Chapter 8 Q&A

Which of the following is needed for fossilization to occur?

Protection from scavengers

Which of the following elements can be used in radiometric dating?

Uranium (U)

Scientists can determine the type of plant consumed based on

Carbon 13 and carbon 12

A mummy is discovered whose tomb includes cloth, food, and other organic remains. What dating method would MOST likely be used to date the tomb?

Carbon 14

Your professor is conducting a chemical isotope analysis of diet for her latest paleoanthropology project. Which of the following is true regarding isotopic analysis of diet?

Carbon analysis of bones and teeth will give insight to the types of plant material the hominin consumed.

During the Holocene, artifacts like ________ began to appear.

Ceramics

Some of the best information on climate history over the last several million years is based on the study of

Foraminifera.

The time it takes for 50% of an unstable isotope to decay to a stable form is called the

Half-life

What is the term for the time it takes for 50% of an unstable (radioactive) isotope to decay to a stable isotope?

Half-life

Most of the early hominin fossils discovered in Africa come from the eastern and southern parts of the continent. Why is this?

These areas provided better preservation.

This graphic represents Steno's law of superposition. (https://services.wwnorton.com/aws/image?u=0&file=/wwnorton.college.public/coursepacks/anthro/essbioan4/imgs/tESSBIOAN4_Fig08.11a.jpg)

True

An index fossil is

A fossil used to categorize a strati graphic layer

Which of the following sedimentary environments is MOST likely to destroy bone and thus contain few if any fossils?

Acidic sediment with plenty of groundwater

Which of the following would NOT be an ideal environment for fossilization?

Acidic soil (as in a jungle)

A stratigraphic layer in one location overwhelmingly represents one species, while the same species is discovered in a similar stratigraphic layer hundreds of kilometers away. What method is used to provide an estimate of age for this layer and this species?

Biostratigraphic dating

Analysis of stable carbon isotopes in ________ can provide information on ancient diet.

Bones and teeth

Strati-graphic correlation is

Matching strata by chemical composition and color from several sites across distances

The study of fossils is called

Paleontology

Which of the following is an absolute method of dating?

Radiocarbon dating

The law of superposition created by Nicolaus Steno helped lay the foundation for which of the following?

Relative dating

If fossil species A is consistently recovered from geological deposits beneath layers containing fossil species B, then A is considered to be older than B. This relative dating technique is based on the principle of

Superposition

What do we call the study of what happens to the remains of an organism?

Taphonomy

Electron spin resonance dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?

Teeth

An index fossil, such as the Irish Elk, is

The fossil remains of a species that existed during a well-established time period, to use in Biostratigraphic dating

Paleontologists find a fossil ape with long arms. What type of environment can they infer it inhabited?

Woodland