If You’ve Got It, Haunt It: October Vocabulary: Tyrannosaurus Lex(icon): Vocab for National Fossil Day, October 11

Study these paleontology terms and bone up on dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. You'll also unearth information about fossils, 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
    In the Jurassic Park movies, scientists extract dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber. National Geographic (Jun 22, 2018)
  2. dinosaur
    an extinct terrestrial reptile of the Mesozoic era
    An enormous dinosaur fossil discovered in South Africa is stomping all over theories of how four-legged walking evolved. Nature (Sep 27, 2018)
  3. eon
    the longest unit of geological time
    And natural sand production is a slow process — mountains weather down to smaller and smaller rocks over eons — so it’s not shocking that sand is often harvested at a faster pace than it’s replenished. The Verge (Sep 4, 2018)
  4. epoch
    a unit of geological time that is divided into ages
    A duck on your local pond looks and sounds very much like a duck 20m years ago, in the Miocene epoch, when birds ruled the planet. The Guardian (Mar 23, 2018)
  5. era
    a major division of geological time
    Most archaeologists put the beginning of bread making in the Neolithic era, which first began around 11,500 years ago in southwest Asia. Scientific American (Jul 21, 2018)
  6. evolution
    sequence of events involved in the development of a species
    In this week's issue of Science, Harvard University vertebrate paleontologist Stephanie Pierce and postdoc Katrina Jones report an investigation of fossils from the dawn of mammals that shows how evolution built our versatile spine. Science Magazine (Sep 20, 2018)
  7. fossil
    the remains of a plant or animal from a past geological age
    Takuya Konishi, a biology professor at the University of Cincinnati, took a second look at a small fossil unearthed more than 25 years ago in a rock formation in Kansas. BBC (Oct 15, 2018)
  8. invertebrate
    any animal lacking a backbone or notochord
    On other sites the moving of stones exposes soil and exacerbates erosion, destroying the cool undersides of stones that are sanctuaries for millions of invertebrates. The Guardian (Aug 17, 2018)
  9. mammal
    a warm-blooded vertebrate having the skin covered with hair
    For millions of years the extinction rates among large, medium and small land mammals were similar. Scientific American (Oct 3, 2018)
  10. mammoth
    extinct elephant widely distributed in the Pleistocene
    Unlike woolly mammoths, which also lived during the Ice Age, woolly rhino remains are rare to find. National Geographic (Jan 24, 2018)
  11. mineral
    a solid inorganic substance occurring in nature
    Two, Jezero and Northeast Syrtis, hold evidence of a fossilized river delta and mineral springs, both promising environments for ancient life. Science Magazine (Oct 10, 2018)
  12. organism
    a living thing that can act or function independently
    A group of organisms known as Dickinsonia left imprints up to 1.4 metres long on the fossil record, millions of years before the Cambrian explosion that led to most major types of modern animals. Nature (Sep 20, 2018)
  13. paleontologist
    a specialist in fossil organisms and related remains
    The scientific process means that paleontologists routinely return to sites where major discoveries were made in the past. Salon (Sep 25, 2018)
  14. paleontology
    the earth science that studies fossil organisms
    This digital revolution is not just restricted to fossils and paleontology. Salon (Sep 22, 2018)
  15. period
    a unit of geological time when a system of rocks formed
    Dinosaurs originated about 235 million years ago, in the Triassic, but were pretty marginal ecological players until close to the close of that period. Scientific American (Oct 13, 2018)
  16. petrify
    change into stone
    The fossilized trees look a lot like the petrified forests of Yellowstone National Park. National Geographic (Mar 16, 2018)
  17. predator
    any animal that lives by preying on other animals
    The turtles’ flashy shells actually evolved as protection from predators in nature. Reuters (Sep 3, 2018)
  18. prey
    animal hunted or caught for food
    On 2-meter-long leg bones from the elephant bird, he noticed deep grooves, evidently made by humans butchering their prey with sharp stone tools. Science Magazine (Sep 12, 2018)
  19. primate
    any mammal of the group including monkeys, apes, and humans
    Nengo knew immediately it was a primate skull, but that he wouldn’t learn much more until he and colleagues performed a more sophisticated analysis. Science Magazine (Aug 9, 2017)
  20. primitive
    characteristic of an earlier ancestral type
    Today’s avian animals are the descendants of primitive ground-dwelling birds that survived when all the world’s forests were destroyed 66 million years ago. National Geographic (Jun 22, 2018)
  21. sedimentary
    formed by or containing the accumulation of deposited matter
    Beginning in the 1970s, a few studies showed that several types of sedimentary rock contain nitrogen from long-dead plants, algae and animals deposited on the ancient seafloor. Scientific American (May 29, 2018)
  22. species
    taxonomic group whose members can interbreed
    I brought my colleague to the Division of Birds in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology, where the collection manager showed us a subset of rare and extinct species. Scientific American (Sep 5, 2018)
  23. stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material
    At every change in rock strata certain species of fossils disappeared while others carried on into subsequent levels. A Short History of Nearly Everything
  24. taxonomy
    a classification of organisms based on similarities
    As is often the case with taxonomy, once we’ve examined our specimens, the groups we presently think may represent one species may actually represent two or more closely related sister species. Scientific American (Aug 31, 2017)
  25. vertebrate
    animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton
    Not only did these two scientists find fossil mammals, they uncovered one of the most complete sequences of vertebrate fossils anywhere in the world from the time when dinosaurs still ruled. Salon (Sep 25, 2018)
Created on Mon Oct 15 22:08:20 EDT 2018 (updated Thu Oct 10 14:06:49 EDT 2019)

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