ANT2511L_Detwiler_CYU12.1
Answer: Relative dating; youngest rocks are found at the top, the oldest rocks are
found at the bottom. Absolute dating; Carbon 14 dating
8.
Upon what main principle is relative dating based
Answer: principle of superposition
9.
The decay rate of atoms, or the time it takes for one-half of the parent atoms to
decay to form the daughter atoms is the
Answer: half-life
10. Name two important things that are influenced by plate tectonics
Answer: One thing influenced by plate tectonics are all living things, including
primates. Changes in the paleoclimate is also due to plate tectonics
11. What was the primary climatic change during the Cenozoic era?
Answer: cooling and drying
12. What are the three main ideas that have been proposed to explain the adaptions of
the earliest primates.
Answer: The arboreal theory, the visual predation theory, and the primate/angiosprem
coeveolution theory
13. List four features of Pleasiadapiformes (the earliest possible primates)
Answer: possible petrosal bulla, small brain size, laterally- facing eye orbits, and
large, ever-growing incisors
14. Where were the earliest known primates found
Answer: North America, but they also existed in Europe and China
15. What are a few features of Eocene primates? Why are they known as “true” primates?
Answer: Forward-facing eyes and nails instead of claws. They are known as “true”
primates because they posses several key features that are characteristic of modern primates
16. What two primate groups existed in the Eocene of North America and Europe?
(Members of this group also occurred in other parts of the world.)
Answer: Adapoidea (adapoids) and Omomyoidea (omomyoids)
17. Name a type of fossil primate that was not of one of the two groups you listed above.
Answer: Propliopithecus
18. Where were the earliest likely arthropoid primates found, from what epoch?
Answer: Found in north Africa, Eocene epoch
19. What two groups of primates were found in the Fayum deposits of Egypt from the
Oligocene
Answer: Parapthecidae, Apidium and Propliopithecidae, Aegyptopithecus
