DINOSAURS GEOS-1050

What is the arbitrary cut-off age that the remains must be older than to be considered a fossil?

10,000 years old

What feature do dinosaurs and other diapsid reptiles share?

2 temporal fenestrae on each side of the skull

Element X decays over time to Element Y. The half-live of this decay reaction is 500,000 years. A sample of rock, was found that had experienced four half-lives of Element X - How old is that sample?

2,000,000 years

How many different groups of vertebrates have independently developed flight?

3

How many fingers does an avetheropodan have on each hand?

3

How old is the Earth?

4.6 billion years old

A geologist collects a sample of volcanic ash, and decides to age date the rock using the Z radiometric system. Element Z has a half-life of 2 billion years. How old is a sample that has experienced 3 half-lives of element Z?

6 billion years old

A geologist has collected a sample or a rock that she would like to age date with the Y radiometric system. Parent isotope Y has a half-life of 4,000,000 years. How old is the sample, if it has experienced two half-lives?

8,000,000 years

What was the estimated number of species lost in the end-Permian extinction event in the marine realm?

96%

Which feature is not characteristic of birds?

A Wing supported by all five digits of the hand

A diastem is part of the Ceratopsian jaw - what phrase below best describes it?

A gap between the cheek teeth and the rhamphotheca

The extensive continental interior of Pangaea is interpreted to have been __________.

A massive desert

Ornithischian dinosaurs are characterized by ___________.

A predentary bone at the front of the jaw

Which of the following is not a function of feathers in birds?

Absorb oxygen from air

The coronoid process in hadrosaurs serves this function:

Additional space for muscles to attach

Where did the Nodosaur fossil in the Greshko article come from?

Alberta, Canada

Charles Darwin was spurred to publish his theory upon receiving letters detailing a similar theory from this person?

Alfred Russel Wallance

Hesperornis is a fossil Ornithuraen found in late Cretaceous age rocks in the Western U.S. What type of environment did they live in?

Along shorelines of lakes and shallow seas

Which of the following groups does not exhibit an amniotic egg (or had an ancestor that laid amniotic eggs)?

Amphibians

In Pterosaurs the flight surface of the wings are supported by the arm bones and __________.

An elongate fourth digit on the hand

Which of the following groups did not evolve in the Paleozoic?

Angiosperms

Breccias are characterized by having ______________ grains in a finer matrix.

Angular

What mineral are vertebrate bones made of?

Apatite

Which set of Mountains formed from the collision of South America and Africa with North America?

Appalachian-Ouachita Mountains

The earliest confirmed dinosaur skeletal remains are from _____________.

Argentina

What kind of environment characterized the four corners region of North America during the Permian-Triassic?

Arid Desert

Turning on the gene for teeth in a chicken is an example of what biological modification tool?

Atavism Activation

What type of sedimentary rock is our main line of evidence for the oxygenation of the Precambrian world?

Banded Iron Formation

What characteristic showed a lot of diversity in the different finch species?

Beak shape and size

The hoatzin of South America has retained these primitive characteristics.

Beak with teeth and wing claws in juveniles

Ornithischians have a jaw joint ___________ the tooth row.

Below

Which of the following groups is descended from dinosaurs?

Birds

Which of the following groups survived the K-T extinction event?

Birds

What feature links the Pachycephalosaurs and Ceratopsians together to form the larger clade, Marginocephalia?

Bony ridge or shelf that extends from the back of the skull

Which specialized behavior did some basal ornithopods exhibit?

Burrowing nests for their young

A horse is a type of vertebrate animal. What mineral is secreted to form the teeth and bones of a horse?

Calcite

What are the dominant elements in apatite that can be analyzed by the handheld x-ray fluorescence device? [Select all that apply]

Calcium AND Phosphorous

What is the age of the oldest known fossil chordate, Pikaia gracilens?

Cambrian

This fossil started out as wood. Which of these elements best characterizes the composition of the wood:

Carbon

A plant fossil made up of pure carbon was likely preserved with this style of preservation:

Carbonization and Compression

The earliest confirmed dinosaur skeletal remains are from the ___________ stage.

Carnian

Of the following people, who invented the most commonly used form of taxonomy?

Carolus Linnaeus

Cretaceous is derived from the Latin word for ______________.

Chalk

The Cliffs of Dover in England are made up of ________________.

Chalk

Leaping Laelaps was a painting created by __________________.

