Test Bank Answers Chapter 18 The Great Dyings

Natural Disasters, 11e (Abbott)

Chapter 18 The Great Dyings

1) Several times in the past ________ years, many, or even most, of the species on Earth became extinct in a geologically short time.

A) 541 thousand

B) 54.1 million

C) 541 million

D) 541 billion

2) Many invertebrate animals, such as oysters, snails, clams, and barnacles, are examples of preserved by ________, and they bury themselves when alive.

A) sap (amber)

B) replaced by minerals

C) rapid burial

D) hard parts

3) ________ is a good example of organic material being buried by mud or sand, and slowly being replaced by minerals found in underground waters.

A) Petrified wood

B) Shark teeth

C) Dinosaur footprints

D) Insects in amber

4) Fossilized tree sap, also known as ________, prevents scavengers, water, and oxygen from getting to the organism and destroying its remains.

A) mineral replacement

B) hard part preservation

C) carbonization

D) amber

5) The principle that states specific intervals of sedimentary strata could be recognized over broad areas by the unique assemblages of fossils they contain is known as the ________.

A) law of superposition

B) law of original horizontality

C) law of faunal assemblages

D) law of inclusions

6) The fact that older fossils are more unlike living organisms implies that old forms of life died out and that new forms of life have developed is known as ________.

A) law of faunal succession

B) law of original horizontality

C) law of superposition

D) law of inclusions

7) Approximately 3.85 billion years ago, a group of single-celled microorganisms known as ________ were alive, reproducing, and evolving.

A) bacteria

B) fungi

C) archea

D) flora

8) Approximately ________ million years ago, the Earth began to have an oxygen rich atmosphere.

A) 250

B) 2500

C) 359

D) 444

9) Flowering plants, like the ones we see today, have been around in abundance since ________ million years ago.

A) 444

B) 323

C) 66

D) 23

10) Extinctions that occur at a moderate rate and continuously open a limited number of opportunities for the origin of new species and new niches are known as ________ extinctions.

A) background

B) mass

C) minimal

D) retrograde

11) Extinctions that are relatively rare events that cause worldwide elimination of numerous species, thus opening a wealth of niches for new organisms to fill are known as ________ extinctions.

A) background

B) mass

C) minimal

D) retrograde

12) Of the five mass extinctions, the ________ extinction eliminated greatest percentage of genera.

A) Ordovician

B) Cretaceous

C) Triassic

D) Permian

13) In the current continental configuration, oceans cover ________ of the Earth's surface.

A) 25%

B) 45%

C) 71%

D) 80%

14) During the ________ (110Ma-85Ma), the tempo of seafloor spreading is thought to have increased causing oceans to spill over onto continents and flood some of North America.

A) mid-Devonian

B) mid-Cambrian

C) mid-Pleistocene

D) mid-Cretaceous

15) Pangea greatly ________ the world's shorelines, and ________ the areas of climatically harsh interiors.

A) lengthened; reduced

B) lengthened; increased

C) shortened; reduced

D) shortened; increased

16) When vast amounts of magmas pour onto stable tectonic plates, they are known as ________.

A) continental flood granites

B) continental flood basalts

C) continental flood scorias

D) continental shelf deposits

17) Which of the following sequence of responses could not occur as a result of flood basalts?

A) concentrated volcanism would emit tremendous volumes of gases

B) the composition of the atmosphere would change

C) the altered atmosphere changes the heat balance of Earth via greenhouse effect

D) globally, the climate would stay the same and not change

18) Which of the following geologic periods was not a time of extensive anoxic bottom waters, pushing bottom-dwelling species to extinction?

A) Late Devonian

B) Middle Silurian

C) Jurassic

D) Cretaceous

19) Which of the following is not likely to occur as the result of a 10km (6mi) diameter object striking the Earth?

A) extensive wildfires

B) acid rain

C) tsunamis

D) worldwide sea level drop

20) The influx of high-energy radiation and tiny particles varies as the Sun's intensity changes or when a ________ occurs, which is a stellar explosion at astronomically close distances.

A) quasar

B) pulsar

C) supernova

D) solar eclipse

21) During the end Permian mass extinction, the die-offs were so extensive, ________ or more of animal species went extinct.

A) 25%

B) 47%

C) 70%

D) 80%

22) During the end Permian mass extinction, the slowing of sea floor spreading resulted in an increase of the world's ocean basins, causing sea level to drop about ________.

A) 200m (660ft)

B) 150m (492ft)

C) 100m (328ft)

D) 75m (246ft)

23) The Siberian flood basalts (Russia) produced ________ of lava in about a million years, and covered some 3,9000,000 km3 (1,500,000 mi3) of land.

A) 1,000,000 km3 (328,000 mi3)

B) 2,000,000 km3 (656,000 mi3)

C) 3,000,000 km3 (700,000 mi3)

D) 5,000,000 km3 (1,640,000 mi3)

24) Which of the following did not lead to the massive end-Cretaceous mass extinction?

A) massive mountain building events

B) long-lasting sea level fall

C) Deccan Traps flood basalts

D) Chicxulub Impact

25) Two common requisites for organisms to become fossilized are rapid burial, which protects the remains from scavengers, and possession of hard parts, such as teeth or bones.

26) Archaea is one of the three major branches of life, along with animal and plant.

27) About 541 million years ago, life on Earth began a 40-million-year-long burst of remarkable evolutionary change.

28) The increased volume of oceanic crust lowers the elevation of the seafloor, thus increasing the volume of space available to hold water in the basins.

29) During the history of the planet, land plats evolved before birds and mammals.

30) A large, combined landmass will have a greater number of species than smaller, isolated landmasses.