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159 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The three major hypotheses for the use of bizarre skeletal structures in dinosaurs (like frills and outlandish horns) |
1) predator defense 2) thermo-regulation 3) display and/or combat |
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species specific features |
physical features that are specific to a species and not necessarily to the entire group of animals |
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The primary use of horns |
to compete for mates |
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extant phylogenetic bracket (EPB) |
the method of assessing soft tissues and behaviors in dinosaurs |
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What animals are used for EPB? |
crocodiles and birds |
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bio mechanical properties |
looking at the practical applications of features |
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The best source of information regarding dinosaur behavior |
observations of behavior in living animals |
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growth patterns |
looking at the bones to see how often an animal's horns grew |
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sexual selection |
the process of evolution through the physical traits that are found to be the most attractive to the opposite sex |
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hierarchy |
pecking order |
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Hadrosaurs and ceratopsids may have had evolved to have... |
complex social organizations involving hierarchy |
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re productively isolated |
when two populations of a given species become isolated from each other |
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Jean-Jacques Pouech |
French geologist and priest who found eggshell fragments |
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Philippe Matheron |
a geologist that found nearly complete dinosaur eggs in 1869 |
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Paul Gervais |
identified Philippe Matheron's eggs to be dinosaurian in 1877 |
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Roy Chapman Andrews |
led the Central Asiatic Expedition in 1923. Discovered entire nests of oblong eggs arranged in neat rings like rolls in a bread basket |
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Henry Fairfield Osborn |
gave the name "Oviraptor" to the presumed egg theif |
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Mark Norell |
In 1993, concluded that Oviraptor was not stealing eggs, but the ones actually nesting them |
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Charles Gilmore |
a veteran fossil hunter from the Smithsonian in 1928 found an abundance of Dinosaur eggshells in Montana |
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Jack Horner |
discovered and analysed the dinosaurian fauna of Montana |
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Two Medicine Formation |
a place in Montana that is abundant in fossils. Charles Gilmore and Jack Horner both worked there |
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Maiasaura Peeblesorum |
good mother lizard nested in large numbers evidence shows they took care of their young plant matter evidence shows they may have provided shelter and warmth for their young |
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Evidences of caring for young |
nested in large numbers plant matter preserves soft cartilage in juvenile dinosaurs |
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Auca Mahuevo |
dig site in Argentina famous for its many eggs unhatched dinosaur embryos found here along with patches of delicate fossilized skin |
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John Ostrom and Robert Baker |
brought the theory to the public that dinosaurs must have been warm blooded |
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metabolism |
heat generated by chemical activity in cells |
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metabolic rate |
a measure of oxygen consumption |
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endothermic |
warm blooded |
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ectothermic |
cold blooded |
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homeothermic |
maintain a constant body temperature |
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poikilothermic |
fluctuating body temperature |
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increased metabolic rate mean... |
greater levels of activity |
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surface area to volume relationship |
as a sphere increases in size, its surface area increases with the square of the radius |
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inertial homeothermy or gigantothermy |
body temperature is maintained by virtue of size rather than greater metabolic rates
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three major alternatives for dinosaur metabolism |
1) all dinosaurs were ectotherms 2) all dinosaurs were endotherms 3) dinosaurs were characterized by a diverse range of metabolic strategies |
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inertial homeotherms |
by virtue of their large size, can not avoid maintaining fairly high, constant body core temperatures |
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all organisms contain fixed proportions of six elements: |
carbon hydrogen nitrogen oxygen phosphorus sulfur |
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producers |
directly harness energy from the sun |
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consumers |
primary consumers eat producers secondary consumers eat primary consumers |
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decomposers |
organisms that recycle chemicals for the next generation of life |
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Earth's Ecosystem |
Producers Primary Consumers Secondary Consumers Decomposers |
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Photosynthesis |
the process of converting sunlight into sugar |
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No lifeforms exist alone. |
Every species, including those of producers, is interdependent with many others |
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Symbiosis |
the phenomenon where two or more species live in close physical proximity for extended periods |
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Mycorrhizae |
most important example of symbiosis |
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What is used by plants for nutrients? |
Nitrogen derived from the decomposition of previous generations of plants and animals |
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Phosphorus |
enable plants to deal with harsh environmental conditions such as drought, high temperatures, and toxins |
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Angiosperms |
flowering plants |
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gymnosperms |
plants with bare seeds, non flowering plants |
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soil |
a complex mixture organic material, minerals, gas, and nutrients |
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How did soil formation start? |
