NAME ______________________________________________

 NOTE: The real exam is designed to take 1 hr. You will have a total of 3 hr to finish it. It will be significantly longer than this practice exam!

There will be 6 sections:

 I. True - False
II. Multiple Choice
III. Short Answer
IV. Short Essay
V. Dinosaurian Relationships
VI. Dinosaurian Anatomy

 1. Dinosaurs did not have to regulate their body temperature because they were all very large.

True - False

True - False

True - False

True - False

True - False

 1. The air sac system in birds function mostly as:

a) as accessory lungs to remove more oxygen.

 b) protection against the cold.

 c) a way of lowering body mass

 d) passageways allowing a one-way direction of air through the lungs

a) Deinonychus, birds, and Velociraptor

 b) Plateosaurus, Oviraptor, and Archaeopteryx

 c) Ornitholestes, Allosaurus, and Struthiomimus

 d) Velociraptor, Coelophysis, and Dilophosaurus

a) a phase of the moon

 b) a bone in the hand producing a rocking, bird-like motion of the wrist

 c) a bone in the hand which evolved in birds to permit flight

 d) one half of the wishbone

a) Late Triassic age

 b) Early Jurassic age

 c) Late Jurassic age

 e) Early Cretaceous age

a) a radioactive element useful in dating Cretaceous rocks

 b) an element indicative of a supernova at the end of the Cretaceous

 c) an element found in a clay layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary

 d) an element diagnostic of asteroid impacts

1. How can we tell that sauropods did not walk with a sprawling gait and posture?

• Trackways indicate erect posture
• Structure of pelvis/head of femur indicate erect posture.
• Belly would make a trench in ground (remember picture in class?!)

• Surface area: volume ratio is less in large animals than small.
• Therefore relatively less surface area from which to lose heat.

• Sites of bone dissolution & reprecipitation.
• Indicates repeated stress on the bone.
• The presence of numerous Haversian canals indicates continuous growth, which requires high metabolic rate, and is characteristic of endotherms.

• Loss of manus digits IV and V and it is a mairaptoran, which is within the Tetanura.

• Carnivores: Struthiomimus (ornithomimid), Stenonychosaurus (troodontid), Albertosaurus (tyrannosaur)
• Herbivores: Edmontonia (nodosaur); Euoplocephalus (ankylosaurid); Pachycephalosaurus, Stegoceras (pachycephalosaurs); Centrosaurus, Monoclonius, Styracosaurus Triceratops (neoceratopsians); Parasaurolophus, Lambeosaurus Edmontosaurus Anatotitan (hadrosaurs).

IV. SHORT ESSAY: PREPARE A SHORT ESSAY (2 TO 3 PARAGRAPHS) ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: WRITE YOUR ANSWERS IN THE SPACE PROVIDED BELOW.

1. What is the evidence and what are the arguments that dinosaurs were warm blooded and controlled their body temperature by internal means (i.e. were endothermic homeotherms)? Be as specific as possible.

Bone structure - e.g. Haversian canals (explain - see short answer q. 3!!).

Trackways: not sinuous, indicating not crocodilian-style breathing.

Trackways: feet close together (across width of trackway), indicating erect posture.

Low predator-prey ratios, similar to modern mammals.

Air sacs - evaporative cooling.

Size of dinosaur: large are like elephants, inertial homeotherms; small are like shrews or birds, need to conserve heat.

Phylogenetic relationships: (birds are dinosaurs).

Feathers: dinosaurs have feathers or feathery coating indicating heat conservation at small body sizes.

Impact theory of mass extinctions

 Uses of footprints

 Evidence for the relationship of birds to dinosaurs

 Effects of dinosaurs on climate

 Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation