General

Question 1

List the 6 therapsid clades

Answer 1

Biarmosuchia, dinocephalia, gorgonopsia, anomodontia, therocephalia, cynodontia.

Question 2

Where were therapsids most abundant?

Answer 2

Mid-latitudes

Question 3

What increased extinction survivability in therapsids?

Answer 3

Wide range of climate niches

Question 4

Where did the Permian extinction start?

Answer 4

Closer to the poles, greater biodiversity losses at high latitudes

Question 5

How did lineages that survived the end Permian do so?

Answer 5

Migrating with their preferred climate niche

Question 6

When was Olson’s Gap?

Answer 6

Between the Pelycosaurs and the therapsids.

Question 7

What were Biarmosuchians?

Answer 7

Mid-sized carnivores

Question 8

What was the dinocephalian gait?

Answer 8

progressing towards upright

Question 9

were anomodonts endothermic?

Answer 9

Possibly, nasal regions imply thermoregulatory exchange

Question 10

When did dicynodonts rapidly diversify?

Answer 10

Permian

Question 11

What were Gorgonopsids?

Answer 11

Slender carnivores that got bigger towards the end of the Permian

Question 12

Were Gorgonopsids endothermic?

Answer 12

No

Question 13

What did therocephalians eat? were they endothermic?

Answer 13

Possibly endothermic carnivores

Question 14

What is the evidence for the earliest mammalian hair?

Answer 14

Molecular biology for keratin production = 300mya. Hair in upper Permian coprolites 270mya

Question 15

How did Thrinaxodon walk?

Answer 15

Switched between sprawling and upright gait.

Question 16

What was Thrinaxodon?

Answer 16

Just before cynognathian and probainognathia split

Question 17

What made almost all cynognathians extinct?

Answer 17

Carnial Pluvial Event

Question 18

What was the earliest marine reptile? Where is it found in the Karoo stratigraphy?

Answer 18

Mesosaurus. Ecca Group (Late Carboniferous)

Question 19

What in the Karoo is among the earliest known amniote eggs?

Answer 19

clucth of dinosaur eggs with intact embryos from the Jurassic Elliot formation.

Question 20

When was the central pangean mountain complete by?

Answer 20

Early Permian

Question 21

What was the climate like in Pangea?

Answer 21

Mega-Monsoons followed by Triassic Aridification.

Question 22

What was the lower Permian dominated by in terms of fauna?

Answer 22

Amphibians and pelycosaurs

Question 23

What was the mid-Permian dominated by in terms of fauna?

Answer 23

Therapsids and Parareptiles

Question 24

Was the T-J boundary abrupt or gradual?

Answer 24

Gradual

Question 25

What is the span of the Karoo Supergroup?

Answer 25

Carboniferous to early Jurassic

Question 26

Are the Manda beds likely to be older or younger than the CAZ?

Answer 26

Younger, Carnian

Question 27

What work could be done to expand understanding of gomphodonts

Answer 27

disparity of skull shape and ontogenetic variance. Needs morphometric investigation.

Question 28

What area of morphometrics have you identified as a gap?

Answer 28

Cynodont skulls and confused placeemnt of the Sinognathines.

Question 29

When did the cynodont radation begin?

Answer 29

Late Permian

Question 30

What is the earliest crown-group amniote?

Answer 30

Hylonomus

Question 31

What is the most prominent ghost lineage in early amniote evolution?

Answer 31

Primative diapsids to non-saurian diapsids.

Question 32

What is Araescelidia?

Answer 32

Clade of primative diapsids millions of years before other non-saurian diapsids.

Question 33

What is the clade of primative diapsids that occured long before other diapsids?

Answer 33

Araeoscelidia

Question 34

What are parareptiles?

Answer 34

Transitionary between amphibians and reptiles

Question 35

How many temporal fenestra do parareptiles have?

Answer 35

They're anapsids or have small fenestra

Question 36

What were the first animals with a single fenestra?

Answer 36

Pelycosaurs

Question 37

How did early therapsid fenestra compare to pelycosaurs?

Answer 37

Early therapsid fenestra were larger

Question 38

When did pelycosaurs originate? What originated at the same time?

Answer 38

310mya same time as parareptiles

Question 39

What was the last known group of non-mammalian cynodonts and when did they live?

Answer 39

Tritylodontids - early Cretaceous.

Question 40

When was the earliest therapsid?

Answer 40

272mya

Question 41

List the six lineages originating in the late Carboniferous

Answer 41

Reptilomorphs, Parareptiles, basal eureptilia, pelycosaurs, sphenacodonts, primitive diapsids.

Question 42

List the 5 lineages originating in the late Carboniferous

Answer 42

Procolophoria (parareptiles), Therapsids, Non-Saurian diapsids, pan-archosauria, archosauriformes.

Question 43

When are synapsids and diapsids assumed to have originated?

