112 Geology - Exam II Study Guide, Winter 2011
Covers Chapters 8-13 plus Science-Religion readings
General:
1. The exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions.
2. Go over the Chapter Summaries, Important Terms and Review Questions at the end of each
chapter. There will be one question from each of the Review Question sections on the exam.
3. Review bold type paragraph headings in the textbook. Make sure you understand the basics
covered under each heading.
4. Review figures, pictures and their captions.
5. Study your class notes and look over the lectures posted under Blackboard Exam 2 folder
SCIENCE AND RELIGION: ON-LINE READINGS
1. Be able to explain the Churchs official stand on evolution and who is authorized to issue such
statements.
2. Know the nature of Man and his relationship to god in terms of spirit vs body
3. Understand the general feeling of the Church toward science based on the number of scientists
produced.
4. Be able to explain why some church members are adamantly opposed to evolution and an age of
billions of years for the earth, while others believe that that is a reflection of how god works.
5. Be able to propose possible explanations for 1) why most churches perceive materialism as antigod whereas 2) the LDS church could be considered the most materialistic of all religions.
6. Know who stated that most religions limit the realm of their god, and that there is a need for a
religion with a great god one that would have created countless worlds over vast stretches of
the universe.
Chapters 8-9 Precambrian geology and life
Understand the relationship between Hadian, Archean and Proterozoic and the percentage of earths
history contained in Precambrian rocks. Be able to explain why those rocks are so hard to interpret
relative to younger rocks and why radiometric ages are so important to our understanding of
Precambrian rocks.
Be able to explain why rate of plate motion has changed through time, how continents were built up,
the patterns and rocks typical of the Archean vs Proterozoic.
Understand the concepts: craton, shield, mobile mountain belt, stable platform and how continents
are built up and why they are so stable when compared to oceanic crust.
Be able to explain the source of Earths hydrosphere, and its atmosphere and how its composition
has changed through time (and evidences of those changes, including banded iron formation). Know
what makes earths atmosphere unique relative to the other planets in the solar system.
Understand how plate tectonics have changed from the early earth to the present in terms of the rate
of plate movement and the changing composition of earths crust.
Understand the building blocks of life and how scientists explain the origin of life on earth and the
contribution of Urey and Miller regarding the origin of life.
Be able to explain the significance and nature of stromatolites and why they are so rare today, vs
their great abundance in the Precambrian.
Be able to explain evidences for the endosymbiotic theory and how it relates to prokaryotes and
eukaryotes.
Understand evidences that link single celled and multicellular organisms to a common origin.
Be able to explain the significant and nature of the Ediacarian (Vendian) biota.
Why/what are Rodinia, Pannotia, and Laurentia, and what is their to relationship the Wilson cycle.
Understand the basic concepts (tectonic and lithologic) of greenstone belts and what two
environments they are thought to have developed in.
Chapters 10-11 Paleozoic Geology. Marine sequence stratigraphy what it is and its uses.
Transgressive vs regressive facies. Know the relative ages of the four Sloss cycles (Sauk,
Tippecanoe, Kaskaskia, and Absaroka). Understand the causes and effects of the Taconic, Acadian,
Allegheny, Ouachita, and Antler orogenies and their relative ages. Know the basic anatomy of an
orogenic belt, including the components of the foreland basin and the differences between flysch and
molasse.
Building Pangaea and the effects of this buildup on the continents. How did Pangaea affect earths
climate? Evidence of Gondwana glaciation and the ages of this glaciation. What caused the cyclic
deposits in North America that resulted in preservation of large coal deposits? Ages of these coal
deposits. What are cyclothems? What tectonic event resulted in the ancestral Rockies? Understand
what a reef is and why their constituents have changed through time.
Chapter 12 Paleozoic Invertebrates. What are the major diagnostic components of faunas for
the Cambrian, the Ordovician, Silurian-Devonian, and the Carboniferous-Permian. Is there a general
increase or decrease in the diversity of life though time? Know the main groups of invertebrates as
studied in class and labs. Ages and significance of the Burgess Shale and the Chengjian faunas in
China. What major developments favored the preservation of Paleozoic vs Precambrian faunas?
What is the Cambrian explosion and what is the significance of the small shelly fauna and when
did it appear? Be able identify the primary invertebrate groups of the Cambrian, OrdovicianSilurian, Carboniferous and Permian. What are the major marine ecological niches (today and in
past) using largely Figure 12.3? When were trilobites, graptolites, and conodonts most useful as
index fossils and what is the nature of these organisms?
Chapter 13 Paleozoic Vertebrates and Plants.
Why is the Devonian so significant in terms of vertebrates and plants? Plants: Know what a vascular
plant is and their diagnostic feature. Be able to summarize when and from what group they
originated and evidences of this relationship. Reproduction in non-seed bearing plants (such as
sphenopsids, lycopods and ferns) vs seed bearing plants (such as gymnosperms and angiosperms)
study Table 13.2. What problems did plants and animals have to overcome to inhabit land
successfully? Advantages of reproduction with seeds vs spores.
Vertebrates: Major milestones and timing of their origin. Chordates, earliest fishes, amphibians,
reptiles. Know the order in which the major features appeared in fishes (head armor, paired fins,
dorsal fins, jaws, ossified vertebrae and other internal bones and etc.). Origin of jaws. Agnathans vs
jawed fishes, chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish) vs Osteichthyes (boney fish). Ray-finned
(actinopterygiians) and fleshy or lobe finned (sarcopterygiian divided into Dipnoi and
Crossopterygians) fishes. Which group is ancestral to amphibians and what is the evidence?
Significance and function of the amniotic egg. Key osteological characters of vertebrates,
amphibians, reptiles, mammals.