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Paleontology
Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life and an organism's interaction with other organisms and the environment. It is a science that attempts to explain causes, rather than to conduct experiments to observe effects, and is often based on fossil evidence. Questions here have to do with anything that pertains to paleontology.
3,044 Questions
When did modern humans appear on earth according to fossil records?
According to the fossil records, the modern humans did appear on earth more than 130,000 years ago.
The Hadean Era lasted for approximately 500 million years, from about 4.6 to 4.0 billion years ago. It was a period of intense heat and frequent asteroid impacts on the early Earth, during which the planet was forming and undergoing significant geological processes.
What is the strongest of the 4 elements?
Air is stronger than water. Water is stronger than fire.
The jinn are composed of the two elements of fire and air.
Man is composed of the two elements of water and earthkneaded together which produced the name mud.
In an excellent hadith from the Messenger of Allah said, "The angels said, 'O Lord (in a long hadith)! Have You created anything stronger than fire?' He replied, 'Yes, water.'" So He made water stronger than fire. If the element of air in the structure of the jinn had not been ignited by fire, the jinn would have been stronger than the children of Adam, for air is stronger than water. In this hadith, the angels asked, "O Lord, have You created anything stronger than air?" He replied, "Yes, the children of Adam." Allah made the human organism stronger than air. Water is stronger than fire, and it is the main element in man as fire is the main element in the jinn. This why Allah said about shaytan/satan, "Surely the guile of shaytan is ever feeble."(4:76)
The reason for that is that the human organism accords deliberateness in matters, perseverance, meditation and reflection due to the predominance of the elements of earth and water in the human temperament. Thus the human being has ample intellect because earth holds him back and restrains him while water makes him supple and easy. The jinn are not like that. The jinn's intellect does not possess that which will enable him to hold to something as the human being does. This is why we say, "So-and-so is 'light' of intellect and dim-witted" when he is frivolous and foolish! This is the attribute of the jinn, and by it the jinn strays from the path of guidance due to the frivolous nature of his intellect and his lack of firmness in his thought. So he said, "I am better than him," (7:12) and combined ignorance and bad manners because of his frivolous nature.
Well it is a tool/rock made from volcanic glass. The Aztec used it a lot to build statues and shelter.
Obsidian is well suited to 'flaking" or "napping" which is the art of creating a sharp edge.
Obsidian will flake down to a molecular edge, being a type of naturally occurring glass it is high on the hardness scale.
Even today, some surgical scalpel tips are fabricated from obsidian.
How you know that dinosaurs exists on earth?
Scientists know that dinosaurs existed back then because all of the fossils that they found and tested dated back between 64 and 65 millon years ago. They also have a theory that a massive asteroid hit the earth and that is what they think killed all of the dinosaurs but nobody knows for definite.
What conditions allowed so many different kinds of mammals to evolve during the Cenozoic era?
Earth's climate warned during the tertiary period which allowed marine life to evolve and grasses evolved as well which meant grass eating mammals had a food source. Then the earths climate cooled facing a series of ice ages. Then 20000 years ago earths climate warmed again so ocean animals and land animals thrived.
What 3 requirements do index fossils have?
To be an index fossil, it must be widespread, commonly found (sometimes in groups) and have a short life span for which it lived. If a fossil meets all three of these requirements, it is considered an index fossil.
What type of rock would fossils most likely likely be found in?
Fossils are most likely to be found in sedimentary rocks. This is because these rocks form from layers of sand, dirt, and debris that accumulate over time and can preserve the remains of plants and animals. Sedimentary rocks often have distinct layers that can hold fossils within them.
What forms when a fossil mold is filled?
When a fossil mold is filled, it forms a fossil cast. The cast is a replica of the original organism or object that created the mold, made of the same material as the original organism or object. Fossil casts are valuable in paleontology for studying the morphology of ancient organisms.
How did transylvania get its name?
Transylvania got its name from the Latin phrase "ultra silvam", which means "beyond the forest". This name was given because the region is located beyond the dense forests of the Carpathian Mountains.
Why did Paleo-Indians people build shelters?
I know this sounds flippant, but the Paleo Indians built shelters to get out of the weather. Really. The "Paleoindians" lived 12,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, and it was these people who came across the Bering Strait from Asia into the Americas. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers, and their open-air camps had what we would call crude lean-tos for days that they needed shelter from the rain, wind or snow.
Original remains are the actual body parts of an organism, such as bones or teeth, while other fossils are impressions or molds of the organism. Original remains can provide information about soft tissues, behavior, and physiology that other fossils cannot. However, original remains are rare and may be subject to decay or damage, limiting their availability for study. Additionally, original remains may not always be well-preserved or complete, which can limit the amount of information that can be obtained from them.
A root is the part of a plant that typically grows underground, anchoring the plant and absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. Roots can come in different shapes and sizes depending on the plant species and serve as a storage location for energy reserves.
What was the antebellum era what happened during that era?
The antebellum era was the period in the United States before the Civil War, spanning from the late 18th century to the outbreak of the war in 1861. During this time, there were significant social, economic, and political developments, including debates over slavery, westward expansion, and states' rights. The era was marked by increasing sectional tensions between the North and the South, ultimately leading to the secession of Southern states and the eruption of the Civil War.
Why is it important for paleontologists be experts in both anatomy and geology?
Paleontologists need to have a working knowledge of geology to recognise not only which rock is best to search for fossils but also to recognise fossils from the surrounding rock.
They need to have a working knowledge of anatomy (biology) to recognise what part of the animal or plant they are looking at.
Four square miles of rock layers in California contain only this kind of fish fossil?
