Fossils and Geological Eras

Which of these fits gap 19?

Directions: Complete this passage by selecting the most suitable option for the corresponding gap.
The coelacanth is a primitive fish that once ______(17)______ to be long extinct.
They are called living fossils because they have several body structures and adaptations that are _____(18)_____ in fossil fish and in no other living specimen.
They date _____(19)_____ the Devonian Period of the Earth that is at least 350 million years old.

Which of these fits gap 17?

Directions: Complete this passage by selecting the most suitable option for the corresponding gap.
The coelacanth is a primitive fish that once ______(17)______ to be long extinct.
They are called living fossils because they have several body structures and adaptations that are _____(18)_____ in fossil fish and in no other living specimen.
They date _____(19)_____ the Devonian Period of the Earth that is at least 350 million years old.

In the passage the Ice Age refers to

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

In the countless ages of the world’s story which preceded the dawn of history, the evolution of life, both animal and vegetable, was profoundly affected by tremendous changes of temperature, whose full significance has only been realized within comparatively recent times.  There were cold periods, four in all, known as Ice Ages, which were fatal to many forms of life; these were always preceded or succeeded by Sun Ages, when living things evolved and developed, first great writhing monsters who lived on banks of slime and fought and devoured each other, and who appear to have been destroyed by the intense cold of the Second Ice Age; then mammals such as horses and bears, very small at first, but gradually increasing in size as they became accustomed to their surroundings. The Ice Ages, which were not universal, either killed warmth-loving animals or caused them to migrate to sunnier climes, and it was the last Ice Age which appears to have caused the disappearance from England of such creatures as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus. During this time the struggle for existence was hard and rigorous, and it gave man the opportunity of developing the brain which has enabled him to assert his mastery over all other created things.
How man originated is still very doubtful. Possibly he is descended from some man-like ape, or it may be that he and the great anthropoid apes such as the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orang-outang are all descended from a common ancestor. The earliest evidences of the existence of creatures which may have been human are flints and stones roughly chipped and shaped so that they could be held in the hand and used probably as axes. At Trinal in Java, at Heidelberg in Germany, and in Central Africa remains have been found, such as the top of a skull, teeth and a thigh bone, and a jaw bone, which may have belonged to ancestors of man. The Heidelberg remains probably belong to the warm period before the Fourth Ice Age; those found in Rhodesia and Tanganyika are thought to be much older. With the former were also found remains of rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, and other warmth-loving animals, evidently from a time of great forests and moist climates. Gradually, however, there was a cooling of the temperature and then some great disturbance in Southern Europe, resulting in the separation of Africa and Europe, and so it was no longer possible for animals to wander as they pleased from Europe to Africa or for the hunters to follow them; consequently the men and animals of the two continents would tend to become differentiated. In the gravel and sand-beds of rivers Marne and Somme in France many of the rough flint implements used by these early hunters have been discovered. At Chelles-sur-Marne so many tools have been found that any resembling them are called Chellean. Here there was probably a flint industry; there was another at St. Acheul on the Somme, near Amiens, where much better tools were made. The stone axes of the Acheulean workers (who have given their name to the cool period which followed the warm Chellean period) had more even edges, and flint knives and awls and a primitive hammer were also made. It is probable that they bartered their wares for the fruits of the chase, and so were spared the necessity of hunting for their food.

' Rocks of Triassic age have yielded beetles and lacewing-flies ', implies:

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question based on the passage.

PASSAGE – II:

Passing over some doubtful remains of Silurian age, we find in rocks usually regarded as Devonian the most ancient fossils that can be certainly referred to the insects, while from beds of the succeeding Carboniferous period, a number of insect remains have been disinterred. These Paleozoic insects were frequently of large size, and they show distinct affinities with our recent may-flies, dragon-flies, stone-flies, and cockroaches. In the Permian period, the latest of the divisions of the Paleozoic, lived Eugereon, an insect with hemipteroid jaws and orthopteroid wings.

All these insects must have been exopterygote in their life-history, if we may trust the indications of affinity furnished by their structure. In the Mesozoic period, however, insects with complete transformations must have been fairly abundant. Rocks of Triassic age have yielded beetles and lacewing-flies, while from among Jurassic fossils specimens have been described as representing most of our existing orders, including Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. In Cenozoic rock fossils insects of nearly six thousand species have been found, which are easily referable to existing families and often to existing genera. We may conclude then, imperfect though our knowledge of extinct insects is, that some of the most complex of insect life-stories were being worked out before the dawn of the Cenozoic era. Some instructive hints as to differences in the rate of change among different insect groups may be drawn from the study of parasites. For example, V.L. Kellogg points out that an identical species of the Mallophaga (Bird-lice) infests an Australian Cassowary and two of the South American Rheas; while two species of the same genus (Lipeurus) are common to the African Ostrich and a third kind of South American Rhea. These parasites must have been inherited unchanged by the various members of these three families of flightless birds from their common ancestors that is from early Cenozoic times at latest. On the other hand, the various kinds of such highly specialized parasites as the warble-flies of the oxen and deer must have become differentiated during those later stages of the Cenozoic period which witnessed the evolution of their respective mammalian hosts.

Which of the following statements can be derived from the passage? I. Insects that go through a complete transformation in their life-cycle are more specialized than the ones that undergo lesser change. II. Scientists have deduced some facts regarding the evolutionary changes of insects from the study of parasites. III. Highly complex insects evolved only long after the Cenozoic era. IV. Species of insects highly representative of the existing generation is found in the fossils of the Jurassic era.

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question based on the passage.

PASSAGE – II:

Passing over some doubtful remains of Silurian age, we find in rocks usually regarded as Devonian the most ancient fossils that can be certainly referred to the insects, while from beds of the succeeding Carboniferous period, a number of insect remains have been disinterred. These Paleozoic insects were frequently of large size, and they show distinct affinities with our recent may-flies, dragon-flies, stone-flies, and cockroaches. In the Permian period, the latest of the divisions of the Paleozoic, lived Eugereon, an insect with hemipteroid jaws and orthopteroid wings.

All these insects must have been exopterygote in their life-history, if we may trust the indications of affinity furnished by their structure. In the Mesozoic period, however, insects with complete transformations must have been fairly abundant. Rocks of Triassic age have yielded beetles and lacewing-flies, while from among Jurassic fossils specimens have been described as representing most of our existing orders, including Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. In Cenozoic rock fossils insects of nearly six thousand species have been found, which are easily referable to existing families and often to existing genera. We may conclude then, imperfect though our knowledge of extinct insects is, that some of the most complex of insect life-stories were being worked out before the dawn of the Cenozoic era. Some instructive hints as to differences in the rate of change among different insect groups may be drawn from the study of parasites. For example, V.L. Kellogg points out that an identical species of the Mallophaga (Bird-lice) infests an Australian Cassowary and two of the South American Rheas; while two species of the same genus (Lipeurus) are common to the African Ostrich and a third kind of South American Rhea. These parasites must have been inherited unchanged by the various members of these three families of flightless birds from their common ancestors that is from early Cenozoic times at latest. On the other hand, the various kinds of such highly specialized parasites as the warble-flies of the oxen and deer must have become differentiated during those later stages of the Cenozoic period which witnessed the evolution of their respective mammalian hosts.