Biology: The Dynamics of Life, California Edition

Chapter 14: The History of Life

The History of Life

1.
Scientists theorize that the first forms of life may have been __________.
A)heterotrophs
B)complex eukaryotic cells
C)formed through spontaneous generation
D)maggots
2.
Which of these shows the order of the eras of geologic time, from oldest to youngest?
A)Cenozoic–Precambrian–Paleozoic–Mesozoic
B)Cenozoic–Paleozoic–Precambrian–Mesozoic
C)Paleozoic–Precambrian–Mesozoic–Cenozoic
D)Precambrian–Paleozoic–Mesozoic–Cenozoic
3.
Which period of geologic time was marked by an enormous increase in the diversity of life forms?
A)The Quaternary Period
B)The Jurassic Period
C)The Permian Period
D)The Cambrian Period
4.
What type of rock are most fossils found in?
A)metamorphic
B)sedimentary
C)volcanic
D)igneous
5.
What is the difference between spontaneous generation and biogenesis?
A)Biogenesis supposes that nonliving materials can produce life, while spontaneous generation follows the idea that living things come only from other living things.
B)Spontaneous generation proposes that nonliving materials can produce life, while biogenesis follows the idea that living things come only from other living things.
C)Spontaneous generation applies only to plants and how they produce life, while biogenesis applies to animals and how they produce life.
D)Spontaneous generation and biogenesis both support the theory that nonliving materials are the source of living organisms.
6.
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Which of these statements about the four rock layers is true?
A)There is no way to compare the ages of the fossils in these four layers.
B)The leaf in the third layer from the top is older than the skull in the top layer.
C)The skull in the top layer is older than the leaf in the third layer from the top.
D)All the fossils in these four rock layers are the same age.
7.
Which hypothesis on the origin of life states that proteins, lipids, and other complex organic molecules formed when energy from the Sun and other sources caused chemical reactions among gases in Earth's prehistoric atmosphere?
A)primordial soup
B)biogenesis
C)spontaneous generation
D)self-replicating molecules
8.
What is the name scientists have given to the continents' joined landmass that started to drift apart about 245 million years ago?
A)Pangaea
B)Laurasia
C)Devonia
D)Gondwana
9.
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About how much original material from the radioactive element is left after 2 billion years?
A)less than 33%
B)100%
C)exactly 50%
D)over 75%
10.
Which of these statements is NOT true?
A)Geologists use deductive reasoning to understand more about the geological history of Earth.
B)Paleontologists use fossils to study organisms that lived long ago.
C)The oldest rocks that have been found and analyzed were formed 9.3 billion years ago.
D)There is a no direct evidence of the earliest part of Earth's history.
11.
Which of these is a period in the Mesozoic Era?
A)Devonian
B)Tertiary
C)Ordovician
D)Cretaceous
12.
What is a trace fossil?
A)any indirect evidence left by an animal
B)an organism that has been sealed in amber
C)a dead organism that has had all of its hard parts replaced by minerals
D)minerals left behind in a space once filled by a decayed organism
13.
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Look at the geologic time scale shown below. In which era did the first land plants appear?
A)The Cenozoic Era
B)The Mesozoic Era
C)The Precambrian Era
D)The Paleozoic Era
14.
Which scientist's work disproved the theory of spontaneous generation of microorganisms?
A)Alexander Oparin
B)Louis Pasteur
C)Stanley Miller
D)Harold Urey
15.
Some scientists hypothesize that the first forms of life on Earth evolved from _______.
A)biogenesis
B)a protocell
C)primordial soup
D)archaebacteria
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