Chapter 7 Stones And Bones Flashcards
Deep time
The theory that the world is much older than biblical explanations allowed- determined by gradual natural process like erosion.
Continental Drift
The slow movement of continents over time
Uniformitarianism
Theoretic perspective that geological processes observed today are the same as the process we operating in the past.
Fossils
The mineralized copies of once living organisms.
Fossil
Mineralized copies of once living organisms
Bya
Billion years ago
Eon
Largest subunit of time
Eras
Units of time that span billions of years and are subdivided into periods and epochs.
Periods
Geological Time units that span millions of years and are subdivided into epochs.
Epochs
The smallest units of geological time, spanning thousands to millions of years.
Holocene
The current geological epoch starting 10 Kya
Anthropocene
The proposed name for our current geological epoch based on human-driven climate change and mass extinction of nonhuman species caused by human activities.
Taphonomy
The study of what happens to an organism after death.
Fossilization
The preservation of an organism against the natural processes of decay.
Anaerobic
An environment without oxygen
Lithification
When the weight and pressure of the sediment squeeze out any extra fluids and replace the voids that appear with minerals from the surrounding sediments.
Permineralization
When minerals from water impregnate or replace organic remains leaving a fossilized copy of the organism.
Petrified wood
When actual pieces of wood mineralize and turn into rock.
Hominins
Includes all human ancestors who existed after the evolutionary split from chimpanzees and bonobos. 6-7 Mya
Megafauna
Large animals such as mammoths and mastadons
Trace fossils
Fossilized remains of activity such as footprints
Bezoars
Hard concrete-like substances found in the intestines of fossilized creatures- a mineralized hairball
Coprolite
Fossilized dung
In matrix
The fossil is embedded in secondary rock.
Pseudofossils
Misinterpretations of rock formations that look like true fossils.
Pseudofossils
Misinterpretations of rock formations that look like true fossils.
Relative dating
Dating methods that do not result in numbers of years but in relative timelines wherein some organisms or artifacts are older or younger than others.
Stratigraphy
A relative dating method that is based on layers or strata that builds up over time.
Law of superposition
The scientific law that states that rock and soil are deposited in layers with the youngest on top and the younger on the bottom.
Biostratigraphy
Relative dating method that uses other plant and animal remains occurring in the stratigraphic context to establish time depth
Biostratigraphy
Relative dating method that uses other plant and animal remains occurring in the stratigraphic context to establish time depth
Cultural dating
Relative dating method that arranges human made artifacts in a time frame from oldest to youngest based on material, production technique, style, and other features.
Cultural dating
Relative dating method that arranges human made artifacts in a time frame from oldest to youngest based on material, production technique, style, and other features.
Fluorine dating
A relative dating method that analyzes the absorption of fluorine in bones from surrounding soils.
Chronometric dating
Dating method that give estimated numbers of years for artifacts and sites
Element
Matter that cannot be broken down into smaller matter.
Atom
A small building block of matter
Isotopes
Atoms of a given element that have different numbers of neutrons.
Stable isotopes
Variants of elements that do not change over time without outside interference
Unstable isotopes
Variants of elements that spontaneously change into stable isotopes over time. Sometimes called radioisotopes.
Radioactive decay
The process of transforming the atom by spontaneously releasing ensergy.
Radiocarbon dating
The chronometric dating method based on the radioactive decay of 14C in organic remains.
Dendrochronology
Chronometric dating method that uses the annual growth of trees to build a timeline into the past.
Foraminifara
Single celled marine organisms with shells
K-Ar and At-Ar dating
Can reach further into the past than carbon dating by measuring crystalline structures of volcanic materials.
Uranium dating
A dating technique based on the decay chain of unstable isotopes of uranium. Can be used to 650 Kya.
Fission track dating
A chronometric dating technique that is based on the fission of 283U- can date things that are Tya.
Luminescence dating
Chronometric dating method based on naturally occurring background radiation in soils, pottery, and clay.
Electron spin resonance dating
Chronometric dating technique that measures the background radiation accumulated in material over time. Up to 2mya. Works well with artifacts and rocks with crystalline structure, including tooth enamel, shell, and rock- things that thermoluminescence won’t work on.
Sediment cores
Core samples taken from lake beds or other water sources for analysis of their pollen.
Sediment cores
Core samples taken from lake beds or other water sources for analysis of their pollen.
Geomorphology
The study of the physical characteristics of the earth’s surface.
Glacial periods
Periods characterized by low global temperatures and expansion of ice sheets on earth’s surface.
Mitochondrial DNA
DNA located in the mitochondria of a cell that is only down from biological mother to child
