Dinosaur biostratigraphy

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/dinosaur-biostratigraphy

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the discipline name?Dinosaur biostratigraphy
2. What is the primary application?Dating and correlating Mesozoic sedimentary rock units
3. Why do dinosaur fossils help scientists tell time?Because certain dinosaurs lived only during specific periods, so finding them in a rock layer shows when that layer was formed.
4. How do scientists know when a big change in dinosaurs happened?They look for faunal turnover events, where old dinosaur species disappear and new ones appear, often at the borders between rock formations.

Biostratigraphic Zonation: Dividing rock layers into zones based on the fossils they contain.
Index Fossil: A fossil species that is characteristic of a particular geological period or formation.
Taphonomy: The study of how organisms decay and become fossilized, influencing the fossil record.