question

Sir Richard Owen is famous for what?

answer

He coined the term 'dinosaur'

question

The oldest sedimentary rocks are at the bottom of a sequence of rocks because

answer

the particles laid down at one time are covered by particles laid down subsequently

question

If we took a crystal from a sedimentary rock that contains a dinosaur, and we obtained a radiometric date from that crystal, what event would we be dating?

answer

The age of the crystal when it cooled out of the magma

question

Each period of the geological time scale was defined by

answer

Marine fossils

question

After two half-lives, what percentage of a sample of 235U is left?

answer

25%

question

Strata

answer

Layers of rock

question

Formation

answer

The basic unit used to map rocks, defined by characteristics of its strata

question

Science

answer

Changes with new evidence and ideas

question

Dinosaurs

answer

Mesozoic terrestrial reptiles that walked with an upright stance

question

Science is based on

answer

evidence

question

Dinosaur fossils are mostly found in

answer

Sedimentary rocks deposited in lakes and swamps

question

Fossil

answer

Evidence of past life found in the rock record

question

Non-dinosaur reptiles of the Mesozoic include

answer

ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs and phytosaurs

question

Dinosaur fossils are found in

answer

Every continent

question

They types of fossils are

answer

Trace, body and chemical

question

Paleontologists

answer

Scientists who study fossils

question

The firs description of a dinosaur, Megalosaurus, was published by

answer

William Buckland in 1824

question

The socket in a dinosaur's pelvis that helps facilitate upright stance is

answer

Acetebulum

question

An example of further research changing our knowledge is

answer

Pterosaurs being put into birds

question

One major way in which dinosaurs are different from other reptiles is

answer

They walked with an upright stance

question

A graphic illustration of the closest evolutionary relationships of organisms is called

answer

A cladogram

question

The many fenestrae in the skull of the archosaurs provide

answer

Additional room for muscle attachment

question

Archosaurs include

answer

Dinosaurs, crocodiles and pterosaurs

question

The fourth trochanter is characteristic of dinosaurs and is found on which bone?

answer

Femur

question

What animal is phylogenetically closest to dinosaurs

answer

Pterosaurs

question

What is NOT a diagnostic feature of dinosaurs?

answer

A single post-orbital fenestrae

question

On a cladogram, the organisms at the top

answer

Share fewer characteristics than organisms below

question

Paleontologists are at a disadvantage compare to biologists because

answer

They only have skeletal structures to study

question

Synapsids have one postorbital fenestra, are extinct and

answer

are also called mammal-like reptiles

question

The two dinosaur clades are distinguished by

answer

The arrangement of the three pelvic bones

question

The science of the classification of living and extinct organisms is

answer

Taxonomy

question

Dinosaurs first appeared how many million years ago?

answer

230

question

What are the names of the periods when dinosaurs lived, arranged from oldest to youngest?

answer

Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous

question

At the start of the Triassic, all the continents were

answer

Joined into one continent called Pangaea

question

The climate of the Triassic was

answer

Hotter than today and arid

question

The earliest confirmed dinosaurs came from what country?

answer

Argentina

question

The first dinosaurs were

answer

Small and bipedal

question

The oldest dinosaur is

answer

Eoraptor

question

The common ancestor of all dinosaurs must have been

answer

Small, bipedal with a small head

question

A dinosaur that has more traits than its ancestor is

answer

Derived

question

The oldest North American dinosaur is

answer

Coelophysis

question

Lesothosaurus was a

answer

Basal ornithischian

question

The inferred reason for Lleaellynnosaura having such large eyes was

answer

It was dark much of the year in the high southern latitudes where it lived

question

Thyreophorans are

answer

Armored dinosaurs

question

What is NOT a characteristic of thyreophorans?

answer

Bipedal stance

question

The most commonly accepted function for the plates on the stegosaurus was

answer

Species recognition and sexual selection

question

During what time period did most stegosaurus live?

answer

Jurassic

question

During what time period did most ankylosaurs live?

answer

Cretaceous

question

Ornithischians living in the Jurassic ate

answer

Ferns, conifers, ginkgo, cycads and horsetails

question

Angiosperms

answer

Are the flowering plants and only became plentiful in the late Cretaceous

question

Ornithopods were

answer

Facultative quadrupedals

question

Skull modifications in ornithopod dinosaurs facilitated

answer

Chewing

question

Unossified bone ends are evidence that Maiasuara

answer

Care for its young

question

The best environment for fossilization of dinosaur ones was

answer

In swamps, lakes and coastal areas

question

The first animals to evolve the ability to process their food before digestion were

answer

Ornithopods

question

The mid-late Cretaceous was characterized by

answer

Large herds of hadrosaurs

question

What feature would NOT have made food gathering and processing more efficient for ornithopods?

