Fossils: Text 484-485, 488-489

When an organism dies, its soft parts

• decay very slowly

• get replaced with minerals and turn into fossils

• float while the hard parts sink

• are decomposed or are eaten by animals

Where would you NOT expect a fossil to form?

• Swamps

• Lakes

• A quick moving river

• Shallow seas

Most fossils form when living things die and are buried by sediment. The sediment

• slowly hardens into rock and preserves the shapes of organisms

• slowly wears the organism down until only bones remain

• compacts together to make metamorphic rock

• conceals fish and small decomposers so they can eat the remains in peace

Which of the following would you NOT expect to see a fossil of?

• A heart

• A leg bone

• A jaw full of teeth

• A conch shell

Scientists that study fossils are called

• Geologists

• Paleontologists

• Evolutionists

• Geophysiologists

Because coal was found in Antarctica, scientists know that

• the climate was once much warmer than it is today

• penguins have always been in Antarctica

• swamps have never been present in Antarctica

• crocodiles definitely lived in Antarctica at some point

An organism is __________ if it no longer exists and will never live again on Earth

• extinct

• in denial

• endangered

• evolutionized

__________ is the gradual change in living things over long periods.

• Extinction

• Evolution

• Persistence

• Permineralization