Benton, 2010 (function and behaviour in the fossil record)

Question 1

Why would some palaeontologists say that inferring the behaviour and function of fossil organisms is not possible?

Answer 1

Because such hypotheses can never be testable

Question 2

It can be assumed that biological structures are … in some way and have evolved to be reasonably … at doing something, and that … reflects ….

However we must be cautious of …-… and cannot assume that every part of anatomy is an adaptation, or that all adaptations are ….

Answer 2

adapted, efficient, form, function

perfect

Question 3

In vertebrates, there may be … … on the surface of bones that, alongside particular knobs and ridges, may help to show where muscles … and how … they were. The maximum amount of … and … at each joint in a skeleton can be assessed from the bones too.

Observations such as these can at least … the options for their function

Answer 3

muscle scars, attached, big, rotation, hinging,

limit

Question 4

For example, pterosaur fossils showed that they must have walked with limbs tucked … … … rather than … the body as was once suggested.

Answer 4

to the sides, beneath

Question 5

What are the three ways in which function and behaviour can be inferred from fossils?

Answer 5

• empirical evidence
• comparison with modern analogues
• biomechanics modelling

Question 6

Empirical evidence for the lifestyle of an ancient organism may come from the enclosing …, associated … …, associated … fossils, and particular features of the body fossils themselves. From this, climates and predator-prey relationships may be inferred, for example

Answer 6

rocks, fossil remains, trace

• still hypotheses subject to refutation at any time, based on new evidence

Question 7

Trace fossils, such as … and … can sometimes be linked with their makers and used to look at modes of …, … etc.

Answer 7

tracks, burrows, locomotion, burrowing

(tracks can actually give surer evidence about certain aspects of locomotion than bones themselves - show precisely how far apart each foot fell, stride length etc.)

Question 8

A study across the end-Permian mass extinction 252 million years ago shows a dramatic shift from…

Answer 8

sprawling to upright posture among virtually all tetrapods at the same time
- from track fossils

Question 9

Fossil … (coprolites) or … … can be associated with an exceptionally preserved fossil. Analysis of these using a microscope can determine the … of fossil organisms

Answer 9

dung, stomach contents, diets

Question 10

A T. rex coprolite showed bones of its prey that had been … to some extent by … …, but not entirely destroyed, suggesting relatively … movement of food through the gut

Answer 10

corroded, stomach acid, fast

Question 11

The … of fossil animals can also be used to infer diet (e.g. herbivory/carnivory, kinds of plants)

Answer 11

teeth (shape? wearing and scratches due to tough plant food?)

Question 12

Rarely, one organism can be preserved while…

Answer 12

feeding on another (e.g. insects preserved in plant stems, snake wrapped around dinosaur egg in nest of unbroken eggs)

Question 13

Comparison with modern analogues: … may be thought to trump general …. It would make sense to infer the function and behaviour of a fossil bat by comparing it to living bats. But should a dinosaur, for example, be compared to living relatives (e.g. birds, crocodiles) or living animals with apparently similar function (e.g. rhinos).

Answer 13

phylogeny, similarity

Question 14

The … … … (EPB) is a principle that compares an extinct animal to its nearest living relatives. For example, Tyrannosaurus, a theropod dinosaur, is bracketed by birds and crocodiles. Osteological correlates of … features can be identified and used to infer the presence of … features.
E.g. T. rex presumably had an eyeball with certain properties because its bracketing living relatives, birds and crocodiles, share many characters in their eyes.

Answer 14

extant phylogenetic bracket, unpreserved, unpreserved

Question 15

Parsimony and the EPB are now used in discourse about the feathered birds and dinosaurs from the Jehol Group of China. Specimens of the small, (simple filament-like) feathered theropod … showed that the origin of feathers dated back to the base of the middle …. … is a basal coelurosaur, and the first of these are known from the base of the middle jurassic. The most … assumption is that all coelurosaurs possessed some kind of feathers from the start.

Answer 15

Sinosauropteryx, Jurassic, Sinosauropteryx, parsimonious

Question 16

Future inference of the arrangement and colours of feathers may allow palaeobiologists to speculate about whether certain dinosaurs used their patterned feathers for …, … …, … or other behaviours and functions

Answer 16

camouflage, sexual display, warning

Question 17

Biomechanics modelling: opportunities have been hugely widened by the increasing ease with which … structures, such as shells, bones and skeletons, may be … and imaged. These images can be tested using engineering … to determine how the structures were … due to walking, running, feeding, head butting etc.

Answer 17

3-D, scanned, software, stressed

Question 18

The … of … for a a living or extinct animal can be determined either from solid … or calculations of the distribution of … and air spaces through slices of the 3-D restored body.

Answer 18

centre, mass, models, tissues

Question 19

In T. rex, the centre of mass lays just in front of the …, with the tail allowing the body to balance over the hips with the … held almost horizontally.

Answer 19

hips, backbone

Question 20

Fossil trackways can be used to calculate speeds if there is a constant relationship between the … of footprints, … length and …

Answer 20

spacing, leg, speed

Question 21

Calculations based on estimated leg … … have been used to estimate the speed at which T. rex run, as the major leg muscles that power the stride are proportional to body mass and speed. The calculations suggest a T. rex had the muscles to run at around … metres per second

Answer 21

muscle volume, 5 (about as fast as a human long-distance runner)

Question 22

Biomechanical analysis of the link between running and … … in modern tetrapods and dinosaur fossils has suggested that larger dinosaurs at least…

Answer 22

metabolic rate

exceeded the maximum aerobic capabilities of modern ectotherms, suggesting they were likely functionally endothermic