Fossil Quiz 3: Chapter 4

Question 1

Define arthropod

Answer 1

all creatures with jointed legs and a tough outside skeleton (exoskeleton) made of chitin: insects, crabs and shrimp, spiders, centipeds, and millipeds

Question 2

Define cephalopods

Answer 2

means “head-footed,” since their tentacles com out of their heads; the most complex of all the invertebrates are the squid and octopus in the mollusk class

Question 3

Define diatoms

Answer 3

microscopic, one-celled plants whose walls are decorated with glass (SiO2) in exquisite patterns; mined and sold as diatomaceous earth, which is used in filtering and abrasion

Question 4

Define echinoderms

Answer 4

meaning “spiny-skinned,” members of the starfish/star group usually have bony plates and spines embedded

Question 5

Define gastropods

Answer 5

means “stomach-footed,” since they walk on their stomachs; mollusk class which snils belong

Question 6

Define malacology

Answer 6

a branch of science devoted to the study of mollusk shells

Question 7

Define nautiloids

Answer 7

fossils with tapered, chambered shells; some are coiled like modern nautilus, others are curved like bananas, and still others are straight, like ice cream cones

Question 8

Define palynology

Answer 8

the branch of paleontology that studies microscopic spores and pollen of plants

Question 9

What are the first animals fossilized in abundance? How does the complexity of these first fossils disprove evolution?

Answer 9

Trilobites; Evolution assumes that the earliest fossils, which are found in the lowest layers, would be the most primitive and least complex since they hadn’t yet evolved into more complex beings. However, since these fossils reveal complex creatures of design, they disprove the idea that non-complex beings changed into complex beings.

Question 10

Over 95% of all fossils found are ___.

Answer 10

seashells

Question 11

How do fossil clams testify to a rapid burial?

Answer 11

Many fossil clams are found with both sides of the shell still together. That means the clam must have been buried so deeply and so fast that it couldn’t even open its shell to burrow out.

Question 12

What is perhaps the best mollusk evidence of creation and Flood geology?

Answer 12

Shell squids

Question 13

What is the largest coral reef in the world?

Answer 13

Great Barrier Reef in Australia

Question 14

Which layer of the geologic column is referred by evolutionists as the Age of Crinoids and Flood geologists as the Zone of Crinoids?

Answer 14

Mississippi River

Question 15

How do the crinoid fossils found in central United States testify to the Flood?

Answer 15

They show that those areas were at one time completely covered by water.

Question 16

Insect fossils are rare since their hard outer layer decomposes easily after death. However, insect fossils with delicate details have been found. How is this possible?

Answer 16

It is possible that the volcanic activity that accompanied the Flood released toxins into the water that prevented the decomposition of the insects. Silt and clay buried the insects and settled quickly in briefly quiet water, solidifying fast enough to prevent later currents from tearing apart the fragile specimens. Insects can also be preserved in detail in hardened pine sap (amber).

Question 17

How did the fossils of sea creatures end up on the top of mountains?

Answer 17

The turbulent Flood waters covered the entire earth, including the high hills (Genesis 7:19). Then the mountains rose, and the valleys sank down (Psalm 104:8). At the end of the Flood, God raised up the layers that were below the sea, lifting sea-creature fossils even to the tops of earth’s highest mountains.

Question 18

Define protozoan

Answer 18

one-celled shelled animals

Question 19

Define spicules

Answer 19

sponges that have hard skeletal structures of crystal-like spines