weathering of rocks |
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important agent of weathering |
bacteria |
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O, A, B, and C |
four general horizons stacked on top of one another |
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O horizon |
mostly organic materials |
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A horizon |
composed of minerals and humus, full of biological activity |
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B horizon |
composed of fine clays with some living and organic matter, but must less than in A |
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C horizon |
comprised of fragmented rock debris |
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there is a great mass of life... |
under the surface of the soil than there is above it |
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organisms under the soil: |
millipedes worms termites fungi bacteria |
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coprolites |
fossilized poop |
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it now appears that bacteria... |
play a crucial role in the process of fossilization |
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Taphonomy |
documentation of the transition from biosphere to lithosphere |
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Where do we find fossils? |
bogs and tar pits
sand dunes ice river channels and floodplains |
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terrestrial environments |
deserts wetlands lakes river channels floodplains |
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Efremov |
coined Taphonomy in 1940 |
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hard tissues |
overwhelming majority of vertebrate fossils are restricted to this, like bones and teeth |
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articulated skeletons |
fully, connected skeletons |
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dis articulated skeletons |
disconnected skeletons |
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Pre-Burial |
potential factors: dis articulation scavenging weathering trampling transport float and bloat |
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Burial |
Sediment deposition Assemblage Catastrophic assemblage Attritional Assemblage Bonebed |
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Sediment Deposition |
for fossilization to occur, a bone must generally be covered with sediment |
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Assemblage |
a collection of fossils, a sample of an ancient community of organisms |
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Catastrophic Assemblage |
a fossil assemblage including many individuals that died over a short period of time |
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Attritional Assemblage |
a fossil assemblage that formed over a long period of time |
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Bonebed |
a site containing the remains of more than one individual, and often bones of many individuals |
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Post-Burial |
Fossil body fossils permineralization recrystalization replacement reworking |
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body fossils |
remains of body parts |
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trace fossils |
impressions of sediment left by an organism |
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permineralization |
spaces in bone become filled with minerals |
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recrystalization |
bone mineral is dissolved and reprecipitated |
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replacement |
bone mineral is replaced with new minerals |
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reworking |
occurs when bones and/or sediments are actively eroded from their original place of deposition |
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Taphonomic filters |
Pre-Burial, Burial, and Post Burial |
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Selection |
a reduction in the numbers and kinds of hard parts preserved |
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Mixing |
when remains from different stratigraphic levels or different geographical regions are combined |
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Alteration |
disturbances or removal of bony features |
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coarse sands |
indicate channel deposit and high transport energy |
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fine silts and clays |
indicate deposition outside a channel |
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meandering rivers |
broad, deep, and typically sinuous rivers like the Missippi |
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point bars |
develop at bends in the meandering rivers |
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channel lag |
finer materials are swept downstream |
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braided or anastomosing rivers |
occur as networks of intersecting channels |
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There is a strong correlation between meandering rivers and... |
channel lags on the one hand, and braided rivers and channel fills on the other. |
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Modern Taphonomy |
combines observational and experimental data |
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evidence of environment |
the nature of the sediments provided |
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degree of articulation |
an obvious indicator of post-mortem disturbance |
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bioturbation |
bone position being altered by other organisms |
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bone modification |
those that are caused by fluvial processes, such as abrasion those that result from exposure on land |
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land-based modification |
weathering trampling scavenging insect boring |
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insect borings |
fossil bone that has been dug through by insects |
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cosmopolitan |
wide ranging, similar traits |
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endemic |
particular groups restricted to differing continents |
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Oceans are much slower to heat up and... |
to cool down than are continents |
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Pangaea was more likely subject to... |
wider temperature extremes |
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strong seasonality |
variation in weather depending on the time of the year |
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monsoons |
think rainy season on the African savanna |
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The Late Triassic represents a time... |
that was generally warm and dry at low latitudes with strong seasonality
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end-Permian extinction |
largest mass extinction the Earth has experienced greater than 70% of all species in the ocean and over 50% of the species on land disappeared |
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causes of end-Permian extinction |
