Geology Midterm 2

Front 1

Seven obstacles that the first organisms to colonize land had to face

Back 1

1. exposure to air, drying out
2. unstable environments
3. can't rely on water to support body
4. air has less nutrients
5. absorbing gases is different
6. exposure to UV rays
7. adjust vision and hearing

Front 2

How did plants become adapted to land during the Silurian?

Back 2

Cuticle, Lignin

Front 3

Cuticle

Back 3

-a waxy layer that covers the surface of the plant
-keeps the plant from drying out
-protects plant from UV rays

Front 4

Lignin

Back 4

-touch organic material that makes the cell walls of plants stronger
-enables plants to have a skeleton that would not collapse on land

Front 5

Cooksonia

Back 5

-one of the first land plants; Late Silurian in Ireland
-a tiny rootless, leadless plant; few cm high
-simple branching stem with reproductive organs on the tips
-has a cuticle and cell walls reinforced with lignin

Front 6

Plant adaptation to life on land during the Devonian?

Back 6

Leaves, Roots, Wood

Front 7

end of devonian, all major inovations in land plants had appeared except one

Back 7

flowering plants

Front 8

Prototaxites

Back 8

-Devonian
-giant fungus; 26 ft tall, 3 ft diameter
-fungi is more closely related to animals than plants

Front 9

Carboniferous Period

Back 9

-Mississippian + Pennsylvanian
-lots of coal deposits
-lots of wetlands and swamps
-high oxygen levels

Front 10

Kind of plants growing in Carboniferous swamps

Back 10

Scale trees, horsetails, seed ferns, ferns

Front 11

Mazon Creek Fossils

Back 11

-northeastern Illinois; Pennsylvanian Period
-most complete record of late Paleozoic life known
-hard and soft parts of organisms in siderite

Front 12

Arthropods

Back 12

-group of animals that has exploited land most successfully
-pre-adapted for living on land: sturdy exoskeleton for retaining water, strong legs for walking
-Late Silurian - first abundant evidence of arthropods

Front 13

cryptobiosis

Back 13

-a state of life in which an organism's metabolic processes are brought to a near standstill
-is a responce to harmful environmental conditions such as a lack of water, freezing temps., extra salty water, shortage of oxygen
-is reversable when environment improves
-may have assisted so transitions onto land

Front 14

tardigrades

Back 14

-water bears
-dust-sized invertebrates that can withstand extreme temps, radiation, and pressure while in a cryptobiotic state

Front 15

chordates

Back 15

-group of animals with a stiff rod of dense cartilaginous tissue running along their backs (notocord)

Front 16

Three major kinds of chordates

Back 16

1. Sea squirts
2. lancelets
3. vertebrates

Front 17

Sea Squirts

Back 17

-adults = filter feeders, attached to sea floor
-larvae have notocord tails, spinal cord
-lack hard parts

Front 18

lancelets

Back 18

-have notocord their whole life
-burrow in sediment

Front 19

Pikaia

Back 19

-oldest known chordate
-notocord running down back

Front 20

vertebrates

Back 20

-have backbone
-bone is made of calcium phosphate, does not dissolve in acidic conditions like calcium carbonate does

Front 21

Ostracoderms

Back 21

-Cambrian to Devonian
-extinct group of small, jawless fishes with some body armor
-oldest known vertebrates

Front 22

lamprey

Back 22

-kind of living fish that does not have jaws, is a parasite

Front 23

evolution of jaws

Back 23

-Silurian
-innovation led to the decline of jawless fishes
-makes more vicious forms of predation possible

Front 24

vertebrate jaw

Back 24

appears to have evolved from the gill arches of jawless fish

Front 25

gills

Back 25

-fimsy sheets, used in respiration, supported by gill arches

Front 26

placoderms

Back 26

-dominante group of fish during the Devonian Period
-jaws lined with sharp-edged plates

Front 27

cartilaginous fishes

Back 27

-sharks and rays
-appear in Devonian
-do not preserve well as fossils

Front 28

Most common vertebrate fossils in the world

Back 28

shark teeth

Front 29

Megalodon

Back 29

-extinct shark
-twice as long as the largest great white shark and its teeth were three times as big

Front 30

ray-finned fishes

Back 30

-thin fins with numerous, thin radiating bones
-ray-finned fishes are much more abundant than lobe finned fishes today

Front 31

lobe-finned fishes

Back 31

-sturdy fins with chunky bones in the middle of the fin that are arranged in a one-two-several-many layout
-the first terrestrial vertebrates appear to have evolved from lobe-finned fish

Front 32

cladogram

Back 32

a branching diagram that depicts possible evolutionary relationships among different groups of organisms

Front 33

clade

Back 33

a groups of organisms that consists of an ancestor and all of its decendants

Front 34

node

Back 34

a place on a cladogram where two clades split off from each other; represents a hypothetical common ancestor that is shared by the two clades that branch off the node

Front 35

sister taxa

Back 35

usually refers to the two clades that branch off a single node

Front 36

general features of amphibians

Back 36

-smooth skin; break through skin as much as lungs
-sprawling posture
-all living and extinct amphibians were carniverous as adults
-no marine amphibians
-many return to freshwater to reproduce

Front 37

Tiktaalik

Back 37

-variety of lobe-finned fish that lived 10 million yrs before Acanthostega and ichthyostega
-freshwater predator
-fish and amphibian characteristics
-had a neck that could move from it's shoulder girdle

Front 38

Ichthyostega and Acanthostega similarities

Back 38

-two of the earlist tetrapods
-commonly considered amphibians
-fed on fish, insects, spiders
-fang-like teeth in their jaws and roofs of mouths

