1. Contrast the dominant terrestrial amniotes, worldwide, in the Early, Middle, and Late Triassic Period.
2. How did some diapsids manage to solve the problem of "Carrier's Constraint" while others did not?
3. Explain why lizards can't run for very long without stopping.
4. Mesosaurus (Fig. 11.5) fossils are known from both Brazil and South Africa, and are the earliest amniotes known from those continents. Explain these apparent discontinuous records of its distribution, especially if this was the first amniote on either continent.
5. Describe two competing views on how to explain the "Triassic Takeover" involving the "replacement" of Triassic synapsids by archosaurs. Which view does Dr. Cowen clearly prefer, and why?
6. Which clades (including terminal taxa) of archosaurs are extinct today, according to the cladograms in Figure 11.4 and 11.12? If you can not find the name for a clade, specify it by saying "the terminal taxa x, y, and z, their most recent common ancestor, and all its descendants."
7. What feature of archosaur anatomy was likely most important for explaining their "takeover" in the Triassic?
8. Describe Euparkeria. When did it live, who is related to phylogenetically, what is the evidence for this inferred relationship, and what was it like in its morphology and ecology?
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