Term
| Why is the Pilbara block so special in the story of Australia? |
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Definition
| It is the second piece of Australia to emerge, and contains stromatolites. It combined with the Yilgarn block to form the earliest part of Australia, which 4.4 is million years old. |
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Term
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Definition
| A colony of cyanobacteria. They form these structures by layering, and can still be found in some parts of Australia. The oldest of these structures is 3.5 billion years old. |
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Term
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Definition
| An organism that is able to live in extreme environments. Example: hydrothermal vents in the ocean, very hot/cold places, oxygen poor environments |
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Term
| What type of sediments make up Uluru? |
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Definition
| Marine sediments that were brought in by the Central Australian Seaway |
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Term
| What produced Earth's first oxygen? |
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Definition
| Cyanobacteria/blue-green algae |
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Term
| How long did Earth's atmosphere take to form? |
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Definition
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Term
| How many phases of Snowball Earth were there, and when did they take place? |
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Definition
| There were 2 phases of Snowball Earth. The first was 730-705 million years ago, and the second was 660-635 million years ago. |
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Term
| When did Gondwana begin to form up? |
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Definition
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Term
| When did Himalayan sized mountains exist in Australia? |
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Definition
| 650-350 million years ago |
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Term
| What was the central Australian seaway? |
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Definition
A low point in Australia that went from being dry, to being wet with marine life. The sea would come into the low parts, bringing in marine life (including fish and plants). The CAS allowed for marine sediment deposits that can still be found today.
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A section of Australia that filled with sea water when the CAMB (Central Australian Mobile Belts) warped down to let the sea in; the Canning Basin also let the sea into the Central Australian Seaway. Because the sea was let in, marine sediments were let in as well. These sediments were later compacted under great weight, and when the mountain chains formed by uplift, the marine sediments formed part of the mountain chain. Weak area between Northern and western blocks that allowed the sea in.
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Term
| What modern continents made up Gondwana? |
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Definition
| Australia, South America, Africa, India, Antarctica |
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Term
| What caused the uplift of the Great Divide along eastern Australia? |
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Definition
| The separation of the Australian plate and the Pacific plate, also tearing that was occuring under the Tasman and Coral seas released stress to move the plates. |
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Term
| When did Australia finally break away from Antarctica? |
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Definition
| 45 million years ago. It first broke away from Africa 130 million years ago, then India 105 million years ago. |
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Term
| What is so special about the Ediacara Fauna, and how old is it? |
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Definition
| The Edicara Fauna is the first evidence for complex life. It is 670 million years old. |
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Term
| Australia's oldest known fish is Arandaspis. How old is it? |
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Definition
| Arandaspis is 480 million years old. It is a jawless fish that was found on land due to the Central Australian Seaway. |
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Term
| When did the greatest extinction ever take place? |
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Definition
| The Permian extinction took place 251 million years ago. |
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Term
| How much life went extinct during the Permian extinction, 251 million years ago? |
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Definition
| 90% of all life went extinct during the Permian extinction. |
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Term
| What is the Great Artesian Basin? |
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Definition
| Freshwater that is trapped underneath Australia due to folding of the Earth |
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Term
| When did mammals first appear? |
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Definition
| The first mammals appeared 225 million years ago |
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Term
| What is the oldest evidence for monotremes? |
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Definition
| 110 million years; Steropodon galmani was a primitive early monotreme and the biggest mammal around 110 mya. The opalised jaw of this animal was found at Ligthening Ridge, an opal mining centre in New South Wales. |
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Term
| How and when did marsupials arrive in Australia? |
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Definition
| Ancestral forms of marsupials moved from South American via Antarctica and into Australia 55 million years ago. (The oldest evidence of marsupials is 125 million years old, and is found in China) |
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Term
| What was Australia like 15-25 million years ago? |
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Definition
| This was the changing phase of Australia's history. The climate was becoming warmer than the previous phase; rainfall decreased slightly and the rainforest began to retreat in some part of central and southern Australia. Most of the continent was wet and warm, and Australia was passing through a "greenhouse phase". |
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Term
| What are the different phases of Australia? |
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Definition
Stable phase: 25-45 mya; cool, wet, temperate rainforests
Changing phase: 15-25 mya; drying process begins
Drying phase: 5-15 mya; due to movement into drier latitudes and development of rainshadow
Arid Adaptation Phase: <5 mya |
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Term
| What happened to Australia's environment 5-15 million years ago? |
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Definition
| Australia was going through the drying phase at this point. Drying of the continent was due to a few factors. The first was the movment of the continent into drier latitude, 20-30o N/S of the equator. The formation of mountains due to the Eurasian plate subducting under the Pacific plate also formed Papua New Guinea, which created a rainshadow. The rainshadow prevented monsoonal rains from the north from entering the continent. |
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Term
| What were the factors external to Australia that contributed to the drying of the continent? |
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Definition
| The movement of the continent into drier latitudes; the creation of Papua New Guinea, and the formation of a rainshadow; circumpolar currents; Ice Age 12 mya |
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Term
| What tree species became dominant as the Australian continent dried? |
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Definition
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Term
| Name two adaptations made by some of our plant species to the drying of the continent |
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Definition
Pyrophytes: more fire resistant than previous plants; some plants even need fire to spread their seeds.
Scleromorphy: hard, spiny, weather resistant plants that are also great at preserving water.
