Prehistoric Basics
What are the 3 periods in the Mesozic era in order?
Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
How is a fossil's age determined?
Radiometric dating. Measuring redioactive isotopes and half lives of chemicals within the rock surrounding the fossil
What are the physical characteristics of herbivores?
beaks, armor, flat teeth for grinding plants, qudreped or biped, blunt claws or hooves
What was the first life form on earth?
Prokaryotic bacteria
Saurischian, Therapod, about 5 tons, apex predators, most powerful bite strength of any dinosaur
T-rex
What are the two types of hip bone structure and what do they look like?
Saurischian (Lizard Hipped) and Ornithichian (Lizard Hipped)
What are the 5 steps of fossilization?
Death, decay and burial, sediment accumulation, mineralization, and uplift
What are the physical characteristics of carnivores?
sharp claws, sharp teeth in the front of their jaws, biped, light weight body, big jaw for strength
What is phylogenetic tree? and how can it be used for studying dinosaurs?
a branching diagram that represents the evolutionary relationships among a set of organisms or taxa
Saurischian, sauropod, herbivore, 75 feet long, largest land animal to ever roam earth, whip like tail
Apatosaurus
How old is the earth?
4.6 Billion years old
What are the 5 main types of fossils?
Trace fossils, Molds and casts fossils, carbon films fossils, preserved remains fossils, and petrified fossils
What most likely caused dinosaurs to go extinct and what is that extinction called?
A giant asteroid hit what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico causing negative consequences for the rest of the earth. The Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction
Explain why "Evolution is just a theory" is an incorrect common misconception.
A theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation and evolution is a scientific theory.
Ornithischian, Orthnithopod, herbivore, fast runner, no armor, can be bipedal or quadrepedal
Camptosaurus
The first people to find dinosaur bones thought the bones belonged to which mythical creature?
Dragons
Explain the mineralization process.
fossilization by minerals transported by water (groundwater) that fill in all the open spaces of organic tissue
What is the hip structure and characteristics of therapods?
saurischians, carnivores, most well known predators, bipedal, many species had feathers
What have paleontologists called the 'missing link' between dinosaurs and modern day birds?
archaeopteryx
Saurichian, therapod, scleral ring, largest of its species, recently discovered to have feathers, found in utah
Utahraptor
What are the 4 eras of time that we've experienced in order?
Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic
What is the purpose of fossil jacketing?
To protect fossils which can be quite brittle from the field to lab where it can be carefully studied.
What type of environment did dinosaurs live in during the Creteceous period?
Lush forests, shallow oceans, high biodiversity, small deserts
How can we use the fossil record to study evolution?
providing a record of past life forms and demonstrating how species have changed over time
Jane's favorite dinosaur
pachycephalosaurus, head dome for head butting