Chapter 5 Review Science Flashcards
Evolutionary hypothesis stating that all the universe’s matter energy, and space existed in a dense and extremely hot point that suddenly began to rapidly expand, eventually forming the universe known today.
Big Bang
Principle that natural laws in operation today have existed throughout the earth’s history
Principle of uniformity
Distortion of the principle of uniformity that claims understanding modern geological processes is the key to understanding the earth’s geological historyp
Uniformitarianism
Idea that one or more catastrophes are primarily responsible for the earth’s geological features
Catastrophism
Branch of geology that studies fossils
Paleontology
Hypothetical timescale used to summarize and graphically illustrate the evolutionary idea of Earth’s history
Geologic Column
Any fossil considered by evolutionists to be characteristic of a specific range of time and used to identify rock layers in the field
Index Fossil
Logic error in which the “proof” of an idea depends on the assumption that the idea is true
Circular Reasoning
Amount of time needed for half of a radioactive parent element to decay into its daughter element
Half-Life
Gap formed when continuous strata are missing one or more layers required by the geologic column
Unconformity
Situation in which an organism shows no change between its appearance in the fossil record and at the present day
Stasis
Idea that the fittest and strongest members of each species were more likely to survive and reproduce than weaker, poorly adapted members
Natural Selection
Evolutionary hypothesis that new kinds of organism are a result of rapid genetic changes that supposedly bring about a new organism in a very short time
Punctuated equilibrium
Biological classification of man
Homo sapiens
Small ape that was once thought by evolutionists to be an early link in the supposed genealogy of man, but is actually similar to modern orangutans
Ramapithecus
Supposed human evolutionary ancestor, said to have evolved from the Australopithecus
Homo habilis
Homo habilis skull that was crushed so badly that scientist cannot be sure of its exact features
Skull 1470
“Missing link” in the supposed evolution of man that was discovered in southwest France but was later admitted by evolutionists to be a modern human.
Cro-Magnon man
The geologists who popularized the idea of uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell
The scientists who first suggested that many catastrophes have shaped Earth’s geological features
George Cuvier
Five main types of fossils
Petrified fossil Mold fossil Print fossil Resin fossil whole-specimen fossil
Four divisions of the geologic column, in order from largest to smallest
Eon
Era
Period
Epoch
A radiometric dating method used on organic materials
Carbon-14 dating