Short answer questions Flashcards
- Which of the ‘big five’ mass extinctions resulted in 2nd level ecological disruptions without significantly effecting reef ecosystems?
End-Ordovician
- On what scale do alpha, beta, and gamma diversity differ?
Alpha: Within habitat diversity
Beta: Species competition
Gamma: landscape= OCEAN
In which geological period appear the first representatives of the modern Evolutionary Fauna?
Cambrian
How did the diversity of the Paleozoic Evolutionary Fauna develop during the Mesozoic?
Stenotopic organisums
What is described as the Signor Lipps effect?
The first and last appearance of a taxon is never truly known
Define the tern convergent evolution?
Organisms that are not closely related develop similar characteristics due to environmental control.
Name two characteristics of K-strategists
Large body
slow to mature
few off spring
Low juvenile mortality
Name two characteristics of R-stratagists
fast to mature
High infant mortality
The base of which geological period is defined by the first appearance of an ichnospeceis?
Base of the Cambrian period
If burrow A cross cuts Burrow B, which burrow formed in a shallower tier?
B
What happens to burrow size as oxygen levels in the marine environment decrease?
Decreases in size
What is the name given to the study of fossil communities?
palaeosynecology
what term is used to describe the sedimentary rock fabric caused by the activities of burrowing organisms?
Bioturbation
Give two example of trace fossils that are underground miners?
diplocraterion and rhizocordium
Which inchnofacies indicates quiet, deep, muddy enviroments and is dominated by pascichnia and agrichnia ?
Nereites (off shore/ deep)