BIO 1210 Mass Extinction Movie Questions PDF

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Taught by Kristin Bozak...

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you should watch movie in entirety, regarding the Alvarez Hypothesis for why the dinosaurs "suddenly" disappeared during the K/T (Or now called "cretaceous-Paleogene" ) boundary due to probable asteroid impacting earth, about 65 million years ago. Of the "BIG FIVE" mass extinctions, what number EXTINCTION was this? Why do we consider HUMANS time on earth contributing to the coming "6th extinction" during the ANTHROPOCENE (humans time on earth), specfically NOTE: The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rate This was the fifth mass extinction. Humans time on earth contribute to the 6th mass extinction because we increase Earth’s atmosphere with carbon emissions leading to global warming. Who were the father/son Alvarez's? The father and son Alvarez were American Geologists that analyzed forams within the sediment. They were trying to understand the fine line of clay that separated the disappearance of forams. Forams are plankton like creatures. They utilized physics in understanding the KT layer by creating a hypothesis that a meteor caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Looking at Hell Creek area in S Dakota, what is the K/T boundary? The K/T boundary is the dramatic change between the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Mesozoic era. It is at the bottom of a gray layer of rock.It is a layer of clay. You can see where there is an extinction due to the disappearance of different species. What happened at that time (about 65 MYA) based on the prevalence in the clay, of iridium and the lack of uranium244? Iridium is from meteorites and it is a rich mineral found in them. It is rare on earth. Ther lack of uranium 244 indicated that a supernova did not occur. Why did the lack of uranium244 indicate a "super-nova" did not cause dinosaur extinction, whereas iridium indicates a meteorite strike? A super nova did not cause an extinction because there was not enough of uranium in the super nova. Where (about) did the meteorite/asteroid hit the earth, and about how large was it, and how powerful? What did the HEAT cause, and what did the darkening of skies cause (also occurring right now in the Amazon due to 70,000 fires currently), and therefore to the "plants=producers" and "herbivores, plant eaters=consumers"? The crater where the metorite/asteriod hit the earth 10 kilos as large as mount Everest is located in Penfield, within the Yucatan Peninsula. The speed was 80km per hour and it caused the earth to become several times the temp of the sun 100 million tons. The impact from the vacuum of space caused other small rocks to go into the atmosphere and come down. The heat caused sulfur to be released into the atmosphere he darkening of the skies prevented sunlight from reaching the organisms Before this impact North Dakota was a lush, wet forest, what does it look like after impact and now? Who survived this impact, and where werre they "hiding"? What percentage of all PLANT species DIED, and why did ferns replace them? Did the size of ANIMALS get bigger or smaller, during this "recovery" of a million years? This size change allowed our ancestors "primates" to SURVIVE, so there would be no humans perhaps WITHOUT this asteroid. After the impact, now it is a bedrock. The percentage of all plant species that died was 60%. Ferns replaced them because of spores that allowed for plants to grow. The size of the animals got smaller during the recovery. The land survivors were the ones that we're able to dig in the ground or stay in the swamps and the rivers....