just in front of the eyes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
36
Q

What type of dinosaur is a Camarasaurus?

A

Primitive macronarian

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
37
Q

What is the humerus to femur ratio of a camarasaurus

A

0.7

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
38
Q

Famous macronarians?

A

Camarasaurus, brachiasaurus, haplocanthosaurus

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
39
Q

Evolutionary novelties of Titanosaurs

A

proceloeus anterior tail vertebrae, widened sacrum, short and robust limbs, short forefeet, humerus and femur bowed out while walking (instead of being vertical)

40
Q

What age were Titanosaurs prevalent?

A

Mostly the Cretaceous

41
Q

Where did Titanosaurs live?

A

Mostly the areas that became the southern hemisphere

42
Q

What is Procoelous?

A

In the vertebrae: When the socket is anterior and the ball is posterior

43
Q

What is Opisthocoelous?

A

Vertebrae: Socket is posterior and ball is anterior.

Opposite of Procoelous

44
Q

Amphicoelous

A

Vertebrae bounded by two cavities (instead of just having one cavity facing either posteriorally or anteriorally)

45
Q

What are the two possible explanations for the sauropod hiatus in North America?

A
  1. We haven’t found the bones yet/bones were not preserved well
  2. Sauropods went extinct in NA in the early cretaceous and then migrated back up there 30 million years later (Alamosaurus)
46
Q

True or False: Some Titanosaurs weighed more than a Boeing 737 airplane.

A

True… the airplane weighs 50 tons, an elephant weighs 5 tons, and some of the titanosaurs were 78 tons…

Blue whales weigh more though

47
Q

What is the name of the giant sauropod vertebrae that Edward Cope found in the 1800’s?

And why is it significant?

A

Amphicoelius Fragillimuss

Supposedly the largest animal to ever exist, being 150 tons in total. But it’s possible that Cope may have incorrectly entered the height of the vertebrae he found (1.05 meters instead of 1.5)

48
Q

What are the two types of sauropod teeth?

A

Spatulate teeth and peg-like teeth of the Diplidocoids

49
Q

Homeothermy

A

Being able to maintain a constant body temperature

50
Q

Thermal Inertia

A

Large dinosaurs take longer to warm up and have more trouble warming up because of their large mass.

51
Q

Graviportal

A

Designed to bear great weight on land

52
Q

Why did people think Sauropods were aquatic?

A

Because their bones couldn’t hold them up on land, their nostrils were on the top of their head, and their teeth could only chew soft aquatic vegetation

53
Q

What is gregarious behavior and does it apply to sauropods?

A

Group activities, and maybe. There are tracks shown together, but nothing is conclusive.

54
Q

Characteristics of the sauropod clade

A

Blade-like serrated teeth
Promaxillary fenestra
Intramandibular joint
Enlarged hands with increased grasping ability
Bipedal
bird-like feet
Lightly built theropod skulls
Feathers
Pneumatic bones

55
Q

When did pterosaurs originate?

A

late Triassic

56
Q

When did pterosaurs go extinct?

A

End of cretaceous

57
Q

What are key characteristics of the pteradactyloid?

A

short tail, no teeth (beaks), mono-fenestra

58
Q

Mono fenestra

A

fused external nares and anteorbital fenestra

59
Q

Key characteristics of ramphorhycoid

A

long tail, teeth

60
Q

Which is paraphyletic: pteradactyloid or ramphorhycoid?

A

Ramphorhycoid, does not include all descendants

61
Q

What environment are most pterosaurs preserved in?

A

Marine/lacustrine environments
Fine grained sediments preserved soft tissue

62
Q

Carnosaurs

A

Theropod: Meat lizards with short necks and small forelimbs

63
Q

Coelurosaurs

A

Theropod: hollow tail lizards, smaller with long necks and long forelimbs

64
Q

How is Herrerasaurus related to theropods?

A

One of the most primitive dinosaurs, caused saurischian and ornithischian clades to split, was originally thought to be a theoropod but does not have all of its evolutionary novelties

65
Q

Theropod characteristics

A

Blade like serrated teeth
promaxillary fenestra
intramandibular joint
enlarged hands with grasping ability
predatory
feathered
bird-like feet
bipedal
lightly built skulls

66
Q

What is the intramandibular joint for?

A

It’s an extra joint in lower jaw, allows for extra movement

67
Q

What clade of theropods is most closely related to birds?

A

Coelurosauria

68
Q

What are shared features of Coelurosauria and birds?

A

Enlarged brains, tridactyl hands with long second and third digit, feathers, hinge-like ankle

69
Q

What are the major functions of the furcula?

A

Fused collar bones, strengthen skeleton, hold wings

70
Q

What is the funtion of wings in non-flying taxa?

A

Insulation and/or display

71
Q

Which theropods are known to be feathered?

A

Archaepteryx and Yutyrannus

72
Q

Ceratosaurs distinguishing features

A

Theropod:
6 or more sacral vertebrae
Very deep coracoids
small forelimbs (maybe nonfunctional)
4 fingers

73
Q

Examples of Ceratosaurs

A

Limusaurus, Aucasaurus, Abelisauroids

74
Q

Carnosaur distinguishing features

A

Theropod
Extra opening in maxillary
Very large nasal bones

75
Q

Examples of Carnosaurs

A

Allosaurus
Giganotosaurus

76
Q

Coelurosaurus distinguishing features

A

Theropod
Most bird-like dinosaur
Enlarged brain
Boat shaped chevron bones
feathers
Tridactyl hand with long 2nd and 3rd digit

77
Q

Examples of Coelurosaurus

A

Tyrannosaurus
Maniraptoriformids
Compsognathus

78
Q

Unusual features of oviraptorids (theropod - enigmatic coelurosaurus)

A

Toothless jaw
Short snout
boxy skull
large fenestra in mandible
crest of sponge-like bone on tip of snout

79
Q

Unusual features of therizinosaurs (theropod - enigmatic coelurosaurus)

A

Small skulls
long necks
huge claws
short legs

80
Q

Using Plateosaurus as a representative prosauropod, describe the main characters of the group.

