Quiz: Steno And The Shark

Who was Nicholas Steno?

• • A fisherman

• • A Danish scientist

• • A geologist from America

• • An Italian painter

What did Steno discover about "tongue stones"?

• • They were a type of rock

• • They were fossils of ancient shark teeth

• • They were shells

• • They grew inside rocks

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

In what year did Steno study the great white shark?

• • 1666

• • 1766

• • 1866

• • 1966

What is the concept of relative dating?

• • Determining the exact age of fossils

• • Comparing the age of rock layers to determine which is older or younger

• • Measuring the size of fossils

• • Finding fossils only in top rock layers

According to Steno, which rock layers are older?

• • The layers at the top

• • The layers in the middle

• • The layers at the bottom

• • All layers are the same age

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

Why did Steno believe that tongue stones couldn’t have grown inside rocks?

• • They were made of metal

• • The rocks were too hard

• • The tongue stones fit perfectly inside the rocks without cracks

• • They were found on the ocean surface

What did Steno suggest about the rock around the tongue stones?

• • It was always solid

• • It had been sand or mud that later hardened into rock

• • It formed from volcanic eruptions

• • It was created by human activity

What is the largest unit of time on the geologic time scale?

• • Era

• • Period

• • Century

• • Eon

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

What type of fossil evidence helped Steno make his discoveries?

• • Plant fossils

• • Fossilized dinosaur bones

• • Fossilized shark teeth

• • Bird fossils

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

Which of these time units is smaller than an era?

• • Eon

• • Period

• • Epoch

• • Decade