Paleogeography

Question 1

biogeography

Answer 1

The science that attempts to understand spatial patterns of diversity. It is the distribution of organisms, both past and
present, and of related patterns of variation over the earth in the number and kinds of living things.

Question 2

paleobiogeography

Answer 2

The analysis of biogeographic patterns in fossil taxa

Question 3

Historical biogeography

Answer 3

the past distributions of organisms and how the evolutionary history of clades effects their present distribution

Question 4

Ecological biogeography

Answer 4

explanations of the distributions of organisms based on ecological parameters (modern climatic and ecological features)

Question 5

Fundamental questions of paleobiogeography

Answer 5

How are organisms distributed over the surface of the earth and over the history of the earth?
What controls these distributions?

Question 6

Consistent surface airflows

Answer 6

prevailing winds

Question 7

Radiation in land vs ocean

Answer 7

land-opaque

Ocean-penetrates

Question 8

Heat capacity in land vs. oceans

Answer 8

Land-low ocean-high

Question 9

Winds circulate _______ around high pressure cells in the Northern hemisphere.

Answer 9

clockwise

Question 10

Summer relationship between oceans and land

Answer 10

Land warmer than oceans. Lower pressure in continents. Winds flow from the oceans to the land. This bring moisture into the continents.

Question 11

Winter relationship between oceans and land

Answer 11

Oceans warmer than land. Lower pressure in the ocean. Winds blow from the land to the ocean, cold dry air flowing outward from the coast.

Question 12

biomes

Answer 12

the world’s major communities, classified according to the
predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment
Usually describe terrestrial, but can be aquatic
(ex-reefs, deserts, grasslands)

Question 13

Warm periods of Earth’s history

Answer 13

Greenhouse

Question 14

Cold Periods of Earth’s History

Answer 14

Ice house (glacial periods)

Question 15

What was the climate like at the end of the mesozoic.

Answer 15

Warm climate. Climate has been cooling since the end of the Oligocene.

Question 16

position of continents relative to poles -latitude and orientation

Answer 16

Paleomagnetism

Question 17

Ways to decide where the continents were

Answer 17

\+Paleomagnetism
\+Age of sea floor
\+Climatic proxies
\+Fossils
\+Geologic "match up"

Question 18

What could an unconformity tell you about what a continent looked like?

Answer 18

Might indicate that land was exposed at the time rocks were deposited.

Question 19

What can metamorphic rocks tell you about what a continent looked like?

Answer 19

subduction and or plate collision; mountains

Question 20

Ecological Biogeography

Answer 20

Explanations of the distributions of organisms based on interactions between organisms and their physical and biotic environments

Question 21

Biogeographic regions

Answer 21

Communities across wide geographic regions are often quite similar, but can differ markedly from communities in another nearby region

Question 22

provinces

Answer 22

regions over which communities maintain characteristic taxonomic composition

Question 23

How do you define a province

Answer 23

Separated by geographic barrier that blocks

movement (mountains, oceans, continents)

Question 24

Endemic provinces

Answer 24

confined to a single region or province; limited geographic range

Question 25

Cosmopolitan provinces

Answer 25

multiple provinces; wide geographic range

Question 26

Simpson Coefficient

Answer 26

Used to measure faunal similarity C/N*100 c=number of taxa in common n=total number of taxa in two samples.

Question 27

Biogeographic regions on the scale of
continents or ocean basins – comprised of
similar provinces

Answer 27

Realm

Question 28

Wallace’s Line

Answer 28

In indonesia Many fish, bird, and mammal groups are abundantly represented on one side of Wallace’s Line but poorly or not at all on the other side.

Question 29

modern species diversity for many groups is highest in the tropics and decreases with higher latitude

Answer 29

Latitudinal Diversity Gradient

Question 30

Tropics as cradle model

Answer 30

To explain latitudinal diversity gradient

origination rates are higher in tropical areas and extinction rates do not vary with latitude

Question 31

‘Tropics as museum’ model

Answer 31

To explain latitudinal diversity gradient.

whereby origination rates are constant with latitude, but extinction rates are lower in the tropics

Question 32

‘Out of the tropics’ model

Answer 32

To explain latitudinal diversity gradient
origination rates are higher and extinction rates are lower in tropical areas, and species movement is higher from the tropics to the extratropical areas

Question 33

Has the latitude diversity gradient been a persistent feature throughout time?

Answer 33

No. Modern pattern thought to have originated 30 million years ago. (A tropical diversity peak might characterize icehouse worlds.)

Question 34

number of species _____as geographic area increases.

Answer 34

increases

Question 35

Historical Biogeography

Answer 35

 Reconstruct origin, dispersal, and extinction of taxa and biotas
 The past distributions of organisms and how the evolutionary history of clades effects their present distribution

Question 36

Dispersal biogeography

Answer 36

 Distribution of organisms due to dispersal (moving away) from a point of origin
(Can be moved through “noah’s ark”, sweepstakes, filter bridge, corridor)

Question 37

North and South America united across Isthmus of Panama

~3.5 ma Faunal exchange between provinces

Answer 37

Great American Interchange

Question 38

Vicariance biogeography

Answer 38

Distribution of organisms due to fragmentation of

a previously large geographic range