Relative Dating

Explain relative dating and how it is used to explain how life on earth has changed over long periods of time.

13 Responses

  1. Logan says:

    In layers of rocks we can find and estimate ages of certain things based on what is found around them, this is known as relative dating. When we look at rock layers we see that in each layer we have certain fossils or components in them. The same fossil can be found in nearing rock layers but may not skip a layer and show up again. The animal would have to live in its certain time frame. If it were to pop back up again we would have to say that it all the sudden just came back after being extinct. The rock layers can be used because the different rock layers stand for the different environments at the time, for example if we found limestone it would identify that at one point in time it would have been submerged in water for some time.

  2. Darcy says:

    Relative dating helps understand the ages of certain types of rock’s. If you see a rock layer they determine the age. For example the layer on the bottom are older then the layers on the top.

  3. Bri says:

    Relative dating is arranging stuff into order relative to each other and estimating how old it is, an example is using rock layers, called strata. The layers on the bottom are older than the layers on the top. You can also estimate the age of the fossils that you find in a particular rock type, this can be used to explain how the earth has changed over time.

  4. Llewellyn Grayhawk says:

    Relative dating shows how old the earth is through layers of rock and other minerals called strata. The layers go from the oldest being on the bottom and the youngest being on the top. This is called the law of Superposition. Some fossils can be found in only one layer of the earth and those are called Index Fossils. These can only be found in certain rock layers, and those are there to help us see the relevance of age in other fossils. Fossils are most common in marine environments such as limestone, other fossils can also be found in sandstone where shorelines and riverbeds are.

  5. Jenna says:

    Relative dating is using rock layers to determine the age of that rock. The lowest rock layer is the oldest rock and the very top layer is the youngest rock. If you look at rock layers you can tell if there was a earthquake located there millions of billions years ago. You can also look for different fossils in the rock layers to see approximately how long ago that species existed and how long it existed for. You could also tell what kind of animal/shell/plant the fossil was by seeing with kind of rock the fossil is in, for example if you found a fossil in limestone from how ever long ago it was probably a marine creature.

  6. Allison says:

    Relative dating is the comparing of objects ages based on other objects ages. For example you could call a certain rock old only because the rock you are comparing it to is younger, even if it’s younger than a different rock. We use relative dating to look at the rock layers, or strata, and see how old some of the fossils in rock layers are to other fossils in different layers. We can look at when species went extinct and we can hypothesize the ages of rock and fossils using index fossils. Index fossils are fossils only found in a specific rock layer and that is also found around the world, they can give us the relative ages of other fossils.

  7. Ayana says:

    Relative Dating is putting things/objects in order, relative to to one another and guessing the objects age. The way it could be used to describe how life has changed is by guessing the age of fossils found in different layers of rock.

  8. Aidan says:

    Relative dating is determining the age of something by seeing what other things are around it. For example Relative dating has shown just how long the earth has been around by showing different fossils and how long they have been around by what other fossils are around them. You could see how life has changed by seeing what has become extinct.

  9. Cassie says:

    Relative Dating refers to scientists methods of determining the ages of the fossils that they’re examining compared to the other rocks, or fossils around it. Some rock formations can only be found where certain conditions existed previously. For example limestone is typically found in areas where a marine environment existed. Another way to find out how old a rock formation is is to look at the Strata, or layers in the rock. The Law of Superposition is used when talking about relative dating. The law states that the rocks on the bottom are the oldest, and whatever rock is at the top is the youngest. Index Fossils are only found in certain types of rock, and those are used to date, or give an age to the fossils around them. They can be found in different places all over the world! However if a fossil disappears it’s gone forever.

    Rock Layer 1

    Rock Layer 2
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    Rock Layer 3
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    Rock Layer 4
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  10. Melissa says:

    Relative dating is putting events that has had happen in the past in order, also can determine age. An example can be what we used yesterday.. Rock layers also called Strata, the layers under are the oldest than the top layers. It also can be used to determine the age of fossils to tell how long they were at that spot.

  11. Joseph says:

    Relative dating is where a person studying fossils knows the age of a certain fossil or the rock layer that fossil is on and that person is able to determine the ages of the other rock layers and fossils.
    The type of fossil that can be used to identify ages of other fossils is called an index fossil, Index fossils are only found on one layer and are also found in different parts of the globe.
    You can observe the different types of lifeforms that grow over time, you can see where evolution took place taking a primordial fish to complex animals such as placoderms.

  12. Chris says:

    Relative dating is examining the age of fossils or rock sediment with younger sediment being found on top of older sediment. Scientist methods can determine the age of the fossil or rock layers while also giving us clues like what the environment and climate was like millions of years ago.

  13. Dylan says:

    Relative dating is finding the age by looking at a constant such as index fossils. In other words relative dating can be described as determining the age of one object and comparing it to another object and determining the age compared to the object and not the actual age.

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