The fish fossils found in the four square miles of rock layers in California are likely marine fish fossils, indicating that the area was once covered by a sea or ocean where these fish lived and were buried over time. These fossils can provide valuable insights into the ancient marine ecosystems and the environmental conditions that existed in California millions of years ago.
What era covers the greatest proportion of geological time?
The Paleoproterzoic Era (2,500 - 1,600 ma) was the longest era in geological time. It lasted 900 million years. This represents 19.8% of geological time.
List from longest to shortest.
Paleoproterzoic (2,500 - 1,600 ma) - 900 million years
Mesoproterzoic (1,600 - 1,000 ma) - 600 million years
Neoproterzoic (1,000 - 542 ma) - 458 million years
Paleoarchean (3,600 - 3,200 ma) - 400 million years
Meseoarchean (3,200 - 2,800 ma) - 400 million years
Neoarcheasn (2,800 - 2,500 ma) - 300 million years
Paleozoic (542 - 251 ma) - 291 million years
Eoarchean (3,800 - 3,600 ma) - 200 million years
Mesozoic (251 - 65.5 ma) 185 million years
Cenozoic (65.5 ma - Now) 65.5 million years
There are two types of age determinations. Geologists in the late 18th and early 19th century studied rock layers and the fossils in them to determine relative age. William Smith was one of the most important scientists from this time who helped to develop knowledge of the succession of different fossils by studying their distribution through the sequence of sedimentary rocks in southern England. It wasn't until well into the 20th century that enough information had accumulated about the rate of radioactive decay that the age of rocks and fossils in number of years could be determined through radiometric age dating.
Principle of superposition: Younger sedimentary rocks are deposited on top of older sedimentary rocks.
Principle of cross-cutting relations: Any geologic feature is younger than anything else that it cuts across.
The dating of fossils was originally done by their placement in a geologic column of rock strata. Because of the Law of Superposition, the deeper the stratum, the older it is (in an undisturbed body of rock or sediment). Fossils which were evident in a particular stratum, but missing from other strata were noted as "index" fossils. The presence of these fossils indicated the age of the stratum relative to other layers. The layers of stratum were placed in a geologic column, subdivided, and assigned names based on the presence of different types of fossil organisms.This is the basis of "relative dating" of rock layers and fossils, a dating technique that was in effect until the advent of radiometric techniques in the twentieth century.
It is not possible to determine the one "first" ethnicity as there is no definitive measure of when specific ethnicities began. The concept of ethnicity has evolved over time and is influenced by various factors such as culture, history, and societal interactions.
Which trilobite characteristic did not change through time?
The exoskeleton composition did not change through time in trilobites. Trilobites maintained a calcite exoskeleton throughout their existence in the fossil record.
The presence of fins on a fossil suggests that the organism likely lived in water at some point in its life. This could indicate that the area where the dig took place was once covered by water or that the organism had adapted to an aquatic environment.
How reliable is fossil evidence?
The answer depends on how the word 'reliable' is interpreted in the question:
(1) Is the fossil evidence 'reliable' in interpreting the history of life on Earth?
Fossil evidence IS our understanding of the history of life. Fossils on which this understanding is based include skeletons, roots, leaves, bark, chemical signatures, imprints, carbon residues, burrowing and trail marks, petrified wood, footprints, eggs, gastric stones, fecal matter, and many others, found preserved mainly in stone, but sometimes in ice. There are many ways that fossils can be formed. They include freezing, carbonization, petrification, mineral replacement, unaltered preservation,
recrystallization, andauthigenicpreservation.
The fossil record of life recorded in rock is full of periods of intense diversification, appearances of new lifeforms, and extinction events that affected large percentages of the biota on a worldwide scale.
(2) Are the modern methods used to determine the age of the fossil 'reliable'?Radiometric dating of rock involves the measurement of the amount of decay in radioactive elements which are present in the rock. Radioactive elements decay at unique rates, depending on the isotope. This rate of decay is known as half-lives; it is the time necessary for ½ of the atoms to decay in a particular element. The decay follows a geometric scale, in that in the first half-life of an element, ½ of the atoms decay, yet in the second half-life, ½ of those remaining decay and so forth. By measuring this decay, and knowing the half life of an element, scientists can date a sample. Radiometric dating is particularly useful in dating igneous and metamorphic rock, but not so much for sedimentary rocks and fossils.
Because of geologic events such as plate tectonics and volcanism, suitable material for radiometric dating, such as volcanic tuff, solidified lava, and igneous intrusions have been found as layers on, in, and cut through layers of sedimentary rock and fossils. Intrusions are always younger than the rock body they penetrate, meaning that the sedimentary rock in which intrusions are found will be older than a radiometrically dated sample of the intrusion. Lava flows and volcanic ash which form layers in rock will be younger than the rock below and older than the rock above. The solidified intrusions and lava flows can be dated with radiometric techniques.
The radiometric dating of suitable rocks (i.e. igneous or metamorphic) in proximity to their sedimentary counterparts, therefore allows the sedimentary rock to be dated as well. Radiometric dating techniques are constantly being refined and improved with a resulting increase in accuracy and date range.
Scientific inquiry and the scientific method have contributed greatly to our lives in the fields of electronics, physics, engineering, chemistry, manufacturing, and medicine. This same scientific method is being used in genetics and Earth sciences to broaden our knowledge and understanding of Earth's history, including the origin and evolution of life.
What are preserved remains of a living thing called?
Preserved remains of a living thing are called fossils. Fossils can be bones, shells, imprints, or traces of ancient organisms that have been preserved in rocks. They provide valuable information about past life forms and environments.
As weathering eats away pockets of limestone underground what are likely to form?
As weathering erodes limestone underground, it can form caves, sinkholes, and underground rivers. Over time, the chemical reactions between water and limestone can result in the dissolution and reshaping of the rock into unique structures and landscapes.
