Fossil Record

What type of dating indicates an approximate age of a fossil in relationship to other layers of rock in an area?

• Relative dating
• Absolute Dating

Which rock layer most likely contains fossils of the most recently evolved organisms?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

The fossil record help scientists

• better understand the kind of organism that lived in the past
• better understand how the environment has changed over time
• better understand how organisms have evolved over time 
• all of the above

A geologist discovers a fossil in different layers of rock. Which layer is the oldest? 

• the fossils in the upper rock layers
• the fossils in the lower rock layers

The fossil record is 

• incomplete: scientists do not have a continuous record of changes in life on Earth
• complete: scientists have a continuous record of changes in life on Earth

Fossil evidence can be used by scientists to prove which of the following?

• Organisms have been changing over time
• All of the organism that have ever lived on Earth have been discovered
• Organisms of the past are identical to those living today
• Organisms with bones and shells are more common than those that lack ( do not have) these structures

What can scientists learn from strudying the relationships between fossils?

• how old all rock layers are
• how life changed over time
• how many relatives fossils had

Finding fossils of coral reefs in the Nevada desert provides evidence that:

• Nevada used to be much colder than it is today
• an ocean once covered what is now Nevada
• there was a mistake because no coral reefs exist in deserts
• ancient corals used to live on land

In what type of rocks would you find fossils?

• sedimentary
• igneous
• shale
• volcanic

The time required for half of a radioactive sample to decay is referred to as the element's

• radiometric date.
• period.
• relative date.
• half-life.