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Deep History
How do we know?
Evolutionary Structures
Plate Tectonics
Random
100
How long ago was the Earth created, according to scientific evidence?
About 4.6 billion years ago
100
Which type of dating is more accurate when determining the age of a fossil?
Absolute Dating - you are making an actual age, instead of an estimation based on the rocks and fossils surrounding it.
100
What is the name of a structure that thousands of years ago may have had a function, but now has no purpose because of the evolution of organisms?
Vestigial Structure
100
What causes the movement of tectonic plates?
Convection currents of the magma in the mantle
100
Which layer of the Earth is responsible for the heat that causes convection currents?
The core The core heats up the magma in the mantle and causes the convection movement in the mantle.
200
When do scientists determine when an era ends?
After a mass extinction. After a mass extinction, new lifeforms can become the major organisms on Earth.
200
The law that rocks that are deeper in the Earth are older than the ones near to the surface is called the _____________________________.
Law of Superposition, which is used during Relative Dating.
200
The wing of a bat and the wing of a butterfly are ___________________ structures.
Analogous They do not have common bone structure or ancestry, but the structure serves the same function.
200
What are convection currents?
Movement of a fluid due to heat! Specifically, the movement of the molten rock in the mantle due to heat from the core.
200
Where on Earth are earthquakes the most common?
Near tectonic plate boundaries!
300
Describe the Earth after it had just formed.
A large molten ball of rock with no atmosphere or water.
300
What do we call the type of dating that determines the order of past events?
Relative Dating
300
A whale flipper and a bat wing are examples of __________________ structures.
Homologous The whale and the bat have similar bone structures and could come from the same ancestors, but now these structures have very different functions.
300
Which layer of the Earth is broken up in plates?
The crust
300
What part of a plate boundary causes an earthquake? a) a trench b) a fault c) a focus
b) a fault The area of a plate boundary that is touching another plate. When there is a build up of pressure at this point, it will eventually slip past the other plate with a sudden movement. This sudden movement is an earthquake.
400
What type of life dominated the Earth when it first formed?
None! The first 65 million years, there was no life on the planet at all!
400
What do we call the type of dating where we can measure the age of decaying radioactive elements in fossils to determine the age of a fossil?
Absolute Dating (or carbon dating)
400
Why did a bat and a butterfly both develop wings?
Both animals must have lived in similar environments that required flight in order for them to survive.
400
Who was the scientist that came up with the Theory of Continental Drift?
Alfred Wegener
400
Do we live in an area that frequently experiences earthquakes or tsunamis? Why?
No, because we are not near a plate boundary or a large body of water.
500
What happened to the atmosphere that allowed for more complex life to appear on Earth (still in the very first era of Earth History)
Bacteria began doing photosynthesis in order to get energy, and the atmosphere increased in oxygen (the byproduct of photosynthesis).
500
What percent of time have humans existed on Earth, since it first formed?
Less than 1 percent of Earth's total existence as a planet!
500
Name 2 vestigial structures of any animal.
legs of a whale or snake tailbone, wisdom teeth, pinky toe, etc. of human eyes of a cave fish wings of an ostrich or penguin
500
List 3 pieces of evidence to support the Theory of Continental Drift.
1. Same fossils found on multiple continents 2. Seafloor is spreading 3. the continents match up like puzzle pieces 4. Landforms match up across continents (mountains, deserts, etc.) 5. Tropical fossils found near the Poles You only receive points if you listed THREE!
500
What caused the dinosaur extinction? (According to scientific evidence)
A large meteor hit Earth, which changed the climate dramatically.