Geology 105: History of Life
Final Exam
May 29, 1998
Version 1
I. Write your name and social security number on your scantron form.
II. Write the version number of your exam on the scantron form.
III. There are 75 questions on the exam worth one point each. Be sure to read the questions carefully before answering.

1) Based on the principle of superposition, older fossils will be found beneath younger fossils.
 
2) Evolution of new species through time results in:
 
3) The stratigraphic principles of original horizontality, lateral continuity, and faunal succession allow geologists to correlate rocks throughout the world and build the geologic time scale.
 
4) Which of the following is an example of co-evolution?
 
5) Which of the following is an example of adaptive radiation?
 
6) The history of life is an example of co-evolution with the earth because:
 
7) When life formed, the earth's atmosphere was rich in O2.
 
8) Abiotic synthesis of amino acids:
 
9) What potential roll did clay minerals play in the origin of life?
 
10) Protiens can be build abiotically from a solution of amino acids through:
 
11) The origin of life is well documented in the fossil record.
 
12) Bacterial photosynthesis was important in the Archean because:
 
13) Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were probably low before 2.3 billion years ago because:
 
14) Eukaryotes evolved after O2 levels were relatively high, because O2 is used in eukaryote biochemistry.
 
15) Increasing oxygen levels in the Archean led to the evolution of less efficient biochemical pathways.
 
16) Banded-iron formations are thought to result from:
 

From: http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/
 
17) The organism shown above is a:
 
18) This animal group (shown in the photo above) is important in the evolution of life because:
 
19) Which of the following has not been suggested as a cause of the Cambrian explosion of metazoan life:
 

© University of Adelaide, used with permission of Tate Geological Museum
 
20) The organism pictured above is a member of the Ediacaran fauna.
 

From: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/pfoslidx.htm
 
21) The organism pictured above is:
 

From: http://www.lenet.fr/vegetal/banque/cormo-cooksonia.html
 
22) In the illustration above, what are the structures at the tips of this plants branches?
 
23) This plant fossil is important because:
 
24) The land plants affected the worlds climate by:
 
25) Airborne pollination and seeds were important to plants because:
 
26) The evolution of land plants opened up new environments for animals to colonize.
 
27) The climate in North America gradually cooled throughout the Mesozoic because of:
 
28) Following the Permo-Triassic extinctions, the marine biosphere was dominated by:
 
29) Diversity in the Marine Biosphere decreased throughout the Mesozoic.
 
30) Terrestrial life in the Jurassic was dominated by dinosaurs and gymnosperms
 
31) The sauropods were a group of dinosaurs that:
 
32) What evidence do we have that hadrosaurs provided extensive parental care?
 
33) Hadrosaurs appear to have been social animals, living in herds with other members of their species
 
34) Which of the following was a member of the carnosaurs
 
35) Why did some sauropods swallow rocks?
 
36) The plates on the backs of stegosaurs were probably used to:
 
37) The crests on some hadrosaurs were probably used to:
 
38) Pterosaurs were a group of:
 
39) The theropods were a group of dinosaurs that:
 
40) Ornithischians were are group of:
 
41) Birds evolved from ornithischians.
 
42) Birds evolved from pterosaurs.
 
43) In response to competition by thecodonts, therapsids (mammal-like reptiles) evolved:
 
44) Mammalian traits, including warm-bloodedness, live birth, and parental care, may have evolved in response to living as small, nocturnal organisms.
 
45) Birds evolved from dinosaurs during the Jurassic.
 
46) In what geologic time period did mammals evolve from therapsids?
 
47) Archaeopteryx is:
 
48) Mosasaurs were:
 
49) Which marine reptile group evolved in the Triassic and occupied a niche similar to modern walruses.
 
50) Which mollusc group was an important reef forming organism in the Cretaceous
 
51) Modern corals evolved during the Triassic
 
52) Which of the following marine reptile groups became extinct before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions.
 
53) The marine reptiles in the Mesozoic occupied niches that would be later exploited by whales and dolphins.
 
54) Early Mesozoic floras (plant communities) were dominated by:
 
55) Flowering plants first appear in the Triassic
 
56) Which of the following gave flowering plants a competitive advantage over gymnosperms in the Mesozoic?
 
57) Why did flowering plants develop partnerships with small animals and not dinosaurs?
 
58) Which of the following is not a benefit of animal-assisted fertilization:
 
59) All land animals larger than 25 kg (55 lbs) went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.
 
60) What element that is common in asteroids is concentrated in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sediments.
 
61) The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions had minimal impact on Mesozoic marine communities.
 
62) Which of the following groups were generally unaffected by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions.
 
63) Land plants and phytoplankton may have survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions as seeds and resting spores.
 
64) Which of the following is not used as evidence for an asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
 
65) The probable site of the asteroid impact is buried beneath Tertiary sediments on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico
 
66) Evolution of the grasses allowed:
 
67) We have a much better understanding of evolution during the Cenozoic because:
 
68) At the start of the Cenozoic, mammals underwent a major radiation
 
69) The evolution of the horse provides an example of:
 
70) Patterns of animal migrations during the Cenozoic can be related to plate tectonics and climatic changes
 
71) The migration of man to North America appears to have had no effect on the existing large mammal faunas.
 
72) Fossil evidence suggests that "Lucy" (Australopithicus afarensis) was bipedal
 
73) Chimpanzee and Human lineages appear to have diverged
 
74) What plate tectonic event led to the change from rain forest to savanna environments in Africa
 
75) Homo erectus was probably the first hominid capable of advanced speech.