Charles R. Knight

Which organelle facilitates photosynthesis?

Chloroplast

A shale is dominated by this grain size.

Clay

Hemipelagic sediments are composed of:

Clay

Which of the following is the smallest grain size in siliciclastic rocks?

Clay

Place the following materials in order of their grain size from smallest to largest.

Clay, Silt, Sand, Gravel

Which of the following rock types is deposited in swampy settings?

Coal

What type of plankton accumulate after death to form chalk?

Coccolithophores

Which of the following is not an activity of taxonomy?

Collecting fossils

At the end of which time period, did the Dinosaurs die out?

Cretaceous

Which feature is characteristic of eolian systems like dunes?

Cross bedding

Which principle would suggest that Fault E is younger than Layer A?

Cross-cutting relationships

An animal adapted for running on long limbs is best described as ____________.

Cursorial

Titanosaurs from the Late Cretaceous archipelago in Europe exhibit which of the following trends?

Decrease in overall body size to tiny proportions

Which type of plankton is on modern oceans responsible for "red tides" and can be bioluminescent?

Dinoflagellates

What type of unconformity is represented by a gap in the fossil record between relatively parallel layers of sedimentary rock?

Disconformity

The ulna (one of the lower forelimb bones) is __________ to the scapula.

Distal (further away from)

Alfred Russel Wallace mapped the distribution of different animals in the Indonesian Archipelago. He showed that the animals were ___________.

Distinctively different faunal communities on either side of the Lombok Strait- with the northwestern islands dominated by southeast Asian faunas and southeastern islands dominated by Australian faunas.

Which of the following is the largest Titanosaur currently known?

Dreadnoughtus

Which pair of paleontologists were involved in the Bone Wars during the late 1800's?

Edward Drinker Cope Othniel Charles Marsh

Lambeosaurine hadrosaurids are characterized by the presence of ________________.

Elaborate Crests

In a river system, the cut bank is where:

Erosion occurs along the outer margin of the bend.

Several lineages of sauropods show a trend towards __________________.

External nares (nostrils) present towards the top of the skull OR More delicate leg bones

A recurved tooth was not beneficial for theropod dinosaurs, as it allowed the dinosaur's prey to escape more readily than a non-recurved tooth.

False

Above the calcium carbonate compensation depth, calcium carbonate (calcite/aragonite) dissolves in the oceans.

False

All Dinosaurs were huge semiaquatic reptiles.

False

All landforms formed from longshore currents run perpendicular to the shoreline.

False

Anapsids like turtles and tortoises were the group of reptiles that mammals evolved from.

False

Ankylosaurs are characterized by forelimbs longer than hind limbs, and a narrow rib cage.

False

Ankylosaurs are only found from deposits in western North America.

False

Ankylosaurs are only found in massive bone beds, suggesting that these animals lived in gigantic herds.

False

Asian Pachycephalosaurs are usually found in floodplain sediments adjacent to the upland environments where they lived.

False

Biologists use trinomial nomenclature to name a new species - it consists of the family, genus, and species identifier.

False

Birds are derived from Ornithischian ancestors.

False

Calcareous Oozes over time lithify to form the rock chert.

False

Carbon has an atomic mass of 12.011. Is carbon heavy enough that the handheld x-ray fluorescence device able to analyze it?

False

Carnivorous dinosaurs have peg-shaped teeth.

False

Chert is made up of the skeletons of animals like corals and clams.

False

Darwin's theory included genetics - the biological storage of data that expresses for different genes and the mechanism for these genes to be passed onto offspring.

False

Deltas are characterized by tributary streams that gather water into one channel.

False

Diatoms were very important plankton that accumulated to form the massive chalk deposits of the Jurassic and Cretaceous.

False

Dinosaurs exhibit a crurotarsal ankle - the foot is parallel to the ground, while the leg makes an acute angle to the ground.

False

Dinosaurs exhibit high predator to prey ratios, which is suggestive that they were cold-blooded animals like crocodiles.

False

Dinosaurs had hair.

False

Does the spectra suggest that the wood exhibits the unaltered chemical composition of the original wood?

False

During the Cretaceous, sea level was low due to the low rates of oceanic crust production and cold climatic conditions.

False

Gymosperms are characterized by seeds encased in fruit and elaborate structures designed to attract insects to aid in reproduction.

False

Human remains and artifacts are also governed under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act of 2009.

False

In a meandering river, the point bar is characterized by higher energy flow and the erosion of the bank.

