Chapter 17 History of Life Vocab

a scientist who studies fossils, which are the remains of ancient plants and animals that have been preserved in rock

• Paleontologist

• Fossil

• dating

• Record

is the collection of physical evidence, such as fossils and other remnants of organisms, that have been preserved over time and provide information about the history of life on Earth

• Relative dating

• Law of Superposition

• Fossil Record

• Index Fossils

when the entire species has died out

• Extinct

• Law of Superposition

• endangered

• Relative

a method of determining the age of a fossil, rock, or other geological feature by comparing its position in the Earth's geologic layers to the positions of other materials

• Fossil Record-

• Relative dating

• Paleontologist

• Fossils

states that in a sequence of undisturbed rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest layer is at the top

• Half-life

• Geologic time-scale

• Law of Superposition

• Eras

fossils of organisms that lived during a specific period of time and are used by scientists to date the rock layers or sedimentary deposits in which they are found ; are typically organisms that lived for a relatively short period of time, were abundant and widespread, and had distinct physical characteristics that make them easy to identify

• Radioactive dating

• Index Fossils

• Law of Superposition

• Earth's history

length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay

• Periods

• Half-life

• Proteinoid Microspheres

• Micro Fossils

a method used to determine the age of rocks, fossils, and other geological materials based on the decay of radioactive isotopes

• Geologic time-scale

• Radioactive dating

• Fossils

• Proteinoid Microspheres

a system of chronological dating that divides the Earth's history into different time periods based on major geological and biological events

• Eras

• Periods

• Geologic time-scale

• all of them

large spans of time that are used to divide Earth's history based on major geological and biological events

• Microspheres

• Periods

• Endosymbiotic theory

• Eras