Answer 43

Synapsids 320mya and diapasids 310mya

Question 44

What Paraphyletic group is ancetral to living tetrapods?

Answer 44

Labyrinthodontia

Question 45

Is there a fossil record completness study in labyrinthontia?

Answer 45

No

Question 46

What is the 'pull of the recent'?

Answer 46

Preferential preservation and recovery of fossils in younger strata.

Question 47

What is the 'push of the past'?

Answer 47

Reversion to the mean value of diversification in long-surviving clades with high rates of early diversification.

Question 48

List some bias dtection and correction techniques

Answer 48

Fossil occurence subsampling, Using evolutionary predictive models to correct rates of origination and extinction. Residuals from diversity-sampling models, sampling bias proxies as covariates in regression models.

Question 49

What is fossil occurrence subsampling?

Answer 49

Rarefaction techniques

Question 50

How do you correct origination, extinction and sampling rates using evolutionary predictive models?

Answer 50

Probabilistic and stats frameworks. Bayesian models, maximum likelihood estimations and birth-death models.

Question 51

What is PyRate?

Answer 51

Bayesian approach to infer origination, extinction and sampling rates from fossil occurrences.

Question 52

What are the key features of PyRate?

Answer 52

Treats sampling as a Poisson process, allows for rate variation over time, and incorporates uncertainties.

Question 53

What is Bayesian Estimation as an evolutionary predictive model?

Answer 53

PyRate

Question 54

What is Time-Slicing and model comparison?

Answer 54

Divide data into discrete time bins and fit different models (constant vs variable rates)

Question 55

What does time-slicing and model comparison do?

Answer 55

Detect shifts on evolutionary dynamics, assess whether changes are real or due to sampling.

Question 56

How do you use residuals from diversity-sampling models to detect and correct bias?

Answer 56

Residuals are the difference between observed and expected reality after rarefaction techniques.

Question 57

When was Romer's Gap?

Answer 57

Late Devonian to mid-Missisippian

Question 58

What is the earliest evidence for tetrapodomorphs?

Answer 58

Trackways in Poland of animals with digits, 10my before earliest elpistostegalian body fossils

Question 59

What is the Liliput effect?

Answer 59

Post extinction shrinking

Question 60

What was the hottest period in the pharenzoic?

Answer 60

Early Triassic

Question 61

Explain the HadCM3 climate model

Answer 61

Simulates coupled atmospheric and oceanic circulation to give well-validated predictions of climatic conditions across deep time.

Question 62

What R code was used for the climate study?

Answer 62

Code modified from a website by someone called Cedric Scherer. ggplot2 for box plot visulisations was used.

Question 63

What is vicariant isolation?

Answer 63

Geographical barriers leading to allopatric speciation

Question 64

Why is climate data for temnospondyls important in relation to thesis?

Answer 64

Help support or refute whether the Manda beds should have been theoretically hospitable.

Question 65

How do you perform phylogenetic independent contrasts?

Answer 65

In R using ape or phytools

Question 66

What is a phylogenetic independent contrast?

Answer 66

For analysing trait correlations. Produces a regression slope to tell you the direction and strength of the evolutionary relationship between traits.

Question 67

How can you examine the direction and strength of evolutionary relationships between traits?

Answer 67

Performing a phylogenetic independence contrast (PIC) to produce a reregression slope. Use ape or phytools in R.

Question 68

Explain Brownian Motion

Answer 68

Phenomena in which some quantity is constantly undergoing small, random fluctuations.

Question 69

Explain the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model of evolution.

Answer 69

A model used in evolutionary biology to describe the evolution of traits under stabilising selection. Traits are drawn towards an optimum.

Question 70

What is the difference between Brownian motion and the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process?

Answer 70

Brownian motion is random, OU is drawn towards a stabalising optimum.

Question 71

What was the only group of Temnospondyls to have a fully marine lifestyle?

Answer 71

Trematosauridae

Question 72

List some photogammetry software

Answer 72

Polycam or Pix4D

Question 73

What is the youngest temnospondyl and when did it live?

Answer 73

Koolasuchus, Early Cretacous

Question 74

What is the youngest Pelycosaur and when did it live?

Answer 74

A varanopid from the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone. Capitanian (Mid-Permian)

Question 75

What is the oldest Therapsid and when did it live?

Answer 75

Raranimus from the early Middle Permian of China. Early Permian.

Question 76

Is there actually a gap between pelycosaurs and therapsids?

Answer 76

No. The oldest therapsid is early Permian. Latest pelycosaurs is mid Permian.

Question 77

How much has been done with diapsid morphometrics?

Answer 77

Very little, just some studies of teeth. Most is archosaurs.

Question 78

What paper that Marcello authored needs to be revisited

Answer 78

The first half of tetrapod evolution, sampling proxies, and fossil record quality (2013).