Fossils

Question 1

Unconformity

Answer 1

A break in the geolgic record created when rock layers are eroded or when sediment is not deposited for a long peroid of tome.

Question 2

Catastrophism

Answer 2

A principle that states that geologic change occurs suddenly.

Question 3

Paleontology

Answer 3

The scentific study of fossils

Question 4

Relative dating

Answer 4

Any method of determining wheather an event or object is older or younger thanother events or objects.

Question 5

Absoulte dating

Answer 5

Any method of measuring the age of an event or object in years

Question 6

Superposition

Answer 6

A principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed.

Question 7

Isotope

Answer 7

An atom that has the same number of protons as other atoms of the same element do but that has a differant number of neutrons.

Question 8

Radioactive Decay

Answer 8

The process in which a radioactive isotape tends to break down into a stable isotope of the same elemtent

Question 9

Half-life

Answer 9

The time needed for half of a sample of a radioactive substance to undergo radioactive decay

Question 10

Fossil

Answer 10

The remains or physical evidence of an organsim preserved by geological processes

Question 11

Trace Fossil

Answer 11

A fossilized mark that is formed in soft sediment by the movement of an animal

Question 12

Mold

Answer 12

A mark or cavity made in sedimentary surface by a shell or other body

Question 13

Cast

Answer 13

A type of fossil that forms when sediments fill in the cavity left by decomposed organsim.

Question 14

Unconformity

Answer 14

A break in the geologic record created when rock layers are eroded or when sediment is not deposited for a long peroid of time

Question 15

Mass Extinction

Answer 15

is usually defined as a loss of about three quarters of all species in existence across the entire Earth

Question 16

Jurassic period

Answer 16

is a geologic period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago

Question 17

Cretaceous period

Answer 17

last portion of the Age of Dinosaurs

Question 18

Devonian period

Answer 18

is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years

Question 19

Quaternary period

Answer 19

is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale

Question 20

Permian period

Answer 20

is a geologic period and system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous period 298.9 million years ago