Chapter 17-19
Terms
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- Absolute age
- Is a property of geological objects that consist of the actual age of an object.
- Angular conformity
- is a boundary that is between horizontal and tilted layers of rock.
- Bedding plane
- is a boundary that is between two sedimentary rock layers.
- A coprolite
- is fossilized waste material that is from an animal.
- Evolution
- is the change of living things that occurs over a period of time.
- Gastrolith
- is a fossilized stone that is found within the digestive system of a dinosaur or other reptile.
- Half-life
- is the time required for half the mass of a radioactive element to decay into its daughter.
- An Index Fossil
- is also known as a guide fossil found in rock layers of only one geologic age that is used to establish the relative age of the rock layers.
- The law of crosscutting relationships
- is a principle that a fault or intrusion is always younger than the rock layers it cuts through.
- Nonconformity
- is unconformity that which stratified rock rests on unstratified rock.
- Paleontology
- is the study of fossils.
- Petrification
- is a process in which organic materials are replaced by minerals.
- Relative age
- is age of an object that is compared with the ages of other objects.
- Trace fossil
- is a fossil trace that is left by an ancient organism such as a track, footprint, boring, or borrow.
- Unconformity
- is a break in the geologic record that is created when rock layers are removed by erosion.
- Cenozoic Era
- is the most recent geologic era that began 65 million years ago. (Age of the Mammals)
- Epoch
- is a subdivision of geologic period.
- Era
- is the largest unit of geologic time.
- Geologic Column
- is an arrangement of rock layers that is based on the ages of the rocks.
- Invertebrate
- is an animal that has no backbone.
- Mesozoic Era
- is a geologic era that lasted 245 million to 65 million years ago; the age of the reptile.
- Amber
- is a hardened tree sap that fossils may be preserved.
- Disconformity
- is a boundary between layers of rock that has not been deposited continuously.
- Mummification
- is a preservation of a dead organism that dries.
- Paleontologist
- is a scientist that studies fossils.
- The principle of uniformitarianism
- is a theory that geologic processes at work in the present were also at work in the past.
- Varve
- is an annual layer of sedimentary deposit that is on a lake bed.