Paleontology Questions

What percentage of animals will become fossils?

The geologic time scale divides Earth's history into intervals based on what?

Which part of organism will more likely fossilize?

T/F There was no multicellular life prior to the cambrian explosion

Earth's atmosphere changed dramatically w/the introduction of free oxygen approximately _____ years ago. A second oxygenation event began _____ years ago and brought the atmospheric concentration to its approximate current level of 20%

Name the organism and process responsible for oxygenating Earth's atmosphere

If a creature has hard parts and is rapidly buried after death, it is more likely to become a(n) _____

The Mesozoic Era is known as the age of the _____, after the best-known creatures of this age

True or false: Cross-cutting relations can be used to determine that the Colorado River cut through the Grand Canyon after the sedimentary rocks formed

The Cenozoic Era is called the age of _____ because of their abundance and diversity during this time

What defines the boundaries between each of the three eras in the geologic timescale?

The age of Earth is estimated ti be 4.55 billion years. This is determined by dating _____

Dikes, sills, veins, and fractures are features that can be used in the principle of _____ to determine the relative age of geologic events

Dating rocks using radioactive isotopes that decay over time is called _____ dating

Trilobites first appeared on Earth during the _____ Period, when a so called _____ of life (rapid evolutionary change) introduced many new species in a short time frame

Give an example of a form of life in this time period: Late Paleozoic

Rapid burial of a dead organism helps to preserve it from being destroyed through _____

Isotopic dating of basement rocks in _____ suggest Earth has a long history because the oldest rocks, from the area of the Canadian Shield, are more than 3 billion years old

Old sedimentary rocks that are _____ in color indicate the presence of oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere and oceans

The periods of the geologic timescale are named after regions in Europe. For example, _____ is derived from Cambria, and _____ is derived from the Jura Mountains