What Did Scientists Learn About Earth's Enemies?

Scientists learn about Earth’s history from rock layers, radiocarbon dating, and relative dating. The first way scientists learn about Earth's layers is by studying rock layers. Scientist discover fossils in different layers in the Earth and draw conclusions to the ones buried in the same layer to get an understanding of what kind of creatures were living in a time period. After studying the layers scientist also develop theories that turn into laws, for example the Law of Superposition states that the top layer is the youngest, while the bottom layer is the oldest. This law help scientist determine how old fossils are when they find them in a layer. Therefore if they find a fossil towards the top, they know it’s older than fossils they found below it because of the Law …show more content…
These fossils are known as index fossils. They provide a “bookmark” in Earth’s history for scientists. Lastly, scientists learn about Earth’s history is relative dating. Scientists use created laws and index fossils to determine the relative age of fossils. Relative age is the age of a rock compared to other rocks, meaning by using one rock or fossils scientists can then determine about what age a rock is that is close to the age of the rock they already know. The rocks scientist use to compare to other rocks are index fossils. Index fossils are species that that lived for a brief amount of time and are abundant. Scientists also use the Law of Superposition, which states the youngest layers are on the top while the oldest layers are on the bottom. Scientist use this law to determine the relative age by concluding that fossils that are found in the same layer are around the same age. When scientist look at the rock layers, use radiocarbon dating, and use relative dating they are able to learn about Earth’s past and what it might of looked like back