STS Exam 2 Questions and Answers
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: - Answer-1) Sex
2) Drugs
3) Disasters
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Sex - Answer--Testes function only in a narrow
range of temperature
-A worldwide rise in temp. at the close of the Cretaceous period caused the testes of dinosaurs to stop
functioning and led to their extinction by sterilization of males.
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Drugs - Answer--Angiosperms (flowering
plants) first evolved toward the end of the dinosaurs' reign.
-Many of these plants contain psychoactive agents, avoided by mammals today as a result of their bitter
taste.
-Dinosaurs had neither means to taste the bitterness nor livers effective enough to detoxify the
substances.
-They potentially died of massive overdoses.
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Disasters - Answer--A large comet or asteroid
struck the earth some 65 million years ago, lofting a cloud of dust into the sky and blocking sunlight.
,-Thereby suppressing photosynthesis and so drastically lowering world temperatures that dinosaurs and
hosts of other creatures became extinct.
Hypothesis - Answer--Can never be completely sure that it is right, though we may be able show with
confidence that it is wrong.
-the best are generous and expansive
Hypothesis: the best are generous and expansive - Answer-They suggest extensions and implications
that enlighten related, and even far distant sunjects.
Hypothesis example - Answer-Evolution: consider how the idea has influenced virtually every
intellectual field.
Speculation - Answer--is restrictive
-it generates no testable hypothesis, and offers no way to obtain potentially refuting evidence.
-may be true. but if it provides no material for affirmation or rejection, we can make nothing of it.
How the hypotheses were tested: The testicular theory (Sex) - Answer--Had its root in an
interesting/respectable study of temp. tolerances in the American alligator.
-They studied the body temo. of alligators under changing conditions of heating and colling (predictions
under test come from Galileo's theory concerning the unequal scaling of surfaces and volumes)
-Colbert, Cowles, and Bogert compared the warming rates of small and large alligators.
-The small fellows heated up more quickly.
-Extrapolating up to a 10-ton dinosaur, Cowles suggested that a rise in global temp. caused the
dinosaurs to heat up beyond their optimal tolerance, and they couldn't shed the unwanted heat.
-Cowles proposed that this global rise might have sterilized all the males, causing extinction by natural
contraception.
, How the hypotheses were tested: The overdose theory (Drugs) - Answer--Flowering plants evolved late
in the dinosaurs' reign
-These plants produced an array of aromatic amino-acid-based alkaloids.
-Most mammals are "smart" enough to avoid these potential poisons (the plants are bitter tasting and
we mammals have livers capable of detoxifying them)
-Siegel specualtes that dinosaurs could neither taste the bitterness nor detoxify the substances.
-Siegel also argued that death by overdose may help explain why so many dinosaur fossils are found in
contorted positions.
How the hypotheses were tested: Disaster - Answer--Father-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez
proposed, in 1979, that an asteroid, some 10km in diameter, struck the earth 65 million years ago.
-The force of such a collision would be greater than all the world's nuclear weapons.
-To reconstruct the scenario, the Alvarezes proposed that a gigantic dust cloud, generated by particles
blown aloft in the impact, would darken the earth that photosynthesis would cease and temp. drop.
-Dinosaurs would die by starvation and freezing
Why these tests did or didn't prove the hypotheses: testicular frying (Sex) - Answer--We would have to
know things that the fossil record cannot provide.
-What temps. were optimal for dinosaurs?
-Testicles don't fossilize, and how could we infer their temp. tolerances even if
they did?
-Colbert, Cowles, and Bogert admitted in their paper, "It is difficult to advance any definite arguments
against hypothesis."
How the hypotheses were tested: Siegel's overdosing (Drugs) - Answer--has even less going for it (than
Sex theory)
-Siegels specualtion cannot be tested, for how can we know what dinosaurs tasted and what their livers
could do?
-Livers don't fossilize any better than testicles.