False

In a sprawling posture, the legs are positioned underneath the center of mass of the animal.

False

In humans the sacral vertebrae have been fused together to form the coccyx.

False

Jack Horner and colleagues have actually extracted DNA from a dinosaur.

False

Jack Horner first discovered fossil embryos and eggs of hadrosaurs at Egg Mountain in Argentina.

False

Marginocephalians are only found in rocks of Jurassic age.

False

Michigan is known for its fossil dinosaurs.

False

Monotremes like the duck-billed platypus and spiny echnida are the only mammals that give live birth, instead of laying eggs.

False

Nicolas Steno came up with the idea of cross-cutting relationships.

False

Ornithischian dinosaurs show a decrease in diversity as angiosperm diversity increases.

False

Outwash is the sediment deposited from melting (stagnant) ice at the front of the glacier and consists of material of all grain sizes.

False

Oviraptors show behavioral evidence that they preyed upon other dinosaur's eggs.

False

Paleontologists are able to use a biological definition of species.

False

Permineralization is a style of replacement that preserves just the gross anatomy of the organism - the overall shape, but not the fine structural details.

False

Plankton diversity stays constant across the K-T boundary - with no loss of species.

False

Playa lakes develop in humid environments and usually precipitate oolitic limestones.

False

Prosauropod is a formal scientific name, with well-described diagnostic characteristics shared by all members of the group.

False

Pterosaur bones were solid bone.

False

Quartz developments cleavage when you press on it with your fingers.

False

Reptiles are classified based on the presence or absence of temporal fenestrae, openings in the hip structure.

False

Rock gypsum forms through the accumulation of skeletal grains in a shallow lake environment.

False

Rudistid bivalves made it through the K-T extinction, and are still making reefs in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

False

Saurischian dinosaurs are characterized by small hands, with thumbs that point away from the palm of the hand.

False

Saurischian dinosaurs exhibit a reduced antorbital opening, while Ornithischians exhibit a much larger antorbital opening.

False

Sauropodomorphs are a type of Ornithischian Dinosaur.

False

Sauropodomorphs have huge heads relative to their necks.

False

Sauropods commonly walked with their tails dragging on the ground.

False

Sauropods were carnivores.

False

Sediments undergo volumetric expansion when more sediment is laid on top of them.

False

Stegosaurs had a huge brain relative to body size and reduced olfactory bulbs.

False

Sunlight penetrates even to the deepest water depths - so photosynthesis is active on the abyssal plains.

False

The Chicxulub Crater is visible at the Earth's surface and did not require geophysical methods to map out its distribution.

False

The Chicxulub Crater was discovered by the Alvarez's.

False

The Earth is 14 billion years old.

False

The dermal plates (or osteoderms) in stegosaurs were articulated with the vertebrae - so we know where exactly along the back each plate came from.

False

The earliest known Ceratopsians are found in central Asia (Mongolia and China) and were obligate quadrupeds.

False

The fossil record is complete - every organism that ever lived is preserved as a fossil.

False

The fossil record of birds is incredibly detailed due to the robust, solid nature of their bones.

False

The hand bones in the early chicken embryo are very different from the dinosaur Velociraptor.

False

The highest grade of coal is peat.

False

The pectoral girdle is the set of bones that make up the hips.

False

The terminal Cretaceous (K-T) extinction was the worst extinction in Earth's history.

False

Triassic rocks, especially lower Triassic rocks are very common.

False

Vascular Plants do not exhibit tissues that move fluids through the plant's body.

False

Western North America consisted of 1 large continent that was accreted to the margin of North America during the early Triassic.

False

Woolly Mammoths are a type of dinosaur.

False

Which of the following are derived characteristics that all birds share?

Feathers and upright posture

What type of feeding behavior do corals exhibit?

Filter-feeding

Echinoderms like the star fish are characterized by ____________ symmetry.

Five-fold

Which of the following features is the adaptation that all angiosperms share, but other types of plants do not?

Flowers and fruit

Pterosaurs are best described as ____________.

Flying reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

What is a coprolite?

Fossilized feces

Which of the following are derived characteristics that all mammals share?

Fur and mammary glands

Medullary tissue associated with dinosaur bones tells us the ____________ of a dinosaur.

Gender

Which grain size is associated with the highest energy environments?

Gravel

Which vessel did Charles Darwin sail on during his early career?

