Chapter 8 Pretest

Front 1

The principle of faunal succession was created by

Back 1

William Smith

Front 2

The study of what happens to the remains of an organism is called

Back 2

taphonomy

Front 3

Rapid evolutionary change during long, static periods is known as

Back 3

punctuated equilibrium

Front 4

Before the formation of the seven continents of the world, there was a supercontinent called

Back 4

Pangaea

Front 5

According to Bishop Ussher, when was Earth created?

Back 5

6,000 years ago

Front 6

The law of superposition created by Nicolaus Steno helped lay the foundations for

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relative dating

Front 7

All of the following are relative methods of dating EXCEPT

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radiocarbon dating

Front 8

All of the following are absolute methods of dating EXCEPT

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cultural dating

Front 9

Which of the following elements can be used in radiometric dating

Back 9

All of these are correct

Front 10

To calculate the numerical age of a fossil specimen that you believe dates to about 2 mya, which of the following methods would you choose?

Back 10

fission-track dating

Front 11

Your professor is planning to undertake chemical isotope analysis for her latest paleoanthropology project. When you ask her for more details, she invites you to guess the topic of her project based on this fact alone. You suggest that her project may be about

Back 11

Any of these are correct.

Front 12

A volcanic eruption on the coast of Japan in 1850 deposits a layer of ash on top of a layer of red clay, and the ash is covered by a layer of silt in a tsunami in 1902. Archaeologists find a coin between the ash and silt, and they find a small pot between the ash and clay. Given this sequence of events, which of the following is true?

Back 12

The pot is older than the coin

Front 13

5,730 years is the ______________ of the carbon-14 radioisotope

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half-life

Front 14

The molecular clock indicates that humans and chimpanzees diverged about ____ mya

Back 14

9

Front 15

You want to undertake a project to study the past environment in which the Inuit lived in Greenland. Your professor suggests that you think about climate, specifically that you

Back 15

test microorganisms in the ocean to estimate temperature fluctuations.

Front 16

While studying for your physical anthropology midterm, your classmate tells you that the bones of Lucy, a famous australopithecine specimen that dates to about 3.2 million years ago, were dated based on carbon-14 analysis. You note that this is incorrect because

Back 16

All of these are correct.

Front 17

The era in which we are living is the

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Cenozoic

Front 18

A team of paleoanthropologists has concluded based on skeletal anatomy that the new species they found, Oreopithecus, lived in an arboreal habitat. This conclusion may have been based largely on the apes’

Back 18

long arm bones

Front 19

For fossilization to occur, bones should meet the following taphonomic requirement(s).

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The bones must remain in an anoxic environment

Front 20

Fossils are most commonly found in

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sedimentary rock

Front 21

According to this geologic timescale, which epoch immediately preceded the current one?

Back 21

Pleistocene

Front 22

The object seen here can be used

Back 22

All of these are correct

Front 23

The objects seen here can provide a(n) _________ date for an archaeological site

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relative

Front 24

This is a typical C4 plant, associated with open grasslands

Back 24

True

Front 25

This graphic represents Steno’s law of superposition

Back 25

True