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Earth History Lecture > PEO 3 Study Cards > Flashcards

PEO 3 Study Cards Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the age of the eldest microfossils called acritarchs?

A

1.7 billion years old.

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2
Q

By what time does the geologic evidence indicate that the ocean basins were full of water?

A

3.2 billion years old.

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3
Q

What aspect of the fossils record, which occurred about 1.7-1.5 billion years ago, suggests that sexual reproduction may have developed at that time.

A

An explosion of diversity in fossil microbiota, since it gave more combinations of DNA and more chances for evolution to occur.

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4
Q

When (age in years) does the rock record seem to indicate that oxygen (O2) finally began to accumulate in the atmosphere?

A

2.3-2 billion years ago.

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5
Q

What is the evidence for the O2 buildup in the atmosphere?

A

The evidence was the shift of iron deposits as BIFs (banded iron formations) to continental red beds.

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6
Q

True or False–During the Late Proterozoic Eon (Neoproterozoic Era) the shallow sea floor was probably populated by a wide diversity of seaweed algae.

A

True.

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7
Q

Some trace fossils in 1 billion year old rocks in India may be the oldest fossils evidence for what?

A

Animals (worms, specifically).

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8
Q

Why do most paleontologists dismiss those traces found in India?

A

Because they were not evident in any other regions during this time for 415 million years.

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9
Q

What is the maximum age of the Ediacara Biota?

A

579 million years old.

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10
Q

When did most of the SSF (small shelly fossils/Tommotian) occur in the fossils record?

A

Early Cambrian

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11
Q

What is the age of the oldest undisputed animal trace fossil burrows and trails?

A

585 million years old.

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12
Q

What are the sclerites of the Small Shelly (Tommotian) Fossils?

A

Subpieces of the external skeleton.

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13
Q

Trilobites represent the majority of fossils fund in rocks of which geologic Period?

A

Cambrian.

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14
Q

Ina sequence of layered sedimentary rocks, what does the lowest occurrence of Treptichnus pedum signify?

A

That start of the Cambrian Period/Paleozoic Era.

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15
Q

Some geologists have suggested that all Earth was repeatedly covered by ice (snowball Earth) during which geologic period?

A

Cryogenian (frozen period).

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16
Q

What is noteworthy about fossils called Cloudina?

A

Oldest mineral skeleton fossils (not organic material).

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17
Q

What does the pronounced negative shift in the 13C/12C ratio in rocks with no fossils that are thought to have been depoisted at about the same time as the last o the Ediacara Biota-bearing rocks?

A

The start of the Cambrian Period. C12 was added to the material at that time and made the amount of material smaller.

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18
Q

When was the Paleozoic Era?

A

541-252 myrs.

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19
Q

When was the Mesozoic Era?

A

252-66 myrs.

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20
Q

When was the Cenozoic Era?

A

66-0 myrs.

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21
Q

When was the Cambrian Period?

A

541-485 myrs.

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22
Q

When was the Ordovician Period?

A

485-444 myrs.

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23
Q

When was the Silurian Period?

A

444-412 myrs.

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24
Q

When was the Devonian Period?

A

412-359 myrs.

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25
Q

When was the Carboniferous Period?

A

359-299 myrs.

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26
Q

When were the Mississipian and Pennsylvanian?

A

M = 359-323 myrs.
P = 323-299 myrs.

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27
Q

When was the Permian Period?

A

299-252 myrs.

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28
Q

When was the Triassic Period?

A

252-201 myrs.

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29
Q

When was the Jurassic Period?

A

201-145 myrs.

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30
Q

When was the Cretaceous Period?

A

145-66 myrs.

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31
Q

Some of the oldest known Earth materials is what?

A

Detrital zircon crystals (4.3-4.4 byrs) in a metasedimentary rock in W. Australia.

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32
Q

Archean cratons consists mostly of what?

A

Granatoids and greenstones.

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33
Q

Granitoids comprise of …

A

Granite, granite gneiss, other similar rocks.

34
Q

Greenstones are ____ and comprised of…

A

Supracrustal; Fe- and Mg-rich volcanics/pillow lavas, immature sedimentary rocks, pyroclastics, Fe-rich chert.

35
Q

Earth has what percentage of its original atmosphere?

A

0.8-0.9%

36
Q

What are the two dominant gases on Earth?

A

H2O and CO2.

37
Q

What are the principle gases of dry atmophere?

A

Nitrogen (N2), Oxygen (O2), and Argon (Ar).

38
Q

Is there more oxygen in the atmosphere or BIFs?

A

BIFs, by ~20%.

39
Q

What is the Isua sequence known for?

A

A BIF with graphite (pure carbon) in it, indicating that we not only had life at this time, but photosynthesis (C13/C12 was low, meaning some had gotten out of the lithosphere).

40
Q

What are the three proposed origins for life?

A

Creation, extraterrestrial, scientific explanation.

41
Q

What does the Orparin/Haldane Hypothesis (1923) say?

A

Life arose from common non-living substances, under favorable conditions, and in the early ocean.

42
Q

What is the first life thought to be, and happened around midocean ridges with thermal vents?

A

Archaea (extremeophiles).

43
Q

What is the composition of life?

