This study guide provides questions to help students prepare for a quiz or test on Chapter 17. It includes definitions of key terms related to fossils, dating methods, extinction events, evolution, and developmental genetics. Students will need to understand fossils, the fossil record, relative and radioactive dating techniques, periods and eras in geologic time, mechanisms of evolution like adaptation, convergence, and co-evolution, as well as concepts such as punctuated equilibrium.

1. Name __________________________________ Date __________________________
Chapter 17 Quiz/Test
Study Guide
• What is a fossil?
• What percentage of all species that have ever lived has become extinct?
• Where do fossils form?
• What does the fossil record show?
• What is relative dating?
• What is radioactive dating?
• Which method of dating fossils is more accurate?
• What is a half-life?
• What is an index fossil? What are the characteristics of a good index fossil?
• What is a period? What is an era?
• How do mass extinctions encourage rapid evolution?
• What is adaptive radiation?
• What is convergent evolution?
• What are homologous structures?

2. • What are analogous structures?
• What is co-evolution?
• What is punctuated equilibrium?
• How do developmental genes affect evolution?
• What kind of radioactive element would be used for something that is old? What kind
would you use for something that is really young?