Paleontology - Introductory

Study these paleontology terms and bone up on dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. You'll also unearth information about fossils, early primates, geology, and more.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. amber
    a hard yellowish to brownish translucent fossil resin
  2. amphibian
    cold-blooded vertebrate living on land but breeding in water
  3. bipedalism
    the attribute of having or walking on two feet
  4. climate
    the weather in some location averaged over a period of time
  5. dinosaur
    an extinct terrestrial reptile of the Mesozoic era
  6. eon
    the longest unit of geological time
  7. epoch
    a unit of geological time that is divided into ages
  8. era
    a major division of geological time
  9. evolution
    sequence of events involved in the development of a species
  10. fossil
    the remains of a plant or animal from a past geological age
  11. fossilization
    the process by which an organism is preserved in rock
  12. genus
    taxonomic group containing one or more species
  13. geologic time
    the time of the physical formation and development of the earth (especially prior to human history)
  14. Homo sapiens
    the only surviving hominid
  15. ice age
    a period when glaciers cover much of the Earth's surface
  16. index fossil
    a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found
  17. invertebrate
    any animal lacking a backbone or notochord
  18. mammal
    a warm-blooded vertebrate having the skin covered with hair
  19. mammoth
    extinct elephant widely distributed in the Pleistocene
  20. microfossil
    a very tiny impression left by an organism from a past geological age
  21. mineral
    a solid inorganic substance occurring in nature
  22. Neanderthal
    extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia
  23. organism
    a living thing that can act or function independently
  24. paleontologist
    a specialist in fossil organisms and related remains
  25. paleontology
    the earth science that studies fossil organisms
  26. Pangaea
    (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
  27. period
    a unit of geological time when a system of rocks formed
  28. petrify
    change into stone
  29. predator
    any animal that lives by preying on other animals
  30. prey
    animal hunted or caught for food
  31. primate
    any mammal of the group including monkeys, apes, and humans
  32. primitive
    characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
  33. sabertooth
    any of many extinct cats of the Old and New Worlds having long swordlike upper canine teeth; from the Oligocene through the Pleistocene
  34. sedimentary
    formed by or containing the accumulation of deposited matter
  35. species
    taxonomic group whose members can interbreed
  36. stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material
  37. taxonomy
    a classification of organisms based on similarities
  38. vertebrate
    animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton
  39. woolly mammoth
    very hairy mammoth common in colder portions of the northern hemisphere
Created on Tue Feb 21 16:25:18 EST 2017 (updated Tue Apr 18 15:08:35 EDT 2017)

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