Paleontology and Evolution Flashcards
What is the order of periods in the Paleozoic (From oldest to youngest)
- Cambrian
- Ordovician
- Silurian
- Devonian
- Carboniferous
- Permian
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What is the order of periods in the Mesozoic (Oldest to youngest)
- Triassic
- Jurassic
- Cretaceous
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What is the order of the periods in the Cenozoic (from oldest to youngest?)
- Paleogene
- Neogene
- Quaternary
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What is the order of the Epochs in the Cenozoic, from oldest to youngest?
- Paleocene
- Eocene
- Oligocene
- Miocene
- Pliocene
- Pleistocene
- Recent
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What are “absolute” ages/dating
- type of radiometric dating where the dating is based on radioactive decay
- measuring the rate at which a parent atom decays into a daughter atom
- need unstable elements with half-lives of appropriate length
The oldest fossils of living things are_______ years old and are called ________
The oldest fossils of living things are ~3.5 BILLION years old and are called STROMATOLITES
What are plate techtonics?
- the fact that the Earth’s crust is divided into plates
- these plates move relative to one another
- plate movements cause continents to move also
How did fossils provide the first evidence for continental drift?
- same types of fossils found in different continents areas, where they could not have gotten to otherwise
- supports the idea continents were once connected allowing for movement of organisms
the Solar system (including Earth) is …..
4.5 BILLION YEARS OLD
How are fossils evidence of evolution?
- Change within lineages (species with differing morphological forms seen in fossil records, several features of a species may have changed fairly gradually even if the change is not always gradual)
- Test of phylogenetic predictions (establishing what derived features are combined in the fossil, traits in fossils that are intermediate between expected groups)
- Origins of higher taxa (see how we can trace back fossils to an origin)
What is the origin of birds? What fossil specimens helped establish this?
- Birds came from theropods, feathered dinosaurs
- fossils of Archaeopteryx lithographica helped establish this link
- Archaeopteryx is seen as a transitional fossil between dinosaurs/reptiles and modern birds
What did mammals originate from?
- from Cynodonts, which were specialized therapsids
What are synapsids?
diverse group of tetrapod vertebrates that includes all mammals and their extinct relatives
Near mammals existed during…
late Triassic to early Jurassic
True mammals arrived in…..
the Late Jurassic
Origin of Cetaceans places them as sister groups to….
hippopotamuses
origin of cetaceans existed from….
Early Eocene
