Solution Manual For Historical Geology Interpretations and Applications 6 e 6th Edition Jon M Poort Roseann J Carlson
Solution Manual For Historical Geology Interpretations and Applications 6 e 6th Edition Jon M Poort Roseann J Carlson
Solution Manual For Historical Geology Interpretations and Applications 6 e 6th Edition Jon M Poort Roseann J Carlson
CHAPTER
4
Paleontology
Exercise 4-1 DETERMINING ROCK AGE FROM FOSSIL ASSEMBLAGES IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
Suppose that a geologist had collected the following suite of fossils from a quarry in southwestern Missouri. Given
the ranges of each fossil, determine the age of the rock in the quarry. Document how you reached your answer (see
a. What system of rocks was sampled? (Remember system refers to rocks deposited during a geologic
period.)
MISSISSIPPIAN
SPECIMEN 2 (SIL-MISS)
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SPECIMEN 4 (DEV-EOC)
d. If you had only two fossils, which two would give you the age of the rock without needing any others?
SPECIMENS 2 AND 6
The following list of fossils represents an assemblage collected from a limestone. Using these fossils and their
geologic ranges in the manual, determine to which geologic system the formation belongs.
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Chapter 4
While fishing from the banks of the Missouri River in eastern Montana, you noticed some shiny fragments of fossils
lying in the gray, shaly mud of the banks. The nearby outcrops are known to be composed of Cretaceous strata.
Upon closer inspection, you discover that the fragments were from a coiled “critter” that had very ornate “curved”
lines across the very shiny pearly or lustrous outer layer. What is this fossil “critter”? AMMONITE
A geology teacher and his students went to a limestone quarry in northeastern Oklahoma and collected a group of
fossils. After the students identified the following group of fossils, they concluded that the rocks belonged to the
_PENNSYLVANIAN_________________________ system.
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Chapter 4
Determine the geologic system of the major limestone unit in the center of the two columns in Fig. 4.10. For al l of
the animals found in the same stratigraphic unit, there should be one common interval of geologic time. This period
All of the fossils named in the column in Fig. 4.11 are trilobites. During which geologic system was the cherty
Correlate the stratigraphic columns in Fig. 4.12 on the basis of fossils, and determine the approximate missing
interval (periods) of geologic time represented by the unconformity. This interval is ____ TRIASSIC AND
JURASSIC_________.
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Chapter 4
a. Describe the sedimentary environment of the Burgess Shale and the associated formations. How does
that environment differ from the environment in this part of Canada today?
Burgess Shale organisms lived on mud banks built up against an algal reef along the continental
margin in the middle Cambrian of western Canada. Today the area is part of the Canadian
Rocky Mountains.
b. How were the Burgess organisms preserved, and why is that preservation so unique?
The organisms were transported by mud slumps from shallow water into deeper, more anoxic
water where decay was limited. Preservation is unique because soft body parts are preserved as
c. Go to the fossil menu. Using it and the information on fossil groups in this manual, create a Burgess
Shale ecosystem. Find one or more representatives of each of the following categories:
burrowers:
worm: Ottoia
Nektonic:
Predator:
miscellaneous: Anomalocaris
scavenger:
worm: Canadia
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Chapter 4
filter feeder:
Planktonic:
d. Which Burgess Shale species seem particularly peculiar or even bizarre to you? Why?
Hallucegenia, Anomalocaris, Opabina seem bizarre, among others. They don’t look like anything
e. Are there some Burgess Shale species which seem to have no living relatives? What might account for
that?
Wiwaxia. Extinction of an entire higher taxonomic group such as phylum or class would account
for it.
f. What does discovery of well-preserved faunas such as the Burgess Shale suggest about the
Most fossil preservation preserves only the hard parts; thus a lot of the diversity that was present
a. List and describe three Vendian fossils whose affinities are fairly well established. In other words, three
Students may variously list and describe specimens such as Cyclomedusa, Charnia, Dickinsonia ,
or Spriggina.
b. List and describe three Vendian fossils whose affinities are in doubt or simply unknown.
