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Marsh, Othniel Charles

(Encyclopedia)Marsh, Othniel Charles, 1831–99, American paleontologist, b. Lockport, N.Y., grad. Yale, 1860. He studied abroad, and from 1866 served at Yale as the first professor of paleontology and as curator o...

stratigraphy

(Encyclopedia)stratigraphy, branch of geology specifically concerned with the arrangement of layered rocks (see stratification). Stratigraphy is based on the law of superposition, which states that in a normal sequ...

Chlorophyta

(Encyclopedia)Chlorophyta klōrŏfˈətə [key], phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of the photosynthetic organisms commonly known as green algae. The organisms are largely aquatic or marine. The ...

concretion

(Encyclopedia)concretion, mass or nodule of mineral matter, usually oval or nearly spherical in shape, and occurring in sedimentary rock. It is formed by the accumulation of mineral matter in the pore spaces of the...

Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett

(Encyclopedia)Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett băzˈət, lēˈkē [key], 1903–72, British archaeologist and anthropologist of E Africa, b. Kabete, Kenya; father of Richard Leakey. His fossil discoveries in E Africa ...

geologic timescale

(Encyclopedia) CE5 geologic timescale, a chronological scale of earth's history used to measure the relative or absolute age of any part of geologic time. Of the numerous timescales, the most common is based on g...

Apatosaurus

(Encyclopedia)Apatosaurus ăpˌətəsôrˈəs, āˌpătˌə– [key], [Gr.,=deceptive lizard], quadruped saurischian dinosaur, estimated to be from 70 to 90 ft (21 to 27 m) in length and to weigh up to 30 tons (27 ...

Cope, Edward Drinker

(Encyclopedia)Cope, Edward Drinker, 1840–97, American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and at the Smithsonian Institution. His l...

cladistics

(Encyclopedia)cladistics fīˌlōjənĕtˈĭk [key], an approach to the classification of living things in which organisms are defined and grouped by the possession of one or more shared characteristics (called cha...
 

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