Ch 6 - Environment and Change Over Time

the millions of fossils that scientists have collected

A fossil formed when an organism buried in sediment dissolves, leaving a hollow area.

a fossil copy of an organism in a rock

a fossil of a footprint, trail, burrow, or other trace of an animal rather than of the animal itself.

the categories of time into which Earth's history is usually divided by geologists and paleontologists: eons, eras, periods, epochs

A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals.

the process whereby earth's life changes over time through changes in the genes of populations

A person who studies plants and animals by observing them

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882)

A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Minerals in the water replace the organism's original material and harden into rock

organic matter becomes a thin residue of carbon

Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons

any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger than other events or objects

A technique used to determine the actual age of a fossil