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Chapter 4
Students may variously list and describe specimens such as Tribrachidium, Akarua,
c. After reading the descriptions of these “critters,” would you be inclined to consider them as a fauna, that
They have been classified variously as algae, lichens, giant protozoans, or a kingdom unrelated to
anything today. For some of them we just don’t know if they were animals or not.
What is a reef? What environmental factors are common to reefs throughout geologic time? Why would central
A structure built by organisms that rises above the surrounding seafloor. Environmental factors are
warm, shallow seawater in tropics and subtropics, free of land-derived suspended sediment. In the
Silurian central North America was an inland sea that received little clastic material, and the area
was situated at the equator due to the position of the North American plate.
a. List the five major types of organisms and their roles in the life of a reef.
b. Look at organisms of the Silurian reef and click on each listed. Determine into which of the five categories
Algae: binders
Receptaculitids: dwellers
Stromatoporoids: constructors
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Chapter 4
c. What caused the demise of Silurian reefs in Wisconsin? What kinds of environmental factors threaten reefs
today?
Local environmental change due to shallowing of the sea. Tidal flat deposits buried reefs, salinity
increased, and salt was deposited. It was not an extinction event. Modern reefs are threatened by
a. Describe the differences in the flight structures, particularly the wing structures and the thoracic structures
for each group of vertebrate fliers. How are the wings supported? What structures in the chest power the
flight?
Pterosaur: keeled sternum, wing supported by humerus, radius, ulna and elongated
Bird: keeled sternum and wishbone; short, stout humerus, elongate radius and ulna and modified
Bats: wing supported by arm and greatly elongated finger bones and by calcar bone at heel.
b. Look at the “Origins of Flight” section. What are the two main scenarios for how flight evolved?
c. Decide which scenario each of the three flying vertebrate groups might have used in initiating flight.
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Chapter 4
The following 10 questions require a simple set of fossils to be available in the laboratory. Answers to a-f, and h, Formatted
g. Coral: outline would have septa pointing to the center; Crinoid: columnal would have round or star -
shaped hole in center; Bryozoan: circular outlines are very small with no septa; Belemnite: solid crystals
would radiate from center; Nautiloid: coiled nautiloid would show curved sutures
j. Fossil wood is hard and heavier, can have different colors due to impurities in the silica, and can show loss
a. There is an unconformity between the Clayton Formation and the Nanafalia Formation. What evidence
Sinkholes in Clayton are filled in by Zone B sediments. Karst topography occurs by solution
weathering.
c. Give a brief summary of the depositional history of the outcrop from zone A to zone F, using the faunal
Zone A: marine limestone, exposed and eroded at surface forming karst structures; Zone B:
shallow water nearshore sediments filled in sinkholes; Zone C: open marine shelf, wave action,
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Chapter 4
clean sand; Zone D: nearshore, delta plain; Zone E: flood deposits or stream channel; Zone F:
continental shelf
a. Using the decay curve in Fig. 2.25, determine the ages of the two igneous intrusions.
b. During what geologic period did mystery fossil Z probably live? _Cambrian__
e. Note the contact metamorphism associated with igneous intrusion R. Using this evidence, is unit D
f. What is the specific nature of the contact between unit R and unit C?
g. Give a brief narrative summary of the geologic history represented by this geologic cross section.
Unit A was deposited in the Cambrian, unit B in the Ordovician and unit C in the Silurian.
Intrusion Q intruded during the Pennsylvanian, intrusion R intruded during the Cretaceous.
1. List the three requirements that must be met before a fossil can be classified as an index fossil.
Short geologic range and abundant; wide geographic distribution and not facies-dependent;
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Chapter 4
2. What are two major prerequisites that must be met for most organisms to be fossilized?
3. Are both the genus and species name of a fossil capitalized? Give an example.
5. Would the open prairie country of the midwestern United States be a better place to preserve a vertebrate
No. On a prairie bones would be subject to scavenging, trampling, and weathering. A lake provides
6. Would you expect better preservation of very thin shelled bivalves in an ocean front environment or in a
Sheltered lagoon; the wave action is less severe. Thin shells would be broken by oceanfront waves.
