Unit 1 Study Guide – Fossils, Minerals, Rocks, and Dating
Name:
Dinosaurs:
1. List 4+ popular/common dinosaurs.
2. What do we call the general name for long necked big herbivores?
3. What do we call the general name for two legged, likely feathered, carnivorous dinosaurs?
4. What is the difference between dinosaurs and reptiles in terms of hips? Draw me pictures.
5. How long ago did dinosaurs become extinct?
6. What does mya stand for?
Fossils:
1. In one brief statement, explain how a fossil forms (ignore the whole part about it being found).
2. Why does water interacting with a bone lead to fossils over millions of years?
3. List, and briefly explain, the 3 methods that fossils can be formed when interacting with water. (You could
also think of this as the “3 Types of Fossils”).
a. 1)
b. 2)
c. 3)
4. Give 2 examples of direct evidence.
5. Give 2 examples of indirect evidence.
6. What is the difference between an originally preserved and altered fossil?
7. Which of the above two are dinosaur bones? Why do you say that?
8. List 2 reasons that we don’t find more dinosaur bones.
Minerals:
1. List the 5 requirements that must be met to be a mineral and briefly explain each one.
2. What is a crystal?
3. What are 4 different physical/chemical properties we used to identify/differentiate different minerals in class?
4. Explain what the difference in atoms is between two objects of different density. Why is one “more dense”
than the other?
5. Explain cleavage and fracture and how they are different.
Chemistry:
1. What is the difference between an element and a compound?
2. Which subatomic particle determines the order of the periodic table?
3. Which subatomic particle is responsible for bonds?
4. What are valence electrons?
5. Why do atoms form bonds with other atoms?
6. In the molecule to the right:
a. What is the chemical formula of this molecule, knowing that the order will be
C__H__ O__? (Remember, the numbers need to be tiny and at the bottom)
b. What do the single lines between atoms indicate?
c. What do the double lines between atoms indicate?
7. In the Caffeine Molecule to the right…
a. How many TOTAL carbons are there (ps: CH3 counts as 1
carbon too…)
b. Fill in the number of each atom: C___ H___ N___ O____
c. Knowing that, what is the formula of this molecule?
(Remember, the numbers need to be tiny and at the bottom)
d. What do the single lines between atoms indicate?
e. What do the double lines between atoms indicate?
8. What is a polyatomic atom?
Rocks:
1. Fill in the following table:
3 Major types of Rock
How it forms
What geologic feature is present
when the rock forms
2. List the 3 major types of rock and give 3+ common examples of each rock.
a. 1)
b. 2)
c. 3)
3. What type of rock deals within foliated and non-foliated? What is the difference between those two types of
rocks?
4. What type of rock deals with intrusive or extrusive? What are 2+ differences between those two types of
rocks?
5. How are the 3 types of sedimentary rock different?
6. What specific rock is the most common rock found in the Earth’s Continental Crust? Is it igneous,
metamorphic, or sedimentary?
7. What specific rock is the most common rock found in the Earth’s Oceanic Crust? Is it igneous, metamorphic,
or sedimentary?
Dating:
1. Briefly explain each of the following in 3-4 words:
a. Principle of original horizontality:
b. Principle of superposition:
c. Principle of crosscutting relations:
2. What is an index fossil, and why are they important?
3. List the 4 things that are required for a fossil to be an “index fossil”?
4. Right now, modern humans have existed for 200,000 years (0.2 million years). If humans stopped existing
tomorrow (which would not be cool), would we make a good index fossils if future beings found our fossils
millions of years from now? Explain why.
5. In the image below and to the right, list the layers from oldest to youngest.
Absolute Dating:
1. What is an isotope?
2. What 2 subatomic particles are found in the nucleus?
3. Which subatomic particle determines which element you have?
4. How are the words parent, daughter, stable, unstable, decay, and radiometric dating related?
5. What does the phrase “half life” mean?
6. What is the half life of Carbon-14, and what is the half life of Uranium-235? Which one is better suited to
dating the age of dinosaurs?
7. How can you tell how far back in time you can date with a certain half life?
8. How many grams of Carbon-14 will be left from a 10g sample after 11,460 years if its half-life is 5,730 years?
Ttotal =
T½ =
Mstart =
Mend =
# ½ lives =
9. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 710 million years. How much of a 50 gram sample of Uranium-235 remains
after 88.75million years?
Ttotal =
T½ =
Mstart =
FIX THIS ONE
Mend =
# ½ lives =