Human Bio Unit 2- Fossils

Question 0

Where are fossils formed?

Answer 0

Places with a minimal amount of oxygen

Peat bog

Permafrost

Question 1

What can be fossilised?

Answer 1

Hard parts of an organism

Imprints

Things the organism has created like arrow heads

Question 2

What do fossils show?

Answer 2

Early life on earth

Question 3

What is the problems with fossils?

Answer 3

There will be creatures that weren’t fossilised

Rare to get complete fossils

Question 4

Why would some organisms not get fossilised?

Answer 4

Soft bodies

No skeletons

Question 5

Why is it rare to get a complete fossil?

Answer 5

Scavengers take parts away

Pressure from sedimentation causes breaking or distortion

Washed away

Question 6

Ways of dating fossils

Answer 6

Carbon dating

Potassium-argon dating

Position in sedimentary rocks - stratiography

Question 7

Position in sedimentary rocks in dating fossils

Answer 7

The further down the older they are

Question 8

Carbon dating in fossil dating

Answer 8

All organisms contain carbon14

Following death it changes by beta decay

Can look at the percentage of carbon14 left to determine its age

Question 9

Half-life of carbon14

Answer 9

5730 years

Question 10

Potassium-argon dating in fossil dating

Answer 10

Potassium40 is present in organisms

Decays to argon40

Look at the percentage of potassium to argon to determine age

Question 11

Half-life of potassium40

Answer 11

1.3X10(power-9) years