Science Vocab

2. a process that results in changes in the genetic material of a population over time.
4. a collection of fossils documenting the history of life on Earth.
9. listing, describing, or discussing when events happened as they relate to time.
11. a measure of the range and distribution of certain features within a given population.
13. The breaking down or rotting of organic matter through the action of bacteria, fungi, or other organisms.
14. the study of the history of life on Earth as based on fossils.
15. a major principle of stratigraphy stating that within a sequence of layers of sedimentary rock, the oldest layer is at the base and that the layers are progressively younger with ascending order in the sequence.
16. the decay of organic matter by the action of microorganisms resulting in the production of a foul smell.
17. a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60k years.

1. Some form when particles of rocks and minerals settle out of water or air.
3. the preserved remains of plants and animals whose bodies were buried in sediments, such as sand and mud, under ancient seas, lakes and rivers.
5. a method that utilizes radioactive elements to calculate the age of geologic materials
6. The study of the structure of a plant or animal.
7. a branching tree diagram that shows ancestral relationships among organisms.
8. an ancestral group of organisms that is shared by multiple lineages.
10. occurs when there are no more individuals of that species alive anywhere in the world/the species has died out.
12. any net directional change or any cumulative change in the characteristics of organisms or populations over many generations.