Rock On 11

The extinction of many types of dinosaurs occurred about:

65,000,000 years ago.

A widely accepted scientific idea usually is based on:

An interlocking web of important experimental results or observations that support the correctness of the idea.

The picture above shows:

An upside-down dinosaur track.

Transitional forms between distinct types (species) of different ages in the fossil record:

Are common for commonly fossilized types, but rare for rarely fossilized types.

What cause probably was not important in contributing to extinction of most species on Earth, including the dinosaurs, in a very short interval of time at the end of the Mesozoic Era?

Cold from the change in Earth's orbit caused when the meteorite shoved the planet farther from the sun.

Evolution produces new types, and extinction gets rid of them. The scientific evidence summarized in the text and in class shows that:

Evolution and extinction are usually more-or-less in balance, but occasional mass extinctions reduce biodiversity, and subsequent evolution faster than extinction increases biodiversity until a new balance is reached.

Religion and science always disagree.

False

Which of the following is not part of the evidence that the odd layer marking the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a large meteorite impact?

High concentrations of iron found in the layer.

Examine the two pictures above, labeled I and II. They are from the same sediment core collected in sea-floor muds from beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. (The pictures are scanning electron micrographs by Brian Huber of the Smithsonian Institution, and the scale is the same on both, as shown at the bottom of each.) One picture shows a sample from just below the unique layer marking the extinction that killed the dinosaurs, and the other picture shows a sample from just above that unique layer. Which is which?

I is from below the unique layer, and II is from above the unique layer.

Which of the following is not a part of the modern theory of evolution?

If the body of an adult living thing is changed by its environment, those changes usually are passed on biologically to children.

What is accurate about the scientific theory of evolution today?

It is being applied successfully in the real world in many ways, including helping fight new disease organisms, and even guiding the thinking of computer scientists.

The dominant large animals on Earth today are mammals. Before the giant meteorite impact 65 million years ago:

Small mammals coexisting with the dinosaurs were not able to outcompete the dinosaurs for big-animal jobs, but after the dinosaurs were killed, some large mammals evolved from small mammals to fill the large-animal jobs.

In Pennsylvania today (or at most other places on the world's land surface):

The land surface is accumulating sediment in a few small places, building up records of geologic history, but most places are eroding.

Dr. Randall Irmis is a famous paleontologist, who has gone on to make important discoveries since he showed the Penn State CAUSE class this fossil plate from the armored vertebrate Buettneria. Based on the discussions in the class materials on the topic of evolution, it is likely that:

The most similar species alive today are related to but recognizably different from Buettneria.

Statistically, and based on how many people are likely to die if they engage in or are exposed to the following problems, which is most dangerous to residents of the United States:

The various diseases that come from smoking, overeating and under-exercising for a long time.

Which of the following was probably important in contributing to extinction of most species at the same time the dinosaurs became extinct?

Wildfires caused by great heat from rocks warmed by atmospheric friction while falling back to Earth after being blasted high in the atmosphere by the impact.

You develop a new idea, which is in conflict with a widely accepted scientific idea. For your new idea to gain widespread acceptance, you probably will need to show that:

Your new idea does a better job than the previously accepted idea in predicting the outcomes of an interlocking web of important experiments or observations.