HMS Beagle

What is the proper evolutionary sequence of landforms in an erosional coastline?

Head land, Sea cave, Arch, Sea stack

Mary Schweitzer isolated heme from dinosaur bones. This compound is a structural element of what compound transfers oxygen around our bodies?

Hemoglobin

Which of the following is not a type of trace fossil?

Hip bones

What adaptation for flight do both pterosaurs and birds share?

Hollow bones

What is the proper species name for humans?

Homo Sapiens (italicized)

Mary Anning is recognized as the first person to have discovered and described a fossil of a ___________.

Ichthyosaur

Which type of marine reptile was fully adapted for life in the water - including giving live birth to their young?

Ichthyosaurs

Linnaean taxonomy relies on the instinct and experience of the researcher to determine relationships between organisms. Later techniques have quantified this process. Phylogenetics and Cladistics are the two techniques most popular today. What piece of information is used in Phylogenetics, but not cladistics?

Includes constraints of the timing of divergence of species from geology (fossil occurrences) and genetics (molecular clock dates)

The Solite Quarry mines materials from a Triassic Rift Valley lake - which type of animal was the most abundant animal found at the Quarry?

Insects

What kind of DNA is most likely to be extracted from fossil insects embedded in amber?

Insects like mosquitos and conifer trees.

At Gubbio, Italy, the father-son team of Louis and Walter Alvarez discovered an anomaly in what chemical element?

Iridium Ir

Why is Massospondylus special?

It is one of the few "prosauropods" species with known fossil eggs with embryos*

The oldest unaltered fossils are __________ in age.

Jurasic

In Michigan, the Mesozoic rocks are from which period?

Jurassic

Which of the following books written by Michael Crichton popularized dinosaurs while using more scientifically realistic dinosaurs?

Jurassic Park

Of the following, which is the largest grouping of species?

Kingdom

What is the main characteristic that sets the class Aves apart from all other Avialaens?

Lack of teeth in beak

Which of the following is a defining characteristic of the Hadrosaurids?

Lacked thumbs

Which of the following is not a defining characteristic of the Iguanodontids?

Lacked thumbs

Plesiosaurs are best described as ____________.

Large aquatic reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

A turbidite is a ____________.

Layer of sediment deposited from a turbidity current AND layer that exhibits graded bedding.

Which of the following is not a basic type of paleontology?

Legal Paleontology

What feature do tetrapods have four of?

Limbs

Lagoons are quiet environments in tropical shelves. What type of sediment would you expect in this environment?

Lime mud

Texture in Clastic Sedimentary rocks is defined by grain size, grain sorting and grain rounding. If you find a rock specimen with rounded (spherical) grains, what does that mean with regard to transport conditions?

Long period of transport

Which Class do humans belong to?

Mammalia

Which of the following is not a characteristic that Dinosaurs (and all reptiles) exhibit?

Mammary glands

Which group of theropods are most closely related to the Avialaens?

Maniraptorans

B-Rex was determined by Mary Schweitzer to be female on the basis of which characteristic of the bones?

Medullary tissue

The Phanerozoic eon is divided into three eras, the Paleozoic, the ________________, and the Cenozoic.

Mesozoic

The skeleton of Tarbosaurus bataar seized by the U.S. government was illegally removed from this county?

Mongolia

What social behavior is well described from multi-individual assemblages from central Asia?

Nesting and parental care

What type of unconformity is present between weathered crystalline rocks (igneous and metamorphic) and sedimentary rocks?

Nonconformity

Which hemisphere of the Earth is where all known fossils of the Marginocephalia come from?

Northern Hemisphere

Pikaia gracilens and Homo sapiens share what anatomical feature?

Notochord

Which of the following organisms is the closest modern relative of ammonoids?

Octopus

Darwin described his theory and provided reams of evidence in his book titled______________.

On the Origin of Species

Which of the following is not a characteristic of braided streams?

One channel with prominent cut banks and point bars around bends in the channel.

Which of the following is a chemical sediment?

Oolitic limestone

Examine the picture with this question. The skeleton exhibits a hip structure with the ischium and pubis running parallel to each other. Which group of animals does it belong to?

Ornithischians

Which of the following gases is a waste product of photosynthesis?

Oxygen

What law governs dinosaur fossils found on federal land?

Paleontological Resources Prevention Act of 2009

At the start of the Triassic, the continents were arranged into a supercontinent called ____________.

