Geologic History of Earth
The mineralized remains of organisms and the rock layers in which they are found, showing when and where long-dead organisms lived and how their bodies were structured
What is a fossil record?
The arrangement of things in the order that they occurred
What is chronological order?
Scientific law that states fossils located in deeper sediment layers are older than ones deposited in layers closer to the surface
What is the Law of Superposition?
The study of the structures of organisms and their parts
What is anatomy?
System of chronological measurement that relates stratigraphy (study of rock layers) to time
What is a geologic time scale?
The quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.
What is Diversity?
The formation of fossils as stone replaces decaying tissues
What is petrification?
The study of the similarities and differences of body structures of different species
What is comparative anatomy?
Scientific law that states fossils located in deeper sediment layers are older than ones deposited in layers closer to the surface
What is the law of superposition?
The permanent disappearance of a species from Earth
What is extinction?
Technique used to determine how old a rock is by analyzing the amounts of a radioactive isotope and its decay products in the rock
What is radioactive dating?
The developing organism between fertilization and birth
What is an embryo?
Beds or layers of sedimentary rock having approximately the same composition throughout
What is rock strata?
The mineralized remains of organisms and the rock layers in which they are found, showing when and where long-dead organisms lived and how their bodies were structured
What are fossil records?
Layers of rock that are successively deposited on top of one another and are distinguishable from one another based on their mineral contents
What are sedimentary layers?
Development of an embryo from fertilization through the fetus stage
What is Embryological Development?
fossils that are only found in one type of rock layer, and that layer will have more than one of that type of fossil, even if the layer contains other types of fossils.
What are index fossils?
The mineralized remains of organisms, showing how long-dead organisms lived and how their bodies were structured
What are fossils?
Fossils are made of this.
What is mineralized rock?
A group of organisms with similar characteristics that are able to interbreed or exchange genetic material
What is a species?