Most accepted age for the Earth and the rest of the solar system.

“Best” age of the Universe.

“The present is the key to the past.”

When examining an undisturbed sequence of stratified rocks, the oldest strata will be at the bottom and the youngest strata will be on the top of the sequence.

Sediments would spread out until they thin out at the edge of the depositional basin, stop at a depositional barrier or grade into another type of sediment.

Any significant break in time within a stratigraphic column.

Tilted or folded sedimentary rocks that are overlain by younger, more flat-lying strata.

Beds above and below are parallel and the unconformity is identified by some evidence such as lack of certain diagnostic zone fossils in some horizon.

Older metamorphic or igneous rocks are overlain by younger sedimentary strata.

Variants of the same atom but with different mass numbers.

Decay in which two protons and two neutrons are emitted from the nucleus, resulting in the loss of two atomic numbers and four atomic mass numbers.

Decay in which a fast-moving electron is emitted from a neutron in the nucleus, changing that neutron to a proton and consequently increasing the atomic number by one, with no resultant atomic mass number change.

Carbon 14 has a half-life of ________ years plus or minus

30 years.

He is behind the idea of Neptunism.

He is behind the idea of Catastrophism.

The following are trace fossils, except:

The most commonly used time-stratigraphic unit is _______.

The idea that the facies seen in a vertical sequence replace

one another laterally is __________.

The process whereby organisms burrow through and thoroughly mix sediment.

The degree to which detrital particles have had their sharp edges and corners smoothed off by abrasion.

Beds are thicker than laminations.

Deposit large particles followed by progressively smaller ones thus forming __________ in which the grain size decreases upward.

All sediment deposited in glacial environments

is collectively called _______.

Charles Darwin, detailed his ideas on evolution and

proposed a mechanism whereby evolution could take place in his book titled ___________.

A change in the hereditary information causing potential host and offspring variations.

Which of the following is not included in the Linnaean taxonomic classification of organisms?

Complex, helical molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid

(DNA) are known as _____.

The study of the history of life as revealed by the fossil

record is _________ .

A geologic time division which lasted for more than 4.0 billion years.

The first organisms were bacteria and archaea, both of which consist of _______ cells, characterized by the absence of a nucleus.

Precambrian-aged linear, syncline-like bodies of rock found within much more extensive granite-gneiss complexes.

Believed to be responsible for the early atmosphere and hydrosphere of the Earth, but comets also contributed to the later.

The stable interior portion of a continent characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock

The Precambrian supereon, is composed of 3 eons, except:

A large landmass composed mostly of Greenland and North America that evolved during the Proterozoic is

called __________.

Which one of the following was a supercontinent during

the Proterozoic?

A plate tectonic cycle involving the opening of an ocean basin and it subsequent closure is known as a(n)?

A sequence of rocks on land made up of mantle rocks

overlain by oceanic crust and deep sea sediments is a(n)?

Columnar masses of rock resulting from the activities of

cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are?

The widely accepted theory explaining the origin of eukaryotic cells holds that these cells formed by?

An elongated area marking the site of mountain building

is a(n)?

The ocean separating Laurentia from Baltica is called ________.

Which mobile belt is located along the eastern side of

North America?

At the beginning of the Cambrian, there were ______ major continents.

Repetitive sedimentary sequences of alternating marine

and non-marine sedimentary rocks are _______ .

The greatest recorded mass extinction to affect Earth.

Organisms that manufacture their own food are?

Organisms living in the water column above the seafloor are?

The Burgess Shale fauna is significant because it contains the ________.

The age of the Burgess Shale

Which was the first plant group that did not require a wet area for the reproductive part of its life cycle?

The Age of Fish is which period?

Which reptile group gave rise to the mammals?

The group of organisms known as angiosperms includes

all _________.

Oldest known-bird.

A complex part of the circum-Pacific orogenic belt in the

United States is the?

The Himalayas formed when the _______ plate collided

with the ________ plate.

The Cenozoic Era consists of two periods:

The most recent part of the geologic time.

The phenomenon in which Earth’s crust rises after unloading, as when a vast glacier melts, is called?

Lakes that existed during times of glaciation because of increased rainfall and decreased evaporation are called

A ridge-like, unsorted, non-stratified sediment deposit at a glacier’s terminus is a(n)?

To which of the following species do Java Man and

Peking Man belong?

The oldest known australopithecine is Australopithecus ________?

The first hominids to migrate out of Africa and from

which we evolved were?

Which of the following is not a Cenozoic epoch?

Which of the following is not a Mesozoic period?

Which of the following is not a Paleozoic period?

The following are eons, except:

The first sharks were called _________.

First jawed fishes.

The first horses were called ________.

What period was referred to as the "Age of Amphibians"?

The father of modern geology.