User: What type of information do scientist use to determine the approximate age of the earth? water layers of rock fossils atmospheric pressure

Note: ... age. Finding them lets the scientist know the approximate age range of a rock formation. Layers ... pressure ... determine the actual age of fossils? What do scientists use to ... [ http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_scientists_determine_history_by_using_fossils_and_sedimentary_layers ]
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Weegy: The earliest geological time scales simply used the order of rocks laid down in a sedimentary rock sequence (stratum) with the oldest at the bottom. [ However, a more powerful tool was the fossilised remains of ancient animals and plants within the rock strata. After Charles Darwin's publication Origin of Species (Darwin himself was also a geologist) in 1859, geologists realised that particular fossils were restricted to particular layers of rock. This built up the first generalised geological time scale. Once formations and stratigraphic sequences were mapped around the world, sequences could be matched from the faunal successions. These sequences apply from the beginning of the Cambrian period, which contains the first evidence of macro-fossils. Fossil assemblages 'fingerprint' formations even though some species may range through several different formations. This feature allowed William Smith (an engineer and surveyor who worked in the coal mines of England in the late 1700s) to order the fossils he started to collect in south-eastern England in 1793. He noted that different formations contained different fossils and he could map one formation from another by the differences in the fossils. As he mapped across southern England, he drew up a stratigraphic succession of rocks although they appeared in different places at different levels. By matching similar fossils in different regions throughout the world, correlations were built up over many years. Only when radioactive isotopes were developed in the early 1900s did stratigraphic correlations become less important as igneous and metamorphic rocks could be dated for the first time. ]
Expert answered|Ekaj18|Points 0|

User: What type of information do scientist use to determine the approximate age of the earth? water layers of rock fossils atmospheric pressure