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: - Answer-1) Sex
2) Drugs
3) Disasters
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Sex - Answer--Testes function only in a narrow
range of temperature
-A worldwide rise in temp. at the close of the Cretaceous period caused the testes of dinosaurs to stop
functioning and led to their extinction by sterilization of males.
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Drugs - Answer--Angiosperms (flowering
plants) first evolved toward the end of the dinosaurs' reign.
-Many of these plants contain psychoactive agents, avoided by mammals today as a result of their bitter
taste.
-Dinosaurs had neither means to taste the bitterness nor livers effective enough to detoxify the
substances.
-They potentially died of massive overdoses.
The 3 hypotheses about the extinction of the dinosaurs: Disasters - Answer--A large comet or asteroid
struck the earth some 65 million years ago, lofting a cloud of dust into the sky and blocking sunlight.
,-Thereby suppressing photosynthesis and so drastically lowering world temperatures that dinosaurs and
hosts of other creatures became extinct.
Hypothesis - Answer--Can never be completely sure that it is right, though we may be able show with
confidence that it is wrong.
-the best are generous and expansive
Hypothesis: the best are generous and expansive - Answer-They suggest extensions and implications
that enlighten related, and even far distant sunjects.
Hypothesis example - Answer-Evolution: consider how the idea has influenced virtually every
intellectual field.
Speculation - Answer--is restrictive
-it generates no testable hypothesis, and offers no way to obtain potentially refuting evidence.
-may be true. but if it provides no material for affirmation or rejection, we can make nothing of it.
How the hypotheses were tested: The testicular theory (Sex) - Answer--Had its root in an
interesting/respectable study of temp. tolerances in the American alligator.
-They studied the body temo. of alligators under changing conditions of heating and colling (predictions
under test come from Galileo's theory concerning the unequal scaling of surfaces and volumes)
-Colbert, Cowles, and Bogert compared the warming rates of small and large alligators.
-The small fellows heated up more quickly.
-Extrapolating up to a 10-ton dinosaur, Cowles suggested that a rise in global temp. caused the
dinosaurs to heat up beyond their optimal tolerance, and they couldn't shed the unwanted heat.
-Cowles proposed that this global rise might have sterilized all the males, causing extinction by natural
contraception.
, How the hypotheses were tested: The overdose theory (Drugs) - Answer--Flowering plants evolved late
in the dinosaurs' reign
-These plants produced an array of aromatic amino-acid-based alkaloids.
-Most mammals are "smart" enough to avoid these potential poisons (the plants are bitter tasting and
we mammals have livers capable of detoxifying them)
-Siegel specualtes that dinosaurs could neither taste the bitterness nor detoxify the substances.
-Siegel also argued that death by overdose may help explain why so many dinosaur fossils are found in
contorted positions.
How the hypotheses were tested: Disaster - Answer--Father-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez
proposed, in 1979, that an asteroid, some 10km in diameter, struck the earth 65 million years ago.
-The force of such a collision would be greater than all the world's nuclear weapons.
-To reconstruct the scenario, the Alvarezes proposed that a gigantic dust cloud, generated by particles
blown aloft in the impact, would darken the earth that photosynthesis would cease and temp. drop.
-Dinosaurs would die by starvation and freezing
Why these tests did or didn't prove the hypotheses: testicular frying (Sex) - Answer--We would have to
know things that the fossil record cannot provide.
-What temps. were optimal for dinosaurs?
-Testicles don't fossilize, and how could we infer their temp. tolerances even if
they did?
-Colbert, Cowles, and Bogert admitted in their paper, "It is difficult to advance any definite arguments
against hypothesis."
How the hypotheses were tested: Siegel's overdosing (Drugs) - Answer--has even less going for it (than
Sex theory)
-Siegels specualtion cannot be tested, for how can we know what dinosaurs tasted and what their livers
could do?
-Livers don't fossilize any better than testicles.
