(go to study aid - master cladogram and taxa list)

DINOSAURS AND THE HISTORY OF LIFE

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM 2006


NAME ______________________________________________

 NOTE: The real exam is designed to take 1 hr. You will have a total of 3 hr to finish it. It will be significantly longer than this practice exam!

There will be 6 sections:

 I. Time Scale
II. True - False
III. Multiple Choice
IV. Short Answer
V. Short Essay
VI. Dinosaurian Relationships
VII. Dinosaurian Anatomy


I. TIME SCALE: FILL IN THE BOXES; NOTE THAT YOU SHOULD FILL IN THE SPACES FOR AGE IN YEARS, PERIODS, AND ERAS, AND EONS.





II. True - False

1. Dinosaurs did not have to regulate their body temperature because they were all very large.

True - False
2. In endothermy the main method of thermoregulation is behavioral.
True - False
3. The diplodocid sauropods include Apatosaurus .
True - False
4. The Carnosauria includes birds.
True - False
5. Dinosaurs have high predator/prey ratios
True - False


III. MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. William Smith worked out:

a) the principle of superposition
b) the principle of biotic succession
c) the Ornithischia and the Saurischia
d) the principle of cross-cutting relationships
2. What are some of the main regions that have produced Late Triassic age reptile remains.
a) the Moenkopi and the Karroo
b) the Morrison and Solnhofen
c) the Chinle, the Atlantic Rift Zone, and the Ischigualasto
d) the Hell Creek, Keuper, and Karroo
3. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is:
a) 28 % of our atmosphere
b) limestone
c) < 1 % of our atmosphere
d) produced by photosynthesis
4. A monophyletic group is one in which:
a) some of the members share different common ancestors.
b) some of the descendants of the common ancestor of the group are not in the group.
c) the common ancestor or the group is not within the group.
d) the common ancestor and all of its descendants are within the group.
5. Mammals are defined by having.
a) a tendentious ankle and a recapitulated temporal
b) live birth, hair, warm blood, and nursing with milk
c) double rooted teeth and squamosal-dentary jaw joint
d) a single temoral opening
6. Dilophosaurus is known from:
a) The Glen Canyon Group and the Atlantic Rifting Zone
b) The Lias and the Falla Formation
c) The Glen Canyon Group and the Lufeng Formation
d) The Ischigualasto and Chinle
7. The shared derived character for the Dinosauria is:
a) Large size and weight
b) A perforated acetabulum
c) Three toes on the foot
d) Being ancient and extinct
8. The Crurotarsi are defined by the following shared derived character.
a) a mesotarsal ankle joint.
b) an ankle with many small bones flexing smoothly at a variety of places.
c) an ankle with a joint between the astragalus and calcaneum.
d) a tendentious ankle.

9. Iridium is:
a) a radioactive element useful in dating Cretaceous rocks
b) an element indicative of a supernova at the end of the Cretaceous
c) an element found in a clay layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
d) an element diagnostic of asteroid impacts

10. The air sac system in birds function mostly as:
a) as accessory lungs to remove more oxygen.
b) protection against the cold.
c) a way of lowering body mass
d) passageways allowing a one-way direction of air through the lungs

IV. SHORT ANSWER
1. Why is the sail-backed animal Dimetrodon from the Permian of Texas not a dinosaur?
 
2. What are the main differences between the Ornithodira, Ornithischia, and Ornithosuchia?
 
3. Why is the saurischian triradiate pelvis not a shared derived character which defines the Saurischia?
 
4. Where would you look for dinosaur fossils and why?
 
5. How is limestone (= calcium carbonate = CaCO3) related to the greenhouse effect?


6. How can we tell that sauropods did not walk with a sprawling gait and posture?  


7. Why do big animals lose heat slower than small animals?


8. What are Haversian canals and what is their importance?  

9. Archaeopteryx is a tetanurine. Why?  


10. Name three western North American, Late Cretaceous herbivorous genera and one carnivorous genus of dinosaur that may have eaten them.


V. SHORT ESSAY

WRITE A SHORT ESSAY ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TWO QUESTIONS*:
 

1. Given the cross-section of rock strata exposed in a canyon wall below, outline the history of the area, stating the various basic stratigraphic principles you used and stating the geological periods to which the rock unit belong. The intrusive diabase give a potassium-argon date of 200 million years.

stratigraphy figure

2. There are two main types of ankles seen in the Archosauriformes that are also shared derived characters for several important groups. Define the ankle types, compare and contrast their functionality and the groups they define.


3. What is the evidence and what are the arguments that dinosaurs were warm blooded and controlled their body temperature by internal means (i.e. were endothermic homeotherms)? Be as specific as possible. 
 

*Other possible topics could include:

The carbon cycle

Tetrapod postures

Impact theory of mass extinctions

Uses of footprints

Evidence for the relationship of birds to dinosaurs

 

VI. DINOSAURIAN RELATIONSHIPS: Fill out the following cladogram with the characters and taxa listed below.

1.  Place the letters shown at the nodes on the cladogram in the space provided next to each group name in the list on the lower left.
2.  Place the number of each character next to the bar in the cladogram that defines the groups.
 
 



1

1.   Flight feathers
2.   Long arms
3.   Loss of digit IV on hand
4.   Open acetabulum
5.   Manus digit I short, strong, and twisted
6.   No unique derived characters
7.   Furcula, 1st toe does not contact the ankle
8.   Nasal bones fused
9.   No unique derived characters		 10. Rostral bone
11. Long neck and peg-like teeth
12. Massive, hook-like claw on digit II of foot
13. Backwardly-pointing process on pubis
14. Downturned premaxilla
15. Reduction in manus
16. True feathers
17. Forelimbs as long or longer than hind limbs
18. Apron-shaped pubis


VII. DINOSAURIAN ANATOMY

Label the indicated bones and openings on the following drawings.