BIO 370 exam 2, Exam 2 QUESTIONS
WELL ANSWERED
Pangaea - correct answer ✔✔ Forms about 335 millions
years ago and persists for
160 million years to the mid-Jurassic
• Most continental surfaces
united with large areas
close to the equator
• Facilitates movements of
plants, animals
How would this affect
speciation and diversity? - correct answer ✔✔ Increases species interactions, competition and
speciation.
What was the Silurian like? - correct answer ✔✔ Relatively simple terrestrial ecosystems
• Small plants: mosses and liverworts
• Fungi
• First Terrestrial Arthropods
• 428 year old millipede fossil
• 430 million year old scorpion fossil
What was the Devonian like? - correct answer ✔✔ Ecosystem diversification and radiation of
fishes
,But...
• No terrestrial vertebrates
• No flying insects
• No plant-eating insects
• Mostly detritivores, some carnivores:
• millipedes, springtails, scorpions, spiders
Transitions in the late Devonian/Early Carboniferous - correct answer ✔✔ Complex forest
ecosystems:
• Giant horsetails, ferns, vines, but no
flowering plants or grasses
• First flying insects
• FIRST TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATES!
Transitions into the Carboniferous and Permian - correct answer ✔✔ Plant Evolution
• Spread of plants to land and evolution of
woody plants with weather resistant carbon
• Swampy habitats characterized the
Carboniferous (coal beds) followed by a
drying in the Permian
Environmental Change
• Decreased CO2
levels; increased O2 levels
• Reverse "greenhouse effect"
,Animal Evolution
• Tetrapod evolution and radiation
• Giant flying arthropods
• Increased terrestrial herbivory
Why does temperature vary over time? - correct answer ✔✔ Milankovich cycles: cycles
determine how much radiation reaches differing parts of the earth
1. Eccentricity - 100,000 year cycle
2. Tilt - 41,000 year cycle
3. Precession (wobble) - 21,000 - 26,000 year cycle
• Solar radiation
• Greenhouse gases like CO2
, CH4
, and H20
• Location of the continents themselves
affecting ocean and atmospheric circulation
patterns
Oxygen and Evolution - correct answer ✔✔ 1. Evolution of major phyla
2. Evolution of novel aquatic
respiratory structures
3. Ordovician community
diversification
4. Initial conquest of land by
animals
5. Devonian Extinction
, 6. Romer's Gap
7. Second conquest of land
8. Arthropod gigantism /
Reptiliomorph size
increase
9. Permian-Triassic extinction
10. Evolution of dinosaur airsacs
11. Triassic-Jurassic extinction
12. Increase in mammalian
body size
Five Major Mass Extinctions - correct answer ✔✔ Late Ordovician-Silurian Extinction
• Late Devonian Extinction
• Permo-Triassic (P/T) Extinction
• Triassic-Jurassic Extinction
• Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) Extinction
Ordovician-Silurian Extinction - correct answer ✔✔ Caused by:
• Movement of continents (Gondwana)
to the South Pole
• Drop in atmospheric CO2
levels
• Glaciation and global cooling led to a
massive lowering of sea level
• 60% of marine invertebrates died
including 2/3 of brachiopods
WELL ANSWERED
Pangaea - correct answer ✔✔ Forms about 335 millions
years ago and persists for
160 million years to the mid-Jurassic
• Most continental surfaces
united with large areas
close to the equator
• Facilitates movements of
plants, animals
How would this affect
speciation and diversity? - correct answer ✔✔ Increases species interactions, competition and
speciation.
What was the Silurian like? - correct answer ✔✔ Relatively simple terrestrial ecosystems
• Small plants: mosses and liverworts
• Fungi
• First Terrestrial Arthropods
• 428 year old millipede fossil
• 430 million year old scorpion fossil
What was the Devonian like? - correct answer ✔✔ Ecosystem diversification and radiation of
fishes
,But...
• No terrestrial vertebrates
• No flying insects
• No plant-eating insects
• Mostly detritivores, some carnivores:
• millipedes, springtails, scorpions, spiders
Transitions in the late Devonian/Early Carboniferous - correct answer ✔✔ Complex forest
ecosystems:
• Giant horsetails, ferns, vines, but no
flowering plants or grasses
• First flying insects
• FIRST TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATES!
Transitions into the Carboniferous and Permian - correct answer ✔✔ Plant Evolution
• Spread of plants to land and evolution of
woody plants with weather resistant carbon
• Swampy habitats characterized the
Carboniferous (coal beds) followed by a
drying in the Permian
Environmental Change
• Decreased CO2
levels; increased O2 levels
• Reverse "greenhouse effect"
,Animal Evolution
• Tetrapod evolution and radiation
• Giant flying arthropods
• Increased terrestrial herbivory
Why does temperature vary over time? - correct answer ✔✔ Milankovich cycles: cycles
determine how much radiation reaches differing parts of the earth
1. Eccentricity - 100,000 year cycle
2. Tilt - 41,000 year cycle
3. Precession (wobble) - 21,000 - 26,000 year cycle
• Solar radiation
• Greenhouse gases like CO2
, CH4
, and H20
• Location of the continents themselves
affecting ocean and atmospheric circulation
patterns
Oxygen and Evolution - correct answer ✔✔ 1. Evolution of major phyla
2. Evolution of novel aquatic
respiratory structures
3. Ordovician community
diversification
4. Initial conquest of land by
animals
5. Devonian Extinction
, 6. Romer's Gap
7. Second conquest of land
8. Arthropod gigantism /
Reptiliomorph size
increase
9. Permian-Triassic extinction
10. Evolution of dinosaur airsacs
11. Triassic-Jurassic extinction
12. Increase in mammalian
body size
Five Major Mass Extinctions - correct answer ✔✔ Late Ordovician-Silurian Extinction
• Late Devonian Extinction
• Permo-Triassic (P/T) Extinction
• Triassic-Jurassic Extinction
• Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) Extinction
Ordovician-Silurian Extinction - correct answer ✔✔ Caused by:
• Movement of continents (Gondwana)
to the South Pole
• Drop in atmospheric CO2
levels
• Glaciation and global cooling led to a
massive lowering of sea level
• 60% of marine invertebrates died
including 2/3 of brachiopods
