Geologic Maps and Fossils Flashcards

Flashcards about geologic maps, fossil types, fossil preservation, and related concepts.

What age is represented by dark blue on the geologic map?

Cretaceous shark and Devonian limestone

What color represents the Vicksburg Group and Chickasawhay Limestone on the map?

Red

If you wanted to go fossil hunting for Cretaceous shark teeth in Mississippi, where would you look?

Southern Mississippi

Would you look for dinosaur bones in the gray and black areas of the map? Why or why not?

No, because those rocks are older than the Triassic and predate the age of dinosaurs.

What are trace fossils?

Indirect evidence of an organism that shows behaviors and how it interacted with its environment.

What is unaltered preservation?

Original material is preserved.

What is permineralization?

Minerals precipitate into the open spaces of hard parts.

What does solitary refer to in fossil context?

Individual organism.

What are index fossils?

Fossils helpful for dating and correlating rock ages based on certain criteria.

What are coprolites?

Fossilized animal feces; may give evidence of diet, animal size, and habitat.

What does colonial mean in the context of fossils?

Animals that live in association with others rather than individually.

What is desiccation in fossil preservation?

Dehydration of tissues (mummification).

What is replacement in fossil preservation?

Original material altered by chemical processes and replaced by other materials.

What is carbonization?

Soft tissue preserved as thin films of carbon on rock.

What are molds and casts?

Imprints or voids left after parts are dissolved and/or removed.

Which of the following is NOT a fossil?

Raindrop impressions

Which of the following is the youngest era?

Cenozoic

Which is true of an index fossil?

Distinctive or easily recognizable

What can dinosaur tracks tell us?

Size and gait of the dinosaur

For most of Mississippi’s Phanerozoic history, it was what type of environment?

Marine

The majority of fossils are found in which rock type?

Sedimentary

In order for a fossil to be preserved, it needs to undergo _ burial.

Rapid

Assemblages of common trace fossils that identify past environments are known as _.

Ichnofacies

What do geologic maps represent?

All of the above

If a plane of symmetry divides an organism exactly in half, what is the type of symmetry?

Bilateral symmetry

What is the study of fossils called?

Paleontology

Which of these are NOT a bias of the fossil record?

Favors slow burial

How do paleontologists use fossils?

All of the above

What is the naming system of trace fossils called?

Ichnotaxonomy

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals or plants that lived in the geologic past.

Permineralized

Which of the following is an example of a trace fossil?

All of the above

Which of the following is more likely to be preserved?

Brachiopod

What is the most common fossil found in Mississippi?

Crinoids

Trace fossils are given names based on _?

The morphology of the trace

This track was likely made by which dinosaur?

Theropod

What is the state fossil of Mississippi?

Basilosaurus

List all seven categories of the Linnaean Classification starting with the broadest category.

1. Kingdom 2. Phylum 3. Class 4. Order 5. Family 6. Genus 7. Species