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Fossils
This category is for questions about the bones, fragments, imprints, and other remainders from a different time. The questions and answer you will find here are history set in stone -- our past, immortalized in solid rock. You will also be able to find questions pertaining to the locations of these fossils, how you might identify them, and how they were formed.
3,454 Questions
Which of the three domains has the most ancient fossils?
According to Biologists, the large domain that includes the oldest known fossil cells is called bacteria within the prokaryotic microorganism.
How do scientist know how old fossils are?
they see how deep these rocks are in the earth then they predict ---- Carbon dating is another popular method, by which fossils and other historical artifacts are tested to record levels of a common carbon isotope with a certain half-life.
Why would you tend to find lots of fossils in sedimentary rocks Why not in other rock?
Most sedimentary rock is formed by layered sediment (sand,silt,clays, mud) packing on top on each other over millions of years which, under intense pressure, are compressed into rock. Dead animal corpses that existed in an oxygen deprived environment (swamps,bogs,seafloors) fail to entirely decompose before sediment completely buries them. They in turn are solidified by the same process and their bones go underneath a process where all the organic material is replaced (mineralization). The mineralized structures resemble the bone structure of the animal (a fossil!). This would not occur in metamorphic or igneous rock as the origin of these rock forms are too hot, too compressed, and too deep in the earths crust for mineralized animal remains to exist.
What type of rock is a ripple mark?
A ripple mark is not a kind of rock in and of itself, but a feature found in some sedimentary rocks, usually sandstones.
What is the process called when scientists use radioactive isotopes to calculate a fossils age?
Radioactive elements tend to degrade or give off radiation at a constant rate. That is an essential part of radioactive carbon dating. Uranium, for instance has a has half life of 5,400 years. Each 5,400 years, half of the uranium becomes inert lead. It is considered an accurate form of dating.
What are the 6 steps in the fossilization process?
ash-fall fossil formatin is very unique in its formation. 1. a volcano erupts, and ash is spread through the area. 2. an animal breathes in ash and dies. the animal is covered in ash. 3. soft tissues start to decompose as more ash starts to pile. 4. more ash continues to pile on top of the dead animal, and it turns to a rock. if this isn't very accurate go to www-museum.unl.edu/research/vertpaleo/ashfall.HTML
fyi this website doesnt work
Where are you people getting these ill posed questions? What level? Transitional forms!
At the species level this would be explained as a rapid (geologically rapid) speciation event followed by years of stasis, where little morphological change is taking place.
What type of fossil dating uses half life to determine age?
Radiocarbon dating is a technique that uses the decay of carbon-14.
When were the fossils first found?
It is estimated that the very first fossils were found 3 billions years ago. There is really no way to know if the dates were not recorded.
Intermediate species forms, yes. A the taxa level, no. Still, not all taxa evidence is supportive of punctuation and stasis. Punctuated equilibrium is only one explanation of how evolution occurs in some species, not all species. The little shellies evidence gradualist processes very well.
What type of rock are fossils usually preserved in?
Fossils are preserved only in sediments, that is rocks formed either by the break up and transportation of existing rock by water as mud or silt, more rarely sandstone or even coarser fragments or by the precipitation of minerals, mainly calcium carbonate that forms limestone or a relative. The organisms preserved are usually resistant to erosion and disintegration like seashells and sometimes bone.
When a insect is trapped in amber it is an example of what type of fossil?
Many insects get trapped in amber. Amber is fossilized tree resin.
A widely distributed sedimentary structure consisting of laminated carbonate or silicate rocks, produced over geologic time by the trapping, binding, or precipitating of sediment by groups of microorganisms, primarily cyanobacteria.
How much later did humans begin to appear after earth was formed?
First humanoids (Sahelanthropus tchadensis): 7 000 000 years ago
First modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens): 195 000 years ago
It was a land plant.
How can scientists use fossils to determine environmental change?
fossils are used to determine the history of changes in environment and organisms because to see how they lived long ago on the environment and things like that
How do you find if its a fossil?
If the rock is sedimentary in origin and if it has a repeating organized pattern or resembles a shell or other organism that is alive today it may be a fossil. There are numerous books in stores or libraries with pictures of fossil organisms that you can compare with your finds.
Where could you go to find fossils in southern California?
Brea Tar Pits and Natural History Museum in LA.
What makes fossils formation most likely?
Fossils fuels form when the dead remains of plants and animals compress with high pressure and heat in the course of millions of years.
Which correctly lists three materials that preserve soft tissues in fossils?
Amber, Permafrost, and Tar.
A cast fossil is formed when minerals fill in an impression left by an organism.
