SAMPLE TEST

(Remember: Each class is different, so this test covers some material not covered yet in your class, or some material which was on your first test and will not be on this coming one. This sample is primarily to show you style and scope. Formatting varies when I put this kind of text on the Web.)

Name: ___________________________________

Row number: ______


(Six pages)
HOUR EXAMINATION #2

Geology 100: History of Life
October 31, 2007
(All tests due at 8:55 a.m.)

1. Please describe one line of evidence that dinosaurs had the “sustained activity” characteristic of endothermic animals.  Note I need evidence, not just a story.  [6 points]

2. Hope you saw this one coming!  Please indicate on the line beside each diagram whether the animal was a saurischian (“S”) or an ornithischian (“O”) dinosaur.  [8 points]

3. Identify, define and/or describe any three of the following terms.  Be sure to include dates, examples and diagrams where appropriate.  For each selected term, state its importance in the History of Life.  (If more than three are answered, only the first three will be graded.)  [15 points total]

____________________________________________________________________________
         Siberian Traps

____________________________________________________________________________
         Subphylum Urochordata

____________________________________________________________________________
         lungfish (Order Dipnoi)

____________________________________________________________________________
         homology

____________________________________________________________________________
         therapsid


4. Enormous volcanic activity at the end of the Permian may have first cooled the surface of the Earth and then later caused it to warm dramatically.  How could volcanic eruptions do both of these things?  (As usual, labeled diagrams are always helpful.)  [10 points]

5. How did the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic actually benefit the dinosaurs?  [6 points]

6. First, list below three problems vertebrates faced when they first emerged from the water onto dry land.  Second, briefly note for each problem the manner in which it was solved (or not solved) by the amphibians.   [12 points]

Problem

Solution (or other way of coping)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Describe below either an ostracoderm or a placoderm.  Tell me what it looked like, how and what it ate, and whether it is extinct.  To what subphylum do they both belong?  [8 points]

8. Fill in the blanks!  [10 points total]

Period during which the first known fossil chordate appeared: ______________________________

Large Cretaceous marine lizard: ____________________________________

Name of the supercontinent formed at the end of the Permian: _________________________________

Period in which the first amphibian appeared: ____________________________________

Dinosaur ancestor; went extinct in the Triassic: ____________________________________

9. What special reproductive issues do sea turtles (and other marine reptiles) face?  How do they solve them?  [6 points]

10. Please describe two lines of evidence that show dinosaurs had extended parental care of their young.  Remember I want the evidence, not just the stories.  [7 points]

11. Please list and very briefly describe (one sentence each) three ways in which reptiles differ from amphibians.  [6 points]

12. Finally, please describe one likely reason why vertebrates may have moved in the form of amphibians to the land from the water.  In other words, what is one selective pressure or advantage which may have provoked this set of evolutionary innovations?  [6 points]