The promised
post on the scientific method will take even longer than expected now, because
the need to do hard schoolwork and apartment seach for next year has caught up with me, and I need to focus on
that. So, for now, I hope I can entertain you with another PalQuiz!
But, first, of
course, the answers to the previous quiz.
1. B is
correct here. It is a curious thing that Bakker later turned out to be right
about most of his ideas! However, his evidence for it was as poor as his
reasoning was sound. Indeed, he writes very eloquently and convincingly. He
sounded like he must be right, because he only mentioned the evidence that
spoke in favour of his theory, plus the pieces of evidence against it that he
could explain away – in other words, his arguments were very very biased. So,
Bakker did seem to have good ideas (or lucky guesses?), but was unfit to
present them convincingly to more scrutinising readers.
He repeatedly
wrote himself that the main friction to his theories were the stubbornness of
the contemporary authorities to accept that their ‘orthodox’ view was
erroneous. However, this is what he
wrote in his book, what he perceived
as his main issue. (My intention with this alternative was to set a trap for
those who have read the book; if you have, do not feel bad if you were fooled
by this – Bakker knows how to make it sound as if he knows what he is talking
about.) Naturally, he would not admit that his reasoning was poor and invalid,
so he needed another explanation as to why his ideas had not been accepted.
Calling the opposition inert morons is a common escape.
The alternative
about heredity was the most significant challenge to Darwin’s theory of
evolution by natural selection, but does not apply here.
2. The picture
(from here)
shows a crinoid, colloquially called
sea lilies (not sea tulips; I hope I fooled at least someone with that,
hehehe). Crinoids are relatives of the echinoid in the picture of the secondquiz, and, like them, have a five-fold
symmetry. If you count the number of pinnules (the feather-like thingies
that fan out), you can see that there are five
pairs of them. The five-fold symmetry is a diagnostic feature of echinoderms,
and, within this group, only the crinoids have this typically long stalk
through which they attach to the seafloor (some forms have lost their stalk and
float around, however). They are filter-feeders, trapping food particles with
their pinnules and bringing it to their calyx, which is a round, cup-shaped
structure that functions as its mouth. They look deceptively similar to kelps,
but are animals, not brown algae. Sea
anemones are animals, but of a completely different group – cnidarians, which
also includes the medusas – with a similar body symmetry, but not identical:
cnidarians have a radial symmetry,
meaning that their bodies will form two equal halves if cut in any plane along
their long axis (so, if you cut them top-down, centrally in any direction from
above, they will produce two identical halves).
Radial vs. bilateral symmetry. Image from http://www.millerandlevine.com/ques/symmetry.html
3. This can be a
tricky question, as it requires us to think about what having feathers actually
means. What are feathers used for?
There are several uses of feathers, just as there are several different types
of feathers. Downy feathers are excellent insulatory structures, which is
connected to warm-bloodedness (in a way that is too complex to be worthwhile
attempting to explain here), which in turn connects to an active lifestyle. Indeed, warm-bloodedness helps nocturnal
behaviour, as the animals are warm enough to be active in the cool nights, but
the relationship does not go the other way around. Many nocturnal animals are
warm-blooded, but few warm-blooded animals (of the total) are nocturnal.
Feathers are essential for birds to fly, but all birds that have feathers
cannot fly. Natural examples are the ratites (including the ostrich) and
penguins (albeit furry-looking, their bodies are actually covered in downy,
insulating feathers). Flight feathers are clear
adaptations to flight, but all dinosaurs with feathers did not have fathers
designed for flying: some were insulatory, as mentioned before, and some were
merely ornamental – for visual
display – and therefore brightly coloured.
If they are covered in colour, it only makes sense to assume that they had
colour vision (otherwise, there would be no point in developing special colour
pigments and patterns). Therefore, I would say that D is the most correct answer (though that can be discussed…).
4. There are of
course various definitions of paleontology, depending on who you ask, really.
However, I think the study of extinct
organisms is the most precise description. It is not concerned with
now-living (extant) organisms, except for when comparing to the fossils. Also,
it is not only about fossils; a large part of paleontology is about the past
environment and ecology of these organisms.
5.
Paleontologists study all of that…
not just dinosaurs, unfortunately…
*sob*
This quiz:
1. Which if
these dinosaurs did not have a
toothless (edentulous) beak?
A. Gallimimus (theropod)
B. Edmontosaurus (ornithopod)
C. Diplodocus (sauropod)
D. Therizinosaurus (theropod)
2. Was Therizinosaurus (Theropoda,
Coelurosauria) a…
A. … carnivore
(meat-eater)?
B. … herbivore
(plant-eater)?
C. … piscivore
(fish-eater)?
D. … omnivore
(eats basically everything)?
3. What type of
dinosaur is this?
A. Coelurosaur
(theropod)
B.
Heterodontosaurid (ornithopod)
C. Compsognathid
(theropod)
D. Plateosaurid
(prosauropod)
4. What does
this diagram show?
A. The amount of
energy each dinosaur type had
B. The
hypothetical body temperature of each dinosaur type
C. The relative
head size of each dinosaur type, compared to a standard mammal
D. The range of
intelligence levels of each dinosaur type
5. Which of the
following statements about the ‘Bone Wars’ is true?
i. It was led by
Edward Drinker Cope on one side and Othniel Carl Marx on the other
ii. The two
leaders named dinosaurs in honour of the other – with insulting meanings
iii. The dispute
destroyed a good friendship between the leaders
iv. In his will,
Cope donated his brain to science, so that its size could be measured, and
urged his rival to do the same, so that it could be proven that he was the more
intelligent
v. It resulted
in hundreds of new dinosaur discoveries
A. i, ii, v
B. i, iii, v
C. ii, iii, iv,
v
D. All
statements are true
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