guide fossil

1. 1.

   a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found

   Synonymsindex fossil

   Broaderfossil

Questions about guide fossil

What does guide fossil mean?

guide fossil means "a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found".

What is another word for guide fossil?

Close synonyms include index fossil. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is guide fossil a common word?

guide fossil is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.