Lignotubers: extensive underground root system that is great at preserving water and resisting fire; the buds are able to push up through the soil after a fire
Extensive underground root systems are able to grow any way to reach water |
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Term
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Definition
| An extinct marsupial dog that is native to Australia. |
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Term
| When did Australia have a series of large volcanoes along its eastern ridge? |
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Definition
| 80-50 million years ago; they formed up due to the Great Divide |
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Term
| How do we know megafauna and humans co-existed? |
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Definition
| Cave paintings of megafauna have been found all over the continent; there was no way that humans could have guessed at the animals that were in these drawings. |
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Term
| What is the difference between Diprotodon and Procoptodon? |
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Definition
| Both of these species are megafauna, but Procoptodon is a short-faced kangaroo with a short snout, unlike the longer snouts we associate with today's roos. |
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Term
| On what continent did Homo erectus evolve? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the oldest date for Homo erectus outside of Africa? |
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Definition
| 1.7 million years ago, found in Java |
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Term
| What is the oldest date for Homo erectus in China? |
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Definition
| 1.1 million years ago; Lantian |
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Term
| What social and biological factors did H. erectus develop that enabled them to migrate across the world? |
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Definition
| There were many skills H. erectus developed in order to span across the world. These include: improved information processing, the ability to learn/experience things, ability the recognize environmental and climatic changes, improved hunting and tracking, evolving memory patterns, drawing on and using accumulated experience, the gain of highly trained senses, combining the senses to recognise the self as a thinking entity, understanding other people and seeing them in a different way than previously, protolanguage and complex communication improved planning and broadened understanding of life; increasing skills in scavenging/hunting/gathering, social cohesion through group interaction/dependence on each other and bonding of bands for safety, trust, and hunting, increasing technologies (stone tools, weapons, shelter), controlled fire |
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Term
| What is the Indonesian island that has yielded all hominid fossils? |
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Definition
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Term
| What Indonesian island did H. erectus corss water to reach? |
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Definition
| Flores Island; the oldest evidence of this crossing is 1 million years |
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Term
| What is the range of brain capacity for H. erectus? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is meant by the phrase "anatomically modern human"? |
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Definition
| We are AMH: high, oval head; small jaws and teeth, few muscle markings, no brow ridge, chin. Homo sapiens have a lighter more gracile build than previous hominids. |
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Term
| Name some cultural and skeletal attributes of AMHs. |
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Definition
The use of complex weapons (shields, spear throwers, hammers, a variety of tool types).
Art/symbols
Rituals/ceremony/formal burial practices
Complex language, social networks, and organisation |
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Term
| When did Solo people live in Java? |
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Definition
| 150-350 million years ago |
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Term
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Definition
| A group of people found in the Denisova Cave who were related to European Neanderthals; Denisovan DNA is found in Australians. |
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Term
| How were Denisovans and Neanderthals related? |
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Definition
| They had a common ancestor: Heidelbergensis |
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Term
| What Chinese fossil cranium might be Denisovan? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are the likely origins of Australia's first people? |
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Definition
Solo: Java
Dali and Denisovans: China
Liujang: from Africa, found in China (68 thousand years ago)
At some point, Denisovans and AMH got together and brought Denisovan DNA to Australia, which gave rise to the Mungo people
WLH50 is similar to Solo, Dali, and Denisovan
JAVA, CENTRAL ASIA/CHINA, AFRICA |
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Term
| How did the first people reach Australia? |
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Definition
| Through the water, by boat |
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Term
| What was the lowest sea level during the last Ice Age? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is a glacial maximum, and when did the last one occur? |
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Definition
| A glacial maximum is the high point of an Ice Age, and the last one occured 20 thousand years ago. |
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Term
| Has Australia ever been joined by a land bridge to Southeast Asia? |
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Definition
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Term
| What type of evidence suggests that people arrived in Australia before 100,000 years ago? |
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Definition
| Drilling on the Great Barrier Reef resulted in finding that fire resistant plants increased in abundance 150-120ka. There was also an increase in charcoal particles/fire in the atmosphere at the same time, suggesting that people were present to start the fires. |
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Term
| Name two ways in which the first migrants may have explored Australia. |
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Definition
Freshwater highway theory: used rivers to go through the continent
Coastal colonization theory: used the coastline to explore |
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Term
| What is a coastal economy? |
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Definition
| An economy based solely on being near the coast. This involves knowing how to use the coast to gather resources like food. It based on fishing, using boats, and reading the sea. |
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Term
| What did the Mungo Lady and Man tell us about early Australians and their culture? |
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Definition
| Their burials showed that they knew some sort of ritual and ceremony, and used it as part of their culture. They had a belief system, a complex language, and possibly practiced trade due to the presence of ochre in Mungo Man's burial. Due to finding wear and tear on teeth and joints, it is suspected that the Mungo people hunted and made nets for fishing. The man's teeth were also pulled out, possibly as a rite of passage. |
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Term
| What did the Kow Swamp people look like? |
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Definition
| They were robust people, with brow ridges, thick cranial vaults, strong muscles marking, and big, broad faces |
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Term
| What does the skeletal evidence from Kow Swamp and Lake Mungo tell us about the origin of some of the earliest Australians? |
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Definition
| They are either directly descended from AMHs, or descended directly from H. erectus |
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Term
| What are the likely causes of the extinction of the Australian megafauna? |
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Definition
| Climate change, environmental change, habitat change, vegetation change, reduced population over time, inability to regain population due to long pregnancy periods, small isolated groups, large size, competition, humans hunted/burned them to extinctoin; humans were likely the last straw, coming after harsh environmental changes. |
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Term
| When did the Dingo arrive in Australia? |
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Definition
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