Chapter 13 Key words

Question 1

Paleontology

Answer 1

The study of fossil remains or other clues to past life

Question 2

Geologic timeline

Answer 2

A division of Earth’s history into eons, eras, periods and epochs defined by major geological or biological

Question 3

Fossil

Answer 3

Any evidence of an organism form more than 10,000 years ago

Question 4

Compression

Answer 4

Leaf sinks –> fine sediment covers leaf –> sediment compresses, forming sedimentary rocks

Question 5

Petrification

Answer 5

Animal dies, decays & is buried –> Water containing dissolved minerals seeped through –> organic matter replaced by minerals turned into stone

Question 6

Impression

Answer 6

Animals dies, making impression in mud –> animal decays away –> mud hardens into rock

Question 7

Cast

Answer 7

Animal dies & sinks into soft sediment –> animal decays away –> imprints fills w/ mud –> mud hardens into rock

Question 8

Intact Preservation

Answer 8

Oozing sap traps an insect

Question 9

Relative Dating

Answer 9

Places a fossil into a sequence of events w/o assigning a specific age

Question 10

Absolute Dating

Answer 10

Determine the age of a fossil in years

Question 11

Radioactive Decay

Answer 11

Type of absolute dating that uses known rates of radioactive decay to date fossil

Question 12

Half-life

Answer 12

The time it takes for half the atoms in a sample of a radioactive substance to decay

Question 13

Biogeography

Answer 13

The study of the distribution of species across the planet

Question 14

Plate tectonics

Answer 14

Theory that Earth’s surface consists of serval plates that move in response to forces acting deep within the planet

Question 15

Homologous

Answer 15

Similar in structure or position because of common ancestry

Question 16

Vestigial

Answer 16

Having no apparent function in one organism but homologous to a functional structure in another species

Question 17

Analogous

Answer 17

Similar because of convergent evolution

ex. Birds and butterflies

Question 18

Convergent evolution

Answer 18

The evolution of similar adaption in organism that do not share the same evolutionary image

Question 19

Study of homeotic genes

Answer 19

Any gene that, when mutated, leads to organisms w/ structure in the wrong places

Question 20

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Answer 20

a small circular DNA found within mitochondria present in the cytoplasm of a cell

Question 21

Molecular clock

Answer 21

Application of the rate at which DNA mutates to estimate when 2 types of organisms diverged from a shared ancestor

Question 22

Shox2

Answer 22

A gene that accelerates limb development