Mass Extinctions
The extinction event that killed the dinosaurs...
What is an asteroid impact (Chicxulub) 65 MYA?
There are many more species of ants at the equator, and very few at the poles.
Tons of examples...
What is habitat fragmentation?
When a habitat is broken apart in some way -- usually by roads, agriculture, deforestation, etc.
What is genetic drift?
When a population is small and mutation/genetic changes rapidly spread to the whole population over few generations.
What is background extinction rate?
The rate of extinction that is always going on due to evolution/natural selection -- NOT mass extinctions, but the constant rate of extinction
Manu NP, Amazon observatory: The latitudinal diversity gradient is...
What is when there is more biodiversity at the equator than at the poles?
Ballast water is...
What is water that is carried by empty ships to weigh them down, then expelled in a different port across the world?
This much CO2 is in the atmosphere...
What is just over 400ppm?
What designates something as a new epoch?
There must be a specific marker in the strata (rock layers) to mark the new epoch
Why are formanifera important when thinking about mass extinctions?
They are small, rapidly evolving organisms that often are visible in fossil layers and can be geological markers of mass extinctions/new epochs.
Why did the extinction of Great Auks go against Lyell and Darwin's ideas?
It was an abrupt, human-caused extinction -- not gradual like Lyell and Darwin thought extinctions would be.
What causes White-Nosed syndrome in bats? What harm does it do?
Fungus, clogs the nose and pores of bats, wakes them up in the middle of hibernation
Why is the current increase in CO2 and global temperature concerning, when these increases have happened in the past?
They are occurring much more rapidly now than ever before
Paradigm shifts are...
What is when new evidence comes out and the commonly accepted baseline shifts?
What happened in 536 AD?
A giant volcanic eruption that caused a "volcanic eruption" and severely stunted growth for a few years.
During the Chicxulub asteroid impact, why might ammonites have gone extinct when nautilus did not?
Ammonites eggs may have been closer to the surface of the water, but did not have any difference in fitness from nautilus -- it is mostly by chance.
The Hawaiian snails (George) are going extinct because...
What is predation by the invasive Rosy Wolf Snail?
What is assisted migration, and why might it be helpful/harmful?
De-extinction is the process of...
The End Permian extinction (250 MYA) was caused by...
What is spike in global temperature?
In what way are we becoming like Pangea?
Increasing connection between continents (even though they have yet to geographically collide) and increased movement of species globally
The Chytrid fungus is...
What is a fungus that damages the skin of amphibians and is the cause of many amphibian extinctions?
What are coccolithophores?
Important CO2/climate change regulators, affected by increasing ocean acidification
Why does gigantism/dwarfism occur on islands?
Less competition means that there is less need to fill a specific niche, and so the differences between organisms even out a bit