Fossils Vocab

5. the process of systematically removing earth in order to find or isolate buried items
6. A system of chronological events in Earth's history
9. The preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past
11. a theory describing the gradual movement of continents of Earth
12. The study of fossils from earlier geologic time periods

1. a theory that the lithosphere is broken into segments, or plates, that float on the asthenosphere, and that interactions among these plates are associated with seismic activity
2. A large landmass that is believed (based on evidence) to have broken apart to form continents
3. a data set providing information on the total number of fossils that have been collected over time
4. A supercontinent containing all of Earth's land that existed about 225 million years ago
7. A basic law of geology that states undisturbed rock strata are deposited chronologically. The youngest layer is on top and each layer beneath it is older.
8. multiple layers of rock
10. a widely distributed fossil that existed in a narrow range of time and is used by scientists to identify geological periods