Exam 12: Paleozoic Life History Invertebrates

Flood basalts from the ____________________ ____________________ could have depleted ozone levels and contributed to the Permian mass extinction.

Invertebrates are a group of organisms that have backbones.

Describe four ways shells can benefit animals.

Invertebrates are defined as animals with shells.

A worm that burrows into sediments below the sediment-water interface is a part of the epifauna.

The Burgess Shale is significant because it contains mostly soft-bodied fossils.

Jellyfish are ____.

Why are the Burgess Shale organisms considered an unusual fossil assemblage?

Describe the Burgess Shale environment and biota. What controversies are presently part of the discussions of this biota?

Devonian mass extinctions were partly caused by global tectonic changes as the collision of continents reduced the amount of shallow marine shelf environment.

The Burgess Shale was deposited during the Cambrian as the Sauk Sea transgressed onto the craton.

Planktonic foraminifera and jellyfish are examples of zooplankton.

Any animal that eats other animals, living or dead, as a source of nutrients is a(n) ____.

The different tiers of food production and consumption in an ecosystem within a feeding hierarchy are called ____________________ ____________________.

An organism classified as an autotroph has which of the following characteristics?

Pelagic organisms can be divided into floaters, called ____________________, and swimmers, called ____________________.

The unique preservation of soft-bodied fauna in the Burgess Shale occurred because ____.

Plankton are small animals and plants that float passively in the marine environment.

The three differentiated components of a trilobite are the cephalon, the thorax, and the pygidium.

Discuss how Silurian and Devonian reefs differed from Cambrian reefs.