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What can you infer about other fossils in the same rock layer as trilobites?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
It can be assumed that the organisms that created the fossils were a part of the same depositional environment and process, and roughly from the same time span of the rock that comprises the layer.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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What organism alive today is related to the trilobite?
Trilobites are thought to have been a marine organism because the fossils are found in rocks that contain other salt-water animals. Trilobites are thought to be one of the earliest groups of arthropods.
Why are index Fossil helpful for performing relative dating?
Because they give us the best estimate of how old all the other fossils are in that sedimentary layer.
Why are the fossils at the bottom older than the ones at the top of the soil?
I don't now you
How does a index fossil tell you how old a nearby fossil is?
Rock is divided into layers (strata). Each stratum (layer) is different from the other, containing differences between them, and this is essential to determine what era does each belong to. For example, one strata could be rich in sea life fossils like mollusks and arthropods, thus one could roughly estimate the layer to belong to the Middle Cambrian period. A stratum rich in leaf and plant fossils, on the other hand, would suggest it to belong to the Devonian period. There's a science that studies strata, and that's stratigraphy. I am obviously explaining this in a very simple way, as there are many other factors to consider, but this is the essential.
How are fossils used in determining the age of the Earth?
Index
Why can trilobites be used as index fossils?
Trilobites: The Index Fossil There are many thousands of known species of trilobite fossils found worldwide. Trilobites are considered to be good index fossils because they evolved so rapidly, and this allows geologists the ability to date the rocks in which the trilobites are found. The discovery of trilobites is second only to the discovery of dinosaurs, and new species of trilobites are still being discovered today.
What do geologist use index fossils for?
to date a rock layer and other fossils within that layer
Are index fossils short lived?
studyisland awnser: to date a rock layer and other fossils within that layer
What do scientists use index fossils for?
Geologists use index fossils to define and identify geologic periods.
How do Paleontologists use the remains of the Trilobites?
Paleontologists use the fossils of different aged trilobites to identify the age of rock formations and fossils in other locations. Similar trilobites found in British Columbia as found in Asia would indicate the rock was nearly the same age from both sites. May also mean that the two locations were once close together, but moved away due to plate tectonics.
What is the simplest dating method used by paleontologists?
Relative Dating, its where the paleontologists date the fossils according to the layer of soil that the fossil was found compared to other fossils that were carbon dated that were in the same soil layer.
What organism alive today is related to the trilobite?
Trilobites are thought to have been a marine organism because the fossils are found in rocks that contain other salt-water animals. Trilobites are thought to be one of the earliest groups of arthropods.
Where are trilobites found?
Trilobites lived mainly in shallow seas near to the continents, although the continents we see today are not the same as they were when trilobites lived. Parts of the shallow seas in which they lived are now above sea level which is why we now find their fossils on dry land. Some areas now have trilobite fossils next to different rocks which contain totally different fossil trilobites showing that, at one time, there would have been an ocean separating them. Areas where you would find the fossils include USA, Canada, Norway, UK, Europe, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Russia and many other countries.
What does the name trilobites suggest about the body of this organism?
The word TRILOBITE means three lobes which is exactly what it looks like. Three lobes make up its body which makes it different to other fossils.
How do you know what period the dinosaurs lived in?
Cosmic rays are always raining down on the earth. They constantly make some elements radioactive. Two of those elements are carbon and potassium. You need both of those to live. (There are a few others.) When you or any other animal dies, you stop taking in any radioactive elements. They decay at a predictable rate. By measuring the amount of those elements in something, it is possible to tell when the carbon, etc. entered that animal's body. Second. Fossils are found in sedimentary rock. Each layer of sedimentary rock is placed on top of an earlier layer. Later layers are placed on top of that layer. It is possible to compare other fossils within layers with the dates such fossils appeared in other parts of the world. Trilobites appeared at a certain point and then vanished. That establishes a date for a layer of rock. When a layer of one type of pollen appears, that establishes a date. Thus, with all the cross checking, when scientists found one world wide layer of iridium with dinosaurs before it and no dinosaurs after it, they established the period when they lived.
What does relative dating mean in biology?
Scientists can compare the ages of the fossils in one layer of the earth and then compare thoes to fossils in another layer of the earth. The one that is deeper is most likely to be older:)
What do scientists use to date exact age of fossils?
For relatively recent fossils, dating by carbon 14 is the most accurate method. For older fossils it is necessary to analyse the geological layer in which they are found; fossils located in an undisturbed geological layer of a certain age, are the same age as the layer in which they are found, necessarily.