Pangaea

By the end of the Permian this supercontinent had formed through plate collisions?

Pangaea

The incus, malleus and stapes started out as part of the ____________ in our synapsid ancestors.

Parts of the lower jaw

Which of the following units represents the smallest amount of geologic time?

Period

Which phylum do humans belong to?

Phylum Chordata

Which type of reptiles were long-necked animals that lived in the oceans most of the time, but laid their eggs on land?

Plesiosaurs

Which of the following is not a criteria used to define a fossil?

Pottery shards, Stone axes, & Grinding stone

Which of the following is a trait shared by all Neotheropodans?

Presence of a furcular

Which of the following is a diagnostic characteristic of the Ceratopsia?

Presence of a rostral bone

Which major feature differentiates Nodosaurids from their close relatives the Akylosaurids?

Presence of an acromial process

What is the distinguishing characteristic that all Thyreophorans share?

Presence of paired rows of osteodermsUs

Which Order do humans belong to?

Primates

Which of the following is not one of Steno's principles?

Principle of Faunal Succession

This early ceratopsian has incredibly well-preserved individuals that exhibit tail feathers made up of monofilamentous feathers.

Psittacosaurus

What factor does Michael Greshko state was the reason the nodosaur in the National Geographic article cause the very fine preservation of the fossil?

Rapid burial in marine environment.

Which of the following factors influences whether an organism will become a fossil?

Rapid burial in marine environment.

Brachiopod 2 has small patches of pyrite on the shell, but the dominant chemical element present in the spectra is Calcium! Based on the age of the fossil and the dominance of Calcium. What style of preservation has preserved Brachiopod 2?

Recrystallization

Which of the following is not a characteristic shared by all sauropodomorphs?

Reduction of skull fenestrae

Which of the following rock types is deposited in shallow, tropical environments?

Reef limestones

Examine the spectra for Brachiopod 1, its shell is dominated by iron and sulfur with a smaller amount of calcium. Iron and Sulfur suggest the presence of a brassy metallic mineral called Pyrite (or more colloquially fool's gold). What style of preservation would preserve the fine details of the shell, including ornamentation but change the composition of the shell?

Replacement - Permineralization

How is the fossil preserved? Note that the gross anatomy is preserved in this sample, but the finer details are not.

Replacement - Petrifaction

Taphonomy includes all of the following except for ___________________.

Reproduction and breeding behavior.

Ornithischians at the front of their jaws have a predentary bone and __________________.

Rhamp OR Canines

What type of basins develop on the east coast of North America during the Triassic and Jurassic?

Rift Valleys

Which rock type is used to make road de-icers?

Rock salt

Many important oil reservoirs in the Middle East are hosted in limestones made from reefs composed of ______________.

Rudistid bivalves

What kind of special Jurassic rock is economically important as a reservoir for hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico region?

Salt

The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone was deposited in what kind of depositional environment?

Sand dunes

What kind of rock forms in a meandering stream channel?

Sandstone

Which group of Osteoichthyean fish are the ancestors of the tetrapods?

Sarcopytergians

Saturnalia was a middle Triassic dinosaur from Brazil that had skeletal features that suggested that they were facultative quadrupeds with a saurischian-style hip structure. What group has it been assigned to?

Sauropodomorpha

Which of the following is not a characteristic of amphibians and early tetrapods?

Scaly skin

Which of the following is not a bone in the dinosaurian pelvic girdle or hips?

Scapula

Dinosaurs cared for their young is an example of a ______________?

Scientific hypothesis

The statement "Aspirin relieves headaches" is a _________________.

Scientific hypothesis

Which of the following landforms is not characteristic of depositional coastlines?

Sea caves

Type of rock the forms from accumulations of weathered unconsolidated material and skeletal remains of organisms?

Sedimentary

What type of rock hosts the majority of the Earth's fossils?

Sedimentary

The large flat teeth of placodonts were used to eat _____________.

Shelled animals

Thyreophorans exhibit forelimbs _________ the hind limbs.

Shorter than

The oldest known fossil plants from the Silurian are characterized by _____________.

Small roots and no vascular system

Ankylosaurs have a very well developed sense of __________ due to the enlargement of the __________ portion of the brain.

Smell, Olfactory bulbs

All of the major groups of flying vertebrates exhibit a rigid _______ with a lot of surface area for muscle attachment.

Sternum

Which type of trace fossil suggests the presence of oxygen-producing bacteria in the fossil record?