A

Water, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, skeletons.

44
Q

How much O2 was there in the early Archean?

A

Little to none.

45
Q

What are the oldest filaments and tubes from hydrothermal vent deposits?

A

Nuvvuagittuq Greenstones in N. Quebec.

46
Q

How old are the earliest undisputed fossils?

A

3.5 byrs.

47
Q

What are stromatolites?

A

Made by a community/colony of single-celled bacteria in the archaean era, the most important among them being cyanobacteria.

48
Q

What are Cyanobacteria?

A

Blue-green algae that produce O2. During the day cyanobacteria filaments photosynthesize. The consumption of CO2 causes CaCO3 to precipitate on the filaments, and sand/silt grains may also stick to them.

49
Q

Explain stromatolite growth.

A

At night, cyanobacteria and CaCO3 forma. thin paste and the next day the cyanobacteria filaments grow upwards and renew the cycle (this creates the layers).

50
Q

Limestones are the dominant place on Earth to find carbon and they are built by what?

A

Cyanobacteria.

51
Q

There are still some stromatolite growing, but only where?

A

Extreme saline environments, like extreme saline lakes.

52
Q

In the Archean, ocean water was saturated with what kind of iron (oxidized or unoxidized)?

A

Unoxidized.

53
Q

What is chert?

A

Micro crystalline quartz.

54
Q

Almost all microbiota we see is preserved in _____.

A

Chert.

55
Q

What are prokaryotes?

A

Typically have multiple walls to their cells, have loose DNA (?), ribosomes (structures that make proteins, transport amino acids and other info), and have a flagellum.

56
Q

Eukaryotes

A

Typically (not always) much larger than prokaryotes, nucleus contains the DNA, larger and more ribosomes, structures called the mitochondria, many organelles, could have a flagellum (but it would be called an undulipodia), mitochondria are what processes oxygen, would have chloroplasts if it was a photosynthesizer.

57
Q

Lynn Margulis proposed what?

A

The serial symbiosis hypothesis.

58
Q

The symbiosis theory said what?

A

That there are a series of steps in which procaryotes became symbiotes of one another and then those became eukaryotes.

59
Q

What is the Mitochondrion from in serial symbiosis hypothesis?

A

Aerobic proteo-a bacteria.

60
Q

What is the Chloroplast from in serial symbiosis hypothesis?

A

Cyanobacteria.

61
Q

Where are the earliest (and only Archean) fossil eukaryotes from and how old are they?

A

Moodies ina. 2.8 byrs group in South Africa, the fossils themselves are 3.2 byrs.

62
Q

What are continental red beds, and what are they an indicator of?

A

Formed 2.3-0 bya. They are sandstones and mudstones with oxidized iron in them, which means that the iron was oxidized on land (lakes, rivers, deserts). They were the first indicator that there was oxygen in the atmosphere at the time they formed.

63
Q

Ozone is made up of what?

A

O3.

64
Q

Is the ozone distributed as a single layer?

A

No.

65
Q

What are the earliest eukaryotic fossils visible to the naked eye?

A

Algae in BIFs called Grypania spiralis (which is the oldest undisputed macroscoptic fossils) (chemically and structurally they are green algae) (2.1 bya) (found in Michigan).

66
Q

What are gabon macrofossils/Framcevillian biota?

A

Up to 17cm colonies.

67
Q

What are Acritarchs?

A

Organic sheath fossils. The oldest known are 1.7 byrs.

68
Q

When did sexual reproduction first appear?

A

1.7-1.5 bya.

69
Q

Why can’t you go past the wall of minimal complexity?

A

The smaller and less complex you are, the more of you there are, the bigger and more complex you are the less of you there are.

70
Q

List increasing complexity and integration of organisms.

A

single-celled prokaryotes, single-celled eukaryotes, colonies of cells (pro or eu), multicellular organisms (eukaryote only), metazoans/metaphytes/fungi.

71
Q

Explain Volvox.

A

Simple green algae colony formation. Coordinate movements. They have polar organization. The cells do not interact with each other.

72
Q

Explain what a multicellular prokaryote protoctista is.

A

First macroscopic communities of life forms. Oldest known green algae is 2.1 byrs (Gryponia), oldest known red algae is 1.4 byrs bangiophytes.

73
Q

How old is the oldest known fossil evidence of animals?

A

0.6 byrs.

74
Q

How old is the oldest known fossil evidence of plants?

A

0.5 byrs.

75
Q

Explain snowball Earth.

A

It was proposed that in the Neoproterozoic Era (newest portion of this Eon) that there were multiple episodes of the Earth being completely covered in ice.

76
Q

Explain what a cap carbonate is.

A

Places where there is glacial till capped by limestone.

77
Q

Define the Ediacara Biota.

A

Oldest is Avalon Ediacarans found in Newfoundland. They were the soft-bodied fossils preserved on the boundaries between mudstones and sandstones.

78
Q

What did Cloudina do?

A

It showed back-filling, meaning the first signs of “feet,” but they were likely more like bristles at the time.

79
Q

What were the most abundant animals during the Cambrian period?

A

Arthropods, specifically trilobites.

80
Q
A

Earth History Lecture (2 decks)

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