Chapter 21
What feature of a dinosaur determines whether it is a saurischian or an ornithischian dinosaur?
Pelvic bone structure
Which period would hold the record of the oldest fossils of multicellular animals, found in mountainous areas of South Australia, and parts of Canada and China?
Edicarian
What are the protobionts produced by abiotically produced polypeptides?
microspheres
Which is the largest division of the geologic time scale?
An Eon
Which period of Earth represents when evolution was progressing at the most rapid rate, as evidenced by fossils such as those of the Burgess Shale?
Cambrian period
What are assemblages of abiotically produced polymers known as?
protobionts
Amphibians evolved directly from fishes.
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One of the most significant steps in the evolution of true cells from macromolecular assemblages was the evolution of molecular reproduction.
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Quarternary period was characterized by the decline of some woody plants and the rise of herbaceous plants.
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The first cells were most likely heterotrophic anaerobes because they utilized preformed organic molecules and did not need oxygen.
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The significant outcome of the Miller and Urey experiment is they synthesized organic molecules from inorganic materials.
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Tiktaalik was a transitional form between fishes and tetrapods, which are vertebrates with four limbs.
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Who first proposed the concept that simple organic molecules could form spontaneously from simpler raw materials?
A. I. Oparin and J. B. S. Haldane
Which organelle evolved from the photosynthetic bacteria?
Chloroplasts
Which were the first organisms to release oxygen by photosynthesis?
Cyanobacteria
Which theory states that eukaryotic organelles originated as prokaryotes that survived ingestion by a host cell and ultimately evolved mutualistic relationships with the host cell?
Endosymbiont theory
During the Pleistocene epoch, plant communities changed dynamically in response to which mechanism?
Fluctuating climate
What kind of organisms likely perished due to the increase of oxygen in the atmosphere three billion years ago?
Obligate anaerobes
During which period did shallow seas cover much of the land and another burst of evolutionary diversification occur?
Ordoician period
A significant reduction in the amount of which gas would allow more ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth's surface?
Ozone
What was the dominant life form of the Mesozoic era?
Reptiles
Presently, it is thought that organic polymers may have formed and accumulated on:
Rocks and Clay
The "Age of Fishes" is an informal name for which period?
The Devonian period
Why is it believed that RNA was the first informational molecule to evolve?
They can function as enzymes and substrates to replicate on their own
The iron-sulfur world hypothesis suggests that organic molecules formed near______.
cracks in the deep ocean floor or hydrothermal vents
