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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Michael Soule suggest as a name for the era humans lived at the time the author wrote the book?
(a) Cenozoic.
(b) Homogenocene.
(c) Catastrophozoic.
(d) Myxocene.

2. How many auk beaks were found in an ancient grave in Canada?
(a) More than 100.
(b) 300.
(c) 150.
(d) About 50.

3. Who first proposed that there had been five great mass extinctions during the history of life on Earth?
(a) Smythe and Brandenburg.
(b) Roberts and Whitman.
(c) Andrews and Pierson.
(d) Wake and Vredenburg.

4. What did Luis Alvarez decide to use to clock the clay in Gola del Bottaccione?
(a) Iridium.
(b) Plutonium.
(c) Radiometrics.
(d) Uranium.

5. According to Paul Crutzen, how much of the earth had been transformed by human activity?
(a) Between 1/3 and 1/2.
(b) 1/2.
(c) About 1/4 to 1/3.
(d) 3/4.

6. What type of frog can live in the Australian desert?
(a) Sandhill frog.
(b) Wood frog.
(c) Spring peppers.
(d) Tree frogs.

7. Where did the Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frogs lay their eggs?
(a) Marshy areas.
(b) Tree holes.
(c) Hedges.
(d) Hollow logs.

8. When did Darwin write to Anton Dohrn, founder of a marine biological station at Castello Aragonese?
(a) 1867.
(b) 1883.
(c) 1874.
(d) 1892.

9. What did golden frogs look like when they walk?
(a) Children crawling.
(b) Snakes slithering.
(c) Children hopping.
(d) Drunks attempting to walk a straight line.

10. At the time the author wrote Chapter 5, what was the current theory for the end-Ordovician extinction?
(a) Glaciation.
(b) Asteroid impact.
(c) Volcanic explosions.
(d) Flood.

11. When were undergraduate students recruited for an experiment about perception?
(a) 1951.
(b) 1949.
(c) 1962.
(d) 1939.

12. What was Zalasiewicz's speciality?
(a) Trace fossils.
(b) Graptolites.
(c) Ammonites.
(d) Coprolites.

13. What color was the La Loma robber frog?
(a) Brownish-orange.
(b) Green and black.
(c) Orangey-red.
(d) Reddish blue.

14. How wide was a volcanic crater mentioned by the author in Chapter I?
(a) 2 feet.
(b) Almost 4 feet.
(c) 3 feet.
(d) Nearly 5 feet.

15. How much did Icelanders pay in 1971 to buy the auk back?
(a) 2,000 British pounds.
(b) 10,000 British pounds.
(c) 5,000 British pounds.
(d) 15,000 British pounds.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was the Alvarezes' paper "Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction" published?

2. When were the first mastodon bones discovered that were subjected to scientific study?

3. Where did evolution emerge as a concept?

4. In 1984, where were grains of shocked quartz found in a layer of clay?

5. When did Alvarez get a job at Berkeley?

(see the answer keys)

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