answer

Expanded nares

question

What is not characteristic of ornithopods

answer

Peg-shaped teeth

question

Maiasuara nests set in sequential layers of rick imply

answer

It cared for its young

question

Marginocephalian means

answer

Ridged head

question

Marginocephalians lived in the same time period as

answer

Hadrosaurs

question

Ceratopsians from Mongolia and China

answer

Were smaller than their North American counterparts

question

Shearing dental batteries are characteristic of

answer

Ceratopsids

question

The last major dinosaur clade to evolve was

answer

Ceratopsians

question

What is NOT true of Pachycephalosaurs?

answer

Quadrupedal

question

What IS true of Pachycephalosaurs?

answer

Bony knobs and spikes on skull, lived in late Cretaceous and thickened dome on skull

question

The diversity of teeth and extra gut room in pachycephalosaurs indicates

answer

They may have eaten plants and animals or insects

question

Studies of coprolites, possibly of marginocephalians, suggest

answer

They ate fungus

question

Torosaurus and Triceratops were

answer

The mature and juvenile forms of the same species

question

In the late Jurassic

answer

The continents had started to split and the Atlantic Ocean was forming

question

In the late Jurassic, the climate was characterized by

answer

Slightly cooler temperatures, continental interiors wetter, seasonal snow and ice at poles

question

The saurischian pelvis is notable for

answer

The forward pointing pubis often with a large "boot"

question

Saurischian dinosaurs were

answer

Both carnivores and herbivores

question

Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus and Stegosaurus

answer

Are all found in the Morrison Formation of the western United States

question

What sauropod had longer forelimbs than hind limbs?

answer

Brachiosaurus

question

Evidence that sauropods grew fast is seen in

answer

Thin sections of pones

question

Air sacs in the bones of sauropods may have served to

answer

Stiffen bone structure, save weight, increase muscle control

question

A key piece of evidence shown by sauropod trackways is

answer

Sauropods did not drag their tails

question

What is NOT characteristic of sauropods?

answer

Bipedal

question

Diplodocoid and macronarian sauropods had different types of teeth. What does this suggest about their life styles?

answer

The teeth were well-suited to cropping vegetation similar to horses and they had peg-like teeth that was used to collect algae

question

Titanosaurs lived in the

answer

Cretaceous

question

What is the advantage to sauropods pf growing fast?

answer

The sauropods would then be much larger at an earlier age than if they were determinate growers, and they would continue to grow over time, still, as indeterminate growers do; and in social groups, this allows the matured dinosaurs to be distinct from the juvenile ones

question

Fused collarbones are known as

answer

The wishbone (furcula)

question

In the early Cretaceous, the climate was

answer

Cooler, with snow and ice at the poles

question

Homeothermy

answer

The ability to maintain constant or near constant body temperature

question

Endothermic

answer

Warm-blooded

question

Ectothermic

answer

Cold-blooded

question

During the Cretaceous

answer

Continents were split apart and high sea levels flooded the interior United States

question

The clade theropoda is characterized by

answer

Pointed, serrated teeth, hollow bones and a furcula

question

Theropods first evolved in the

answer

Triassic

question

An example of a primitive tetanuran is

answer

Allosaurus

question

Meglosaurs, spinosaurs, allosaurs and tyrannosaurs are all

answer

Tetanurans

question

Spinosaurs were specially adapted

answer

For swimming

question

The great white shark inspired the name for

answer

Carcharodontosaurus

question

The tyrannosaurids lived primarily in the

answer

Late Cretaceous

question

What feature of T. rex was NOT listed by Jack Horner as evidence for being a scavenger?

answer

Large brain

question

What features of T. rex WAS listed by Jack Horner as evidence for being a scavenger?

