paleontology review

Take out your study guide. Continue on page 42: and answer this

- I don’t get it! What one thing (or two)

do you just not get about paleontology?

Review Game

What is the death of every member of a species called?

Extinction

What process compares one rock layer with another in sequence to determine age?

Relative Dating

Which era do we live in? Cenozoic Era

What law says that the geologic processes that occur today also occurred in the past?

Law of Uniformitarianism

What is a missing layer of rock called?

Unconformity

What is the study of past life using fossils?

Paleontology

What law says that younger rock is on top of older rock?

Law of Superposition

What is amber? Hardened tree sap

What is an example of a trace fossil? Footprint, tail print

At what rate does geologic change occur?

Slowly

How do we know that the environmental conditions on the Earth have changed?

By looking at the fossil record

A trilobite was buried by ocean sediment and left a cavity. What type of fossil is this?

Mold

How do scientists find the absolute age of a fossil or rock?

By radioactive dating

What is the Law or Original Horizontality?

Sediments are laid down in horizontal layers

What is the geologic column? The layer of rocks that shows us the

Earth’s history

If you find the fossil of a fish on the top of the mountain, what can you learn about the history of the mountain?

It was once under water

What era is the Age of Reptiles? Mesozoic Era

How do petrified fossils form? By all the tissue in an organism being

replaced by minerals

What type of rocks usually contain fossils?

Sedimentary

How many years ago did dinosaurs become extinct?

About 65 million years ago