Stromatolites

Mesozoic mammals are classified based on the shape, size and number of ___________.

Teeth

Interlocking tail vertebrae with zygapophyses are characteristic of which group of theropods?

Tetanurans

A cursorial origin of flight suggests ______________.

That the animal developed flight from a combination of faster running and leaping

Horned and large frilled ceratopsians likely migrated to western North America through ______.

The Bering Sea Strait

Which set of islands were incredibly influential in Darwin's biological research?

The Galapagos Islands

Where is the Chicxulub Crater located?

The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico

Solnhofen Quarry in Germany is special because _________________.

The fossils of the Jurassic animals are exceptionally well preserved at this site

Agnathan fish are fundamentally different from other fish, because they are _________.

The only fish with no jaws

A digitigrade stance is where the animal walks with their weight supported on _____________.

The tips of the toe bones

Which of the following is a sub-group within the Saurischian dinosaurs?

Theropods

Sperm and egg cells are gametes. What is special about gametes?

They are the only cells in the body that are haploid - bearing just 1 copy of each chromosome.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of monotremes like the duck-billed platypus?

They have feathers

What characteristic do all tetrapods share?

They have four limbs

What happened to the fossils of the Spinosaur found during the German-Egyptian expeditions of 1910-1911?

They were destroyed in World War II

On each island in the Galapagos, were distinct species of _______________ that Darwin collected samples of and information on.

Tortoises and finches

Taking a gene out of one organism and inserting it into the DNA of a different organism is called:

Transgenesis

In what time period, did the Dinosaurs originate?

Triassic

A cast is a three-dimensional replica of the body formed when a mold fills with sediment. It does not preserve the original body of the animal.

True

A coquina consists of cemented skeletal grains that are heavily broken and abraded.

True

A dinosaur's stride is measured as the distance between the same point in two consecutive steps of the same foot.

True

A morphological species definition uses the shape and size characteristics of fossils to define species.

True

Amber preserves many Mesozoic fossil insects - where the insect became encased in tree sap that hardened.

True

An example of a homology are your fingers and the bones supporting the wings of a bat.

True

An explanation for an observation has to be testable.

True

Archaeopteryx differs from modern birds by having an elongate tail composed of a series of caudal vertebrae.

True

Artificial selection is the controlled breeding of individuals in a species in order to propagate characteristics advantageous to humans in that species, such as enhanced food production or softer fibers.

True

Atavism Activation was responsible for stimulating the gene for teeth, producing teeth in chickens.

True

Bipeds walk using their hind limbs only.

True

Birds nearly died out at the end of the Cretaceous - only three groups survived the extinction event.

True

Bones provide Paleontologists with a lot of information for reconstructing what the dinosaur looked like in life - such as amount of musculature and overall body shape.

True

Carnosaurs include some of the largest land-dwelling carnivores in Earth history - including Carcharodontosaurus and Gigantosaurus.

True

Cementation is the process by which groundwaters precipitate dissolved ions in the pore space between sediment grains, binding them together.

True

Ceratopsians replaced their worn cheek teeth constantly.

True

Coelurosaurs are a very diverse group of theropod dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurs and hummingbirds.

True

Cretaceous units like the Mancos Shale represent 1.) The flooding of the continental interior due to sea level drop, and 2.) The lowering of the land surface as a response to the collisions happening further west.

True

Dinosaur National Monument is an American park focused on highlighting paleontological research.

True

Dinosaur postage stamps often showcase dinosaurs found in the country, however it is also common that the dinosaur pictured has not been found in the country issuing the stamps.

True

Early tetrapods like Tiktaalik and Ichthyostega exhibit more massive (or robust) pectoral and pelvic girdles than the sarcopytergian fish.

True

Genes are made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

True

Hadrosaur dinosaurs ate meals consisting of foliage and branches of conifers and berries and leaves from angiosperms.

True

Hadrosaur nesting sites include many crushed eggshells suggesting that the nestlings lived for some time in the nests where they were cared for by their parents.

True

Horsetails are members of the Sphenopsida and are characterized as vascular plants that reproduce via spores.

True

If you wanted to, there would be options in the U.S. where you could pay in order to volunteer at a dinosaur dig site.

True

In Michigan, you can collect up to 25 pounds per day (100 pounds maximum) of common invertebrate and plant fossils in Michigan's state lands.

