Historical Geology - Paliozoic Tetrapods and Permo Triassic

Question 1

What were the challenges of leaving the water?

Answer 1

• support
• locomotion
• feeding and respiration
• sensory systems and water balance

Question 2

Describe the transformation of an organism to be able to move from water to land.

Answer 2

• girdles attach to vertebral column
• ribs become more robust
• increase range of limb motion

Question 3

What provides independence from water for reproduction and therefore expansion of habitat?

Answer 3

The amniotic egg

Question 4

What created the The Permian – Triassic (P/T) boundary?

Answer 4

The Permian - Triassic extinction event (252.17 Ma)

• nearly all life died - 96% of marine species - 70% of terrestrial species
• two separate events about 5 million years apart

Question 5

What are possible causes of mass extinction?

Answer 5

• Change in CO2?
• Increased volcanism?
• Plate tectonics (e.g., sea level change)?
• Anoxic ocean water?
• Warm climates?
• Siberian Traps volcanism?
• Meteorite impact?
• Loss of primary producers?
• All of the above?

Question 6

What is a mantle plume?

Answer 6

• upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the earth’s mantle

Question 7

What are the effects of large-scale volcanism?

Answer 7

• massive input of green house gases into the atmosphere

- burning of large amounts of coal

Question 8

What is Ocean anoxia?

Answer 8

• no oxygen present

- ocean was probably stratified