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Earth's history test
Dec. 16, 2013
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| what are fossils? | the preserved remains or traces of living things |
| how do fossils form? | animal dies and sinks in shallow water, sediment covers the animal before decaying, sediment becomes rock reserving parts of the animal, erosion exposes the fossils to the surface |
| what are the different kinds of fossils? | petrified, molds/casts, impressions/carbon films |
| how do petrified fossils form? | when minerals replace all or part of the organism |
| what does petrified mean? | turning to stone |
| what is a mold? | a hollow area of sediment in the shape or part of an organism |
| what is a cast? | a copy of the shape of the organism |
| How do carbon films/impressions form? | when a thin coating of carbon is left on the rock after an organism decays |
| what does a carbon film show? | delicate parts of plants and insects |
| name three ways entire organisms can be preserved | in tar, amber, and ice |
| what is tar? | a sticky oil that seeps from Earth's surface |
| what is amber? | the hardened resin, or sap, of evergreen trees |
| what is an example of entire organisms being preserved in ice? | wooly mammoth in regions of Siberia and Alaska |
| what did trace fossils provide evidence of? | the activities of ancient organisms, not parts of organisms |
| give 3 examples of a trace fossil | footprint, tail trail, burrow |
| what can we learn about the earth by studying fossils? | how the surface and climate has changed over time |
| where are fossils most commonly found? | in sedimentary rock |
| what is an empty space left in a rock that shows the shape and size of an organism? | mold |
| what is a mold that is filled in with hardened minerals? | a cast |
| what organism would most likely be found in amber? | bee |
| if you find fossil trilobites in rock layers high on a mountain what does that indicate? | the mountain was once under water |
| a type of organism that no longer exists on earth is ___? | extinct |
| what is evolution? | the process by which all kinds of living things have changed over long periods of time to adapt to their environment |
| what environmental conditions had to exist for footprints to be made? | wet |
| in a footprint diagram, what could a line following footprints represent? | a tail trail |
| what is the law of original horizontality? | all layers are laid down in a flat and horizontal position |
| law of superposition | in horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, each layer is older than the layer above it and each layer is younger than the layer below it |
| what is relative age? | describes the age of an object or event in comparison to another object/event |
| give an example of relative age. | you are younger than your mom and your mom is younger than your grandma |
| what is absolute age? | tells the actual age of a rock or fossil of how long ago an event occurred |
| give an example of absolute age. | you are 13, your mom is 40, and your grandma is 72 |
| how can rock layers be eroded? | by wind, water, and ice |
| what is erosion shown by? | a wavy line |
| what does a fold look like? | curved lines across layers |
| how can rock layers be changed after they are laid down horizontally? | eroded, folded, faulted, tilted |
| what is a fault? | a break or crack in the earths lithosphere along which rocks move |
| faults are always _____ than the rock layers the go through. | younger |
| when does tilting occur? | when unequal forces within the earth push up in one area |
| how do intrusions form? | when magma hardens beneath the earth's surface (look like a triangle) |
| how do extrusions form? | when lava flows onto the earths surface (looks like an entire layer with a leak) |
| what are index fossils? | widely distributed organisms that lived in only a short period of time |
| when are index fossils helpful? | in determining the age of rock layers |
| what time does the geologic time scale date back to? | 4.6 billion years ago |
| what are the four eras of earths history? | Precambrian, Paleozoic, mesozoic,Cenozoic |
| what are the major characteristics in Precambrian time? | life on earth began atmosphere made of water vapor,carbon dioxide, and nitrogen many storms, meteorites, and volcanic eruptions, early atmosphere had no oxygen prokaryotes lived cyanobacteria used sunlight to produce food and release oxygen into air |
| what era did fish and sharks appear? | paleozoic |
| what era contained the largest mass extinction? | paleozoic, 90% of marine species wiped out |
| when did the major plant groups appear? | paleozoic era |
| crawling insects, first animals on land | paleozoic era |
| what era was known as the middle life and age of the reptiles? | mesozoic |
| when did dinosaurs live? | mesozoic era |
| first birds, giant marine lizards, conifers, flowering plants appeared when? | mesozoic era |
| describe the main characteristics of the Cenozoic era. | recent life longest era age of the mammals modern humans appeared environment and landscape the same as today |
| describe the composition if earths pre life atmosphere. | little sulfer dioxide and nitrogen, 90 % carbon dioxide |
| describe the composition of earths present day atmosphere | about 1/4 oxygen, about 3/4 nitrogen, and 1% carbon dioxide and other |
| what is natural selection | the process by which individuals that are better adapted to the environment survive and reproduce more successfully than less adapted organisms. |
| what is the difference between extinction and mass extinction? | extinction is when one species dies out; mass extinction is a time period when there is a very high rate of extinction of species, typically 50% or more of the existing species |
| what are some possible causes of PREVIOUS mass extinctions? | transformation of the landscape, pollution, exploitation of species, and introduction of alien species |
| what are some possible causes of a 6th mass extinction? (in the future) | impact from space, super volcanoes, and planetary belch |
| what is impact from space? | an asteroid hitting the planet and the force creating smoke and ash to block the sunlight, preventing photosynthesis |
| what are super volcanoes? | giant lava eruptions covering earths surface and giving off gasses to cause temperature changes and acid rain |
| what is planetary belch? | sudden release of methane gas that has been stored in the ocean. This decreases the amount of oxygen in the air causing potential altitude sickness |
| what is adaptation? | evolutionary process of an organism chnging to become better suited to its environment |
| the youngest layer of rock will always be found where? | at the top |
| what does mass extinction usually result in? | climate change, killing off the organisms that live there |
| what is the most important step for an organism to become a fossil? | buried quickly in sediment |
| which parts of the organism are most likely to be preserved as a fossil? | hard parts (shells or bones) |
| what important event happened 2.5 billion years ago when some organisms began using photosynthesis to make their food? | cynobacteria formed the earths atmosphere |
Created by:
winetime
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