A

Small teeth with large serrations
Leaf shaped teeth
Short necks- not as long as sauropods
Feeding over wide arc
Jaw articulation offset– all teeth occluded simultaneously
Poorly pneumatized vertebrae
Obligate quadrupeds
Can be bipedal (more primitive feature)
No sharp claws

81
Q

Know what anatomical evidence supports the notion that prosauropods were plant-eaters.

A

Long necks that feed over a wide arc side to side
Teeth look like modern Iguanas and are known as herbivores
Do not have sharp claws- not theropods (meat eaters)

82
Q

Explain why most paleontologists exclude any known prosauropod from the ancestry of sauropods.

A

Because theropods are ancestors are sauropods, but they’re distinguished enough from sauropods that they have been given their own clade
Prosauropods have a small 5th digit

83
Q

Compare and contrast the skulls of diplodocid, camarasaurid, brachiosaurid sauropods.

A

Diplodocus: only teeth in front, and possibly a beak
Camarasaurus: rounded nose unlike Brachiosaurus that has a scooping nose.
Brachiosaurus
Enlarged nostrils above the eye
Backwards L shape
Longer humerus than femur
Dip in pre-maxilla
Shunosaurus
Teeth facing forward
No dip in pre-maxilla like the brachiosaurus

84
Q

Methods of developing long necks

A

Robbing vertebrae from the back - Move shoulders back so dorsal vertebrae become cervical vertebrae

Adding extra vertebrae (happens only in early embryonic developmental)

Elongating individual vertebrae

85
Q

Understand the significance of pneumatic vertebrae and their effect on the structure of the vertebrae in sauropods.

A

Added air so it was lighter
Keeps their necks strong but light
Allows them to feed with necks extended

86
Q

Understand the relationship between skull size and neck length in sauropods

A

Smaller skulls= longer necks.

87
Q

Know the evidence that suggests diplodocids could not raise their heads above the shoulders.

A

Necks were straight but heads were angled down, necks were not very flexible only side to side motions
Good for side to side, neck posture oriented down

88
Q

Compare and contrast the feeding strategies of grazers vs high browsers.

A

High browser - longer humerus than femur, reaching into trees to feed from branches
Grazers - (no grasses, most likely ferns and other), low energy to graze on the ground, longer femur than humerus

89
Q

Know when ornithischia lived and describe their distinguishing characteristics.

A

Self sharpening teeth, feathers, scales, have cheeks, ridges in maxilla and dentary
Longest lived dino-middle jurassic to end of cretaceous

90
Q

Explain which ornithischians have asymmetrical tooth enamel, which clade is defined by this feature, and describe its function.

A

Neornithischia
Self-sharpening teeth
Thick enamel on the outside, thin on the inside

91
Q

Know what features of the skeletons of different groups of ornithopods identify them as either bipeds or facultative bipeds.

A

Bipeds: Walks on 2 legs; much shorter forelegs. How the head is anchored.
Facultative bipeds: Walks on 4 but can on 2 for mating and eating; The head would be anchored more at the back of the head rather than the bottom so it is better for eating on all fours.
Prosauropods

92
Q

Describe the hand of Iguanodon and its diagnostic features.

A

Thumb claw, spikey
Opposable pinky finger with 6 bones to grasp things with.
3 fingers to walk on like hooves

93
Q

Compare and contrast the Hadrosaurine and Lambeosaurine clades of the Hadrosauridae

A

Both: extra motion to process food in jaw that grinds food
Hadrosaurine: heavily built, wide snouts, dental batteries, enlarged nares sometimes,
Lambeosaurines: crested skulls (impacted by age and sex), relatively lightly built, narrorwer snouts compared to hadresoaurine, dental batteries

94
Q

Explain the specialized features of hadrosaurid skulls, particularly those related to feeding (beaks, diastema, cheeks, extra skull joints, tongue).

A

Diastema
Gap between beak/premaxilla teeth and back teeth
There so the tongue can bring food from the cheek to in the mouth
Cheeks
There to catch the food that falls out of the teeth during the grinding process
Extra skull joints
Allows teeth on maxilla to move back and forth
Better grinds the food
Beaks
Broad with no teeth

95
Q

Know the function of the hollow tubes and crests on the lambeosaurine skulls.

A

Display and sound

96
Q

Know which clade most likely had cheeks and the evidence to support this.

A

Evidence: ridges on skull above teeth is where cheek muscles would’ve connected
Clade: Ornithischians

97
Q

Explain what the beak shape reveals about feeding habits.

A

Wider beak = grazer
Narrow beak = browsers
They’d use beaks to clip the vegetation before chewing it in their weird way. Likely grazed on horse tail like plants like thick and fuzzy grasses and leaves. Likely low browsers based on copperlites. But not grass, grass didnt exist until L cretaceous and wasn’t common even then.

Dinosaurs (8 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions