Name:_____________________________________________
CORE: ______________________
Geological Times Study Guide
*NOTE: This is merely a study guide. Students are responsible for all material in notes or material
from previous assignments. Questions on this study guide may or may not show up on the test. The
test may include questions that were not on this study guide. Students NEED to study their “Fossil
Notes” and their “Earths History: Geological Time, Rocks, Fossils Guided notes.”
Know the definitions of the following words:
-fossils
-mold
-cast
-petrified Fossils
-carbon film
-trace fossils
-paleontologists
-fossil record
-evolution
- extinction
-natural selection
Multiple choice:
1. The term prokaryote refers to ______________.
A. dinosaurs
B. prehistoric humans
C. the first organisms
D. the first insects
-mass extinction
-geologic time scale
-eon, era, period, epoch
-absolute age
-radioactive dating
-relative age
-Law of Superposition
- unconformity
-index fossil
-Prokaryote
Multiple Choice Continued
2.
Scientists have found large groups of fossils of marine organisms on mountaintops. What does
this tell scientists about the past?
A. That these rocks were once below the surface of an ocean.
B. That these organisms left the ocean and climbed to the top of an inland mountain to
die.
C. That these rocks were always above the surface of an ocean.
D. That these rocks must have been moved there by some one else.
3.
Scientists can estimate the ages of rock if they contain certain __________.
A. sediments
B. carbons
C. minerals
D. Index fossils
4. According to the diagram, which of the following statements is true?
A. Fossil A is oldest
B. Fossil B is youngest.
C. Fossil C is younger than Fossil D.
D. Fossil C and D are the same age.
5. Fossils provide evidence of __________________.
A. how life has remained stable over time
B. how the climate has remained stable over time
C. how the environment has changed but life has remained stable over time
D. how life and environmental conditions have changed over time
6. What eventually happens to a species when the
environment changes and the organisms do not
adapt?
A. classification
B. development
C. extinction
D. regulation
7. Scientists have discovered fossils of the same
organisms in many different parts of the world.
These fossils provide evidence that
A.the continents were once joined together
B. most life-forms that existed in the past are still present today
C. most of Earth’s surface was once covered by molten rock
D. rocks have been transformed from one type to another
8. Radioactive dating tells us:
A. Relative age of an object
B. Absolute age of an object
C. Nothing about the age of an object
D. Don’t choose this answer 
True or False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Earth is about 4.6 million years old.
A scientific theory is a well tested concept that explains a wide range of observations
Most fossils are found in igneous rock.
Eras are blocks of time when a unique rock series was laid.
We are currently living in the Cenozoic era.
Matching:
_________1. unconformity
A. the gradual change in living things over long
periods of time
_________2. index fossil
B. in undisturbed sedimentary rock layers, older
rock layers lie beneath younger rock layers
_________3. Law of Superposition
C. a place where an old, eroded rock surface is
in contact with a newer rock layer
_________4. trace fossil
D. a type of fossil that provides evidence of
activities of ancient organisms
_________5. relative age
E. fossil of widely distributed organisms that
lived during only one short period.
__________6. evolution
F. a process by which characteristics that are
suited to a certain environment have a
better chance of survival than organisms
that do not have those characteristics
__________7. natural selection
G. describes the age of an object or event in
comparison to another object or event.