Stratigraphy and Geologic Time

Question 1

What is the principle of superposition?

Answer 1

The theory that older rocks are deposited deeper in the earth and that newer rocks are deposited on top.

Question 2

What type of rock can cut vertically through the other layers?

Answer 2

Igneous Rock

Question 3

What is stratigraphy?

Answer 3

The science of using the arrangement and composition of rock layers to interpret geological history

Question 4

What is a formation in geological terms?

Answer 4

A large uninterrupted sequence of rock, made of multiple layers that all share similar properties

Question 5

What technique is used to date rocks in absolute terms?

Answer 5

Radiometric dating

Question 6

What is an isotope?

Answer 6

A variant chemical element that has an unusual number of neutrons

Question 7

How is radiometric dating conducted?

Answer 7

Scientists can measure how many radioactive isotopes are in a rock to determine how old that rock is.

Question 8

What tool is used during radiometric dating?

Answer 8

Mass spectrometer

Question 9

What type of rock cannot be radiometrically dated due to its nature?

Answer 9

Sedimentary Rock

Question 10

What type of fossil deposit is easy to determine the age of?

Answer 10

Volcanic ash fossils

Question 11

What is the geological time scale?

Answer 11

Standardized series of chronological divisions that parse the Earth’s history into discrete named units.

Question 12

What is the list largest to smallest of time periods?

Answer 12

Eons, Eras, Periods, Epochs

Question 13

What is the order of Eons from oldest to newest?

Answer 13

Hadeon Eon, Archean Eon, Proterozoic Eon, and Phanerozoic Eon

Question 14

What are the eras of the Phanerozoic Eon from oldest to Newest?

Answer 14

The Paleozoic, The Mesozoic, and The Cenozoic

Question 15

What are the periods of the paleozoic?

Answer 15

The Cambrian period, The Ordovician, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, The Permian

Question 16

What are the periods of the mesozoic era?

Answer 16

The Triassic, The Jurassic, The Cretaceous

Question 17

What are the periods of the Cenozoic era?

Answer 17

The Palogene Period, The Neogene Period, The Quarternary Period

Question 18

Which Era is known as the era of Dinosaurs?

Answer 18

The Mesozoic Era

Question 19

What was the cause of the permian-triassic mass extinction?

Answer 19

Large number of Volcanic Eruptions in a region that is now Siberia

Question 20

What was the first group of vertebrates to fly?

Answer 20

Pterosaurs, they aren’t dinosaurs

Question 21

What was happening geologically during the Triassic?

Answer 21

Pangea was beginning the break apart

Question 22

During which period did the first ichthyosaurs evolve?

Answer 22

The triassic

Question 23

What does the name ichthyosaur mean, what were they really?

Answer 23

Fish Lizard, they are reptiles that adapted to live in the water secondarily, consequently they didn’t have gills, but they did have long snouts and conical teeth

Question 24

What is similar between the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs are they related?

Answer 24

They are not related - they are two separate lineages of reptiles that returned to the water to fill those ecological niches

Question 25

During which period did plesiosaurs evolve?

Answer 25

The late Triassic

Question 26

What was a pterosaur wing like?

Answer 26

membranous section of skin supported by one elongated finger

Question 27

What was the group that pterosaurs belonged to called and at which period in time were they common?

Answer 27

They belonged to the group rhamphorynchoids and were common throughout the Late Triassic and Jurassic

Question 28

What was a common trait of all the first dinosaurs?

Answer 28

They were small and bipedal

Question 29

What were the most dominant terrestrial herbivores during the Jurassic?

Answer 29

Sauropods

Question 30

What were the dominant Terrestrial Carnivore in the Jurassic?

Answer 30

Non-coelurosaurian theropods - like allosaurus

Question 31

Among the Ornithiscians which first appeared within the Jurassic?

Answer 31

First ankylosaurs, ornithopods, ceratopsians, and stegosaurs

Question 32

Which group of ornithiscians was basically restricted to the jurassic period?

Answer 32

The stegosaurs

Question 33

During which period did Archeopteryx evolve?

Answer 33

The Jurassic

Question 34

Which are the best known formations from the Jurassic Period?

Answer 34

The Morrison Formation and the Solnhofen limestone

Question 35

Which flying reptiles dominated the skies in the Jurassic?

Answer 35

The rhamphorhynchoid lineage called Pterodactyloids

Question 36

During which period did the first flowering plants begin to evolve?

Answer 36

The early Cretaceous

Question 37

Which new theropods evolved during the early cretaceous?

Answer 37

spinosaurids and carcharodontosaurids

Question 38

Which are the most important early cretaceous formations?

Answer 38

The Yixian formation (China), the Wealden Supergroup (England), Cedar Mountain formation (Utah)

Question 39

Which third secondarily aquatic reptile evolved during the cretaceous?

Answer 39

Mosasaurs

Question 40

Which time period is considered to be the apex of non-avian dinosaurs?

Answer 40

The late cretaceous

Question 41

Which coelurosaurian theropods were abundant in the late cretaceous?

Answer 41

tyrannosaurs, ornithomids, therizinosaurs, oviraptosaurs, dromaeosaurids, and troondontids

Question 42

During which period did the ankylosaurs split into two separate groups?

Answer 42

The late cretaceous

Question 43

Which were the major dominant herbivores during the late cretaceous?

Answer 43

Ceratopsians and hadrosaurs (northern hemisphere), Titanosaurid sauropods (Southern Hemisphere)

Question 44

Which is the only period that pachycephalosaurs are known?

Answer 44

The late cretaceous

Question 45

What was the cause of the end cretaceous mass extinction?

Answer 45

A giant meteor that crashed onto the earth

Question 46

During which Eon did life first evolve?

Answer 46

The archean eon

Question 47

During which period did larger life forms evolve?

Answer 47

The Edicarian

Question 48

What was the period which marked a large evolutionary expansion of marine life?

Answer 48

The Cambrian expansion during the Cambrian Period

Question 49

From which period does all the major carbon deposites arise from?

Answer 49

The carboniferous period - remember carbon in the name

Question 50

During which period did humans evolve?

Answer 50

The current period the Quarternary period