click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
chapter 10 vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Fossils | Are the preserved remains or evidence of ancient living things |
Catastrophism | Is the idea that conditions and organisms on Earth change in quick, violent events |
Uniformitarianism | States that geologic processes that occur today are similar to those that have occurred in the past |
Carbon film | Is the fossilized carbon outline of an organism or part of an organism |
Mold | Is the impression in a rock left by an ancient organism |
Cast | Is a fossil copy of an organism made when a mold of the organism is filled with sediment or mineral deposits |
Trace Fossil | Is the preserved evidence of the activity of an organism |
Paleontologists | Scientists who study fossils |
Relative Age | Is the age of rocks and geologic features compared with other rocks and the features nearby |
Superposition | Is 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 | Is a surface where rock has eroded away, producing a break, or gap, in the rock record |
correlation | Matching rock and fossils from separate locations |
Index fossils | Represent species that existed o Earth for a short length of time, were abundant, and inhabited many locations |
Absolute age | To mean the numerical age, in years, of a rock or object |
Isotopes | Are atoms of the same element that have different number of neutrons |
Radioactive decay | Is the process by which an unstable element naturally changes into another element that is stable |
Half-life | Is the time required for half of the parent isotopes to decay into daughter isotopes |