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FossilFacts7096A
Fossils
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Fossil | remains, imprints, or traces of prehistoric organisms that can tell when and where organisma once lived and how they lived |
| Permineralized Remains | fossils in which the spaces inside and filled with minerals from groundwater |
| Carbon Film | thin film of carbonresidue preserved as a fossil |
| Mold | a type of body fossil that forms in rock when an organism with hard parts is buried, decays or dissloves, and leaves a cavity in the rock |
| Cast | a type of body fossil that forms when crystals fill a mold or sediments wash into a mold and harden into rock |
| Index Fossil | remains of species that existed on Earth for a relatively short period of time, were abundant and widespread geographically, and can be used by geologists to assign the ages of rock layers |
| Principle of Superposition | states that in undisturbed rock layers, the oldest rocks are on the bottom and the rocks become progressively younger toward the top. |
| Relative Age | the age of something compared with other things |
| Unconformity | gap in the rock layer thatis due to erosion or periods without any deposition |
| Absolute Age | age, in years of a rock or other object;can be determinedby using properties of the atoms that make up materials |
| Radioactive Decay | process in which some isotopes breakdown into other isotopes and particles |
| Half Life | time it takes for half the atoms of an isotope to decay |
| Radiometric Dating | process used to calculate the absolute age of rock by measuring the ratio of parent isotope to daughter product in a mineral and knowing the half life of the parent |
| Uniformitarianism | prinicple stating that Earth processes occurring today are similar to those that occurred in the past. |