7. Describe a natural environment near your home or college where fossil preservation may be taking place.
(Various answers: pond, seashore, lake, river floodplain, swamp, lagoon, delta, etc.)
Forams have a larger, chambered test, commonly of calcite. Radiolaria have an open meshwork of
silica.
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Chapter 4
10. Sponges are sessile benthic organisms; therefore they live in trees close to swamps. True or false; if false,
explain why.
11. How would you distinguish among rugose, tabulate, and scleratinian corals?
Rugose corals have rugae (ridges on the shell). Tabulates have obvious tabula but septa are weak or
absent and are colonial only. Scleractinians have easily visible septa in sets of six and are mostly
colonial.
12. What can corals tell us about past climates and environments?
Reef-building corals today are restricted to warm, clear, tropical waters. Fossil coral reef localities
13. Corals are not found growing at the mouth of the Mississippi River even though the water is warm and
ample nutrients are available. Why are the corals absent from this environment?
There is too much sediment in the water. The symbiotic algae cannot photosynthesize in muddy
Bryozoan zooecia are much smaller than the calices of colonial corals. Bryozoa do not possess septa.
15. If a fossil brachiopod were found to be composed entirely of pyrite, would you suspect that replacement
16. What distinguishes the coiling in many cephalopods from that of the gastropods?
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Chapter 4
Most cephalopods coil in a flat (planispiral) coil and have chambers in the shell. Most gastropods coil
17. Ostracodes, brachiopods, and clams all have two valves. How would you differentiate each of these
groups?
Ostracodes are very small and are studied with magnification. Brachiopods have valves which are
18. Trilobites are known to have molted their exoskeletons. How would this affect their preservation potential?
Wave action on molted exoskeletons tends to detach heads and tails. Molting would increase the
potential for fossilization of at least one exoskeleton since each trilobite would have shed several over
its lifetime.
19. Why are so many subdivisions of the arthropods poorly represented in the fossil record?
21. What is an endoskeleton and what is an exoskeleton? Which of the following groups have endoskeletons
and which have exoskeletons: brachiopods, bryozoans, belemnites, ammonoids, corals, crinoids. Trilobites,
Endoskeletons are located within the soft tissue of the body and exoskeletons are an external
a. Which rock layers (1–6) belong to the offshore, barrier island, and lagoon/marsh facies? Cite evidence.
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Solution Manual for Historical Geology: Interpretations and Applications, 6/E 6th Edition Jo
Chapter 4
b. Which set of fossils—(P + Q), (W + X), or (Y + Z)—goes with each sedimentary environment?
c. Considering your answers to the first two questions, which of the following events would you say had
taken place in the region represented by the stratigraphic section: a transgression, a regression, both, or
2. A partial list of the common species occurring within the environment. (Table 4.2).
3. Marsh deposits will often have a distinctive dark gray or black color. What causes this color, and how it is
related to the presence of marsh grasses such as Spartina and Salicornia? What does this suggest about the
Dark color is due to decomposing Spartina and Salicornia. These plants, like soft-bodied animals, are Formatted
4. The small shrimp Callianassa lives primarily in the relatively clean sand portions of the beach face within the
intertidal (littoral) zone. Could Callianassa burrows be of value in interpreting sea level changes?
Yes, fossil Callianassa burrows (Ophiomorpha) could be used to trace shoreline positions over time.
5. What might the recognizable effects in the geologic and biologic record be if this modern environment were hit
by a hurricane?
Barrier island sediments could be spread over the marsh as washover fans. This would terminate the
marsh environment and change the faunal assemblage. Flood tides would bury marsh in deeper water
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