Geology 105 - Paleontology

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Reading Guide: Chapter 15

 

Know these terms:

 gastropod

  siphuncle

 suture

 bivalve

 septa

 goniatitic

 cephalopod

 chambers

 ceratitic

 nacreous layer

 beak

 ammonitic

 mantle

 ribs

 belemnites

 whorl

 costae

  spines

 siphon

  dentition

 growth lines

 

Be able to answer these questions:

1. Fill out a Critter Chart for gastropods, bivalves and cephalopods.

2. How can you recognize Archeogastropods, Mesogastropods and Neogastropods from their hard parts alone? How are their life habits different?

 

3. How does the soft part morphology of gastropods differ from capehalopods? from bivalves?

 

4. When you steam clams, they gape open. Why? What has this got to do with paleontology?

 

5. How can you infer from the shell of a bivalve what its probable life habit is?

 

6. How do cephalopods move?

 

7. Why have ammonoids received so much attention from paleontologists?

 

8. How does Nautilus adjust its buoyancy?

 

9. How did early cephalopods keep their shells horizontal?

 

10. How is the evolutionary history of the ammonoids different than any of the other shelled cephalopods?

 

11. Heteromorph ammonoids were long thought to be evidence of "racial senescence" - of the appearance of maladaptive forms leading to extinction. How would you argue against that viewpoint?