True

In a few species of ceratopsians, we have enough individuals that have been described that show that variation in frill size and shape is a result of slight difference between individuals of different gender in the species.

True

In embryos of birds, both tails and hand bones are present during stages of development - and are later shrunk and merged into a much reduced tail and a fused hand. These are examples of atavisms.

True

In natural selection, individuals with advantageous adaptations are more likely to reproduce, so these adaptations are eventually spread through the population of the species.

True

In order to migrate into drier environments, early reptiles evolved scaly skin to prevent desiccation.

True

In rift valleys, the lavas typically formed basalt - a dark colored igneous rock.

True

It is common to find news articles on new dinosaur discoveries, because this is a way for the paleontologists to educate the public on their science.

True

Linnaean taxonomy is a hierarchical classification.

True

Microtektites are small fragments of the meteorite; spherules are small pieces of fused glass representing molten rock thrown up into the atmosphere during the impact.

True

Most ornithopods had atricial young - young that were born immature and required parenting to reach maturity.

True

No DNA fragments were extracted from dinosaur bone material - instead a variety of proteins, collagen, and osteocytes (bone cells) were extracted.

True

Nodosaurs bear a body armor composed of bony osteoderms coated with keratin.

True

Not all "dinosaurs" shown on postage stamps are actually dinosaurs.

True

Ornithuromorphans lack gastralia - belly ribs.

True

Over the Mesozoic, several insect groups developed elongate, tubular mouthparts for sucking nectar.

True

Pachycephalosaurs are unique group of dinosaurs because the back portion of their brains has been rotated downward.

True

Prosauropods like Plateosaurus share the general characteristics of more advanced sauropodomorphs like long necks, small heads, enlarged thumbs with prominent claws, and elongate femurs.

True

Sauropods had to have massive hearts in order to pump blood the length of the neck to the head and brain. Estimates of the systolic blood pressure is 630 mm or higher.

True

Science is about making observations, coming up with explanations for the observations, and then testing the observation

True

Some hadrosaurs exhibit exceptional preservation with fossils of skin and internal organs from "mummified" hadrosaurs.

True

Stegosaurs like Stegosaurus and Kentrosaurus exhibited sexual dimorphism - two adult forms of different size and some differences in the skeleton and osteoderms.

True

The backbone in dinosaurs consists of the cervical, dorsal, sacral, and caudal vertebrae.

True

The common misconception is that dinosaurs consist of any large extinct animal.

True

The earliest feathers are hair-like structures grown from follicles.

True

The forelimb bones (humerus, radius, ulna) in dinosaurs are directly homologous to the long bones in the human arm.

True

The main body (torso, limbs, tail) is fairly similar across Ceratopsian species, the main physical element that changes is the head region - with incredible diversity in frill and horn shape/size, position in the ~40 known ceratopsian species.

True

The oldest multicellular algae were found in iron mines here in Michigan.

True

The presence of iridium by itself is not good enough to tell us that an impact occurred, because Iridium is also found enriched in the mantle - so volcanic outpourings can bring more Iridium to the surface.

True

The recessive gene is expressed in the F2 generation when an offspring receives copies of the recessive gene from both of its parents.

True

The tooth is the same composition as it was originally.

True

The traditional subdivision of the dinosaurs into the saurischian and ornithischian groups is based on the configuration of the hip bones. Question options:

True

The two major controls on sea level are the rate of oceanic crust production and climate.

True

The wing membrane in pterosaurs is supported by elongate digit IV and the pteroid bone.

True

Theropods were obligate bipeds that had a digitigrade stance - i.e. they extended the length of the leg by walking on the toes.

True

Titanosaurs were the largest sauropods - with some reaching estimated masses of 65 tons!

True

Transgenesis is an evolutionary modification tool used to take genes from the genetic information from one animal and inserting it into the genetic material in a different species. Offspring then express the new gene, such as glowing

True

Tsunamis represent giant waves formed by the displacement of huge volumes of water.

True

Of the following, which term best describes the posture of a dinosaur?

Upright posture

Which of the following has not been proposed as a hypothesis for the function of the large plates in stegosaurs?

Used as sails when the dinosaur swam

Head crests likely served all of the following except _________.

Used as snorkels

Which type of layered deposit is typical of lake sediments?

Varves

Where are the massive volcanic basaltic rocks known as the Deccan traps located?

Western India

What feature is prominent in enhancing the ornithopod's tail's function as a counterbalance?

ossified tendons