AY Honors/Fossils/Answer Key

2. Have a brief definition of each of the following in your notebook:

a. Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid matter that constitutes the Earth.

b. Fossils

Fossils are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms.

c. Catastrophism

Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope.

d. Paleontology

Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils.

e. Graptolite

A Graptolite is a fossil colonial animal known chiefly from the Upper Cambrian through the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) periods.

f. Trilobite

Trilobites are extinct arthropods that form the class Trilobita. They appeared in the 2nd Epoch (Series 2) of the Cambrian period and flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before beginning a drawn-out decline to extinction when, during the Late Devonian extinction, all trilobite orders, with the sole exception of Proetida, died out.

g. Dinosaur

A dinosaur is any of various extinct reptiles.

h. Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of an extinct genus of proboscidean (elephants and their extinct relatives), often with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair.

i. Mastodon

Mastodons are members of the extinct genus Mammut of the order Proboscidea and form the family Mammutidae; they resembled, but were distinct from, the woolly mammoth which belongs to the family Elephantidae. Mastodons were browsers and mammoths were grazers.

j. Crinoid

k. Lingula

l. Calamite

m. Foraminifera

n. Radiolaria

o. Paleozoic

p. Mesozoic

q. Cenozoic

r. Pleistocene

s. Paleobotany

t. Pelecypod

u. Brachiopod