Fossil Dating Worksheet
Explore the principles and methods of fossil dating, including relative and absolute dating techniques, for Grade 11 Science students.
Includes
Standards
Fossil Dating: Uncovering Earth's Past
Name:
Date:
Score:
Read each question carefully and answer to the best of your ability. Show all your work for calculations.
Observe the image below and answer the following questions.
1. What is a fossil, and how does it form?
2. Which principle of relative dating states that in an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rocks, the oldest layers are at the bottom and the youngest layers are at the top?
Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships
Principle of Original Horizontality
Principle of Superposition
Principle of Faunal Succession
3. Absolute dating methods use the decay of isotopes to determine the precise age of rocks and fossils.
4. The of a radioactive isotope is the time it takes for half of the parent isotope to decay into a stable daughter isotope.
5. Carbon-14 dating can be used to date fossils that are millions of years old.
True
False
6. Explain the difference between relative dating and absolute dating in the context of fossil age determination.
Match each dating method with its description.
7. Radiometric Dating
a. Uses the decay of unstable isotopes
8. Dendrochronology
b. Uses tree rings to determine age
9. Stratigraphy
c. Studies rock layers to determine relative age