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Chapter 10 study
Question | Answer |
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Fossils | The preserved remains or evidence of ancient living things |
Catastrophism | The idea that conditions and organisms on Earth change in quick, violent events |
Uniformitarianism | Geologic processes that occur today are similar to those that have occurred in the past |
Carbon film | The fossilized carbon outline of an organism or part of an organism |
Mold | The impression in a rock left by an ancient organism |
Cast | A fossil copy of an organism made when a mold of the organism is filled with sediment or mineral deposits |
Trace fossil | The preserved evidence of the activity of an organism |
Paleontologist | Scientist who study fossils |
Relative age | The age of rocks and geologic features compared with other rocks and features nearby |
Superposition | The principle that in undisturbed rock layers, the oldest rocks are on the bottom |
Inclusion | A piece of an older rock that becomes part of a new rock |
Unconformity | A surface where rock has eroded away, producing a break, or gap in the rock record |
Correlation | Separate matching rocks and fossils from separations |
Index fossil | Represent species that existed on Earth for a short length of time, were abundant, and inhabited many locations |
Absolute age | The numerical age in years of a rock or object |
Isotopes | Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons |
Radioactive decay | The process by which an unstable element naturally changes into another element that is stable |
Half-life | The time required for half of the parent isotopes to decay into daughter isotopes. |