Terms and Definitions
Evidence of past life preserved within the geological record.
What is a fossil?
My main job is to decompose dead organisms. What am I?
What are decomposers?
A fossil mold tells us this about an organism.
What is its shape?
A fossil that can be used to temporarily correlate strata of sedimentary rock
What is an index fossil?
A fossil formed when sediments enter a fossil mold and lithify.
What is a fossil cast?
Chemical reactions usually slow down at ______________ _____________. Thus, ________________ ___________slow down decomposition significantly.
What are colder/lower temperatures.
By comparing the shapes of fossilized organisms to the shapes of organisms that are extant, we can determine if an animal is ___________.
What is extinct?
Three examples of major mistakes that paleontologists made when interpreting fossils.
What are Nebraska Man, Pakicetus, and Coelacanth?
Fossilized animal feces.
What is coprolite?
If a fossil is going to be formed, _____________has to be stopped or delayed in some way.
What is decomposition?
Fossils formed when a mold is filled with sediments, and those sediments eventually lithified, forming a rock inside another rock are called ______________________.
What is a fossil cast?
Dr. Henry Osborn published a paper in 1922 claiming that said that a tooth was from an "ape man". What creature did the tooth actually belong to?
What is a peccary?
A fossil formed when sediments lithify around an organism and it decays afterwards, leaving behind a cavity in the rock.
What is a fossil mold?
___________________is a hard, partially transparent substance that looks like a mineral but actually starts out as a thick, sticky liquid called _________ that is produced by certain trees and a few plants.
(Two answers)
What is amber? What is resin?
Fossil molds and fossil casts can only tell us about the exterior of an organism, but fossils ____________in _____or in ___________can tell us about original chemicals from the organism that have not decayed away.
What is entombed? What is ice? What is amber?
What creature did scientists initially think that Pakicetus was related to evolutionarily?
What is a whale?
The process by which an organism's remains are replaced by minerals, preserving them.
What is petrifaction?
I am a scientist who studies fossils.
What is a paleontologist?
Two galleries show fossils that were entombed. One gallery shows creatures that were entombed in amber. The other gallery shows fossils of creatures that were entombed in ice. Overall, the galley with creatures entombed in ______________will likely house the larger fossils.
What is ice?
_____________is a famous example of an animal that was thought to be __________________ but is actually ___________.
What is Coelacanth? What is extinct? What is extant?