2008-2009
Fossils Quiz
A. Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer for the statement.
1. Which is most likely to become a fossil?
a. a skeleton in a large lake
b. a jellyfish in the ocean
c. an earthworm in a damp forest
d. a skeleton in a riverbed that is drying up
2. How do most fossils form?
a. Living things die and their remains are buried by sediments
b. The hard parts of an organism dry out in the air
c. The soft parts of an organism change to stone
d. Freezing preserves the remains of an organism
3. Why are index fossils useful to geologists?
a. They tell the absolute age of the rock in which they occur
b. They tell the ages of many different rock layers
c. They tell the age of the rock at one location only.
d. They tell the relative age of the rock in which they occur.
4. Radiometric dating allow geologist to determine
a. age of atoms in rock
b. half-life of a fossil organism
c. relative age of rocks
d. absolute age of rocks
5. A gap in the geologic record formed when sedimentary rocks cover an erosion surface is called
a. intrusion
b. unconformity
c. fault
d. extrusion
6. The law of superposition state that, in horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, each layer is
a. younger than the layer above it and older than the layer below it
b. neither older nor younger than the other layers
c. older than the layer above it and younger than the layer below it
d. always older than any vertical layers
7. The time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms in an element to decay is
a. relative age b. potassium-argon date
c. absolute age
d. half-life
8. If the same sequence of rock layers is observed over a large area, ____.
a. they are probably not related
b. a large deposit of rock formed over a large area
c. very different
d. it is just a coincidence
9. What is a fossil?
a. any dead organism
c. the preserved remains of an organism
b. a perfect copy of a rock
d. an unusual type of rock
10. Paleontologists are scientists that study
a. rocks and the forces that shape Earth
b. cultures and civilizations by digging up cities and artifacts
c. fossilized organisms
2008-2009
B. Matching: Match the term to the best definition or description.
11. trace fossil
a. examples include amber, tar, and ice
12. index fossil
b. fossil capturing footprints, trails, or burrows of once living organisms
13. preserved fossil
c. fossilized outline formed from remaining carbon after an organism decays
14. carbon film fossil
d. used to determine a rock’s age
15. petrified fossil
e. made when sediment fills a cavity of a decayed organism and hardens to rock
16. cast fossil
f. minerals are absorbed turning the fossilized object to “stone”
C.True/False: If the statement is true write out the word TRUE, if the statement is false correct the
underlined phrase to make it TRUE!!!
17. To be useful, an index fossil should have lived for a long time.
18. Fossils usually occur in metamorphic rock.
19. Rock layers are younger than the intrusions that cut across them.
20. The law of superposition state that the deeper rocks are the youngest.