The second mid-term exam is approaching (Thursday, November 12th), covering material taught up through Tuesday, November 10th.  This is an in-class, closed-book and closed/notes exam, designed to be completed in 50-55 minutes.  Here is a sample mid-term to help you prepare for the kind of questions that will be asked.  This is not the mid-term I will be giving you, but is typical of the format and is drawn from the same material.  If this gives you a bit of a jolt, then it is time to get busy and prepare!

I.    Definitions

 1.  Please write out the geologic periods  in the time scale in stratigraphic order (oldest (bottom) to youngest (top), including dates for the boundaries between the Archean and Proterozoic Eras of the Precambrian, the Proterozoic Era and the Paleozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon, between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic Era, and between the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic Era.  Spelling Counts!  20 points

2.  Please give brief definitions (one to two sentences) of any 6 of the following terms (5 points ea.):

Chengjiang Fauna

tiering

escalation

Burgess Shale Fauna

Pangaea

anoxia

lignin

¹³C/¹²C

Tommotian Small Shelly Fauna

endosymbiont

Vendian (or Ediacaran) Fauna

Siberian Traps
 

II. Short Answer:   Please choose any 2 of these 4 questions and answer with a short (1 paragraph) response.  15 points ea. Based on your readings (remember those web-link readings on the syllabus) and class lectures:

1.  How do these two equations link activity in the terrestrial biosphere to the changes in atmospheric  oxygen concentration in the late Paleozoic? 

                                2Fe₂O₃ + 8SO₄^2- + 16H   «  15O₂ + 4FeS₂ + 8H₂O

                                          CO₂ + H₂O  «     CH₂O  + O₂

2.   How did the development of tiering affect populations of bivalves and brachiopods in the Paleozoic?
3.   What are the major working hypotheses for the cause(s) of the Permian-Triassic extinction event?
4.  In "Your Inner Fish", the author Neil Shubin draws on many lines of evidence to demonstrate descent with modification from an ancestral form.  Describe three. 

III.  Essay Answer:  Please choose 1 of these 3 questions and answer with a one page essay response.    20 points  Based on your readings (remember those web-link readings on the syllabus) and class lectures:

1. What is the evidence that soil formation processes on the continents in late Devonian time led to late Devonian extinctions in marine shelf fauna?  Use these two equations describing common weathering reactions to help explain your answer:

            CO₂ + CaSiO₃   «  CaCO₃  +  SiO₂

            CO₂ + MgSiO₃  «  MgCO₃ + SiO₂

2.  What is the paleontologic and geologic evidence that the transition from Late Proterozoic to Early Cambrian time was marked by global marine environmental changes?

3. What evidence suggests that atmospheric oxygen levels rose higher than modern levels during the Carboniferous Period?

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Frequently Asked Question:
How can I do a good job answering an essay question under a time constraint?

The best way to approach this problem is to take 2 minutes to carefully read the question, and plan in your mind what you want to say, and realistically gauge the amount of time it will take to answer (Plan on this essay consuming 15-20 minutes).  Figure you will need an answer that has:
1) an introduction, in which you can repeat the question to help guide you,

2) your main points or examples

3) a brief summary and conclusion statement

Many people who are very successful at this jot down in the margin a quick outline of the essay they are going to write, and use it to guide them as they write.  The biggest problem in essay tests is that in all the flurry of test-taking, the writer loses track of the topic.  You can avoid this by coming up with an outline and sticking to it.