Clues to Earth's Past Review

People who study fossils are called ____.

• meterologists
• fossilologists
• paleontologists
• fossil hunters

Which of the following is NOT an example of a fossil?

• a petrified dinosaur bone
• a footprint captured in mud
• a seashell found on the beach
• an insect stuck in amber

Which of the following is NOT something you could learn from a fossil?

• The size of the animal
• What the animal ate
• The color of the animal
• Where the animal lived

In which kind of rock do we usually find a fossil?

• sedimentary  rock
• metamorphic rock
• igneous rock

In order for a fossil to form, which of the following events must happen FIRST?

• Slowly, minerals in the water replace the bone.
• Sediment covers the bone.
• An animal dies.
• The bone is no longer a bone, but a rock copy.

Lily sees a skeleton of a dinosaur at a museum. What is true about the bones that make up the skeleton?

• The bones are made up of minerals.
• The bones are those of the dinosaur itself.
• The bones were formed from mud that hardened.
• The bones are made up of amber.

If scientists found this fossil, what could they infer?

• what fish are like today
• that this fish lacked oxygen
• what kind of animal ate this fish
• that water once covered the area

Which is an imprint fossil?

• bone
• a cast
• petrified wood
• an animal track

Which type of fossil would look just like an actual body part of a once-living thing?

• a cast
• a trace
  atrace
• a mineral
• a footprint

Why are there more animal fossils than plant fossils?

• Animals eat plants.
• Plants are smaller than animals.
• Plants have softer body parts than animals. 
• There were more ancient animals than ancient plants.