volcanism, asteroid collisions, and dramatic changes in global seal levels |
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Triassic Floral Diversity |
cycads cardioids conifers ginkgoes ferns seed ferns |
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Early Triassic |
consisted mostly of pteridophyte ferns and gymnosperms |
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Late Triassic |
tough and spiny foliage, likely rich in chemical defenses |
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Tetrapods of Triassic Period |
frogs salamanders turtles lizards snakes crocodiles mammals dinosaurs |
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Triassic Period witnessed |
"Dawn of the Dinosaurs" "Dawn of Modern Ecosystems" |
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dicynodonts |
slow-moving, bulky animals that are closely related to mammals |
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Crurotarsi |
major group of archosaurs |
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Ornithodira |
evolved into a range of groups including pterosaurs, dinosaurs and birds |
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Phytosaurs |
large four-legged carnivorous rauisuchains |
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aetosaurs |
armored |
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crocodylomorphs |
small, gracile, upright walking predators that eventually evolved into the crocodiles of today |
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basal dinosauromorphs |
dinosaur precursors |
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lagerpetids |
small bipedal |
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silesaurids |
beaked quadrupedal herbivores |
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competition |
may have had a competitive edge over other kinds of animals alive at the time fully upright posture bipedalism |
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201.5 MYA |
major extinction event at the close of the Triassic wiped out almost all of the previously dominant reptiles that lived alongside the earliest dinosaurs |
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The end-Triassic extinction |
one of the largest mass extinctions the Earth has experienced |
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epieric seas |
flooding of lower parts of the continents |
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ergs |
sand seas |
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Morrison Formation |
broad riverplain that produced sediments in North America |
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during the Jurassic Period... |
there was no polar ice or glaciers global seal levels were higher |
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Jurassic Flora |
cycads conifers ginkgoes ferns seed ferns gymnosperms tough, spiny foliage, rich in chemical defenses |
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Jurassic Animals |
insects frogs salamanders turtles lizards snakes crocodiles small mammals dinosaurs pterosaurs rhamphorhyncoids birds |
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Jurrassic Oceans |
diverse groups of bony fish and ammonites sharks plesiousaurs pliosaurids ichthyosaurs fish-eating crocodiles |
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Cretaceous Interior Seaway |
a shallow sea that divided the world into eastern and western portions |
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Cretaceous climates |
very mild and relatively warm |
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pteridophytes |
ferns and horsetails |
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Cretaceous Flora |
angiosperms occupied a wider range of habitats, achieved a broad range of sizes and heights, recovered quickly from damage, and had fewer chemical and mechanical impediments to digestion |
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Cretaceous theropods |
diversified dramatically |
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Cretaceous sauropods |
the titanosaurs remained dominant until the end of the period |
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abelisaurs |
dominant meat eaters in many southern hemisphere ecosystems |
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Cretaceous Dinosaurs |
titanosaurs theropods abelisaurs tyrannosaurs anklosaurs ornithopods hypsilophodonts iguanodonts hadrosaurs pachycephalosaurs ceratopsians |
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background extinction |
continually occurring, isolated extinctions of individual species |
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mass extinction |
simultaneous disappearance of numerous species of varied kinds all around the globe |
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How many mass extinctions has the earth had? |
5 |
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Earth History |
Ordovician Devonian Permian Triassic Cretaceous |
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K-T Extinction Hypotheses |
1) Extraterrestrial impact 2) volcanism 3) climate change |
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K-T Extinction casualties |
dinosaurs pterosaurs several families of birds several families of marsupial mammals plesiosaurs mosasaurs ammonites various groups of plankton |
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Luis Alvarez |
In 1980, with his son, reported that an element known as iridium occurs in relative abundance in sediments at the K-T boundary |
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Iridium |
rare on Earth, but present in larger concentrations in extraterrestrial bodies like asteroids and comets |
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impact winter scenario |
asteroid about 10 km in diameter collided with Earth at a velocity of 60,000 mph. Upon impact, the asteroid disintegrated, throwing smoke into the air cause a period of cold and dark lasting several months |
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Chicxulub Crater |
near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that looks to be the site of impact |
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The Late Cretaceous was a period of |
intense tectonic activity |
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Maastrichtian |
the best-known interval spans the last 4 million years of the Cretaceous |
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the most complete record of dinosaurs occur in... |
western North America |
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two steps for new animal species to originate |
1) two populations of a given species must become isolated 2) the population must diverge |
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Fluctuations of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway |
a cause of diversification among dinosaurs |
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the giant theropods most likely got their size because of |
the continent sized landmasses or the co occurrence of two or more large carnivores |
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Mesozoic Era |
Triassic Jurassic Cretacious |
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Seven Types of Dinosaurs |
Sauropods Ankylosaurs Stegosaurs Ornithopods Ceratopsian Pachycephalosaurs Theropods |
