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Paleontology
Fossils and Earth's History
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What are fossils and how do they form? | Fossils are preserved remains or traces of living things. They form when living things die and their remains get buried |
| Which type of rock usually contains fossils? | Sedimentary |
| Why do Paleontologists study fossils? | Paleontologists study fossils to help learn about Earth's changing surface, climate, and how organisms have changed over time |
| The statement: "History repeats itself..." supports which principle? | Uniformitarianism which states that gradual geological processes (weathering, erosion, deposition, rock cycle) that occurred in the past occur the same way today |
| What is the law of superposition? | In horizontal, sedimentary rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and each layer higher is younger than the layers below |
| What describes when an organism no longer exists on Earth? | Extinction |
| How do fossils provide evidence of Earth's changing environment, from the past? | Fossils can be found in areas where there was once water. They can tell how an environments's climate has changed over time. |
| What is the geologic time scale? | A record of life forms and events in Earth's history that determine when one period ended and the next began based on clues from the fossil record |
| Describe how life forms on Earth have changed? | Life forms have change from simple to more complex over time based on the theory of evolution. For example, early bacteria-shells-insects-fish-dinosaurs-mammals |
| What is used to determine the age of rocks, according to the law of superposition? | Relative age |
| What are index fossils? | Fossils of widely distributed organisms that only lived during a short period of time, for example-trilobites |
| How do unconformities in rock layers form? | Erosion wears away the layers of rock |
| What is the relative age of rock layers compared to absolute age? | Relative age is the age compared to the age of other rock layers. Absolute age is the exact number of years since the rock layer formed |
| How are sediments deposited according to the principle of original horizontality? | Sediments are deposited in a horizontal position , laid down across from left to right |
| Justify how dinosaurs and horses did not exist during the same geologic era. | Fossils of dinosaurs and horses are not found in the same rock layers |
| How do geologists determine the absolute age? | Radiometric dating |
| How does the age of an intrusion compare to the rock layers it passes through? | The intrusion is always younger than the rock layers it cuts through |
| How is Earth's geologic time scale organized? | Earth's history is organized into manageable parts-eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages |
| According to the law of superposition, what would the fossil record reveal about past life forms? | Fossils of past life forms and simpler organisms would be found in older rocks, at the bottom |
| Compare the relative age of a fossil for a fossil of a large elephant found in a top rock layer to that of a fossil found of a smaller elephant below. | The fossil of the large elephant is younger. |
Created by:
Y.Miller
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