Age of the Earth Quiz

In what geological era are we currently living?

• Precambrian Time
• Paleozoic Era
• Mesozoic Era
• Cenozoic

Dinosaurs ruled the Earth in what period?

• Precambrian Time
• Paleozoic Era
• Mesozoic Era
• Cenozoic

Which of these time periods lasted the longest?

• Precambrian Time
• Paleozoic Era
• Mesozoic Era
• Cenozoic

Saying you are older than a baby is an example of____________?

• Absolute age
• Relative age
• The Law of Superposition
• Principle of Original Horizontality

How old is the Earth?

• 5 billion years old
• 4.9 billion years old
• 4.6 billion years old
• 4.5 million years old

What evidence do scientists use to determine the age of the Earth?

• Index fossils
• Earth strata
• Radioactive Dating
• All of the Above

When a whole species dies all at once it is called a mass extinction.

• True
• False

If the same index fossils are found in different rock strata miles apart, what is probably true about the rock layers?

• The strata occurred at different periods.
• They are not both index fossils
• The fossils are from different organisms
• The strata are from the same relative time period.

Which is true about absolute dating?

• It uses the half-life of isotopes to get the exact age of a rock or mineral
• The law of superposition is used to determine the absolute date of rocks.
• Index fossils are compared to like fossils in other strata to determine absolute age.
• It uses half-life to determine the length of time an organism lived in various time periods.

Explanation of why layers of the Earth might be altered include:

• The Law of Superposition
• The Law of Gravity and the Law of Motion
• Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships
• Radioactive isotopes