Unit 7 Possible Test Questions
Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras
EARTH HISTORY
Revised 7/12
Mesozoic Era
Eons, Eras and Periods
1. List the Mesozoic periods in order (oldest to youngest).
End of the Paleozoic Eon
2. What was the fate of the glaciers on Pangaea before the beginning of the Mesozoic?
3. Which two “landmasses or continents” made up Pangaea?
Stage 1 – Breakup of Pangaea
4. What type or classification of a tectonic event caused the opening of the North Atlantic?
5. What type of rocks form the Palisades of Hudson River (New York)?
Western Laurasia and the Sonoma Orogeny
6. Where was Texas located on the globe during the Triassic?
7. Define an orogeny.
Triassic Red beds
8. What type of environment is associated with the “red beds”?
9. Where do we find some classic examples of red beds in Texas?
Dinosaur Characteristics
10. How did the dinosaurs “walk” (position of their legs) as compared to reptiles?
Dinosaur Name
11. Can you name some marine dinosaurs and flying dinosaurs and why? (thinking question)
Some Triassic Animals
12. What would be a unique aspect of the Lystrosaurs, as far as their numbers can be described?
13. What was a Morganucodon and what is it’s importance?
Reptiles in the Sky - Pterosaurs
14 What was a pterosaur?
Triassic Extinction
15. What possibly caused the Triassic extinction?
Stage 2 – Breakup of Pangaea
16. Which geological period did the Gulf of Mexico first been open for sea water and salt evaporation?
Early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone
17. Describe the depositional environment of the Navajo Formation.
Nevada Orogeny and the Sundance Sea and Morrison Formation
18. What is the name of the Jurassic sea that covered a large part of North America?
19. What makes the Morrison Formation so famous?
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Warm Blooded or Cold Blooded
20. What is the difference between endothermic and ectothermic animals?
Evidence that Dinosaurs Were Warm Blooded
21. Describe predatory/prey ratios that suggest dinosaurs were warm blooded.
Birds
22. From what dinosaur did birds probably evolve? IMPORTANT TO KNOW
Archaeopteryx
23. Describe some general characteristics of archaeopteryx (i. e. a bird with teeth).
Jurassic Sauropods
24. What is the general classification name for the largest land animals of all times?
Jurassic Theropods
25. What was the name of the largest Jurassic carnivore?
Jurassic Swimming Reptiles
26. Describe a unique characteristic of an ichthyosaur.
End of the Jurassic Period
27. Which major group of dinosaurs died out at the end of the Jurassic Period?
Sevier Orogeny
29. Which major geologic event marked the Sevier orogeny?
Cordilleran Orogeny
29. Define cordilleran.
30. Which three orogenies make up the Cordilleran Orogeny?
The Glen Rose Formation
31. What evidence is there to demonstrate that dinosaurs lived in Texas?
32. Within which Texas state park do we find abundant dinosaur footprints?
The Edwards Formation
33. Why is the Edwards formation important to South Texas?
The Eagle Ford Shale Formation
34. What is the importance of the Eagle Ford shale to Texas?
The Austin Chalk Formation
35. What is the importance of the Austin Chalk to Texas??
Multituberculate Mammals
36. What classification of mammals were the Cretaceous Multituberculate
Flying Reptiles Pterosaurs and Quetzalcoatlus
37. Describe some unique height characteristic of Quetzalcoatlus.
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Marine Reptiles Plesiosaurs
38. Which marine Cretaceous species had necks that were 30 feet long
Marine Reptiles Mosasaurs
39. What length did the snake-like Mosasaurs achieve?
Marine Invertebrates
40. What type of animal is Exogyra ponderosa?
Plants
41. What type of plants evolved toward the end of the Mesozoic?
Dinosaurs in Texas :Texas State Dinosaur
42. What is the name of the state dinosaur for Texas?
Dinosaurs Sometimes Found in Texas
43. Which dinosaur was the largest land carnivore of all times?
End of the Mesozoic
44. What event brought the end of the Mesozoic?
Cenozoic Era
Cenozoic Era Components
45. During which era were the present day landforms of the Western US created?
Subduction and the Laramide Orogeny
46. Describe the probable position of the western North American subducted oceanic plate during the
Laramide Orogeny.
Cretaceous – Paleocene Seas
47. Which sea remained in the Wyoming area during the Paleocene?
Coal
48. How much coal reserves does the US have?
Proteria (Mammals)
49. Describe a characteristic of a Monotreme, and name an example.
Metatheria (Mammals)
50. Give an example of a North American marsupial.
51. Where do we find most of the marsupials today and why there?
Animals of the Paleocene
52. Which “animal” was the chief land predator in the Paleocene?
The Paleocene Thermal Maximum
53. Describe what happened to temperatures at the end of the Paleocene.
The Eocene Epoch
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54. Name a famous Texas Eocene formation for oil and gas.
Green River Formation
55. Describe the types of fossils associated with the Green River Formation.
56. Describe the value of the oil shale of the Green River Formation.
Eocene Life
57. Near which Texas city have been discovered fossil primate bones?
58. Describe the feet of the largest land mammal carnivore of all times
Oligocene Epoch
59. During which epoch would West Texas volcanoes spew uranium-rich ash over south Texas?
Oligocene Life
60. What was the name of the largest land mammal that ever walked on the Earth?
Basin and Range Province
61.Which state does the Basin and Range Province dominate?.
Colorado Plateau (Four - Corners Area)
62. Describe the geology of the Colorado Plateau.
Miocene Igneous Activity
63. Describe the Cenozoic igneous activity of the Columbia River area (i. e. what caused it).
Miocene Life
64. What was the name of the largest shark that ever lived?
Pliocene Life and Land Bridges
65. What were the principle mammal types that evolved in South America before the land bridge?
Panama Land Bridge
66. What effect on animal life did the Panamanian Central America land bridge have on South
America?
Some Pliocene Life
67. What was a Smilodon?
68. What was a glyptodont?
Pleistocene Life
69. Which are the largest animals to ever live on Earth?
70. Which epochs did megafauna live in the Corpus Christi area?
The Holocene or Recent Epoch
71. What epoch do we live in now?
And finally:
72. Name all seven of the Cenozoic epochs – in order from oldest to youngest.
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EH Weekly Quiz # 12
Page 579
A) By the end of the Permian, Pangaea covered one-fourth of Earth’s surface and was surrounded
by an ocean named the __________ Ocean
Page 590
B) Geologists estimate that more than ___ different-sized terrains have been added to the western
margin of North America during the last 200 million years.
Page 587, Figure 22.12
C) The number of named Jurassic and Cretaceous batholiths in Idaho is ________
Page 588, Figure 22.15
D) The trees or logs that became petrified in the Chinle were buried ______years ago
Page 596, Table 22.25
E) A stegosaurus belongs to the group ________
EH Weekly Quiz # 13
Page 614
A. The Cenozoic Era represents _____ % of all geologic time.
Page 644 and page 645 Figure 23.30
B. Australopithecines is a collect term for ___ species of hominid primates) The Valley of the
Gods is located within ________
Page 636
C. Mammals that weigh less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs) constitute about _____% of all mammal species.
Page 622-623
D) The only volcano to erupt in the 1900s in California was ______
Page 631
E) Which country leads in the production of diatomite? ________
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