Geology 3 Midterm – Flashcards
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one characteristic that allows reptiles to live completely on land and not be dependent on water
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amniote egg
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A flowering plant which forms seeds inside a protective chamber called an ovary.
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angiosperms
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Type of armored dinosaur, characterized by dorsal shield and lived mostly in latest cretaceous. There are two major groups, the nodosaurids who are characterized by clubbed tails and ankylosaurids which are characterized by skulls with horns
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Ankylosaurians
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the ____ was a transitional species during the Mesozoic Era with teeth, scales, claws, and feathers, linking birds and reptiles
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archeopteryx
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A group of primates that walked upright and lived in east africa about 3 million years ago. Lucy
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Australopithicus
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Starting point for archosaur evolution. Small. Lightly built. Long tails. Shorter forelimbs. Upright hind legs. Many bipedal
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Basal Archosaurs
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a land bridge between Asia (Siberia) and North America (Alaska) that was exposed during the most recent Ice Age that played a critical role in populating North and South America.
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Bering Land Bridge
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class of animals with feathers, wings and beaks. They lay eggs with hard shells and have hollow bones to reduce the density of their skeleton.
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Birds
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global tectonic event of the Mesozoic
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Breakup of Pangea
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-from 550-800 my ag
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Breakup of Rodinia
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Process of fossilization wherein the original organic material in a fossil has been reduced to a film of carbon looking like a black drawing
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carbonization
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65 million years ago-today (time of mammals and birds).
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Cenozoic
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huge heads, parrot-like beaks, horns on their heads, appeared mid-Cretaceous
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Ceratopsians
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Process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other over time
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coevolution
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The process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment
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convergent evolution
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Flowering plants first appeared during the ___________________ Period.
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Cretaceous
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when was the last mass extinction?
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Cretaceous
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period of time from about 140 million to 65 million years ago (ages vary). Associated with it are warmer global temperatures and no major glaciers, which enabled the survival of large reptile dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus rex and the Triceratops.
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Cretaceous
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characteristics of the first true mammal vs. reptiles?
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differentiated teeth
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_____ were the dominant vertebrate life form during the Mesozoic era.
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Dinosaurs
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The largest division of time on the geological scale.
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eons
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Shallow seas during the Paleozoic
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epicontinental seas
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Subdivisions of the periods of the geologic time scale.
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epochs
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Preserved remains of once-living organisms
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fossils
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was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 300 million years ago, and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago.
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Formation of Pangea
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a warm ocean of water current flowing
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gulfstream
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"Naked seeds", such as pine cones and other conifers.
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gymnosperm
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Duck billed dinosaurs with big tail that doesn't bend used to counterweight the front end of their body.
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hadrosaurs
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the current interglaciation period, extending from 10, 000 years ago to the present on the geologic time scale
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Holocene
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Bipedal ( family)
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Hominidea
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upright human
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Homo Erectus
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A hominine relative of human beings that appeared in Africa between 2 and 3 million years ago, and was able to make simple tools.
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Homo Habilis
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Humans
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Homo Sapien
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a fossil reptile
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ichthyosaurs
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a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found
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index fossil
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The geological age when birds first arose is called ______.
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Jurassic
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What came after the Triassic?
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Jurassic
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period known as the age of the dinosaurs
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Jurassic
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Most of the modern species of reptiles are
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Lizards
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Animals that have hair and produce milk for their young
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Mammals
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An era with the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods from 251 to 65.5 M years ago, marked by dinosaurs, gymnosperms and angiosperms, as well as the mass extinction at the end of the period
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Mesozoic
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A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.
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natural selection
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A subdivision of the Cenozoic that encompasses the Miocene and Piocene
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Neogene
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belong to the division Bryophyta, which includes mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. These plants have no vascular tissue, so the plants cannot retain water or deliver it to other parts of the plant body.
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non-vascular plants
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bird-hipped
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Ornithischians
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the first period of the Cenozoic
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Paleogene
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period 66 - 23 mya; mammal and bird adaptive radiation; cooling of Earth and increasing abundance of deciduous plants; first grasses; subdivided into paleocene, eocene, and oligocene epochs
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Paleogene
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65.5 to 23 mya
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Paleogene
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an era occurring between 570 million and 230 million years ago, characterized by the advent of fish, insects, and reptiles
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Paleozoic
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Extinction of South American marsupials was caused by migration of competitors from the north across what?
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Panamanian Land Bridge
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(plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
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Pangea
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"What style of fossilization involves the infilling of cavities in an existing structure with another mineral?"
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permineralization
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most recent eon, include the past 542 million years, divided into 3 eras
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Phanerozoic Eon
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a large extinct marine reptile of the Mesozoic era, with a broad flat body, large paddlelike limbs, and typically a long flexible neck and small head (waterhorse)
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Pleisiosaurs
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Homo sapiens appeared during which epoch of the Cenozoic?
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Pleistocene
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What is the geologic epoch that defines the Cenezoic ice ages?
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Pleistocene
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The fluctuating cooling trend that occurred during the Cenozoic culminated in the glaciation of the ________ epoch, during which continental glaciers covered over 1/3 of the northern hemisphere.
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Pleistocene
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climate change and hunting by premature humans killed off many prehistoric mammal species (11 mya)
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Pleistocene Extinction Event
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Mesozoic flying reptiles with large, batlike wings
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Pterosaurs
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Hemoglobin has the ability to display cooperative binding. The property of cooperative binding is only displayed by proteins that have __________________ structure.
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Quaternary
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What is the actinoptertygii class made up of?
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Ray finned fish
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What are the are the most ancient living vertebrates that have a skeleton made of bone?
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Ray finned fish
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A reaction in which one element replaces another in a compound or when two elements in different compounds trade places
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replacement
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extant birds are derived from which group of dinosaurs - Lizard hipped
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Saurischians
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Pelvic bone pointed forward and down, elongated neck, upper/lower jaw meet, big teeth
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Saurischians
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A plant eating, quadrupeds, usually large with long necks. (Ex- brontosaurus)
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Sauropods
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The largest living turtles are the _____
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sea turtles
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Ophidiophobia
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Snakes
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Were armored dinosaurs, characterized by plates and spikes, had simple teeth and were quadrupedal and lived mostly in late jurassic. The plates and spikes were most likely used for display (sexual, to scare predators or to intimidate competing males). They had spikes or bone growth on tail that was used for defense. Sister group of ankylosaurians. Had very small heads and two brains, one small brain and then a second
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Stegosaurians
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the region where an oceanic plate sinks down into the asthenosphere at a convergent boundary (usually between continental and oceanic plates)
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subduction zone
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A lineage of tetrapods that emerged 300 million years ago and gave rise to mammals. Synapsids can be distinguished from other tetrapods by the presence of a pair of openings in the skull behind the eyes, known as the temporal fenestrae
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Synapsids
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are a species of snow lizard found roaming the windswept snow plains of Hoth. The Rebel Alliance domesticated the swift creature during their stay on the ice planet, and used the animals for patrol duties outside Echo Base.
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Tauntaun
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mammal-like reptiles that appeared millions of years ago
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Therapsids
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A group of relatively small, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs.
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Theropods
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Reptiles further radiate; first dinosaurs; egg laying mammals
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Triassic
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are reptiles endemic to New Zealand and which, although resembling most lizards, are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia.
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Tuatara
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group of reptiles characterized by a shell and toothless jaws
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turtles
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what contributed to the abundance of new life forms in the Paleozoic era?
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warm shallow seas
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Where did the organic matter that formed crude oil come from?
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warm shallow seas
