History of Life on Earth

How do scientists use fossils to determine the relative ages of rock layers?

• By comparing all the fossils in one rock layer

• By comparing fossils in many different rock layers

• By determining the positions of fossils in many different rock layers

• By locating other areas of the world where the same fossils are found

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Which of these answers best describes a fossil?

• Thick layers of rock

• Organism from which other organisms are descended

• Body of an organism that died recently but has not decomposed

• Remains of a once-living organism found in layers of rock, ice, or amber

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Which of these is not considered evidence of evolution?

• Similar genetic information in different species

• Similar patterns of development in different species

• Similarity among organisms that are members of the same species

• Fossils of organisms with body structures similar to those of modern organisms

Which of these cases provides embryological evidence that two species share a common ancestor?

• Two species with very similar DNA

• Two species with different body structures

• Two species with different structures that have similar functions

• Two different species with similar patterns of early development

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Which of these is least likely to be used to infer evolutionary relationships?

• Similarities in habitats

• Similarities among embryos of organisms

• Similarities at the genetic and molecular level

• Similarities between living and fossilized organisms

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Which is not an accurate statement about the fossil record?

• The fossil record represents less than one percent of all of the species that ever lived.

• Land organisms are more likely to fossilize than aquatic organisms.

• It is rare for the remains of a soft-bodied organism to become a fossil.

• Most fossils are found in sedimentary rock.

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A scientist conducts a geological survey of an area and discovers fossils of Tropites in the sediment.

Based on the evidence, approximately how long ago did the Tropites live?

• 145 million years ago

• 180 million years ago

• 240 million years ago

• 541 million years ago

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What can be used as evidence for evolution? (select all that apply).

• Any common function of structures between species (i.e. birds and insects both have wings)

• Body parts of different species that are similar in structure and location.

• Similarities of embryos from different species.

• Fossil records showing structures and locations of species.

• Structures in modern species that are unused and unnecessary, but were used by past species.

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What type of evidence of evolution is pictured?

• vestigial structures

• homologous structures

• embryology

• DNA studies

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Scientist find dinosaur fossils in the bottom of a cliff and mammals fossils in the middle layer, what can be inferred?

• dinosaurs ate plants
• dinosaurs were eaten by the mammals
• they lived at the same time
• dinosaurs lived before the mammals

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