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| The preserved remains or traces of living things. |
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| A scientist who studies fossils to learn about organisms that lived long ago |
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| A type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together. |
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| A fossil in which minerals replace all or part of an organism. |
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| A fossil formed when an organism buried in sediment dissolves, leaving a hollow area. |
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| A fossil that is a copy of an organism's shape, formed when minerals seep into a mold. |
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| A type of fossil consisting of an extremely thin coating of carbon on rock. |
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| A type of fossil that provides evidence of the activities of ancient organisms |
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| A well-tested concept that explains a wide range of observations. |
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| The process by which all the different kinds of living things have changed over time. |
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| Said of a volcano that is unlikely to erupt again; describes a type of organism that no longer exists anywhere on Earth. |
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| The age of a rock compared to the ages of rock layers. |
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| The age of a rock given as the number of years since the rock formed. |
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| The geologic principle that states that in horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, each layer is older than the layer above it and younger than the layer below it. |
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| An igneous rock layer formed when lava flows onto Earth's surface and hardens |
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| An igneous rock layer formed when magma hardens beneath Earth's surface |
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| A break or crack in Earth's lithosphere along which the rocks move. |
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| A place where an old, eroded rock surface is in contact with a newer rock layer. |
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| Fossils of widely distributed organisms that lived during only one short period. |
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| The smallest unit of an element that retains the properties of that element. |
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| A substance composed of a single kind of atom. |
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| The breakdown of a radioactive element, releasing particles and energy. |
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| The time it takes for half of the atoms of a radioactive element to decay. |
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| A record of the geologic events and life forms in Earth's history. |
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| One of the three long units of geologic time between the Precambrian and the present. |
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| An animal without a backbone. |
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| One of the units of geologic time into which geologists divide eras. |
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| Subdivisions of the periods of the geologic time scale. |
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| An animal with a backbone |
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| A vertebrate that lives part of its life on land and part of its life in water |
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| A vertebrate with scaly skin that lays eggs with tough, leathery shells. |
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| When many types of living things become extinct at the same time. |
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| A warm-blooded vertebrate that feeds its young milk. |
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