Vocabulary #4

1.  angiosperm       Flowering plant

archaebacterium            Member of the prokaryotic domain Archaebacteria

Archean eon     Eon in which life arose (3.8-2.5 bya).

  big bang              Model for origin of universe.

Cenozoic era     The present era (65 mya to present).

crust, of Earth   Outer zone of low-density rocks resting on the Earth's mantle.

dinosaur             One of a fabulous group of reptiles that originated in the Triassic and became the dominant land vertebrates for 125 million years.

endosymbiosis theory  Continuing physical contact between two species, one of which lives and reproduces inside the other's body.

eubacterium     Prokaryotic cell; has a nucleoid, but no nucleus, cytoplasm, or cell membrane; most have a cell wall, some encapsulated.

 eukaryotic cell  Cell having a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. 

global broiling hypothesis           Theory that an asteroid impact caused the K-T mass extinction.
 K-T asteroid impact theory         A huge asteroid hit Earth at the K-T boundary.

   gymnosperm    Type of vascular plant in which seeds form on exposed surfaces of reproductive struct

mantle    Of mollusks, a tissue draped over the visceral mass.

Mesozoic era    An era (240-65 mya) of spectacular expansion in the range of global diversity.

 prokaryotic cell                Archaebacterium or eubacterium

Paleozoic era    Era from Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, through the Permian

protistan             Photoautotroph or heterotroph

proto-cell           Hypothetic cell-like stage between chemical evolution and the first living cell.

RNA world         One model for prebiotic evolution in which RNA was the template for protein synthesis before the evolution of DNA.

stromatolite      Fossilized mats of shallow-water microbial communities