Fossil

Question 1

What is Relative Dating

Answer 1

Is the age compared to other rocks using words like younger and older.

Question 2

What is Absolute Dating

Answer 2

Is the number of years since the rock was formed that is found using radiometric dating

Question 3

What is the Law of Superposition

Answer 3

The law that states the bottom rocks are older than the top ones. This is used in relative dating.

Question 4

What is an Index Fossil

Answer 4

A common organism that existed in a small time frame. This is used to date a rock when a fossil is found within it.

Question 5

Why do we study fossils?

Answer 5

To look at the different species and evolution of organisms throughout time.

Example: To understand how the environment changes, like if we found rocks with shells in a desert (it used to be water)

Question 6

How can rock layers be correlated or matched up?

Answer 6

1) By the law of superposition that says the older rock layers are at the bottom and the newest are at the top.

2) if the same index fossil is in two rocks then it means that they were formed during the same time frame.

Question 7

What is a Unconformity

Answer 7

Gap in the geological record. There is stuff missing due to weathering and erosion.

Question 8

What is a Fault Line

Answer 8

When there is a BREAK IN THE ROCKS and forces the rocks to shift.

Question 9

What is a Mold

Answer 9

Cavity or space in rock that is left when the hard parts of the organism decay or dissolve

There is a HOLE IN ROCK that is the SHAPE of original thing.

Question 10

What is a Cast

Answer 10

Formed when sediments wash into a mold, the form a cast of the original organism.

So the sediments create SHAPE OF ORIGINAL thing.

Question 11

What is a Carbon Film

Answer 11

Result when a thin film or carbon residue FORMS A SILHOUETTE of the original organism; carbonized plant material becomes COAL.

Question 12

What is an Original Remain

Answer 12

When the whole organism is preserved and trapped in amber, ice, or tar

Question 13

What is a Trace Fossil

Answer 13

A record of an organism’s activities such as a trail, burrow, or FOSSILIZED TRACKS.

Question 14

Uniformitarianism

Answer 14

the present is the key to the past

This means that natural processes that are occuring now most likely occurred in the past.

Question 15

What is Fossil Record

Answer 15

made up of all the fossils ever and include their information (name, relative/absolute date)

Question 16

Where are Fossils Found

Answer 16

Fossils are found in sedimentary rocks or trapped in amber, tar, or ice.

Question 17

How do you know if the rocks have been disturbed or not?

Answer 17

It depends on if they are horizontal