PALAEONTOLOGY

Question 1

what is palaeontology

Answer 1

study of life in the past based on fossils of plants and animals

Question 2

principle of faunal succession

Answer 2

fossil organisms succeed one another upwards through rock layers in a definite and determinable order; therefore, any time period can be recognized by its fossil content

Question 3

what do unconformities represent in geological records

Answer 3

time period when erosion occurred

Question 4

types of unconformities

Answer 4

angular unconformity

nonconformity

disconformity

Question 5

what are angular unconformities

Answer 5

younger sedimentary rocks located upon an erosion surface below which older sedimentary rocks are tilted or folded

Question 6

what are nonconformities

Answer 6

forms between older, igneous or metamorphic rocks and younger sedimentary rocks

Question 7

what are disconformities

Answer 7

forms as an erosion surface between parallel layers of sedimentary rock

Question 8

principle of cross-cutting relationship

Answer 8

states that a rock is older than any rock that cuts throu it