The properties of a mineral depend on the kind of atoms of mineral being examined
A chemical change results from a chemical reaction, while a physical change is when matter changes forms but not chemical identity.
Examples of chemical changes are burning, cooking, rusting, and rotting.
Examples of physical changes are boiling, melting, freezing, and shredding.
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the past.
Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today.
Usually only a portion of an organism is preserved as a fossil, such as body fossils (bones and exoskeletons ), trace fossils (feces and footprints), and chemofossils (biochemical signals).
Paleontologists can determine the age of fossils using methods like radiometric dating and categorize them to determine the evolutionary relationships between organisms.
