BIOL 2P05- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 46 pages long!)
11 Oct 2017
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Clock analogy for earth"s evolutionary history: earth"s age: 4. 6 by, oldest rocks: 3. 8 by, earliest known fossil: 3. 5 by, atmospheric oxygen: 2. 7 by, oldest animal fossils. Fossilized cambrian invertebrate chordate from the burgess shale formation. A ribbon shaped organism about 5cm in length. Resembles amphioxus, and may very well be an early cephalochordate. Earliest vertebrate fossils (jawless ostracoderm fishes, 500mya), share many of the novel structures observed in the living vertebrates. Reptiles are paraphyletic: initially had controversy that birds descended from dinosaurs, class reptilia should include class aves. Birds can be in the same taxon as other reptiles. Class mammalia: development of hair and mammary glands. Mammals are the direct result of the extinction of dinosaurs (after the meteorite hit) Evolution is dictated by serendipity: our class would have been very insignificant if the meteorite didn"t wipe out the dinosaurs. Mammalian orders begin shortly after the meteorite.
