Ch 13.2: The Paleozoic Era

Multiple Choice

Which era immediately follows the Precambrian?

• Paleozoic

• Mesozoic

• Cenozoic

• Tertiary

Multiple Choice

Many new groups of organisms evolved in a relatively short time in an event called the ___.

• Cambrian Explosion

• Milankovitch cycle

• Chicxulub collision

• Great Ice Age

Multiple Choice

In the early Paleozoic, life was restricted to the ___.

• air

• oceans

• continents

• islands

Multiple Choice

What important event in animal evolution marks the beginning of the Cambrian?

• the appearance of hard parts

• the ability to fly

• the ability to swim

• the appearance of fossils

Multiple Choice

During the early Paleozoic era, South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, India, and southern Europe comprised the vast southern continent of ___.

• Gondwana

• Laurasia

• Pangaea

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a major difference between life in the Silurian period and the Ordovician period?

• The first animals with hard parts evolved.

• Plants and animals evolved that could live on land.

• Fishes evolved that did not require oxygen.

Multiple Choice

Laurasia was made up of which modern continents?

• North America, northern Europe, and Siberia

• North America and South America

• Africa, South America, and eastern Asia

• Europe, Antarctica, and South America

Multiple Choice

Why did amphibians diversify so rapidly during the late Paleozoic?

• They adapted to the cold climate.

• They had little competition from other land dwellers.

• They were excellent hunters.

• They could breathe underwater.

Multiple Choice

During the Carboniferous period, large swamp forests extended across wet, tropical regions, such as North America, eventually forming...

• ...vast coal deposits.

• ...inland seas.

• ...tropical rain forests.

• ...mountain ranges.

Multiple Choice

What happened to all the continents by the close of the Paleozoic?

• They split in half.

• They fused into Pangaea.

• They formed Gondwana.

• They moved toward the poles.

Multiple Select

Which TWO events may have triggered the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period?

• climatic change

• asteroid impact

• changes in Earth’s orbit

• heightened solar activity

Match

Match each development of life forms with the correct geologic period.

• ended with greatest mass extinction in geologic history

• complex communities of invertebrates developed in ocean and first land-dwelling plants evolved

• a time of reef building and continued evolution of fishes in the seas; by end of period, many types of plants and animals had invaded land

• sharks and other jawed fishes evolved in seas; on land, plant diversity increased and first true trees and forests appeared; first vertebrates invaded terrestrial habitats toward end of period

• development of huge coal swamp forests in wet tropical regions; amphibians and winged insects became common on land; first reptiles evolved

Permian

Ordovician

Silurian

Devonian

Carboniferous

• Permian

• Ordovician

• Silurian

• Devonian

• Carboniferous