Exam 23: Paleobiology and Macroevolution

Scientists hypothesize that the massive Permian extinction was triggered by ____. ​

Today we are living in one of the ____ periods of Earth's history, but global climate change is occurring much ____ than ever before. ​

Most fossils form in sedimentary rocks. ​

The skulls of infant chimpanzees and infant humans are remarkably similar in shape. However, as they mature, they become quite different due to differences in ____. ​

The first dinosaur fossils were discovered in ____, leading to the first public dinosaur craze.

Although ferns and conifers maintained their diversity into the early Cenozoic era, ____ may have hastened their decline in the early Cretaceous. ​

Different clusters of related Galápagos finch species each occupy a somewhat different ____, a term that describes a general way of life. ​

Today, Australia, Antarctica, and South America represent fragments of ____.

A ____ gene determines the structure of body parts during embryonic development. ​

In some amphibians, including salamanders, paedomorphosis results from mutations that ____. ​

To which zoogeographical realm does the North American continent belong? ​

The term ____ refers to all the organisms, including plants and animals, living in a particular region. ​

Which terrestrial herbivore in Australia shares overall similarities in body form and ecological roles as the distantly related North American woodchuck ( Marmota monax )?

Why is fossil record biased and incomplete?

When scientists examined fossils of Ordovician trilobites, they found that a sample from any given stratum was almost always intermediate in their morphology between samples from strata just above or below it, providing evidence of ____. ​

Mammals underwent an evolutionary "explosion", or major adaptive radiation, during the ____.

In marine sticklebacks, the Pitx1 gene is ____, but in freshwater sticklebacks, the Pitx1 gene is ____. ​