Biostratigraphy

Question 1

What is a zone?

Answer 1

A fundamental division recognised by biostratigraphers, using fossils to date and correlate. On regional scales

Question 2

What is a biozone?

Answer 2

Rocks that are characterised by one or more specified types of index fossils. On global scales.

Question 3

What hierarchy do zones fit into?

Answer 3

Zones<Stages<Series

Question 4

Give five characteristics of good zonal fossils

Answer 4

Short time range with rapid evolution.
Distinct morphology.
Wide distribution.
Facies independent.
Highly abundant.

Question 5

What four assumptions must be true for biostratigraphy to be viable?

Answer 5

Each species has its own unique geological range and one species lives for a finite time, has not evolved twice, and its extinction in permanent. Rocks that contain a species were deposited at the time that the species existed. The principle of faunal succession is correct.

Question 6

What is a Lazarus taxon?

Answer 6

A taxon that disappears from the fossil record close to an extinction horizon but then reappears laters. Such as the coelacanth fish

Question 7

What would have to be disproved in order to disprove the principle of faunal succession?

Answer 7

Evolution

Question 8

What can affect the requirement for rocks to be deposited at the same time as the species fossilised inside them lived?

Answer 8

Sediment reworking