Unit 5 Lecture 30

Question 1

What is the typical life span of species?

Answer 1

2-3 million years

Question 2

What are living fossils?

Answer 2

A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade.
- Purple frog
- Horseshoe crab

Question 3

What is the Lazarus taxon? Elvis taxon?

Answer 3

• Disappears from one or more periods of fossil record, only to appear again later
• Was misidentified as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period of presumed extinction but is not actually a descendent of the original taxon

Question 4

What is the definition of mass extinction

Answer 4

A statistically significant departure from the background extinction rate

Question 5

Which mass extinction did in the non-avian dinosaurs

Answer 5

Cretaceous-Paleongene

Question 6

Where was the site of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs?

Answer 6

Chixala in Mexico

Question 7

Explain what happened in the End Ordovician

Answer 7

• 444 MA
• 86% of species lost
• Glaciation, lower sea levels, sucked CO2 out of planet cooling it

Question 8

Explain what happened in the Late Devonian

Answer 8

• 374 MA
• 75% of species lose
• evolution of land plants, sucks CO2 out of atmosphere, sucked O2 out of water suffocating bottom dwellers

Question 9

Explain what happened in the End Permian

Answer 9

• 251 MA
• 96% species lost
• eruption of volcanoes
• Increased CO2, methane increase, oceans acidified and stagnated, releasing hydrogen sulfide

Question 10

Explain what happened in the End Triassic

Answer 10

• 200 MA
• 80% of species lost
• Severe volcanism, increased CO2, global warming, calcification crisis in oceans

Question 11

Explain what happened in the End Cretaceous

Answer 11

• 66 MA
• 76% of species lost
• increased volcanism, asteroid, global cooling, anoxia