GEOL 104 Dinosaurs: A Natural History
Test I Review

What is Science?

Fossils are the remains of dead, unknown, extinct organisms.

Major events in history of dinosaur paleontology

Main Contributions of:
Georges Cuvier		William Buckland	Gideon & Mary Ann Mantell
Richard Owen		Joseph Leidy		Edward Drinker Cope & Othniel Charles Marsh
Henry Fairfield Osborn	John Ostrom		Carolus Linnaeus
Charles Darwin & Alfred Russell Wallace		Willi Hennig

Major groups of rocks, esp. formation of sedimentary rocks

Process of fossilization; modes of preservation (unaltered, permineralized, replacement)
Body Fossils vs. Trace Fossils

Basics of Stratigraphy:
	Principles of Original Horizontality, Superposition, Cross-Cutting Relationships, Fossil Succession
	Formations, Groups, Supergroups
	Relative vs. Numerical Ages
	Index fossils and correlation
	Radiometric dating
	The Geologic Column: Eras, Periods, Epochs, Ages (know the periods & epochs of the Mesozoic)

Comparative Anatomy:
	Homology vs. Analogy
	Anatomical directions & views
	Be able to identify skull and postcranial bones & landmarks

Linnaean taxonomy & taxonomic grammar

Evolution:
	Basic observations of Natural Selection:
I.	Variation in all populations
II.	Some (but not all) variation is inherited
III.	More are born in a population than can possibly survive
	Divergence, Trends, Adaptive Radiations, Living Fossils, Convergence

Systematics:
	Be able to read a cladogram!
	Terminal taxa, nodes; outgroups, ingroups; sister taxa
	Synapomorphies, symplesiomorphies, homoplasies (convergences, reversals)
	Equivalent vs. non-equivalent cladograms
	Monophyly, paraphyly, polyphyly
	Definition vs. Diagnosis
	Phylogenetic definition of Dinosauria