Week 2

Question 1

Order from kingdom onwards

Answer 1

kingdom
phylum 
class 
order
family 
genus 
species

Question 2

synapomorphies

Answer 2

homologies that are shared by some, but not all, of the members of the group under consideration

Question 3

cladistics

Answer 3

phylogenetic reconstruction on the basis of synapomorphies

Question 4

fossil record best

Answer 4

in marine life

marine habitats are more likely than those on land to be places where sediments accumulate and become rock

Question 5

Burgess shale

Answer 5

sedimentary rock formation accumulated on deep seafloor of marine life

Question 6

Messel shale

Answer 6

release of toxic gases from deep within the Messel lake suffocated local animals, and their carcasses settled into oxygen poor muds on the lake floor

Question 7

radiometric dating

Answer 7

use of radioactive decay of isotope C14 to date wood and bone
after organism death, unstable C14 in tissues break down to form N14
They measure the amount of C14 in a sample by comparing it to the amount of C14 in a sample of known age

Question 8

Half life

Answer 8

half of the 14C in a given sample will decay to N14 in 5730 years

Question 9

homologous

Answer 9

similar characters from divergent evolution

Question 10

analogous

Answer 10

similar characters from convergent evolution

Question 11

trace fossils

Answer 11

organisms that lack hard parts leave tracks and trails as they move about or burrow into sediments

Question 12

molecular fossils

Answer 12

sterols, bacterial lipids and some pigment molecules can accumulate in sedimentary rocks, documenting organisms that rarely form conventional fossils