Lesson 2: Patterns of Changes in Life on Earth

Charles Walcott was an American paleontologist (a scientist who studies the history of life on Earth through the fossil record). Select all of the following that are important details about Charles Walcott's discovery in 1909.

• Found well preserved land organisms

• Found remains of ancient sea organisms

• Found fossils that were 3.8 billion years old

• Found well preserved soft tissues from organisms

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Do fossils in younger rock layers have more or less complex bodies than fossils in older rock layers?

• More complex

• Less complex

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What is the name of the type of fossil that is found in organisms that have body structures that are found both in an ancestral species and in its descendants?

• Cast Fossils

• Index Fossils

• Permineralized Fossils

• Transitional Fossils

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NGSS.MS-LS4-2

At one time, several kinds of camels lived in Florida. The evidence comes from fossils found in Florida. Which object would be a fossil that shows that camels once lived in Florida?

Choose the correct answer.

• a sinkhole formed by a retreating glacier

• sedimentary rock that formed a long time ago

• a crystal formation suspended from the ceiling of a cave

• remains of an organism preserved by geologic processes

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NGSS.MS-LS4-1

Which of these best describes the tiny leg bones that some whales have, which do not aid in their movement or serve any other function?

Choose the correct answer.

• structures that grow and improve in function as they are used

• structures that will become adaptations when the environment changes

• structures that function at certain times of the year or under certain conditions

• structures that are a remnant of the adaptations that the whale’s ancestors needed to survive on land

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NGSS.MS-LS4-2

An area where a particular plant has thrived for 50 million years suffers a 100-year-long drought. What evidence of the drought might be found in the fossil record?

Choose the correct answer.

• Fossils of the plant are abundant right up until the present day.

• It is impossible for the fossil record to show evidence of the drought.

• Fossils of the plant appear in recent rock layers but not in older ones.

• Fossils of the plant are present in older rocks but disappear at a point in the fossil record.

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Which of the following are examples from the fossil record that show evidence of change in the complexity of organisms over time?

Select all that apply.

• Single-celled organisms were present in the fossil record before multi-cellular organisms.

• Multi-cellular organisms were present in the fossil record before single-celled organisms.

• Fish with jaws were present in the fossil record before jawless fish.

• Jawless fish were present in the fossil record before fish with jaws.

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What is it called when a species dies out and there are no members of the species left on Earth?

• Extinction

• Biodiversity

• Index Fossil

• Mass Extinction

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If the fossil record shows that there are no more fossils of a certain species in upper layers of sedimentary rock, what can scientists infer occurred?

• The species became extinct.

• There was a mass extinction.

• The species evolved into a new species.

• The species turned into transitional fossils.

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Which of the following show evidence of changes in organisms in the Cambrian Era that are reflected in the fossil record?

Select all that apply.

• Fossils from arthropods started to appear.

• Fossils from soft-bodied organisms started to appear.

• Fossils from multi-cellular organisms started to appear.

• There was a large increase in the number and types of fossils.

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