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44 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What are stromatalites?
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fossil reefs common during the Precambrien that were once made of algae and tiny bacteria
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Why are jellyfish not preserved as fossils?
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They have such soft bodies that there are no hard parts left to fossilize
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What was the early atmosphere like?
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It had NO free oxygen.
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What became extinct at the end of the Paleozoic era?
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* nearly half of all known animal groups became extinct
~ trilobites, eurypterids, seed ferns, scale trees, conifers |
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Which modern land areas were affected by the Permian Ice Age?
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South America, Australia, South Africa, and India
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What is the most important difference between Precambrien rocks and Paloezoic rocks?
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The Precambrien rocks contain few fossils while the Paleozoic rocks contain abundant fossils
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The first birds appeared during which era?
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The Mesozoic Era
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Ammonites are....
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...index fossils of the Mesozoic Era.
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The Cenozoic is the Age of ___________.
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Mammals
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Laurasia consisted of ......
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the future North America and Eurasia.
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The two periods of the Cenozoic are.....
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the Tertiary and the Quaternary
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The two main factors that distinguish hominids from other primates are...
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..bipedal movement (walking upright on two legs) and brain size
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What is the evidence of a mild Mesozoic climate?
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...corals in Europe
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The largest dinosaurs were the.....
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...sauropod dinosaurs
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The Canadian ________ is the exposed part of the North American craton.
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Shield
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The _________ Period is known as the Age of Fishes b/c the number and variety of the fish in the fossil reocrd.
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Devonian Period
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Mesozioc time is divided into three periods.....
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-Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.
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Precambien time is what?
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* All geologic time before the start of the Paloezoic Era.
~ includes the time span between the orgin of the Earth and 570 million years ago. |
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Precambrien rocks contain about half the world's what?
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metallic mineral deposits
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Identify some locations in North America where Precambrian rocks can be seen.
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...the bottom of the Grand Canyon, in the core of the Rocky Mountains, in New York City, and the Piedmont region.
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What mountains were formed by the Taconic Orogeny?
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the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Tactonic Mountains in New York State
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The largely unknown past before the Cambrian Period is referred to as the...
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Precambrian Era
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Which era is considered the Age of Reptiles?
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...the Mesozoic Era
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What are the sea scorpions that appeared during the Silurian Period called?
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...eurypterids
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What is the most common Cambrian fossil? (It is crab-like in form.)
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...trilobites
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__________ are a large group of terrestrial reptiles common during the Mesozoic era.
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...Dinosaurs
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_______ is the oldest era which began when Earth was first formed, between 4 and 5 billion years ago: the earliest known rocks formed during this era
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Archean Era
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_________ is the second oldest era which began about 2.5 billion years ago: evidence of simple plants and worms who lived in the ocean have been found in fossils in rocks from this time period
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Proterozoic Era
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________ is the third oldest era which began about 570 million years ago; contains fossils of both land and ocean plants and animals
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Paleozoic Era
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________ is the fourth oldest era which began about 250 million years ago; age of the dinosaurs/reptiles
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Mesozoic Era
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_________ is the youngest era which began about 65 million years ago and is still going on today; new evidence is the Ice Age and the appearance of humans
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Cenozoic Era
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No land-living animals are known for either the ___________ or the Ordovician.
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the Cambrien era
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The Cenozoic Era is divided into _______ periods and _______ epochs.
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two periods and seven epochs
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Cenozoic invertebrates that lived in the ocean....
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...were nearly the same as marine invertebrates of today.
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What mountain ranges or other features were formed or raised in the Cenozoic Era?
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..the Cascades, the Himalayas, the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Alps
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What does the Law of Superposition say?
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in a sequence of undisturbed (that is, not overturned) sedimentary rocks, the oldest rocks will be at the bottom and the younger rocks will be at the top
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What does the Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships say?
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"an igneous rock is younger than the rocks it had intruded, or cut across
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What does the Law of Included Fragments say?
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the pieces of one rock found in another rock must be older than the rock in which they are found
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Absolute time is....
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...a method of recording events that identifies the actual date of an event
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Relative time is...
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...the method of recording events in a time sequence by comparing the event with other events; does not identify actual date of occurrence
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The largest dinosaurs lived during the ____________.
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...Cretaceous Period.
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The dinosaurs dominated Earth for ____________ years.
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...160 million years.
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What was the Tethys Sea?
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A large bay that separated what are now the continents of Africa and Eurasia.
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What was Gonwanaland?
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It was the remainder of the countinents left over from the formation of Laurasia. It was in the southern part of the world.
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