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Chapter 10 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Fossil | The preserved remains or evidence of ancient living things. |
| Catastrophism | The idea that conditions and organisms on Earth change in quick, violent events. |
| Uniformitarianism | The principle that states that geological 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 and 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 | Scientists 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 | Matching rocks sand fossils from separate locations. |
| Index Fossil | Represents 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. |
| Isotope | 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. |