answer

Small beady eyes, increased olfactory lobes and small arms

question

List three things that suggest dinosaurs may have been endothermic

answer

Their growth rates were just as fast as mammals, which are all endothermic; their metabolism rates were high and they moved swiftly; and birds are endothermic

question

The terrestrial animal with the most powerful bite ever was

answer

Tyrannosaurus rex

question

The primitive condition for theropod hands is

answer

Four digits

question

Dilophosaurus is a

answer

Primitive theropod

question

List three characteristics of the giant meat-eaters

answer

Being specialized runners and predators; relatively large eyes; and the teeth were relatively large, curved, compressed and serrated

question

Bony quill knobs on Velociraptor's forelimbs are evidence that

answer

It had feathers

question

Digit two on the hind foot of Velociraptor

answer

Has an enlarged, movable claw

question

Dromaeosaurs and Troodons are collectively known as

answer

Deinonychosaurs

question

Unlike other theropods, Therizinosaurs

answer

Were not carnivorous

question

Deinocheirus was

answer

Nearly as big as T. rex

question

Oviraptor probably

answer

Sat on its nest

question

A paleontologist looking for Deinonychosaurs would not look in

answer

Triassic rocks

question

Two characteristics of Deinonychosaurs

answer

Deinonychosaurs had large skulls that were full of serrated teeth, a backward-directed pubis, a stiffened tail and huge claws on the second toes of the hind feet

question

Geographically, deinonychosaurs were found

answer

Globally

question

The stiffened tail of Deinonychosaurs

answer

Allowed them the stability to be quick, agile predators

question

The Dinosaur with the highest EQ

answer

Dromaeosaurids and Troodons

question

What was different about the hip structure of deinonychosaurs compared to the other theropods?

answer

Deinonychosaurs have a backward-directed pubis; their hips were like those of birds (ornithischian)

question

When John Ostrom found Deinonychus he realized it must have been an agile, speedy predator. Name three features that might have helped him to this conclusion

answer

The long tail of the Deinonychus served as a counterbalance; its skeletal structure suggests speed, high sustained activity and agility: hollow bones, large claws, limb proportions; it was a bipedal creature

question

The man who named the Dinosauria was

answer

Sir Richard Owen

question

If a sedimentary rock contained a dinosaur bone and a crystal that we dated as 230 million years old, what is the age of the dinosaur?

answer

We can;'t tell, because the age is only the age when the crystal formed

question

A dinosaur is defined as

answer

A Mesozoic terrestrial reptile that walked with upright stance

question

A fossil is

answer

Evidence of past life found in the rock record

question

Dinosaur fossils are found where?

answer

On every continent

question

The first published description of a dinosaur was by William Buckland. What dinosaur was it?

answer

Megalosaurus

question

The acetabulum is

answer

A hole in the socket of the pelvis in which the femur articulates

question

Crocodiles, pterosaurs and dinosaurs are all

answer

Archosaurs

question

Fenestrae in reptile skulls

answer

Provide room for muscle attachment

question

The femur of dinosaurs has a distinctive feature called the

answer

Fourth trochanter

question

Phylogenetically closest to dinosaurs are the

answer

Pterosaurs

question

Mammal-like reptiles

answer

Are synapsids and all extinct

question

The two dinosaur clades are distinguished by

answer

The arrangement of the three pelvic bones

question

What is NOT a characteristic shared by dinosaurs and reptiles?

answer

Upright stance

question

What are the time periods when the dinosaurs lived arranged in order from oldest to youngest?

answer

Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous

question

The oldest certain species of dinosaur is

answer

The Eodromaeus

question

In phylogeny, derived means

answer

Has the same characteristics as its ancestor plus some other traits

question

The plates on stegosaurs were probably used for

answer

Species recognition

question

Angiosperms became plentiful food for dinosaurs

answer

In the late Cretaceous

question

Growth rates in hadrosaurs were studied using

answer

Thin slices of bone revealing miscroscopic structure

question

Ornithopods were the first animals to

answer

Evolve the ability to process food before digestion

question

What are the characteristics of ornithopods?

answer

Large size, three-toed feet and a modified skull structure for chewing

question

The arrangement of the continents in the early Triassic was

answer

All joined together

question

Coelophysis can be found inn what strata of rocks?

answer

Triassic

question

Most ankylosaurs lived in which time period?

answer

The Cretaceous period

question

In the late Cretaceous you might have seen

answer

Large herds of hadrosaurs

question

List the periods of the Mesozoic arranged from youngest to oldest

answer

Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic

question

Paleontologists think what characteristic of Llaellynosaurus might have helped it live successfully in high latitudes?

answer

Large eyes

question

What are the features of theyreophorans?

answer

Small head, bony armor, closed antorbital fenestra

question

If 12.5% of a sample of 235U is left in a rock, how many half-lives have elapsed?

answer

3

question

A chart showing the closest evolutionary relationships of organisms is called a

answer

Cladogram

question

Armored dinosaurs are also known as

answer

Thyreophorans

question

Upright stance means

answer

Walking with legs tucked under the body

question

Mary Ann Mantell found the bones of a dinosaur which her husband, Gideon, described. What dinosaur was it?

answer

Iguanodon

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