Front 39

Acanthostega

Back 39

-2 feet long
-ribs were too short and too weakly attached to the vertebral column to keep the chest cavity from collapsing out of water
-lived in shallow, freshwater environments
-legs evolved for living near land but not on land
-fish-like tail with deep fin
-gills in addition to lungs
-no wirsts and ankles
-eight digits

Front 40

Ichthyostega

Back 40

-sturdy pevic and shoulder girdles, good rib cage
-had wrists and ankles
-probably lived on land, still had fish tail
-breathed with lungs, no gills
-seven digits

Front 41

temnospondyls

Back 41

-successful amphibians of Permian
-7 feet long
-broad, flat heads
-carniverous, couldn't chew or grind

Front 42

Purposes of egg coverings

Back 42

-cushion and protect embryo
-prevent embryo from drying out
-supply nutients

Front 43

two major branches of amniotes

Back 43

synapsids and reptiles

Front 44

when were Synapsids dominant

Back 44

Permian and Early Triassic

Front 45

Pelycosaurs

Back 45

-extinct group of late Paleozoic synapsids
-dominant vertebrates on land during Middle/Late Permian
-big heads, strong jaws, some have sails on backs
-6 feet, 450 lbs
-carnivores and herbivores

Front 46

Dimetrodon

Back 46

a carniverous pelycoaur

Front 47

temporal openings

Back 47

paired openings on the sides or top of the skull behind the orbits

Front 48

anapsids

Back 48

lack temporal openings, turtles are the only living anapsids

Front 49

synapsids

Back 49

one pair of temporal openings

Front 50

diapsids

Back 50

two pairs of temporal openings

Front 51

Permian is marked by the largest mass extinction event known

Back 51

-90%-95% of marine species go extinct
-70% of terrestrial land vertebrates go extinct

Front 52

causes for Permian mass extinction

Back 52

-Siberian Traps
-formation of Pangea

Front 53

Siberian Traps

Back 53

-largest volcanic eruption in Eath history
-1-4 million cubic kilometers of magma over the span of one million years
-volcanic gases would have had a profound effect on the climate, initial cooling followed by dramatic warming

Front 54

formation of Pangea

Back 54

-continents were pushed together
-reduced shallow marine environments
-disrupted oceanic and atomospheric circulation patterns
-interior of Pangea was hot and dry

Front 55

Mesozoic Era

Back 55

-no Mesozoic rocks in Wisconsin
-Pangea breaks up at end of Triassic, very separated by Cretaceous
-warmer that today, warmer that Paleozoic Era, no ice sheets over poles, higher sea levels

Front 56

archosaurs

Back 56

-late permian
-clade of diapsid that consists of crutarsans, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs

Front 57

diagnostic features of archosaurs

Back 57

-large opening in front of each orbit - antorbital opening
-upright posture
-cleidoic egg

Front 58

cleidoic egg

Back 58

-shell made of calcium carbonate that is laid doqwn by the mother after the egg is fertilized
-gases can pass through the eggshell
-well adapted to being laid on dry land

Front 59

Crurotarsans

Back 59

-dominant vertebrates during Middle Triassic
-early ones were fully terrestrial, upright postures, some bipedial

Front 60

dinosaurs

Back 60

-dominated land for 135 million years
-dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent, even Antarctica
-diagnostic features include 3 sacral vertebrae and a hip socket with a hole in it
-bird hipped, lizard hipped

Front 61

ilium

Back 61

uppermost bone, clamped to spinal column

Front 62

ischium

Back 62

points down and to the back

Front 63

pubis

Back 63

in front of the ischium

Front 64

Lizard-hipped Dinos of Mesozoic Era

Back 64

-forward pubis
-all had teeth in front of jaws
-herbivores and carnivores
-no teeth for grinding

Front 65

Bird-Hipped Dinos

Back 65

-backward pubis
-lacked teeth in front jaw
-all herbivores
-grinding teeth

Front 66

Earliest known dinosaurs

Back 66

-Late Triassic of Argentina
-Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus
-small, bipedal carnivores with grasping hands

Front 67

theropods

Back 67

-major variety of lizard-hipped dino
-all bipedial
-thin-walled limb bones
-furcula
-largest terrestrial carnivores of all time
-birds were evolved from them

Front 68

Other Triassic Dinos

Back 68

Coelophysis and Plateosaurus

Front 69

characteristic Jurassic dinosaurs

Back 69

sauropods, stegosaurs, Allosaurus

Front 70

Sauropods

Back 70

-Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous
-fossils found on every continent except Antarctica
-lizard hipped, quadrupedal herbivores
-largest known land vertebrates
-small peg teeth in small skulls
-not good for grinding plants
-gastroliths

Front 71

gastroliths

Back 71

stones in gizzards to help grind food

Front 72

stegosaurs

Back 72

-middle jurassic to late cretaceous
-fossils mainly in asia/n. america
-bony plates or spikes down back/tail
-plate function: heat regulation, sexual display

Front 73

Allosaurus

Back 73

-Late Jurassic
-fossils most common in W. United States
-probably most common carnivore of the Late Jurassic
-30-40 feet long

Front 74

characteristic Cretaceous dinosaurs

Back 74

hadrosaurs, ceratopsids, Tyrannosaurus rex

Front 75

hadrosaurs

Back 75

-Middle to Late Cretaceous
-bird-hipped, two or four feet
-herbivores
-hundreds of complete fossil records
-hundreds of grinding teeth (dental battery)
-some had skulls with crests

Front 76

Ceratopsids

Back 76

-late cretaceous
-fossils only in N. America
-four footed, bird-hipped
-probably lived in herds

Front 77

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Back 77

-Late Cretaceous
-fossils only in N.America
-massive head with large, serrated teeth that were replaced continuously
-small two fingered forearms
-largest, most powerful land carnivore that ever lived