ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a basic grounding in the principles of geology and explains how to apply them. It focuses on paleontology, which is the study of past life by means of fossils. It involves determining the relationship between fossils, the relationship of fossils to present-day living things, and deriving from fossils and rocks an idea of their ancient environment. Fossils are the original basis for the geologic time scale. The chapter explains about seashells on mountain tops. Fossils can be imprints, carbon smudges, shell or bone replaced by minerals, and even mummies. Organic material that is buried and slowly cooked by Earth's heat turns to carbon. Coal is mostly the carbonized remains of plants. Fossils provide clues to the ancient environment. Fossils tells the relative age of the rocks and what other rock layers are the same age. The chapter presents some of the more common animal fossil groups and their classification.
